1. STAKEHOLDER MODEL

EDC-Kenya used a multistakeholder approach to connect partners in Canada and Kenya that emulates cooperative potential between academic institutions and NGOs. The project utilized digital modes of conversation to support the engagement between Canadian faculty and staff and field trainers and refugees in Nairobi, enriching the project and bringing meaningful ownership of activities to all stakeholders. 

Humber College's International Development Institute (IDI) project management team and senior leadership team collaborated with CAPYEI in conceptualizing and developing the project design. CAPYEI is a well-established organization with prior experience delivering capacity-building trainings in Kenya for youth and refugees. Humber College has expertise in a wide variety of interdisciplinary sectors through its subject matter experts. To recruit the refugee trainees, the CAPYEI team approached local community centres and churches to spread the word about the training. Most of the recruitment was done by word-of-mouth referrals among the community. The criteria included a prior interest in the creative arts sector. A gender expert was hired locally in Kenya to be culturally and contextually relevant for the trainees. CAPYEI staffed trainers who had prior experience implementing training in entrepreneurship and management.

Parallelly, the IDI reached out to Humber College's faculties in business, media, entrepreneurship and creative arts to develop capacity-building training material on navigating and incorporating digital tools for use in existing businesses and setting up new businesses. The faculty created a working group of students from different academic programs to develop some of these materials, allowing them to incorporate cross-cultural communication skills and subject-matter expertise through work-integrated learning. Because of the pandemic, restrictions on travel, budgetary considerations and the digital nature of the programs, the collaborations and training between CAP-YEI staff and trainers and Humber faculty and students were successfully conducted online.

-Hanadi Alnawab, the Program Coordinator for Digital Business Management BComm at the Longo Faculty of Business at Humber College, stated about her experience:

 "The best part for me was bringing together a multi-disciplinary team of ten talented Humber students from various programs (four programs, three faculties) to work together on supporting female refugees in Kenya. We all shared a passion for international development and agreed to be okay with ambiguity right from the start. We continued to learn from each other throughout the project and had to happily change directions many times as needed.

-On building the digital curriculum, she said

 "Our team developed a set of instructional step-by-step videos that will be used to teach the beneficiaries how to build their online presence from scratch. The modules were recorded using Android with basic English and French instructions and voiceover. They covered everything needed to create an online presence starting with how to create a logo with Canva, how to best communicate with customers using tools like Gmail and WhatsApp, how to set up and use Facebook and Instagram to build a following on social media, and finally, how to build an information website with WordPress.com to complete the online presence. All the modules were created using Kitenge Fashion as a case study (website, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok)." 

https://hanadialnawab.com/2022/03/18/digital-business-students-work-on-an-international-project-supporting-female-refugees-in-kenya

The trainers went through several train-the-trainer and pre-service courses before they started classes with refugee students, including digital entrepreneurship, gender, and life skills. The digital entrepreneurship course, developed by Humber faculty and students, familiarized them with the innovative modules and teaching techniques embedded in CAP-YEI's training. The trainers went through gender training conducted by the local gender expert to support them in their teaching experience. This training enabled them to address gender issues within the classroom, including involving male trainees as agents of change within the family and community. The trainers received instruction on CAP-YEI's life skills training which enabled them to support the refugee trainees with issues in and outside the classroom, particularly with developing self-esteem, confidence and independence. On the process of how the training of the trainers was carried out, Hanadi added:

 "In this phase of the project (ToT), we delivered presentations and hands-on training to the CAPYEI team of trainers. The training took place virtually over two weeks and covered a variety of topics starting with teaching tips and strategies facilitated by [Hanadi Alnawab], followed by sessions delivered by the full team on communications, branding, social media, and web development." 

The content developed was supplemented with French subtitles. However, the preference was for subtitles in Kiswahili which should be incorporated for additional learning support. 

 During the training and needs assessment phase, the project team found several adjustments had to be made to be effective. First, the team noted that to support female refugees to attend class, they must find childcare support for trainees with childcare duties. CAPYEI was able to get a childcare centre close to their training centre involved and the project and allocated a budget towards supporting childcare costs. These steps enabled high attendance rates and participation. Second, the local team members found that instead of being a women-only training program, having male peers in the classroom would mitigate the backlash female trainees might encounter if they tried to enroll in the course. It was also decided that because of the inclusion of men in the course, further emphasis would be placed on open communication about gender and gender issues to support not only the empowerment of women but also leveraging men as gender advocates in the community. 

At the end of the training, the trainees were divided into groups and matched with mentors from the industry. These mentors were recruited by CAPYEI and contained a mix of people – business owners and social media influencers -- and were pulled from refugee-run organizations and Kenyan-owned businesses. The aim of the mentorship component was, among others, to enable the trainees to create a friendly network to conduct business with and obtain guidance from

 IDI continued to provide project management support throughout, liaising with the funders and giving support in fleshing out the details of each component. IDI developed the project's monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEAL) framework. Collaborative, the team developed a MEAL plan and tools like survey questionnaires, focus group discussion questions, and interview questions. CAPYEI also shared weekly reports on the progress of activities with IDI. Data collection for the midterm and end-term survey for the refugee participants was administered through SurveyMonkey at the CAPYEI training centre. The refugee participants were walked through the process by the CAPYEI trainers and were assisted where needed. Once data collection was completed, the IDI team collated and analyzed the data to submit periodic reports to the funders.

2. TIMELINE

In October 2022, IDI collaborated with CAPYEI to orchestrate a dissemination event. Hosted by CAPYEI in Nairobi, the event provided a platform to showcase a documentary that traced the journeys of the refugee participants through training and business growth. IDI developed the concept for the video with CAPYEI executing it on the ground. IDI also provided design support for the workshop. The event was an opportunity to interact with community mobilization organizations, local and international NGOs, and subject matter experts working with urban refugees in various capacities.