Lucie Frömmel, Advisor for Organisational Development

Photo: Frank Ddungu, Morish Wangala, Leyah Kampi from YARD, and Lucie Frömmel

Enhancing the staff capacity in business management and entrepreneurial skills and guide the elaboration and implementation of business plans for the two centres to become financially sustainable.

Lucie Frömmel holds a Master Degree in Atlantic Studies in History, Culture and Society. In the last 5 years she worked in Mozambique in a GIZ-funded agricultural project in the areas of Monitoring and Evaluation, Gender and Organisational Development. In this context, she also supported an agricultural college to improve the quality of trainings and the sustainability of the institution. Lucie is passionate about organic agriculture and using environmentally-friendly production methods.

• This advisory assignment focuses on enhancing the financial self-sufficiency of two learning centres operated by the Youth Association for Rural Development: the St. Luke Vocational Training Institute and the YARD Impact Centre for Agriculture Demonstration and Skills Development. Both institutions primarily serve underprivileged youth and have historically relied on donor funding for over 95% of their operational costs. Despite having multiple departments with marketable product potential, these centres face limitations in production capacity, marketing, and management skills, which hinder income generation.
• The technical advisor supports the development of sustainable business models to enable these institutions to generate income while continuing to provide affordable and quality education. By training staff in business orientation, entrepreneurship, and financial management, the advisor promotes a mindset shift toward institutional self-reliance. This transformation is vital for ensuring long-term access to vocational training for low-income youth and equipping them with relevant, practical - particularly agricultural - skills for employment.
• To achieve this, the advisor implements structured capacity development measures, including tools to assess staff business competencies, customized training programmes, and support in creating efficient administrative frameworks. Further, the advisor fosters internal knowledge management systems and promotes documentation practices.
• Through these efforts, the assignment contributes to expanding access to vocational education, improving youth employability and agrological skills, and laying the foundation for resilient and sustainable educational institutions.
• SDG targets: 4.4; 8.6; 17.9