Issue # 29: November 2011
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 Youth Employment Network
The
Youth Employment Network is an inter agency partnership of the ILO, UN
and World Bank working to engage, educate and motivate actors to provide
improved employment opportunities for youth. YEN was created in 2002
following the Millennium Summit which identified youth employment as
priority for the global development agenda. Core support for YEN's
activities is provided by Swedish Sida.
(read more)
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Phone: +41 (0)22 799 7824 |
Address:
4 route des Morillons
CH-1211 Genève 22
Switzerland
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Dear Readers,
Fall has been a busy month at YEN (so please excuse our lateness with the newsletter!)!
In
October, the YEN Secretariat hosted two successful and very rewarding
Evaluation Clinics in Geneva and Kampala, which brought together
practitioners and policymakers working in youth employment initiatives
in the Middle East, North and East Africa. Lots of experiences and
technical knowledge were shared to improve the results-based management
of youth employment projects and their prospects of going through
meaningful, rigorous evaluations.
YEN
is also pleased to announce the new support of the Jacobs Foundation to
the implementation of an impact evaluation of an entrepreneurship
education program in Uganda. The first results of the evaluation will be
available in 2013.
We
also say goodbye to the five Canadian YEN Associates placed for 6
months in Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, and Indonesia. The Associates
work has been incredibly valuable and we wish them luck in future
endeavors.
As always, we encourage any comments or feedback on the below content!
Happy reading.
Susana Puerto
YEN Manager
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 EVIDENCE BASE FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION TO BE STRENGTHENED
YEN
will cooperate with Innovation for Poverty Action, University of
California, the German Institute for Economic Research and the Jacobs
Foundation on an impact evaluation of entrepreneurship education in
Ugandan schools
The
impact evaluation will assess the effectiveness of the Entrepreneurship
Education Program, which seeks to prepare Ugandan upper secondary
school students for the transition from school-to-work. The program will
be piloted over two academic years in 2012 and 2013.
Uganda
and African youth in general often encounter numerous challenges that
prompt a long and difficult entry into the labour market. In economies
where employment opportunities are scarce and self employment is often
the only answer, youth need to acquire the right combination of
economic, social and human skills that will give them a chance to change
their energy and ideas into entrepreneurship opportunities.
The
results of the evaluation will inform policy making by strengthening
the evidence base for the Government of Uganda on whether to invest more
intensively in entrepreneurship education.
The results of the baseline survey will be available in the second quarter of 2012.
 More information on YEN & ILO's entrepreneurship work in Uganda
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 MS. KINDI BA: PROJECT COORDINATOR FOR THE MESSEH PARTNERSHIP TRUST
This month's spotlight is on a dynamic 23 year old from Sierra Leone offering decent work for the country's youth!
Kindi
Bah came up with a project idea to help 25 youth create a cooperative
that recycles ink cartridges for sale. She is the project
coordinator for the Messeh Partnership Trust (MPT), a youth led
organisation based in Freetown. MPT provides their beneficiaries with a
comprehensive training programme that includes technical, soft skills
and entrepreneurship training as well as practical experience.
MPT
is working with Cartridgeworld UK who will provide the expertise and
equipment necessary to help set up the “Made in Salone Cartridge
Recycling Company”. This green business has already received great
interest from various businesses in Freetown as they can reduce the cost
of ink cartridges by 60% and provide a guarantee on the quality of
their cartridges. The cooperative will open their doors to clients this
month. For more on our grantees in Sierra Leone
Click here or here for more on how the Youth-to-Youth Fund works
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 YEN APPOINTS NEW MANAGER: MS. SUSANA PUERTO GONZALEZ
As
of 1 October 2011, Susana became the new manager of YEN replacing
former manager Mr. Markus Pilgrim who served for 2.5 years at YEN's
helm. Susana was formerly YEN's Evaluation Specialist working in
cooperation with ILO's Small Enterprise Department on the Youth
Entrepreneurship Facility project. Welcome Susana!
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YOUTH-TO-YOUTH FUND AWARDS GRANTS TO 15 NEW YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROJECTS IN EAST AFRICA
The Y2Y Fund provides grants of up to 20,000 USD for youth led projects to further entrepreneurship development.
Recognizing
the disparity between young women and men in terms of opportunities and
access to resources such as financial or social capital, this year’s
call focused on young women. The call resulted in the
submission of 1037 short proposals across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda,
from which the top 15 were selected by independent national juries
following a rigorous multi-stage assessment and applicant
capacity-building and proposal development process spanning several
months.
This
year’s winning projects from Kenya (6), Tanzania (4) and Uganda (5)
range from an initiative to facilitate school drop-out single mothers’
involvement in organic urban farming using tower & sack molds in
Uganda to a project aimed at enhancing the capacity of hearing-impaired
young women to engage in chalk and sandal-production and marketing
in Tanzania.
More info about the Y2Y Fund in East Africa
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 COMING SOON: A NEW VENUE FOR EXCHANGE IN YOUTH EMPLOYMENT
A new resource for youth employment will be soon be available on line: the YEN Marketplace is set to be launched this December.
The Marketplace is an on line platform for exchange and collaboration. Some of the key “market stalls” are the Trading Centre and the What’s Working? competition.
The Trading Centre
is the heart of the Marketplace, where you can access and exchange
resources, advice, or opportunities through our system of offers and
requests. We are looking for early submissions for the Trading Centre.
If you have a specific offer or request for your organization or
enterprise (materials, advice, volunteers, etc.) please send an email to
Tendai at pasipanodya@ilo.org.
What’s Working?
is one of the competitions the Marketplace hosts. If you have a project
that has been successful in creating youth jobs, you can submit a
“Smart Note” about your project for the chance to win an award and have
your entry published on our site! Send an email to Sharon at kennedys@ilo.org requesting an early application form that can increase your chances of winning.
Be among the first contributors to the YEN Marketplace by signing up for our early membership list
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 BUILDING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF GHANA'S YOUTH SERVICES
Ghana's
National Youth Employment Program (NYEP) and YEN completed a survey of
350 NYEP staff and young beneficiaries. The final report delivers a
series of recommendations for improving the program
Situated
within the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the National Youth Employment
Program is Ghana’s focal public agency responsible for implementing
youth employment initiatives. The NYEP provides temporary subsidized
employment and skill-building opportunities for youth aged 18-35 through
employment modules in various demand-driven areas.
YEN,
as part of its Associates program recently completed the "YEN Survey of
Operations of the NYEP" which consisted of site visits to 5 regions and
interviews with 350 program staff, partner organizations and young
beneficiaries involved in the 8 NYEP modules. The review included both
quantitative and qualitative feedback related to various areas of
program implementation.
The
survey’s findings and recommendations were compiled in a final report
that was presented at the NYEP Stakeholders meeting on Friday, November
11 2011. Recommendations included:
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The necessity of setting up an accountable and transparent mechanisms to ensure payment of beneficiaries
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The need for a de-politicization of the program’s activities
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The importance of developing well-structured Guidelines of Operation to underlie all program implementation
For more information or to request a copy of the report, contact Ms. Saskia Knight at knight.saskia@gmail.com
To learn more about the YEN Associates program
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Recent publications in youth employment
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