EARN Project Progress Review Meeting Held

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase has approved the procurement proposals for appointing service providers across eight divisions under the 10 packages of the Economic Acceleration and Resilience for NEET (EARN) Project, implemented by the Department of Youth Development. All 10 procurement proposals were approved at a meeting held on Wednesday, June 24, at the Cabinet meeting room, chaired by Finance and Planning Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury. The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase confirmed the information.

The current government's election manifesto has given the highest priority to creating employment opportunities for young men and women and engaging them in economic activities. The EARN Project is one of the key initiatives to implement this priority, with the aim of providing training and enabling 900,000 youth aged 15–35 who are not in education, employment, or training, 60% of whom are young women, to become economically self-reliant. This group is referred to as NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training). The project will also contribute to strengthening Bangladesh's creative and sports industries, which are considered important sectors for the country's youth.

According to project sources, the EARN Project is a development project supported by a US$300 million World Bank loan, aimed particularly at ensuring economic engagement and employment opportunities for youth in rural areas. The number of NEET youth in Bangladesh is nearly twice the global average and continues to increase. This growing inactive youth population is considered a major challenge to Bangladesh's socio-economic development. EARN is the first and only project undertaken by the Government of Bangladesh specifically to engage this growing population in productive activities and create employment opportunities for them.

In accordance with the World Bank's procurement guidelines, the project areas across Bangladesh's eight divisions were divided into 10 packages. Procurement was completed through an open competitive Quality and Cost-Based Selection (QCBS) process. A total of 401 organizations, including single entities and joint ventures, submitted Expressions of Interest (EoIs). Of these, 78 organizations were shortlisted, and 69 shortlisted organizations submitted proposals (RFPs).

The submitted proposals were thoroughly evaluated, and after obtaining the World Bank's approval, the technical and financial proposals for each package were finally assessed. Draft contracts were subsequently prepared through negotiations with the NGOs that achieved the highest combined scores. The World Bank's no-objection was obtained for each of the procurement proposals.

The organizations recommended by the Proposal Evaluation Committee and approved by the World Bank are BRAC, Save the Children, CARE Bangladesh, and Dhaka Ahsania Mission. BRAC will operate in the Dhaka and Rangpur divisions. Save the Children will work in Barishal Division and in Cox's Bazar and Chattogram districts. CARE Bangladesh will operate in the three hill districts and in Khulna, Mymensingh, and Rajshahi divisions. Dhaka Ahsania Mission will work in Cumilla, Brahmanbaria, Feni, Noakhali, Lakshmipur, and Chandpur districts, as well as in Sylhet Division.

By 2028, these organizations, together with their joint-venture partners, will establish 5,000 village-level training centers in 250 upazilas across all 64 districts. Through these centers, approximately 900,000 young men and women will receive training in various demand-driven skills aligned with current market needs, helping them become economically self-reliant and contributing to Bangladesh's economic transformation and its transition from a least developed country.

EARN Project Director and Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Kazi Mokhlesur Rahman, said that the project is not merely a conventional "training/skills development" project. Rather, one of its key objectives is to enhance the employment capacity of young men and women through various forms of financial and technical support. It is an important development project of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, aimed at ensuring holistic support for Bangladeshi youth. The project will play an important role in fulfilling the government's commitment to increasing youth employment and developing future-oriented sectors.

The primary objective of the EARN Project is not simply to provide training, but to create employment and ensure access to employment opportunities. The project will focus on young men and women who generally do not receive formal support. Since most public and private skills development initiatives are concentrated in urban areas, rural youth often have limited access to such training opportunities. EARN is Bangladesh's first comprehensive youth support project designed to provide integrated assistance to engage young people in economic activities.

The project will go beyond training by identifying the actual needs of young people and assessing the requirements of regional, national, and global labor markets, and then providing support accordingly. Studies have shown that many young people in Bangladesh remain economically inactive even after receiving education and training due to constraints such as geographical limitations, lack of seed funding, and limited access to internships and other forms of support. The project will work to address these barriers.

The activities of the EARN Project will be implemented through four components:

1. Component 1: Support for alternative education and employability skills development.

2. Component 2: Support for self-employment creation and economic self-reliance.

3. Component 3: Creating a supportive environment for youth, particularly young women, to address various barriers at the rural level.

4. Component 4: Strengthening the capacity of the Ministry of Youth and Sports and its affiliated institutions.

Under the project, training programs will be aligned with the standards and requirements of both local and international labor markets. The project will support the creation of new employment opportunities in both formal and informal sectors. Appropriate certification will be ensured through the National Skills Development Authority (NSDA), Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET), and relevant organizations.