This project is part of CIDA’s International Youth Internship Program (IYIP), funded by the Government of Canada’s Youth Employment Strategy (YES). The IYIP contributes to the YES by providing a large spectrum of Canadian graduates with valuable international development work experience abroad.
Results achieved as of the end of the project (March 2014) include: coordinating 39 internships in five countries (South Africa, Colombia, Nepal, Peru and the Gambia). The interns gained skills and professional experience by assisting local partners in a wide variety of efforts related to public health policy, good governance, democracy, human rights, and conflict prevention. For example: In the area of public health policy, through varied assignments in South Africa, interns contributed to improving access to public health services by improving the registration of patient information, maintaining and adding on to certain epidemiological databases, and rationalizing health care by measuring satisfaction of health care professionals. The interns also worked to improve maternal and newborn health in rural areas and health care for migrants and people with HIV/AIDS. In the area of good governance and democracy, interns working with the Parliamentary Monitoring Group in South Africa helped to monitor and report on the work of parliamentary committees and other subsidiary bodies. One intern assisted the Group and the Community Law Centre with the organization of a conference on democracy and good governance. Following the conference, the intern worked successfully on different projects for both organizations, including additional research assignments for the Community Law Centre, which allowed her to summarize submissions to parliament from rural delegates on a traditional courts bill and to work on legal education for people with disabilities. The intern also helped to compile a list of constituency offices throughout the country for the Parliamentary Monitoring Group. The joint arrangement between the Group and the Community Law Centre better matched the intern’s learning needs, helping her to learn about politics, the legislative authority and the role of non-government organizations in the legislative process along with the legal system. The intern was able to improve her skills and abilities in writing reports on parliamentary sessions, carrying out independent research, organizing a large conference, and in communications, which helped to increase her employability. In the area of human rights and conflict prevention, interns working in Colombia with the Colombian Women’s Initiative for Peace (Initiative de Mujeres Colombianas por la Paz), assisted their host organization by representing it in a variety of network meetings, researching issues of interest to women’s rights organizations (with a focus on conflict prevention and the participation of women in peace processes), and supporting national and in-region consultations on human rights violations (in particular gender-based violence). One intern reported increasing her employability by gaining experience in the following areas: (1) translation into Spanish of complex documents related to women’s participation in peace processes; (2) knowledge of the work of non-government organizations and networks in Colombia and the needs of donors (through her participation in donor network meetings); and (3) the legal aspects of conflict-prevention.
