1. The Role of Youth Microenterprise in the 21st Century: Facing the Challenge of Youth Unemployment and Vulnerability  
2. Strategies to Address the Needs of Youth Microenterprise
3. Building Partnerships and Advancing Youth Microenterprise to Support Social and Economic Development
   
   Download entire conference program here.

Patricia Mongoma

Patrica Mangoma is the 27-year old daughter of subsistence farmers from Zimbabwe’s Chikomba District. In 1998, after graduating from secondary school, Patricia and other young women – empowered by their education and the network of support they had built with other girls at school – launched the CAMA network. CAMA connected educated young rural women like Patricia and provided a vehicle through which post-school support to these emerging females leaders could be directed. The extension of their learning into the realm of entrepreneurship and employment creation was especially vital in the rural environment, where the young women would otherwise likely have migrated to the cities in search of work. As a result, CAMA’s first initiative was the Seed Money Scheme – a program designed to economically empower young women in rural areas of Zimbabwe through business training and grants – and in 1999, Patricia became one of its first beneficiaries, receiving a start-up grant to establish her own small enterprise.

Since that time, Patricia has played a leading role in building CAMA into a powerful youth movement for change, now over 5,000 young women strong across Africa. As the CAMA Seed Money Scheme Advisor, Patricia worked to expand the Seed Money initiative to Ghana, Tanzania, and Zambia, and has made it user-friendly and user-owned for young people. She is currently the Head of Programs for the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) Zimbabwe. Patricia embodies the positive impact of providing girls and young women with access to economic resources and leadership opportunities. She is a role model for young people and all of us who undertake initiatives – in often challenging conditions – to achieve sustainable social change.

Kyle Taylor

 

Kyle is a four-year veteran of Youth Venture.  In 2003 he started his own team called Operation Outreach: Spring in to Reading and Writing in part, based on lessons learned from reading Savage Inequalities, by Jonathan Kozol.  Operation Outreach works to build bridges between college mentors and elementary school children to inspire them to work hard and stay in school.  Kyle recently graduated Summa cum Laude with Honors from American University.  He holds two Bachelor’s degrees: one in International Relations and International Entrepreneurship and the other in International Media and Political Discourse.  A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Kyle also served as President of Student Government and President of Alpha Phi Omega, the international community service fraternity.  He was a national finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship and will be pursuing graduate work in International Politics and Communication next year at the London School of Economics as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar.  He currently resides in Shanghai, China, where he teaches English in a state school for children of migrant workers.

Martín Burt founded Fundación Paraguaya in 1985, Paraguay´s first microfinance program. Except for his time as Vice Minister of Commerce from 1991 to 1993, and as Mayor of Asuncion from 1996 to 2000, Martín has served as its Managing Director.

Under Martín´s leadership, Fundación Paraguaya has developed into a cutting-edge social enterprise, developing innovative solutions to poverty and employment in Paraguay and pro-actively disseminating them around the world. Its Microfinance Program has supported 47,000 microentrepreneurs, including 30,600 youth entrepreneurs, and helped create 30,000 new jobs. Its innovative Junior Achievement program has helped build the entrepreneurial skills of more than 90,000 young people. In 2002, the Fundación began transforming a bankrupt agricultural school into a financially self-sufficient farm school, where it is training 140 campesino youth to become financially successful “rural entrepreneurs.” In 2005, the Fundación founded “Teach a Man to Fish” in London to publicize and replicate financially self-sufficient agricultural schools as a way of combating rural poverty. The “Teach A Man To Fish” network currently has over 400 members in 63 countries.

Martín has been recognized for numerous awards, including the 2004 Outstanding Social Entrepreneur by the Schwab Foundation, the 2004 Outstanding Social Entrepreneur by the Inter-American Development Bank, and the 2005 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.

Stephen Krempl

Rick Little is president and CEO of ImagineNations™ Group, a global alliance of social entrepreneurs, thought leaders, investors, financial institutions, global brands, media and organizations—all working together with and for young people in the developing world to inspire positive change in society by developing new products and services that provide young people with greater access to financing, business development support, networking, job placement and internships. 

Little is also founder of the International Youth Foundation (IYF) and served as its president and CEO from 1990 to 2002. Today, IYF operates in more than 70 countries and territories through a global network of partners, investing in education, health, leadership and employability and bridging the digital divide.

Prior to IYF, Little founded Quest International and spent 15 years developing life-skills programs that are now used in thousands of schools in more than 30 countries.

Little has served as co-chair of the United Nation’s High-Level Panel for the Youth Employment Network. In 2005 he chaired the First Annual Summit on Corporate Social Responsibility in the Middle East. He serves on several boards, including Mercy Corps and the Nike Foundation. 

In 1996, Little was selected as one of the world’s 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He was awarded the Robert W. Scrivner Award from the Council on Foundations in 1997. His articles and commentary have appeared in the New York Times, Foreign Policy, Time Magazine, The Financial Times and other publications.  He has contributed to several books, and his life story has appeared in several publications, including the original New York Times’ best-selling book Chicken Soup for the Soul.