YES Leader: Ms Graciela Duran Maritatto
Email : gduran@fundacione.org
Website : www.fundacione.cl

Vision : To promote youth entrepreneurship and green economy.

Background : According to the National Institute of Statistics of Chile, the rate of youth unemployment in the quarter November 2008 – January 2009 was 20 %. In 2007 the Chilean population was about 16.603.827 out of which 4.090.425 are young people between 15 to 29 years.

About the Network : YES Chile was created in 2002, and is hosted by Foundation E Chile, a non profit organization that works closely with Foundation E Mexico (YES Latin America Hub Office) which is sharing its models and methods on entrepreneurship, working group, motivation and innovation in the enterprise generation. YES Chile has been in diverse YES Summits like YES Alexandria 2002, YES Baku 2008 and the YES Latin American Summits (Paraguay and Panama).

Current Major Initiatives :

• YES Chile is organizing events related with entrepreneurship in the University of Santiago about generating projects with the green concept.
• YES Chile is focused on organizing the III YES Regional Forum in Latin American to be held in Santiago de Chile from 1 to 3 April, in 2010
• The event will be focused on the process towards YES 2010 Global Summit in Sweden in the context of the Millennium Development Goals in the Latin American Region. Representatives from the governments, private sector, civil society, international organizations, universities, networks and business incubators will be invited to be part of this initiative.
• YES Chile is working on an agenda and methodology that is being built with stakeholders in alignment with the priorities of YES at global and regional levels – building alliances for entrepreneurship programs, MDGs, the framework of YES and the strategic sectors for employment and mitigation of the effects of global warming.
• The goals of the Forum are :
  1. Interchange best practices and lessons
  2. Strengthen relationships and network of key players in development and job creation in Latin America.
  3. Provide tools to improve practice in the development of youth micro and small enterprises in the region.
  4. Launch innovative entrepreneurship programs in the region and have a competitive advantage over other regions of the world.
  5. Develop green projects that can generate Youth Employment and link to sources of investment.

Key Accomplishments :

• Get visibility for the YES Campaign in Chile and also the methodology of Foundation E.
• Host for the III YES Regional Forum in Latin America in a coordinated manner with the University of Santiago (USACH).
• Working together with the universities and incubators to unleash business plan competitions for undertaking environmentally sustainable projects. With USACH YES Chile is preparing a contest on green entrepreneurship with the Incubator of this University to be launched this 2009 for 200 participants.