Gene-Sis: Creating new opportunities for returned migrants

The project

Gene-Sis creates a support system for human rights, empowerment and economic reintegration to improve the living conditions of returned migrants and internally displaced persons (IDPs) as well as their families in El Salvador. The project will be implemented over a period of 30 months (2021-2023) and includes five measures: Skills Assessment and Certification, Coaching and Job Placement, Creation of Businesses, Knowledge Management, and Promoting cross-sectoral alliances to advance the rights of migrants (both the returned and internally displaced). Activities include cross-cutting elements of psychosocial support and the application of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

The project focuses on formulating and implementing public policies that strengthen the rights of migrants and their families. To achieve this, the project promotes the leadership and capacity of civil society by building alliances with local and sectoral public and private actors working to promote and protect the human rights of returned migrants and IDPs as well as their families. It also aims to enhance the capacity of civil society and public institutions in advocacy, formulation and implementation of public policies with a focus on strengthening the rights of returned migrants and IDPs and their families.

Through knowledge and learning management, the project increases the replicability and dissemination of the adoption of good practices, both in other countries and in wider populations living in vulnerable conditions.

The activities focus on three dimensions:

• Individual level: the project addresses the needs of migrants and their families and promotes employment through skills certification, upskilling and reskilling, and support for entrepreneurship, among other things.
• Social level: The project activities promote migrants' social adaptation to the new circumstances as well as their participation within the community.
• Structural: Thanks to their acquired skills, returned persons in El Salvador promote the competitiveness of enterprises. Thus, the project not only creates income opportunities, but also contributes to the economic development of the country. In addition, the project strengthens the capacities of the institutional ecosystem, the development of public policies and the exercising of rights.

Objectives

1. Strengthening the leadership and capacity of civil society to build alliances with local and sectoral actors (public and private) in promoting and defending the human rights of returned migrants and IDPs and their families
2. Promoting the capacity of civil society and public institutions to formulate and implement public policies that strengthen the rights of migrants and their families
3. Creating cross-sectoral alliances and viable tools for the economic reintegration of returned migrants and IDPs that are replicable and scalable
4. Knowledge, communication and learning management for the adoption of best practices

Project partners

• INSAFORP
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Ministry of Labour
• CASALCO
• CASATUR
• CONMIGRANTES
• CONAMYPE
• GMIES
• University Universidad de Oriente
• Fé y Alegría

Project links

Video: Ruth Martínez, a beneficiary story