Education & Awareness projects

Economic Citizenship

Project Objective

Citizens have many economic rights that serve to protect them such as the right to access to quality employment and quality services from public sectors. They also have responsibilities such as paying taxes and obeying the laws, but they are not aware of them. Therefore the introduction of citizenship in education is required.

Economic Citizenship is about knowing our economic rights, responsibilities and the means to claim our rights. This program will provide youth participants with essential skills and knowledge to help them play an effective role in society and strengthen their social and economic commitment, which may reinforce their sense of citizenship.

It will:

• enhance their knowledge of their socio - economic rights and responsibilities,
• improve their understanding of the economy, business and labor market challenges,
• help them understand the role the government plays in the economy,
• develop a better understanding of the labor law,
• expand their advocacy knowledge and develop their skills to engage in collective civic actions,
• provide them with the necessary tools to claim and defend their rights,
• raise awareness about democratic values and ethics that affect a nation’s economy.

Project Strategy

1) Market Research

A market research will be conducted to further understand the target market needs in relation
to economic rights, economic duties, and business ethics…
The study consists of:

- 1000 questionnaires to assess student’s knowledge about topics related to the project,
- focus groups with students, teachers and young professionals, to identify needs and understand level of awareness,
- interviews with school teachers of civic education, school principles and with the director of orientation and guidance unit in the ministry of education and the director of the Research Center of Education,
- documentation research.

2) Material Development
Based on the market research and the needs identified in the analysis report, a material consisting of eight sessions will be developed it will include mainly the following:

Business Ethics, Access to Quality Employment, Government Spending, Economic Duties, Taxes, Claiming Rights, Democratic Tools…

3) Training for Young Professionals

Twenty university students from different religious and socio-economic background, aging between 22 and 27 years old, will be trained to deliver the program in different schools all over the country. They will attend three days training workshop about democratic values, civic and economic rights and duties, communication and facilitation skills, and advocacy tools. Nonetheless, a small number of the volunteers will have the chance to attend training about citizenship in the UK.

4) Implementation
The volunteers will be delivering the program mainly in both public and private schools during school hours, covering the entire Lebanese region.

Beneficiaries

1) Students

About 300 high school students will benefit from the program. These students will come from a variety of religious and social background. Following this exercise, students will be aware of their rights and duties as citizens as well as their effective role in the society.

2) Volunteers

The program instructors will learn important communication skills, democratic values, economic duties and rights and advocacy tools.

3) School Teachers

Two teachers from each school will be attending the training with the volunteers; they will support them during the entire project. Other indirect beneficiaries are students’ parents, other schoolteachers, the schools participating, the municipalities and the community in general.

Partners

In order to assure the sustainability of the project and to meet one of its partnership strategies, Nahwa al-Muwatiniya will partner in this project with Injaz Lebanon, a local NGO, member of Junior Achievement Worldwide, one of the oldest and fastest growing organizations, dealing with economic education in the world.