Bringing Junior Achievement to Angola
The Angolan people and their Government are very quickly recovering from the country's long civil war and working hard to build the national capacity essential to broad-based economic growth and participatory democracy. Recognizing the positive change that is taking place, the United States Agency for International Development has shifted the focus of its programs away from humanitarian assistance and towards a collaborative assistance relationship that seeks to:
- reinforce Angolan efforts to improve people's lives through increased economic opportunity and improved social service delivery
- help Angolans make the systemic reforms that will lock Angola onto a path of stability and wide-spread prosperity
To support the objective of "improving people's lives through increased economic opportunity," USAID helped introduce a chapter of Junior Achievement to Angola.
What is Junior Achievement
Junior Achievement is a global organization active in 102 countries around the world. It has a range of programs that help young people to acquire the skills and confidence that will enable them to live their lives productively. It has a special emphasis on transferring the life skills critical to economic success, with many of these skills gained through practical, hands-on learning experience.
The two Junior Achievement programs that we would like to first introduce to Angola are the JA Company Programtm and the JA Job Shadow Programtm. Through the JA Company Programtm, upper grade students organize, operate and liquidate an actual business enterprise with the support and guidance of their teachers and volunteer consultants from the local business community. JA Job Shadow Programtm introduces students to future, possible careers through one-day, on-site orientation or through more extensive internships.
For Junior Achievement to be successful, local business participation is essential. Businesses can participate by making cash contributions to support program operations; by making staff available to teach and mentor young people; by serving on the board of directors; or by demonstrating interest in numerous other ways.
For more information on Junior Achievement, please see the organization's website at www.ja.org.
What's the Status of Junior Achievement in Angola?
USAID is proud to announce that Esso Angola has accepted the chairmanship of the Junior Achievement Angola Board of Directors and that Coca-Cola has joined as the Board's first member. Angola's Ministry of Education will be the lead Government of Angola counterpart on the program. Angola's Ministry of Youth and Sport will be another strong partner in the program.
In March of 2006, Wilma Resende Araújo Santos, the Director of Junior Achievement Brazil; Jaine Maria Ramires Brasil, the Manager of Junior Achievement, Brazil, and Lamech Mbise, Vice President of Junior Achievement Worldwide visited Angola to introduce Junior Achievement and to explore Angolan interest in becoming one of the organization's worldwide chapters. The Junior Achievement representatives met with Government officials, visited several schools, spoke to the Angolan media about the program, and made a presentation to business and Government leaders at a luncheon hosted by Esso Angola. Based on that visit and a subsequent visit by Mr. Mbise, the Ministry of Education, Esso Angola, Coca Cola and USAID requested that Junior Achievement Worldwide register Angola as a Member Nation.
Esso, Coca Cola, and USAID, in consultation with the Ministry of Education, are in the process of hiring an Executive Director. The Executive Director and representatives from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Youth and Sport will attend Junior Achievement Worldwide's Leadership Conference July 12-15, 2006. Upon their return, Junior Achievement Angola will seek to be registered as an Angolan non-governmental organization, begin to train volunteers and teachers for the program, and take other actions that will lead to Junior Achievement Angola to beginning activities in at least four Angolan schools during the 2007 school year.
USAID's Global Development Alliance: A New Way of Doing Business
The Global Development Alliance - USAID's new way of doing business - is based on the recognition that significant changes in the environment of economic development assistance are occurring. No longer are traditional donor governments and multilateral development banks the only providers of assistance. Rather, over the past 20 years, there has been a growing number of new actors on the scene: foundations, corporations, and even individuals. Under its Global Development Alliance model, USAID seeks to facilitate linkages between its own programs and the programs of these new and, increasingly important, new actors, in order to strengthen the overall effectiveness of development efforts.
Learn more about the Global Development Alliance model. Browse our website. You can find it at www.usaid.gov/our_work/global_partnerships/gda/.
