YouthInvest will build on the experience MEDA has gained in youth and microfinance since 2002.

In every region of the world, youth face difficulty entering the labor market, however particular challenges face youth in the Middle East and North Africa, which has the highest concentration of unemployed young people. Save the Children has been working on different models that look at youth employment/livelihoods/entrepreneurship since 2006, work which has informed the Rural Youth Livelihood Program (RYL), a pilot program launched in 2008 as part of an integrated program targeting adolescents who are both in and out of school in Egypt.

The goal of the New Beginnings program is to enhance the financial and market-based practices of young people so they are able to better contribute to household economic mobility by improving their own economic activities. The program focuses on four results:

• Increased access and availability of youth-friendly services and opportunities;
• Improved quality of youth-friendly services and opportunities;
• Enhanced capabilities, knowledge and attitudes of youth
• Strengthened enabling environment.