MEDINA Project: Women's Skills Training in Shibam and Zabid

Introduction and Project Overview

The MEDINA project seeks to assist the people of Shibam and Zabid in acquiring new skills that will improve living conditions in a number of areas. Ideally, these skills would initially assist individuals with producing useful services and household items for personal use. However, once these skills have been perfected, they can be used to supply goods and services to the worker's community and, eventually, a broader market.

The key candidates for such training are women — particularly women who reside in poor households. They cannot work outside the home, have limited marketable skills, and often live far from markets. Women living in rural areas cannot easily travel to city markets and thus must rely on their husbands for information and necessary purchases. Illiteracy also restricts them in their dealings with the outside world, which can include potential business dealings. Women are also not allowed to participate in certain activities, including training, unless permitted by their husbands. From this context, a hypothesis upon which the project is based was formulated.

Women living in poor households in Shibam and Zabid who are permitted to undergo specific job and skills training will subsequently have the ability to raise their family's standard of living.

The following activities represent types of training options that have proven effective based on similar projects elsewhere in the region. The assumption is that they will be effective for this phase of the project, based on the data provided with each activity. None have yet been verified in terms of local demand or need, but there is data to suggest that such programs would succeed. Rather than establishing a broader program upfront through a formal workshop, it is recommended to establish the Quality of Life Program in small steps. This means that MEDINA will assist small groups of women based on their informal requests for training. Possible activities include the following:

Hypothesis

Sewing Courses: Sewing skills are among the most directly useful, as they permit women to clothe their families — usually children and, to a lesser extent, themselves — at reduced cost. This training has a nominal cost of YR 763,500 and will initially be tailored to a specific interest: making traditional Abaya garments and school uniforms.

Potential Training Activities

Embroidery Courses: Traditional dress requires embroidery, and traditional embroidery skills remain in demand.

Weaving: Weaving of male loincloth remains an active occupation, and markets remain well supplied with such cloth, apparently all produced locally by hand. This cloth is not exclusively produced by men.

Computer Literacy Training: There is often high demand for computer literacy training among both men and women.

Hairdressing Training: The skill of hairdressing has recently been growing rapidly. Women in both cities are seeking the service, especially during the wedding season. It is a profitable activity that does not require significant investment.

Woodworking and Renovation: This is an important activity implemented by the Handicraft Association of Shibam. The association has carried out many wood renovation projects in Shibam and beyond. It requires additional training for new members in order to cope with increasing demand for the service.

Silverware Training: Two associations in Zabid specialize in silverware training and production. Although they have been operating for a long time, they still need further training, particularly in product development and production.

Microfinance Projects: Microfinance is often defined as financial services for poor and low-income clients offered by different types of service providers. In practice, the term is frequently used more narrowly to refer to loans and other services from providers that identify themselves as microfinance institutions (MFIs). These institutions commonly use methods developed over the last thirty years to deliver very small loans to unsalaried borrowers, taking little or no collateral — methods that include group lending and liability and gradually increasing loan sizes. Typical microfinance clients would be members of the SUQ Association in Zabid who do not have access to other formal financial institutions. The members of the association are self-employed, household-based entrepreneurs. While this enterprise can be used by local people to fund startup ventures, it is also valuable as a skill-development exercise for participants. The cost for such an enterprise will be significant, as this is an advanced skill. Startup costs would be similar to those of the Jafil Association's computer center for internet and languages, which was completed with an investment of YR 2,052,100.

The economic development impact of most of these activities is that they directly improve quality of life and income in-kind. For certain activities, however, they may not immediately raise the volume of marketed goods and services. Based on broader measures of income that include income in-kind, there will be an immediate economic development impact. In the longer term, the suggested activities will also raise market income, as at least some young men and women will eventually use their new skills to produce goods sold in the market. In addition, computer literacy training will have a pronounced economic development impact, raising young men and women's capacity to participate in economic and social life while also improving the skills of their children and those around them.