The UN Peacebuilding Support Office in New York confirms that a total of 205 submissions were received from 22 eligible countries. After careful review by the Project Appraisal Committee (PAC), approved 15 submissions for the gender stream and 29 for the youth stream. Full project proposals are due on 23rd September 2018.

In 2000 Solomon Islands experienced ethnic tensions between the people from Malaita and Guadalcanal. Many Malaitan’s, including from other provinces continue to migrate to the capital city, Honiara in Guadalcanal, for better education, decent jobs, government services and improved quality of life. The Solomon Islands has a very young population with 70% under the age of 35. Results of a recent peacebuilding survey by UNDP show that the root causes of recurrent past violence still liger and a clear potential for violence to re-emerge. The root causes identified relate to lack of economic opportunity, frustration, and mistrust especially among young people. Titled “Supporting Youth Empowerment through Social Entrepreneurship and Peacebuilding Agency”, the objective is to work with at-risk youths in “hot spots” to provide tailored empowerment training using entrepreneurship concepts that they could use to identify potential conflict situations and collectively identify and implement solutions.

The project will work with the Solomon Islands Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SICCI), the Solomon Islands Young Entrepreneurs Council (YEC) and Solomon Islands Women in Business Association (SIWIBA) to provide mentoring support to the target groups. The ILO plans to use a model already piloted by its national NGO partner, Youth@Work, who has implemented the ILO’s Start Your Business (SYB) training with similar target group in the “hot spots” with good results. Therefore, a key mentoring component will be using successful young entrepreneurs/leaders from the “hot spots” to build a critical mass of social entrepreneurs and peace advocates.

While ILO does not have presence in Solomon Islands, it has a huge foot print in terms of its entrepreneurship and enterprise development tools, including local institutions and certified trainers who could deliver activities. An ILO-UNDP mission is planned for 21-25 August to engage with implementing partners, visit the “hot-spots” to consult target group and develop the proposal.