YES Leader: Mr. Paul Lokho
Email :lokho@asia.com
Website : YES-India

Vision :To pioneer innovative youth development programs for building leadership, entrepreneurship and self reliance.

Background : According to the World Bank, 85.7 percent of Indians were living on less than USD 2.50 PPP a day, higher than sub-Saharan Africa (80.5 percent ). India’s tremendous economic gains have often failed to reach the most vulnerable populations and people outside of major urban areas. Agriculture accounts for 60 percent of all employment, with the service sector and industrial sector at 28 and 12, respectively. Despite significant improvements in recent years, India still suffers from widespread poverty, malnutrition, and illiteracy.

About the Network : YES India Network consists of 7 leaders , each heading the network in 7 states – Mizoram , Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh , Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Most of the Networks are registered as a Non-profit organizations, each having pioneered innovative youth development programs and built leadership, transforming the communities to become self reliant. The YES Network is promoting entrepreneurship as the antidote to unemployment and has held capacity building training programs on a regular basis for unskilled, educated and uneducated youth on self employment and other income generating activities.

Current Major Initiatives:

• Fifty-nine (59) youth have been trained in ICT, 46 have specialized in Computer hard and soft ware skills and 13 were trained in electronics. Scholarship support was mobilized from some donor agencies
• Forty youth were trained in Composite farming and Market development at the Rural Resource Training Centre, Shillong.
• Altogether 72 youth went through Entrepreneurship development training in December and some of these youths already own small enterprises.
• Altogether 26 youths have received for training on water and sanitation from AFPRO (Action for Food Production)
• Two rural resource groups have emerged who are now promoting low cost sanitation in the rural areas and earning their livelihood.
• Promote environmental protection along with generating jobs for youth. This will safeguard the conservation of biodiversity and contribute to environmental development. A cadre of forest protection workers from among the youth of the community are being developed who will be social entrepreneurs and will form Self Help Groups to raise plant nurseries, educate communities, lobby and advocate for environmental safeguards etc. They will also develop eco tourism spots, and promote wild life through understanding and support from governments.

Key Accomplishments :

• Preparations are on for the 5th Global Youth Employment Summit - Rework the World planning meeting scheduled to take place on the 16th of November in Delhi which will work with an engaged group of diverse stakeholders to accelerate the process of sustainable employment creation. A planning meeting for this has already taken place on March 9 and 10, 2009 where forty successful initiatives were identified for selection by YES Network leaders for replication
  under the following categories.
1. Overcoming the problem of waste
2. Promoting youth-led enterprises
3. Sustainable agriculture and forestry
• YES India Network will include the following areas in their work for sustainable employment generation
1. Organic Farming and market linkages and on farm activities
2. NRM & Eco-tourism
3. Information Communication Technology
4. Waste Management
5. Renewable Energy