Climate change fight could create many jobs :
aid experts by Andrew Newby

DOHA, Nov 30, 2008 (AFP) - Aid specialists support a claim by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that efforts to adapt to climate change could create "millions of jobs" if enough funding is available.

"There is huge potential," particularly in developing countries, according to Poonam Ahluwalia, president of Youth Employment Summit, a US-based group which specialises in the creation of sustainable employment for young people.

"I would like to see a climate change fund that would put money aside to fund youth employment projects in (climate change) mitigation, emission reduction, energy conservation and clean energy production," she said in Doha on Sunday.  Speaking on the sidelines of the UN Conference on Financing for Development, Ahluwalia said developing countries have been disproportionately affected by climate change compared with countries where carbon emissions are highest, "and that should be reflected in aid funding." read more
YES 2010: 2 MILLION GREEN JOBS

The world is facing the twin challenges of youth unemployment and environmental degradation – this presents an exciting opportunity to engage young people as social and environmental entrepreneurs, building a society that can live within planetary boundaries.

The 2 Million Green Employment initiative seizes a historic opportunity to bring about the global green economy. The first milestone of this initiative will be the 5th Global Youth Employment Summit (YES 2010), which will bring together the people, ideas, and financing to fulfil this goal. This initiative will tackle three major issues of our time:  (1) The impact of climate change and threats posed by ecosystem collapse; (2) The lack of employment opportunities for youth in developing countries; (3) New technologies and entrepreneurial solutions to social and environmental challenges. While pioneering technologies and market based private-sector solutions exist to resolve many of these problems, we cannot wait 30 years for successful models to spread organically. YES is accelerating a global response to this urgent planetary crisis. www.reworktheworld.org 
NEW BOARD MEMBERS

We have recently added three new members to our Board :
Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Library of Alexandria (Chairman YES Board),
Van Jones, President and Founder of Green for All, and
Günter Pauli, Founder and Director of Zero Emissions Research Initiative.

We are very excited about the energy, expertise and support that they bring to YES.
YES AZERBAIJAN 2008

In September of 2008 we held our fourth Global Summit, an exciting and productive four days in Baku, Azerbaijan. Co-hosted by the Ministry of Youth and Sport, inspiring speeches were delivered by the summit patrons, First Lady of Egypt HE Suzanne Mubarak and First Lady of Azerbaijan HE Mehriban Aliyeva.

Drawing from nearly 75 countries, 600 delegates (including 30 government delegations) walked through the gates of Gulustan Palace.  Together we celebrated the recent achievements of YES and began preparing for our new initiatives that will take us to the 2010 YES summit. Between now and 2010, YES hopes to empower its networks to reach our ambitious goal of creating 2 million green employment opportunities by 2012. Over the next two years, YES will continue to build capacity, both at headquarters and within its country networks, in order to provide increasing amounts of support to our networks that are creating sustainable job opportunities

To prepare for the coming two years, we covered many topics in Baku, ranging from the innovative employment strategies in Azerbaijan to the increasing burden of climate change to the use of Reality TV to inspire entrepreneurship. Many sessions focused on how entrepreneurship, employment and climate change are all related and how country leaders, NGOs, and international organizations can incorporate these into their core work. YES country leaders and guest speakers from all corners of the earth came to share their insights and experiences.

Since the summit, YES has been reflecting on how we can better support our country networks and fulfill our ambitious goal of creating 2 million sustainable employment opportunities in the developing world.

For more information on the summit, click here

 GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK
November 17-23, 2008

Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) was created by Make Your Mark (UK) and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (USA) and sponsored by Ernst & Young, IBM, and NYSE Euronext.  As a Global Partner, we are proud to share that a majority of our Networks organized activities for this week.  Activities ranged from an interactive training for young entrepreneurs in business skills (Swaziland) to a lecture on women in entrepreneurship (Togo) to multi-day events on youth and entrepreneurship (Mexico and Egypt).  We are very excited about the enthusiasm, innovation and dedication that our leaders demonstrated when hosting these events.    For details about the country events click here .

For more information about this event, please visit www.unleashingideas.org.

RENAMING THE YES FUND:
Introducing the Youth Enterprise Generator

After some programmatic changes within the YES Fund, we realized that the name no longer accurately represented our model.  Therefore, after some consultation with our leaders and partners, we have renamed the initiative as the Youth Enterprise Generator.  This name more closely reflects the activities planned.  

Youth comprise over 50 percent of the world population.  It is becoming clear that the private and public sectors are not able to absorb all the youth in the labor market.  As such, YES has committed to cultivating an entrepreneurial approach to providing employment opportunities to youth.  The Youth Enterprise Generator works to unleash entrepreneurship in developing countries by licensing existing institutions such as chambers of commerce, NGOs, and universities to also function as entrepreneurship training hubs.  Derived from YES experiences in Mexico and India, these Generators support young people to identify business opportunities, prepare business plans, and link-up with finance and markets.

Our aim :

To set up national capacity and infrastructure to insure that 2 million young people become entrepreneurs (social and business) by 2012, with a specific focus on triple bottom line (people, planet, profits) enterprises.  The Generator will provide inspiration, but also concrete ‘know how’ for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Our strategy :

To launch a Youth Enterprise Generator in each of our 55 countries that would allow for rapid and widespread entrepreneurship development.  Over the last 6 years YES has worked to assemble a global action network of over 20,000 youth leaders around the world, predominantly in the 55 Network countries.  We will capitalize on the potential of this Network to move from capacity building to action.

2400 Businesses in Mexico  :   YES Mexico, worked with the Ministry of Economy to develop new kinds of business incubators for rural and urban settings.  In 2007 our Network received USD 6 million to conduct pilot testing and, in 2008, have received USD 20 million to scale-up. 

Youth-driven enterprises in Northeast India  :  YES India (State of Nagaland) raised $100,000 to host meaningful conversations with local youth to understand the entrepreneurship opportunities available to them across the region. And through a competition for best ideas awarded eleven winners seed grants which will be evaluated for further investments in scale-up or replication.

Business Plan Competitions in India  :  The pilot site for business plan competitions has proved extremely successful, with various stakeholders engaged as screeners and coaches and direct links provided to financing and other resources.

How Your Investment Makes a Difference  :

Each young person that graduates from the Youth Enterprise Generator costs an average of $1,200. This calculation is based on scale – to produce 5,000 social and business enterprises in 5 different countries, we require about $6 million; the return on that investment comes in the form of revenue for the local economy, further employment opportunities, and the social impact of youth empowerment. Investment in this effort from the private sector would create a virtuous cycle of business investing in business—an effort of hand ups, not hand outs.

Youth Enterprise Generators will work with country offices to train, monitor, and license existing local institutions such as NGOs, chambers of commerce, universities, schools and others as Generators.  This will create the reach needed to enroll youth throughout the country.

YES 2008 PANAMA REGIONAL FORUM

During August 7 and 8, 2008, the II Latin American Forum on Youth Employment: Policies, Partnerships and Programs was held in Panama City, Panama. This was a regional preparation for YES 2008 Global Summit organized by YES Inc. and Fundacion E.  YES Panama served as the local host and the City of Knowledge and the Private Council for Educational Assistance (COSPAE) were the local partners.

The Forum included the active participation of 200 key decision makers in youth employment and youth entrepreneurship from regional governments, companies, civil society organizations, academia, international organizations and YES networks. Representatives came from 17 countries (15 from the Latin American region, and also representatives from USA and Sweden).

This regional forum included 28 plenary speakers, 24 successful case studies, three round tables and one workshop. In this context four publications were launched in Spanish, two of which were original publications from YES Inc., and two original publications were coordinated by YES Latin America with contributions from the YES leaders in the region.

Key outcomes of the Regional Meeting include:

  • Launching the YES Fellows program in partnership with YES Nicaragua;
  • Awarding the “YES Latin America Award 2008” to Mr. Jose Ignacio Morales “El Artístico” for being a champion of youth employment and a great inspiration for YES networks in the region;
  • Launching the Youth Enterprise Generator for Latin America in partnership with YES Inc. and Fundacion E;
  • Announcing Chile as the venue for the next regional forum in January 2010.  This meeting will be held as a preparation for YES 2010 global summit. 
  • Developing the YES Latin America Strategic Planning 2008-2010 at the YES Latin America Leaders Workshop.  Thank you to the Vice-president of the Institute for Strategic Clarity for facilitating this process!

Thanks to the support of UNFPA, the “Latin American Agenda on Youth Entrepreneurship 2008-2010” was published with this forum’s conclusions and recommendations. This is a regional document that will serve as a basis for the national consultations to be held in each country of the region in preparation for the YES 2010 Global Summit. A blog was created as a discussion
on-line forum to build up on this agenda: http://segundacumbrelatinoamericanadelempleojuvenil.wordpress.com/

More information in English and Spanish in: http://www.yesweb.org/yes-panama.htm

The YES 2008 Panama regional forum was possible thanks to the sponsorship of the government through the First Lady Office in Panama; companies such as TIGO, Shell, Sab-Miller/Cervecería Nacional, Citi, Felipe Rodríguez, Profuturo, Megapublicidad, Stratego Communications;  Universities such as the Universidad Latina; international organizations as UNFPA and the mass media through MEDCOM (TV) and La Prensa (newspaper).

YES Global Green Jobs Summit USA, plans are afoot to organize our first Summit in the US
If the present generation only teaches the next what it knows
Then they can only do as bad as we have done
Gunter Pauli, President ZERI
This Global Green Jobs Summit will inspire innovation and leap-frog thinking so that we can be more than the sum total of our current knowledge and belief system…and move to achieve accelerated results by bold and imaginative actions. This Summit will launch efforts to support building of a green economy world-wide inspired by Natures 100 best technologies and other green technologies. A signature goal of the event will be to create a global youth learning and project partnership system that joins youth in the United States with their peers from other countries to generate innovative and bold ideas, enterprises for creating two million ‘green’ youth job opportunities worldwide by 2012. This process will be launched at the 5th Global Youth Employment Summit (YES) held in June 2010 in Sweden hosted by the Government of Sweden and organized by YES Inc. and Tallberg Foundation.

YES Board members leading this initiative are Debra Deanne Olson, CEO, Green Century Solutions, LLC., and Gunter Pauli, Founder and President Zero Emissions Initiative www.zeri.org For more information please contact Joel Nitzberg, Managing Director YES Inc. at Joel.Nitzberg@gmail.com

BECOME A YES CHAMPION

We are looking for active supporters located in our YES Network countries to become a champion—a champion is one who will help make youth employment and entrepreneurship real and impact full in their country.  We are in the midst of an ambitious capital campaign to create 2 million green jobs by 2012.  We need your support to help our 55 networks achieve this ambitious goal. 

We will work closely with the Champions to customize a project that will closely follow their heart in their country of interest.

Your engagement could support:
  • Femina HIP, a YES Tanzania affiliate that uses the media to empower youth to take control of their health  and their futures.
  • CHALLENGE BUSINESS!, a YES Togo initiative that finds and finances promising projects by organizing a National Contest of Young Entrepreneurs.
  • YES Chile as they promote Fundacion E’s business incubation curriculum and inspire youth
  • ‘Across Chile’to create their own enterprises.
  • YES Nepal as they promote environmental stewardship through art, movies and volunteer opportunities.
In addition to increasing impact on the ground, Champions will be invited to share their projects at the 5th Global Youth Employment Summit in 2010, will be listed in our documentation and featured on our website.

We are happy to work with you to tailor the specific benefits of partnership to fit your priorities.

If you are interested in becoming a YES Champion, please contact:

Rovshan Muradov
YES Campaign Committee Member
rovshan@yesweb.org

Thanking YES Champion Bo Ekman, Chair Tallberg Foundation by Poonam Ahluwalia

When I met Bo Ekman at the 2005 Tallberg Forum little did I know the powerful and life altering impact that he would have on me, and the YES Campaign. It is thanks to his passionate advocacy and support that we got the commitment of the Swedish Government to host the 5th Global Youth Employment Summit in June 2010; and now plans are underway to create the architecture of programs and partnerships that will lead to 2 million green employment opportunities by 2010.

I still remember nestled in the beautiful lake side Swedish Village as we discussed - How on Earth Can we Live together?  I proposed to Bo to come to the YES Kenya 2006 and share how we can live together with unemployed youth...and he graciously came, saw, and was conquered by the power and energy of 1500 youth clamoring and devoted to generating a sustainable future.  And the rest is history.  I know with his dedicated support we will be able to 'rework the world' in favor of sustainable youth employment.  www.tallbergforum.org

MEET AN ACHIEVER
Ali Raza Khan
CEO and President of the YES Network in Pakistan.
Founder and CEO of Youth Engagement Services (YES) Network Pakistan/PNYS.
Ashoka Fellow in Pakistan. 

Ali is from Lahore, Pakistan, where he earned his BA and Masters in Political Science focusing on Development Politics. He also holds a one-year diploma in documentary making from GNN in Montreal and has participated in one-year master program in social work at McGill University as a Sauvé Scholar.

Ali is the CEO and President of YES Network Pakistan. He is implementing his projects in underprivileged rural areas all over the country and has extensive experience in conceptualizing, designing, and successfully implementing youth development programs. He is a very effective trainer and has conducted over 100 capacity building workshops in the filed of leadership development, gender, communication, participatory learning for action, values, reproductive health, team building, community mobilization, community organizing, etc for all segments of population in partnership with local, national and international organizations.

Past and current initiatives include:

  • Playing a pioneer role in designing and implementing first-ever youth service and sexual reproductive health programs for under-served and at-risk youth.
  • Establishing over 150 female multi-functional learning centers in various parts of Pakistan, including border areas where there is hardly any opportunity and infrastructure for the promotion and protection women’s rights. These centers have already provided a wide range of services to over 6000 young girls and women.
  • Launching the first-ever Youth Social Entrepreneurship Competition in the Vocational, Technical and Training colleges of Pakistan in partnership with British Council.  The goal of this competition is to inspire young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity.

YES AZERBAIJAN

YES Azerbaijan had the great honor of hosting YES’ Fourth Global Youth Employment Summit in Baku this past September.  For more information on the summit, click here.

For more information on the YES Azerbaijan Network, please visit their website:
www.yesweb-az.org

OR

contact :
Rovshan Muradov
Rovshan@yesweb.org

YES BHUTAN

YES Bhutan has been working in the areas of environmental conservation, STI education, and drug and alcohol abuse prevention.  This past year, we organized an Entrepreneurship Forum during Global Entrepreneurship Week.  This forum engaged youth, communities and stakeholders and was hosted by the Phuentsholing Women’s Association. 

In 2009, YES Bhutan hopes to strengthen its network of NGOs, stakeholders and other institutions.  We also hope to establish a tailoring and knitting center.  We will continue our mass campaign on HIV/AIDs and STIs and our research on Human Trafficking.  We also plan to organize a Youth and Democracy forum.

For more information, please contact :
Ms. Dechen Wangmo,
Coordinator, YES Bhutan Network
dwangmobhutan@gmail.com

YES CHILE

YES Chile has had a very productive 2008.  After attending the Fourth Global Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, we've been working to promote YES to the Government and the private sector.  We have formed many partnerships with educational institutions and potential donors.

Additionally, we participated in the first Global Entrepreneurship Week with various events.  For instance, we held a lecture that was attended by 68 students at the Colegio CREP in Quilpue that focused on motivating youth to discover their “inner-entrepreneurs.”  This talk opened the possibility of creating a program at their school using Fundacion E's methodology. 

Also during Global Entrepreneurship Week, we developed a Microenterprise program in Peñalolén where participants designed a group project (in addition to their personal projects) that would create a business.  They would apply basic business principles to their project to make it viable and profitable.  This particular group created a traveling ice cream business.

In 2009, we plan on further developing our methodology and network.  In February we will begin transferring the FundacionE methodology to various education partners that we've been developing over 2008.  In March, we will be holding training on business incubation and a national event where we will be presenting YES. 

For more information, please contact:
Graciela Duran
Leader, YES Chile
graciela.duran@fundacione.cl
www.fundacione.cl

YES DRC

YES DRC has achieved many things in 2008.  They include both advocacy and partnerships development activities:

  • The Ark Foundation granted YES DRC the status of a friend of their project in Africa called "Tujenge Pamoja Africa" as a beginning step to work together in the future;
  • The Radio Concordia, a community radio owned by the catholic priests from the Barnabite congragation in Bukavu, is in the process of signing a MoU with YES DRC.  We hope to launch a joint ICT venture in 2009 to prepare the YES 2010.
  • YES DRC organized an event for the first Global Enterpreneurship Week 2008.
  • We identified Youth-led organizations, their programs, and their projects in employment generation in the city of Bukavu. Twenty organizations were identified and invited to register with YES DRC Network. 10 of them are now our members.
  • We organized training seminars, workshops, and conferences on the 3 strategic Ps of YES (Policy, Partnership and Program) for YES DRC members. So far, we have attended over 100.

For the year 2009, plans include the implementation of the following projects:

  • YES DRC Community Information Center, which aims to empower a direct beneficiary group made up of 15 unmarried young mothers, demobilized and other war-orphaned girls and boys from low-income, homeless and poor families.  All participants will be between 18 and 20 years old and 40% of them will not have achieved a secondary education, while 60 % did;
  • The Solar Cookers Initiative for Youth Employment, a social and environmental protection venture that is aimed at stimulating the development of small- and micro- enterprises through providing practical and technical training and small loans as start-up capital to young boys and girls who wish to undertake small scale income generating ventures in the solar energy domain;
  • Identification of more Youth-led organizations, their programs and projects of employment generation in other areas in the city of Bukavu and its peripheries.
  • The creation, updating and maintaining of a new YES DRC web page on YES Inc website, and the development of a separate YES DRC website…
  • Organization of complementary consultation meetings on youth employment opportunities in country with the government, especially the Ministry of Youth and Sport and the Ministry of Labor in order to finalize a draft of the National Youth Development Policy;
  • Organization and extension of training seminars, workshops and conferences to the 3 strategic Ps of YES (Policy, Partnership and Program) for YES DRC. We intend to involve over 200 young boys and girls and institutions;
  • Two Scholarships to attend YES global summits and forums (YES 2010, YES Alexandria 2012) and other important conferences on Youth Enterprises.

For more information, please contact:
Joel Bayubasire
Leader of YES DRC
joel@yesweb.org

YES EGYPT

As part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, YES Egypt organized “The Egyptian Youth Forum for Entrepreneurship - Youth Reshaping the Future,” at the Library of Alexandria. The event was co-hosted by Sailing the Nile-Alexandria, the World Bank Public Information Center (PIC), and the Adwar Initiative.  The event was a unique platform for an in-depth discussion on the state of entrepreneurship in Egypt.  Participants agreed that there is an urgent need for a collective forum that can gather active private sector organizations, NGOs, and governmental organizations in Egypt.  A forum of this type would help share the hopes and fears of Civil Society Organizations and present success stories in social responsibility.

As part of the Forum, a special “Youth Entrepreneurship Workshop” was organized from November 21-23 for 100 civil activists in Egypt on matters related to fund raising and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Subsequently, the “Egyptian Youth Entrepreneurship Forum - Youth Reshaping the Future,” was organized. The first meeting was a closed meeting for the representatives of the CSOs and NGOs in Egypt, in order to evaluate and assess the civil society performance in Egypt.  Representatives from 21 NGOs attended the event.

The second event was a forum that gathered CSO representatives, international organizations, and members of the private sector in order to discuss issues centered on youth entrepreneurship.  This meeting emphasized social responsibility and the challenges facing civil society in Egypt.

For more information, please contact :
Mohamad Abushaqra
Coordinator, YES Egypt
m.aboushaqra@sda-web.org
http://www.sda-web.org

YES GUATEMALA

YES Guatemala managed more than 30 executive volunteers who attended economic and business programs for youth.  These programs were run by Junior Achievement of Guatemala. 

Additionally, three individuals participated in the World Summit on Volunteering in April of 2008.  One person represented YES Guatemala at the Tallberg Forum in June of 2008 and one person represented us at the YES Regional forum in Panama in August 2008.  YES Guatemala also collaborated on two documents that were published at the Forum. 

For 2009, we plan to organize an event for youth where they can discuss the employment situation for youth in Guatemala.  We also hope to participate in Global Entrepreneurship Week and continue our efforts with our volunteers with Junior Achievement. 

We also have two other ideas for 2009.  We are hoping to create a pilot project that would develop a Community Leadership program aimed at training adolescents in youth entrepreneurship.  Secondly, we hope to coordinate an Entrepreneurship Fair that has an ecological focus.  We would do this in coordination with FundacionE in Mexico.

For more information, please contact :
Guillermo Leverman
Leader, YES Guatemala
gleverman@yahoo.com

YES GUINEA BISSAU

YES Guinea Bissau worked with the Ministry of Youth to solidify a Youth Guinea Bissau program for 2008-2011.  In this program, there will be a focus on youth training and youth employment.  YES Guinea Bissau is also involving the private sector in its strategy for promoting Youth Employment. 
 
One of the biggest achievements for our network this past year was getting UNFPA’s support to travel to Brazil where we discussed and signed an MOU with the Institute of Training and Education Technology in Rio de Janeiro.  In this agreement, the Institute will support youth in Guinea Bissau and provide training and technology to them.  They will also help support us as we create a Job Center.  Three individuals from Guinea Bissau will travel to Brazil to train as managers for the Center.

We have also become increasingly involved with our government.  We met with both the Labor Ministry as well as the Ministry of Youth to suggest possible activities to do.  We also worked with them to develop and action plan with UNFPA for 2009.

We have also participated in various events and workshops.  We attended the Brazilian Youth Conference in April of 2008.  We also attended YES’ Fourth Global Summit in Azerbaijan and participated in several workshops with youth organizations like the National Youth Council of Guinea Bissau, the Youth Network and Associations, and the Youth Forum and Populations.

For more information, please contact :
Algassimo Ba
Coordinator, YES Guinea Bissau
algassimo@hotmail.com

YES IRAN

YES Iran organized the “Tehran National Meeting on Youth Employment” in Tehran, Iran on Monday, November 17, 2008 as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week.  The meeting was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Cooperation, the Special Representative of the President, the Ministry of Science, and the Ministry of Research and Technologies.

Representatives of universities, the private sector, civil society organizations, and successful female and youth entrepreneurs were all in attendance on Tuesday, November 18 and Wednesday, November 19.  The week-long event concluded on Saturday, November 22 with a wrap-up meeting of Youth NGOs and members of the YES Iran Network.

Through this event, we hoped to:

  1. Provide an opportunity for various stakeholders to share their experiences and propose ideas for promoting youth employment in the country.
  2. To help achieve integrated policies on youth employment, both in government and across sectors (governmental bodies, community–based NGOs, research centers, the private sector, and UN agencies).
  3. To highlight the importance of youth employment in sustainable development at both the national and international levels.

Two working groups were formed after the plenary sessions. The two groups presented the result of their deliberations at the end of the meeting.   We will be following up with these recommendations in 2009.

For more information, please contact :
Hamideh Tabatabaie
Coordinator, YES Iran
hamideh@yesweb.org

YES IRAQ

Youth in Iraq are suffering very much as a result of the extraordinary circumstances that Iraq is dealing with such as:

  • Violence, terrorism, and preventing the youth from all needs and rights.
  • The spread of unemployment.  The lack of opportunities is preventing Iraqi Youth from developing programs and support, and is leaving them out of development and structures. This hole prevents society from helping its crucial effective majority that would participate in building up the future of the state.

We as the Iraq YES network have assembled youth leaders to provide work opportunities and support through holding several workshops, symposiums and programs for developing their education and taking part in the local community.

In 2008, the YES Iraq network, in cooperation with the Iraqi Commission for Civil Society Enterprises, held many activities. One of the highlights of this past year was YES Iraq's participation in Global Entrepreneurship Week.  On November 18, 2008 in Baghdad, we organized a "National Youth Convention" as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week in coordination with Iraqi Youth Employment and Development Net,. This general conference of Iraqi youth and student organizations was attended by nearly 100 representatives from Iraqi civil society organizations, youth leaders, and influential community members. The conference participants discussed the agenda, listened to the views of professionals, and discussed potential solutions to the youth unemployment crisis.

The following points were discussed :

  1. The history of the Global YES Campaign and YES Iraq's goals and accomplishments.
  2. The lack of employment opportunities for Iraqi youth.
  3. The absence of training and technical rehabilitation for youth, resulting in a skills deficit.
  4. The shortage of funding opportunities and grants to support youth projects.
  5. The impact of unemployment and poverty on the circulation of crime and drugs.
  6. The shortcomings in government strategy with respect to youth development.
  7. The impact of occupation, terrorism, and violence on the performance of youth.

The leader of YES Iraq discussed the results and recommendations at the conclusion of the session.  They included :

  1. Activate the role of youth and their participation in the network in order to fight unemployment, decrease poverty, and provide work and investment opportunities.
  2. Increase collaboration with the Global YES Campaign in order to capitalize on its experience and practice.
  3. Establish an information database and network of stakeholders concerned with youth.
  4. Provide work and training opportunities for unemployed youth.
  5. Execute small but productive projects geared towards young people.
  6. Involve youth in the political and democratic process.

Also, the YES Iraq network, in cooperation with the Iraqi Commission, led several workshops to prepare young people to participate in the elections for the national councils. Some of the workshops focused on the monitoring of elections and others focused on motivating young people (and women in particular) to participate in these elections.

For more information, please contact :
Dhikra Abdulrazzaq Hasan
Leader, YES Iraq
dhikra@yesweb.org

YES JORDAN

One of the highlights of 2008 was when YES Jordan combined two meetings held for a new EU initiative with Global Entrepreneurship Week activities.  The first meeting was in Amman and the second in the southern port city of Aqaba.  Each meeting was attended by roughly 30 participants representing Government, the private sector, Chambers of Commerce and Industry, NGOs, and universities.

During the meetings, participants were introduced to each other and briefly presented their organizations.  The meetings then broke down into small groups in which participants reviewed the needs in their communities. Such needs were in the fields of employment, environment, education, health, youth issues, ‘democracy, participation and citizenship’ training, and others.

The working groups then discussed projects capable of addressing these needs. Some of the project ideas participants came up with included :

  • Waste management and recycling projects;
  • Training centers to provide vocational and other skills training;
  • Business incubators;
  • Renewable energy projects;
  • Tourism projects (training guides, hotel industry, etc.) This sector is booming in Jordan;

The working groups requested further time and training to further develop their project ideas in order to submit them to funding agencies. Following the two meetings, YES Jordan received many phone calls and emails from interested people representing organizations present at the two meetings, following up and keen to participate in the near future.

YES Jordan plans to build on these two meetings and follow up with both participants and organizations that attended.  YES Jordan intends to explore ways to develop partnerships and joint efforts leading to YES 2010 and the YES Campaign’s effort to create 2 million sustainable employment opportunities worldwide by 2012.

For more information, please contact :
Khaled Shorman
Leader, YES Jordan
kshorman@gmail.com

YES KENYA

Activities

 Though the Country ended up in a Political Problem, many young people were affected due to the post election violence; however a number of activities had been undertaken within the framework of the plan as set by the network. YES Kenya Participated in a Number of Activities in 2008. The Network reviewed its strategic plan and prioritized activities for the year but funding was not received for the entire year. This made it difficult to execute the plan under review though an organizations capacity development had been done. Some of the activities that the networked engaged with included the 2008 Summit in Baku. Most starting was the meetings held with the Department of Public Sector Reforms Program on youth involvement in Development initiatives. This involved putting together a youth employment marshal plan that the government and other stakeholders would use in creating opportunities for the youth across the different sectors of development in the government developmental prioritized plans.
We held consultations with the Ministry of Youth Affairs on Youth Employment strategies. We also attended the Tallberg Forum 2008
At the end of the year the network members also participated in the week long Global Entrepreneurship Week activities and hosted one stakeholders meeting on the same week
 
Accomplishments

During the Tallberg Forum it was agreed that Tallberg, Ericsson and MYC4 would partner for a pilot project in Kenya.  Proposals have been developed and consultations are still on going.

YES Kenya managed to once again join other civil society agencies in hosting the National Youth Convention that brought together 1300 youth from all the 8 provinces to discuss their involvement and taking charge of their affairs and those of the country. Brilliant resolutions were arrived at for implementation. The one year action plan is underway. Priority was given to building capacity of the youth networks across the country and link  them with development partners for funding.

YES Kenya also managed to have its leader appointed to the International Youth Advisory Board of the Open Society Institute. Plans are underway to implement the Youth Action Fund through the Framework of YES.

Next Plans
In 2009 YES Kenya will partner with Key organizations to push for Pilot Projects that will massively engage the youth in ensuring their livelihoods are sustained. Through the Youth Generators and the call for creating 2 million jobs by 210, YES Kenya will be engaged in promoting Green employment opportunities for engagement and funding.

For more information, please contact:
Emmanuel Dennis
Leader, YES Kenya
emmanuel@yesweb.org
http://www.yeskenya.org

YES MEXICO

YES Mexico Country Network, hosted by Fundacion E, (one of the partners of YES 2004), has accomplished amazing results in its country.
Some highlights on it:

Project Name : National Program for Consulting in Business Creation
Partner : Ministry of Economy, Local Governments of Mexico’s States, Mexico National Business System
Fund : $ 20 Million USD
Objective : Support and create 200 business incubators all over Mexico, 4,000 new micro and small business and 10,000 new jobs.
Project Name : II National Conference Business Incubators and the Business Incubator Pavilion at the 8th National Micro and Small Business Conference, Mexico City
Partner : Ministry of Economy, Bombardier, Comex, Cemex,
Fund : No funds (we only participate this year as a practitioner)
Objective : Share best practices and successful cases in the Mexican business incubator system.
Project Name : Entrepreneurship Building Capacity Program
Partner : Ministry of Public Education, Public and Private Universities
Fund : 200,000 USD
Objective : Capacity building in 30 universities in Mexico with Fundación E entrepreneurship programs. Train 600 consultants with the program (20 per university on average).
Project Name : Sustainable Livelihoods
Partner : Levi’s Foundation
Fund : $75,000 USD
Objective : Train and support 750 displaced workers from Levi’s maquiladoras in the states of Puebla, Coahuila and Durango, supporting them in finding a new job and/or start a new venture.
Project Name : Winning Together
Partner : Kraft Foods de México
Fund : $100,000.00 USD
Objective : Train and support 250 small convenience stores in rural communities to improve their sales and administrative process.

For more information, please contact
Francisco Gonzales
Leader YES Mexico
francisco@yesweb.org. 

YES NAMIBIA

YES Namibia's largest initiative right now is a Credit for Youth in Business (CYB) Program.  CYB is implemented in partnership with Bank Windhoek (a commercial bank) and aims to support youth in business (who often don't have collateral) in their efforts to access loans from mainstream banks.  These loans would help these youth expand their businesses and create additional employment opportunities.

This was an initiative of the YES Network Co-ordinator after having identified the need for financial resources as one of the most important factors that play a role in business operations.

CYB is committed to empowering youth to :

  1. Expand their businesses;
  2. Increase productivity and profitability
  3. Create additional employment opportunities
  4. Increase access to rural finance.

Address and alleviate poverty and improve living standards.

CYB is designed to back loan applications of young entrepreneurs, the ones without the bank-required collateral, so that they can access loan guarantee funds.

The Namibian National Youth Council recognizes the weakness of programs that provide credit as a stand-alone support package and is thus committed to facilitate the provision of other complementary SME support services. These additional services include:

Business management training & mentoring. We will assist our borrowers to gain management skills and our mentorship program will build synergies with the mentorship program of our banking partner.

Market links. We will assist our borrowers to build links with existing markets.  CYB beneficiaries will be assisted to participate in our annual youth expo.  This assistance will facilitate networking and will also encourage our youth to perform better in loan repayment.  Beneficiaries will also be encouraged to take up, amongst others, franchise-partnerships as soon as they go into second round of CYB loans.

YES NEPAL

YES Nepal has had a very productive 2008!  Below are some quickly highlights on a few of our activities.

INTERNATIONAL EARTH DAY CELEBRATION

On Earth Day, YES Nepal joined hands with CEN, ENPHO, CIRA, Rotaract Clubs, school students, and environment experts to rally for a pollution free clean vehicle. The rally progressed to Mandala, Maitighar where YES had already set up another program, Art Mela at 10.00 am in the morning.  Environmental Engineer Mr. Bhushan Tuladhar spoke to youth about saving the earth and the significance of environmental programs.  YES members stayed at Maitighar for the program and rest made their way to Tudikhel for cleaning program.

ART MELA

YES Nepal created ART MELA with Tourism Development Endeavour, Lalit Kala Arts Group, Rotaract Club of Kathmandu Metro, and Kathmandu University. The main objective behind the open art was to encourage the young minds to portray their creative thoughts in creating environment friendly space through their art. A total of 60 young students came together with renowned artists.

DOCUMENTARY SCREENING

An environment-related documentary, Eleventh Hour with Leonardo Di Caprio, was screened at the NTB hall where more students from World Language College and Red Cross Circle joined the documentary show. The main reason behind screening the documentary show was to make the students, who are unaware of global environment issues, understand more about the environment problems, their consequences, and the remedial measures that we can undertake.

EnviroCorps PROGRAM

The EnviroCorps focuses on mobilizing volunteers that would raise awareness on environmental issues. Such volunteers would also act as change agents in convincing people to adopt environment-friendly lifestyles. YES Nepal initiated the EnviroCorps Program in early March, 2008, and selected 10 highly motivated youth for the program. A series of orientation sessions were conducted at the YES office during which volunteers were given an overview on YES Nepal’s organizational objectives, its current activities and how the activities of the volunteers would contribute to those objectives. During those sessions, the volunteers also shared their expectations and discussed on how YES Nepal could play a part in building their capacities. Over the course of training, volunteers were trained in environmental information by noted environmentalists, environmental legislation, and social entrepreneurship. 

After the completion of the capacity building workshop, the volunteers began conducting their activities. One of the major activities of the EnviroCorps was to be mobilized on the Change the Bulb Campaign. To date, they have been able to successfully approach more than 50 organizations and 2000 individuals. The EnviroCorps volunteers remain highly positive that the experience and knowledge they have gained while in this program will be highly instrumental in their career as well. Two of the volunteers have also expressed commitment to be involved in other activities of YES Nepal.

For more information, please contact:
Bhuwan KC
Leader, YES Nepal
bhuwan007@gmail.com

YES NIGER

YES Niger had an eventful 2008.  We participated in many national and international activities related to youth employment and are currently continuing our Youth Training Program in Entrepreneurship. 

We are also conducting a project of promoting entrepreneurship among rural women by distributing red goats in rural areas of Niger.  The skin of the red goat is valuable on the international market and its meat and milk are popular with tourists.  Through this project, we aim to reduce poverty and promote employment among women in rural Maradi.

This year, we want to train young people in entrepreneurship and support them using microcredit activities.  We particularly are interested in developing rural youth’s ICT skills. 

For more information, please contact:
Harouna Abdou
Coordinator, YES
goudanaou@yahoo.fr

YES NIGERIA

One of the highlights of 2008 was Nigeria’s participation in Global Entrepreneurship Week, a celebration of entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation that connects young people across the globe through local activities. The YES Country Network Nigeria marked the week with two events in Calabar and Enugu.

Calabar : Day-long interactive microfinance session at the Hope Waddell Chapel grounds.  Hosted by YES Nigeria in collaboration with Youthcare.

Facilitators at this session included Pamela Braide (YES Country Director), Leke Obadimu (YES Nigeria Member) Christian Maurice (YouthCare Cordinator) Ukam Uka (Youthcare), and Nsikak (Kind Kudra member, Crutech).

The interactive session began with a brief workshop on entrepreneurship, dealing with the basics of entrepreneurship, the qualities of an entrepreneur, and the functions of an entrepreneur.  The major outcome of the interactive session was a commitment made by the participants to develop their entrepreneurship capabilities. However, Youthcare, (YES’ host partner) stated this was a starting point for conducting further entrepreneurship training for the youths of Hope Waddell Institute and Calabar South Municipality (L.G.A).

Enugu : Day-long interactive session with young people at the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, Idaw River parish.  Hosted by YES Nigeria.

The facilitators at this seminar were Bill Uko (YES Nigeria member) Mr Adeleke Adefala the Director of Programs, SME (Small and Medium Scale Entertrises) Agency, Elder Okorie – Head of Cooperatives - Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu, and Mrs Mercy Bassey (small-scale business owner).

The session started with introductions from the resource people and the participants. The one-day session focused on coming up with ideas and guidelines for creating working businesses.  The session also addressed the qualities every entrepreneur needs to succeed, the functions of an entrepreneur, the basics of goal-setting, time management, writing business plans, and accessing loans.

The interactive session was educational and eye-opening as many of the participants were able to articulate their business ideas clearly for the first time, learn how to set measurable goals, and were able to ask pertinent questions on the process of starting up businesses. The session also helped form a group of people who would work together, assisting each other with their goals of setting up their own businesses.

For more information, please contact:
Pamela Braide
Country Director, YES Nigeria
Pamela@yesweb.org

YES PAKISTAN

This past year was one of great accomplishment for YES Pakistan.  We’ve been focusing on building momentum for the incorporation of youth social entrepreneurship programs within our national educational institutions. During the celebration of the first-ever Global Entrepreneurship Week in November 2008, we organized a wide range of national-level activities for the promotion and sensitization of the concept and significance of youth social entrepreneurship. The event was attended by high dignitaries such as the British High Commissioner, the Ambassador from the Philippines, the Secretary of Youth Affairs, and representatives of UN agencies. Please visit our website for details www.pnys.com.

For more information, please contact:
Ali Raza Khan
CEO, YES Pakistan
connectwithali@yahoo.com

YES PANAMA

YES Panama organized the II Latin American Forum on Youth Employment: Policies, Partnerships and Programs on August 7th and 8th, 2008, in Panama City, Panama.  For more information about this event, please click here.

For more information, please contact:
Rose Maria Reyes
Leader, YES Panama
reyesrosy@yesweb.org

YES RWANDA

For more information on YES Rwanda, please visit their website: http://www.yesrwanda.org

or contact:
Frank Mukama
Leader, YES Rwanda
frank@yesweb.org

YES SOMALIA

YES Somalia’s activities in 2008 focused on educating our members on the importance of promoting peace among the civilian population.  Most of our members cannot understand the value of peace because there has been no peace in Somalia since 1991 (when most of them where infants).  As such, we have organized different lectures in various places that promote conflict resolution and hold historical exhibits that show the country’s history when bas times have becoming good.  We thank Diakonia (a Swedish development organization) for helping us with all of these activities. 

We have also been working with the government.  We have asked them grant us space from which we can construct our future base.  Additionally, we have lobbied the government to aid with youth employment opportunity creation.  Already 29 youth have obtained jobs with the government.
 
Additionally, we began a small, 3-month project that focuses on training youth on ICT skills.  UNICEF is helping us with this project and we hope to continue it for the next six months.
 
For more information, please contact:
Faiza Abdi
Coordinator, YES Somalia
faiza@yesweb.org

YES TANZANIA

Femina HIP (a YES Tanzania affiliate) is a multimedia edutainment and health information initiative in Tanzania, working with young people and other stakeholders. During its 10 years of existence Femina HIP has become the largest media platform reaching Tanzanian youth and their communities across the country. Through products such as Fema magazine, Si Mchezo! (It’s not a Joke!) magazine, Fema TV Talk show, and the website Cheza Salama (Play Safe), Femina HIP provides information and provokes discussions on sexual and reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, livelihood, lifestyles and civic education. Femina HIP encourages young people to organize themselves in clubs as a base for group reading of the magazines, voluntarism and community activity. There are currently 459 registered in-school clubs and 68 out-of-school clubs (as of November 2008). Femina HIP has an agenda for promoting livelihood, entrepreneurship and business skills. Specific pages in the magazine are devoted to these issues and special TV talk shows have been produced.   

Femina HIP responded to feedback and created a workshop for the out-of-school clubs on the theme: “Empowering Youth for Employment”. The workshop was held on the 25-27 June, 2008 in Dar es Salaam. During the workshop, themes such as life skills, peer education, entrepreneurship, business plans, time management, team building, resource mobilization, legal aspects of business, the youth policy and employment challenges facing youth in Tanzania were presented and discussed.
The workshop revealed that there is a huge demand among the participants for education on entrepreneurship, business knowledge and loans, as well as education related to HIV/AIDS.  It was said that young people need more assistance on how to go about different things, stating that they are able but lack facilitation in terms of direction on what to do and how to do it.  The suggestions and recommendations from the workshop gave important clues to Femina HIP and have formed the base of a new, more expanded agenda within Femina HIP that focuses on entrepreneurship, business, employment and financial literacy.  This will assist Femina HIP readers and club members across the country to focus on other activities than HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health.  A series of TV programmes are under production as well.  This focus will be reinforced by the club work and we are encouraging the clubs to set up saving schemes and assist each other in business endeavors.

A series of partners will assist Femina HIP in this agenda, Centre for Entrepreneurship at University of Dar es Salaam, TECNOSERVE and the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Youth. Femina HIP has also committed to assisting the YES and Tällberg Forum to organize a regional workshop on work or ReWork in Tanzania in April 2009. The workshop will also focus on identifying ‘green’ jobs, that is jobs that will contribute in a positive manner to long term sustainable development of land and human resources in Tanzania and the rest of the East African region.    

YES TOGO

After attending YES’ 4th Global Summit in September of 2008, YES Togo participated in a study of youth employment in Togo in order to elaborate on the National Action plan for youth employment.  During the two days of seminars, participants passed through the document and worked on the future National Action plan.

YES Togo also participated in Global Entrepreneurship Week by hosting two different events.  First, YES Togo held a press conference on Monday, 17 November 2008 at the Media House of Togo.  With 23 media representatives present, the leader of YES Togo explained the origin of the celebration, the objectives of the week, why Togo should be involved, and the activities planned for the celebration.

The second event was a conference on entrepreneurship that convened more than one hundred people at the Acropolis Hotel.  This conference brought together representatives of the government, private sector, international organizations, and youth.

YES Togo has four main initiatives for 2009:

The CHALLENGE BUSINESS! program mobilizes the local business community to help young people with viable business plans get access to bank loans, and mentors.  The project is based on the idea of Youth Business International, a highly-successful global network of programs that help to prepare young people to start their own business.   CHALLENGE BUSINESS! will find and finance promising projects by organizing a National Contest of Young Entrepreneurs. This contest will take place annually, offering young people financial and technical support for their business proposals.  To sustain this support, CHALLENGE BUSINESS! will work with commercial banks and investors in Togo.

Under the patronage of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Youth Affairs,
CHALLENGES Int. and YES TOGO will organize the Third International Forum on Entrepreneurship and Youth Employment
(CHALLENGE 2009) in April of 2009. 

The goal of this forum is to stress the importance of the participation of the private sector in the National Action Plans on youth employment.  This forum will be held simultaneously with an Entrepreneur Show: a special exhibition dedicated to partners in Entrepreneurship and Youth Employment.

Additionally, YES Togo will conduct a survey on women in business.  Through this study, we will identify the main issues in this area, particularly in our homeland, and we will try to propose some solutions to improve the involvement of women in formal business.

Finally, YES Togo will be working with the Ministry of Environment to launch a campaign for the creation of green jobs on a national level. This campaign will focus on jobs in renewable energy and sustainable businesses, particularly in rural areas.

For more information, please contact :
Elvis Agbayizato
Leader, YES Togo
Elvis@yesweb.org
YES UGANDA

A key success for YES Uganda this past year was creating and implementing three trainings in partnership with UN HABITAT and KCC for youth in Kampala.  The first training focused on identifying challenges that youth face and generating potential solutions for them. The second one taught youth about starting and managing their own enterprises. The last one brought in youth service providers to speak to them on the kind and type of services delivered and how they can be accessed. A 25% discount was given to all youth going through the One Stop Youth Centre to access the services.   This session was later followed with a Q&A session.

YES Uganda has many exciting possibilities for the coming year.  We recently created a Youth Centre and the Minister of Youth will be visiting it in January.  The Centre will officially be launched in early February.  Additionally, we will be implementing a pilot phase of the Debate to Action Project with the support of the British Council.

For more information, please contact:
Daniel Semakula
Coordinator, YES Uganda
Semakula@yesweb.org