YES Azerbaijan 2008, the 4th global youth employment summit will be hosted by the Republic of Azerbaijan through the Ministry of Youth and Sport in partnership with Youth Employment Systems (YES).
The event will facilitate moving forward the global agenda of the YES Campaign. At YES Alexandria 2002, over 1600 delegates from 120 countries, including over 75 Ministerial and government delegates launched a decade long campaign to promote youth employment all over the world. YES Inc has organized three such successful world summits in the past - YES Alexandria 2002, YES Mexico 2004 and YES Kenya 2006, apart from the Hyderabad YES Regional Forum 2003 and the Latin American YES Regional Forum 2005.
Today, at the midterm period of the YES Campaign, the work we began in Alexandria is resonating around the world because of the vision, commitment and dedication of our over 50 YES Country Networks. YES Networks are achieving notable successes in youth policy formulation, initiating youth employment projects, undertaking research, skill training and fostering entrepreneurship. These Networks are emerging as a viable platform for leadership and action on the issue of youth employment, led by youth. Our aim is to continue marshaling resources to build youth capacity and explore new opportunities for youth to generate employment, and maintain a reservoir of political will for meeting youth employment challenges.
On November 4th, at the outset of the SEEP Annual Conference, AED and the USAID FIELD Program will host a day of workshops, panel presentations and debate to get to the "how" of microenterprise development. In the age of websites, portals, social networks, and blogs, development practitioners are inundated with success stories, research, listserv posts and other information that could improve their practice - if they had time to digest any of it. FIELD Day aims to translate some of these stories and research pieces into learning sessions - sessions at which practitioners will be able to explore new ideas, exchange their own experiences and enhance their skills through panel presentations, small group discussions and dynamic workshops.
The Children, Youth and Economic Strengthening sessions at FIELD Day were facilitated by Margie Brand of AED & EcoVentures International and Ben Fowler of MEDA. The agenda for the day proceeded as follows:
Session 1: Children, Youth and Economic Strengthening
- Welcome and Introduction, Margie Brand & Ben Fowler
- Examples of Effective Programming (Small Group Work), Ben Fowler
- Common Challenges in Youth Programming, Margie Brand
- STRIVE Program Overview, Margie Brand
- Overview of forthcoming USAID MicroReport on understanding the impact of employment, entrepreneurship and training programs on youth, Jason Wolfe, USAID/Microenterprise Development office
- Monitoring and evaluation for youth economic strengthening projects, Anthony Leegwater, IRIS Center at the University of Maryland
- Youth Emploment and Wellbeing Scorecard, Devorah Miller, Christian Children’s Fund
- Children Youth and Economic Strengthening (CYES) Network Learning Platform, Jennine Carmichael, AED
- Wrap-up, Margie Brand
Session 2: Tools and Approaches for Children, Youth and Economic Strengthening Programming
- Welcome and Introduction, Margie Brand
- Cataloging Tools, Materials and Approaches for Youth-focused Economic Strengthening Programs (Small Group Work), Ben Fowler
- Market Development Approach to Youth Employment, David Sturza, EcoVentures International
- Value Chains and Adolescent Girls, Victoria Francis, Emerging Markets Group
- MEDA’s Approach to Youth-Focused Microfinance, Ben Fowler with Jared Penner
- Children Youth and Economic Strengthening (CYES) Network Learning Platform, Jennine Carmichael, AED
- Wrap-up, Margie Brand
For more information, and materials discussed during the sessions, please see the links and files below.
External Resources:
FIELD Report No 2: Economic Strengthening for Vulnerable Children: Principles of Program Design & Technical Recommendations for Effective Field Interventions
AIDS 2008 will provide many opportunities for the presentation of important new scientific research and for productive, structured dialogue on the major challenges facing the global response to AIDS. Conference organizers are developing a wide variety of session types that meet the needs of various participants and support collective efforts to expand delivery of HIV prevention and treatment to communities worldwide. Central to many of these sessions will be the transfer of knowledge and sharing of best practices.
In addition to the conference sessions there are a number of activities, including satellite meetings, exhibitions, the Global Village and the Cultural Programme, that are integral to delegates’ experience at the conference.
Many proceedings of and materials from a range of sessions will be made available on the Conference website during and after the Conference.
Although Afghanistan has seen gains in education, health care provision and economic growth in recent years, most of its people continue to struggle economically. Furthermore, the ongoing conflict, the legacy of the Taliban, and decades of war have left the country with a substantially under-educated and under-trained workforce. Apprenticeships are one of the most common approaches to vocational training in Afghanistan. While valuable for youth skill building, the quality of apprenticeships varies greatly, with some apprenticeships causing youth to forego their formal education, put themselves at risk of physical injury or become stuck in low-wage jobs over the long term. To improve the quality of informal apprenticeships, and thus support the development of a workforce that will more fully contribute to Afghanistan’s economic growth, AED and MEDA are collaborating on the Afghanistan Secure Futures (ASF) project. ASF is one of five initiatives under the AED STRIVE Program exploring effective means of reducing the vulnerability of children and youth through economic strengthening.
ASF operates on the hypothesis that growing businesses offer greater opportunities for apprentices to learn a wider range of marketable skills. By linking small businesses to larger market players, business associations, and financial service providers, the project helps businesses to improve both the quality and quantity of their work by:
- helping small and micro-businesses in the Afghan construction industry access the financial services, skills and information they need to grow their businesses;
- working with business owners to increase their appreciation of workplace safety measures and their awareness of the value of enabling apprentices to remain in school; and
- increasing educational opportunities for apprentices by assisting local organizations in providing supplemental education to apprentices.
Together, these activities provide working youth with a richer apprenticeship experience that increases their current income and future employability, leading to a more secure future for the youth of Afghanistan.
Naseem Akhtar
AED
Global Education Center
1825 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20009
dhenry@aed.org
Jennifer Denomy
MEDA
Suite I-106, 155 Frobisher Drive
Waterloo, Ontario, N2V 2E1
jdenomy@meda.org
September 2008 to August 2011
This paper considers the situation of youth and adolescents affected by war and displacement throughout the world, and provides a summary of the key issues to be explored with regards to their protection. It draws upon insights and experience from researchers, practitioners and war-affected young people themselves in an attempt to better understand the challenges they face during war and the resulting implications for policy and practice.
This paper evaluates the impact of a randomized training program introduced in Colombia in 2005 on the labor market outcomes of trainees. This is one of two such trandomized training trials conducted in developing countries and, as such, it offers the unique opportunity to examine the causal impact of training in a developing context.
Livelihoods programming is gaining increasing attention in Northern Uganda as the region transitions from an emergency situation to an early recovery environment. For many youth, vocational training is at the crossroads of livelihoods support, economic recovery, education, and rehabilitation and reintegration. Our report (forthcoming May 2008) will aim to provide program planners with relevant tools and concrete recommendations for incorporating economic planning into vocational training through thoughtful engagement of youth in decision-making about vocational training, market analysis, pre- and post-training market linkages and integration with the private sector.
This is the second of four case studies examining social transfers to OVC in Swaziland. Such social transfers began in the early 2000s as a response to rapidly rising numbers of AIDS orphans as well as rising vulnerability in the population at large, due to a combination of adverse factors and trends.
With the global youth population reaching a historical high of 1.5 billion, economies worldwide are increasingly unable to provide young people with jobs. The situation has reached critical proportions in developing countries where 1.3 billion youth reside. With this backdrop, Making Cents International convened practitioners, donors, educators, youth, members of the private sector, representatives of governments, and other partners in youth enterprise, entrepreneurship, and livelihood development for the Global Youth Enterprise Conference.
The 2008 conference themes were:
* Market-Driven Approaches
* Effective Methodologies and Practices for Monitoring, Evaluating, and Conducting Impact Assessments
Take a brief survey to share your ideas for the 2009 conference with Making Cents.
See the link below for session descriptions, presentations and materials from the 2008 Conference.
