austraLasia #3468
The 'informal' spectre
NAIROBI: July 19, 2014 -- The recent item on 'Official but Informal' brought in considerable response! It spoke positively of the Rector Major's 'informal' stamp on communication. Well, here is another perspective on 'informal' where it becomes a dirty word. But it is at the heart of Salesian activity on new frontiers, and while the substance of this material comes from a meeting that has just concluded in Nairobi, the Asia-Pacific area which EAO covers, with 45% of the world's youth (about 700 million between the ages of 15-24), is it time for a Salesian meeting on this issue in our Region?
If there is a spectre haunting the world (other than MH17, ISIS, Boko Haram, war in the Middle East ...) it is the so-called informal economy, according to the World Economic Forum - but the WEF considers this in purely market terms. What does a Salesian think when he sees a brief news flash (it was yesterday, I think) that in Bolivia, the self-employed (=informal) working age has been lowered to 10?! Quite apart from the age, we already know that Bolivia has 64% of its total population involved in informal employment and that means no social protection, no health insurance, exploitation, no recognition at any real level, poor educational attainment, increase in urban crime, ethnic violence, political unrest ...
Salesian Africa-Madagascar is doing something about it (which does not mean, of course, that other regions are not!). A meeting of 45 Salesians and lay mission partners, plus representatives from the Caribbean (Dominican republic and Haiti), representatives too from Volunteers for Development (VIS - Italy), Don Bosco Mondo (Germany) and Via Don Bosco (Belgium) met at the Don Bosco Youth Educational Services Centre outside Nairobi to see how Salesian African and Madagascan Planning and Development Offices (PDO) and Salesian generally are tackling the issue through Vocational Education and Training (VET) strategies. Key amongst this is the planning for what will become a new Salesian acronym and one that could not have been dreamed of just a handful of years ago: BTA or Bosco Tech Africa.
The meeting also attracted three members of the Salesian General Council (Fr Americo Chaquisse, Regional for Africa-Madagascar), Fr Fabio Attard (Councillor for Youth Ministry) and Fr Guillerme Basañes, Councillor for the Missions. The East Africa Provincial, Fr Rolandi was there. It also attracted the United Nations, who sent a Mr Pascal Annycke to address the meeting on the TVET (Add 'Technical' to the earlier description for VET) response to the lack of protection - he is a UN Protection Officer - for young people in the informal sector.
Two things stand out here immediately. One is that BTA is becoming a reality. The meeting agreed to create collaborative structures and common thinking between the PDOs and BTA and for the former to help with capacity building of staff for BTA. The other is that African-Madagascan Salesian PDOs are showing great capacity for common planning and have actually divided themselves into regions: east and southern Africa as one, west Africa, Haiti and the Caribbean, interestingly enough as another region, and central Africa, Mozambique and Angola as the third. They will be conducting training sessions within those regions in August and September
This is really quite some development. Every Salesian Region is different, with different configurations and possibilities. EAO with, as indicated above, 45% of the world's youth and a undefined but clearly high percentage in the informal sector, already has TVET and many other educational and protection activities in place. The interesting aspect to the Africa-Madagascar surge in this activity, though, is the common planning and developing connection between PDOs and TVET. It could be interesting to hear of common planning and thinking going on in EAO. Given the wide readership of austraLasia, you would be guaranteed an audience and an interested one at that.
The 'informal' spectre
If there is a spectre haunting the world (other than MH17, ISIS, Boko Haram, war in the Middle East ...) it is the so-called informal economy, according to the World Economic Forum - but the WEF considers this in purely market terms. What does a Salesian think when he sees a brief news flash (it was yesterday, I think) that in Bolivia, the self-employed (=informal) working age has been lowered to 10?! Quite apart from the age, we already know that Bolivia has 64% of its total population involved in informal employment and that means no social protection, no health insurance, exploitation, no recognition at any real level, poor educational attainment, increase in urban crime, ethnic violence, political unrest ...
Salesian Africa-Madagascar is doing something about it (which does not mean, of course, that other regions are not!). A meeting of 45 Salesians and lay mission partners, plus representatives from the Caribbean (Dominican republic and Haiti), representatives too from Volunteers for Development (VIS - Italy), Don Bosco Mondo (Germany) and Via Don Bosco (Belgium) met at the Don Bosco Youth Educational Services Centre outside Nairobi to see how Salesian African and Madagascan Planning and Development Offices (PDO) and Salesian generally are tackling the issue through Vocational Education and Training (VET) strategies. Key amongst this is the planning for what will become a new Salesian acronym and one that could not have been dreamed of just a handful of years ago: BTA or Bosco Tech Africa.
The meeting also attracted three members of the Salesian General Council (Fr Americo Chaquisse, Regional for Africa-Madagascar), Fr Fabio Attard (Councillor for Youth Ministry) and Fr Guillerme Basañes, Councillor for the Missions. The East Africa Provincial, Fr Rolandi was there. It also attracted the United Nations, who sent a Mr Pascal Annycke to address the meeting on the TVET (Add 'Technical' to the earlier description for VET) response to the lack of protection - he is a UN Protection Officer - for young people in the informal sector.
Two things stand out here immediately. One is that BTA is becoming a reality. The meeting agreed to create collaborative structures and common thinking between the PDOs and BTA and for the former to help with capacity building of staff for BTA. The other is that African-Madagascan Salesian PDOs are showing great capacity for common planning and have actually divided themselves into regions: east and southern Africa as one, west Africa, Haiti and the Caribbean, interestingly enough as another region, and central Africa, Mozambique and Angola as the third. They will be conducting training sessions within those regions in August and September
This is really quite some development. Every Salesian Region is different, with different configurations and possibilities. EAO with, as indicated above, 45% of the world's youth and a undefined but clearly high percentage in the informal sector, already has TVET and many other educational and protection activities in place. The interesting aspect to the Africa-Madagascar surge in this activity, though, is the common planning and developing connection between PDOs and TVET. It could be interesting to hear of common planning and thinking going on in EAO. Given the wide readership of austraLasia, you would be guaranteed an audience and an interested one at that.
