Project profile — Carrefour de solidarité internationale - IYIP Internships 2015-2017

This project is part of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) 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, needed to launch successful careers. Carrefour de solidarité internationale’s initiative provides 32 interns with the opportunity to work in areas such as women empowerment, civic and democratic participation, and development of agricultural cooperatives in rural areas in Peru, Mali and Haiti. Mandates aim to strengthen rural groups’ and business associations’ and their members’ administrative and democratic capacities in operating their organizations, and developing more effective and skilled ways to deliver their citizen vigilance and income generating actions, while promoting women’s participation.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (1) increased access by Canadian interns (young men and women) to Canadian labour market opportunities, including in the field of international development; and (2) increased engagement of Canadian interns (young men and women) as global citizens in supporting international development in Canada and abroad.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (March 2017) include: (1) 32 interns (26 female and 6 male) were recruited and sent abroad for a six-month placement to support Carrefour’s local partners in the areas of women’s empowerment, civic and democratic engagement, and agricultural cooperative development in rural areas. The interns all received pre departure training, which focused on such things as intercultural effectiveness, safety measures and international cooperation; (2) the interns carried out various activities to support Carrefour’s local partners, including developing two gender inequality analyses in two districts of the province of La Convención (Peru), providing coaching and training (including tools) to a women’s association for managing and marketing their chicken business, and conducting a study on moringa that is now being used as a reference document to develop Carrefour’s new programming and that of its Haitian partner; (3) out of the 32 interns recruited, 29 interns (25 female and 4 male) successfully completed their internship. Two local partners (100 %) stated that the young interns had a significant impact on their development efforts; (4) upon their return to Canada, 26 interns (22 female and 4 male) took reintegration training, which included a debriefing on intercultural issues, career guidance and outreach activities; and (5) outreach activities were conducted by 26 interns (22 female and 4 male) to encourage Canadians to get involved; (6) at the end of their placement, 29 interns indicated that they were more confident in their ability to find employment after the placement. 14 interns (12 female and 2 male) found a job after their internship, including six (4 female and 2 male) in international development.