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World Youth Skills Day

1st ILO Skills Challenge Innovation Call winner announced

The winner of the first ILO Skills Challenge Innovation Call has been announced, and the USD 50,000 prize has gone to a domestic workers association in Zimbabwe.

Press release | 15 July 2020
GENEVA (ILO News) – The first ILO Skills Challenge Innovation Call has been won by the Domestic Worker Centre, an initiative of the Domestic Workers Association of Zimbabwe, for a proposal to provide specialist training in modern domestic skills to improve workers’ employability.

The winner will receive a USD 50,000 grant and six months membership of an ‘innovation lab’ that aims to provide technical support and mentoring to help implement their project.

The Domestic Worker Centre proposes the setting up of a training facility to upgrade the skills of Zimbabwean domestic workers, through both face-to-face and online courses.

The announcement was made by the ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder, during the annual ceremony to mark World Youth Skills Day. The 2020 Day took the theme, “Skills for a Resilient Youth in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond”.

The DWAZ [...] provides education, training, advocacy and psycho-social support to empower domestic workers and to ensure they have access to decent work."

Srinivas Reddy, Chief of the ILO Skills and Employability Branch
“Warm congratulations to the Domestic Workers Association of Zimbabwe (DWAZ) which has stood out from the large number of proposals received worldwide,” said Srinivas Reddy, Chief of the ILO Skills and Employability Branch. “The DWAZ is an NGO and a member-based network of Zimbabwean domestic workers founded in 2017. It provides education, training, advocacy and psycho-social support to empower domestic workers and to ensure they have access to decent work.”

As well as the overall winning project, 10 projects that made it to the semi-finals (two from each region) will be offered membership of the ILO Skills Innovators Network, which brings together innovators, governments, employers and workers organizations, TVET institutions, academics, and development practitioners, to share ideas and experiences and encourage innovation in skills development.

The ILO Skills Challenge Innovation Call attracted 473 proposals from 96 countries, representing a wide range of participants, including TVET institutions, employers and workers’ organizations, start-ups, NGOs, research institutions, and young people.