Of the world's 1.5 billion people who are between 12 and 24 years old, 1.3 billion of them live in developing countries. Young people comprise far more than 50 percent of some countries' populations, and other countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, the Republic of Yemen, and many in Sub-Saharan Africa will not experience their youth population peak for another 20 years. The stability of governments, the growth of economies, and the development of social sectors are directly impacted by the well-being of youth.
How can we achieve poverty reduction, and contribute to economic and social development if we do not meet the needs of young people?
- HIV/AIDS is decimating the knowledge and skill base in many communities, leaving young entrepreneurs without traditional mentorship and apprenticeship opportunities. The number of youth-headed households and orphans is steadily increasing. The majority of those infected by HIV & AIDS is under 25.
- Conflict and war are similarly disrupting formal and traditional learning systems, and are causing high numbers of youth-headed households and orphaned children. In addition, unemployed youth are increasingly vulnerable to recruitment into armies and terrorist movements.
- In many rural and poverty-stricken areas, youth with limited opportunities are drawn into quick-return, environmentally-destructive activities, such as charcoal burning or forest clearing, in order to find new land to farm.
- In urban areas, youth who have grown up in economically-depressed households or as homeless children often resort to illegal entrepreneurial activities, such as drug trading, theft, human trafficking, and violent crime. Many are also susceptible to becoming involved in youth gangs.
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Young women, with few economic alternatives, are vulnerable to sexual exploitation, human trafficking and early pregnancy.
- Youth unemployment is on the rise. In many parts of the world, youth are about 3 times as likely as adults to be unemployed. The ILO estimates that at least 400 million new jobs will have to be created to take advantage of the productive potential of today’s youth population.
Making Cents International's Global Youth Enterprise Conference provided a demand-driven and participatory learning space where members of all sectors can share information of programs, methodologies, strategies and tools; network to build partnerships; gain new technical capacity; and help build the youth enterprise, employment and livelihoods development field.
What Happened at the 2007 Global Youth Microenterprise Conference?
As part of its efforts to build the youth enterprise, employment, and livelihood development field, Making Cents organized the first-ever Global Youth Microenterprise Conference, which took place in Washington, DC in September 2007. The response to this conference was tremendous, as evidenced by: 1) leading organizations in this field deciding to join the Global Advisory Committee in the early states of the conference's development; 2) the conference being sold out 45 days in advance with 50 people remaining on the waiting list; and 3) a strong cross-sectoral representation of participants from 28 countries. At the event, the 270 participants shared lessons learned, promising practices, and innovative ideas for moving this field forward. It was the first global participatory learning event that specifically focused on the state of the youth enterprise, employment, and livelihood development field from the practitioner and funder perspectives, and it raised awareness on the importance of developing youth financial services. Participants reported they received significant value from attending, as the knowledge and new relationships they gained contributed directly to their programmatic objectives.
The information that emerged from the conference was synthesized and disseminated to the global community working on these issues via a publication titled, Youth Microenterprise and Livelihood Development: State of the Field. Which can be downloaded here. To date, this publication has been downloaded by over 600 people from more than 110 countries and read by an estimated 4,000 people around the world.
What Happened at the 2008 Global Youth Enterprise Conference?
Building on the success of the 2007 global learning event, Making Cents International responded to requests from past participants and other stakeholders by developing the more technically focused 2008 Global Youth Enterprise Conference, which took place in Washington, DC September 15-16, 2008. Input from a growing Global Advisory Committee and the results of a global consultation determined the following technical themes the 2008 conference addressed: 1) Market-Driven Approaches, and Effective Methodologies and Practices for Monitoring, 2) Evaluating and Conducting Impact Assessments. Through these themes, topics such as access to financial services and financial education were addressed. To review the conference program and access presentations, please click here. Over 350 practitioners, funders, educators, policy makers, members of the private sector and youth entrepreneurs participated from 50 countries. Making Cents is currently developing a publication on the findings from th 2008 conference and Making Cents' Youth Financial Services Course, titled The State of the Field in Youth Enterprise, Employment and Livelihood Development: Market-Driven Approaches; Monitoring, Evaluation, and Impact Assessment; and Youth Financial Services.
Why Should You Attend the 2009 Global Youth Enterprise Conference
Making Cents International invites members of all
sectors to participate in this learning event and to:
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Network face-to-face with the people whose proactive work, actionable ideas,
and cross-sectoral innovative tools and strategies are revolutionizing the
lives of youth entrepreneurs, while building their employability,
entrepreneurship, life, and financial skills.
- Explore strategies to successfully partner with the private sector, including
multinational corporations, small businesses and microfinance institutions.
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Learn from innovators who have creatively developed livelihoods programs to
reach vulnerable youth in challenging environments, and from others who have
effectively placed themselves at the intersection of health and enterprise
development for youth.
- Take advantage of the many opportunities built into the program to engage
with policymakers, youth, leaders of the private sector, and other
professionals who are similarly committed to reducing the poverty, vulnerability,
and unemployment that plagues many of the world's youth.
- Learn how organizations are mainstreaming entrepreneurship and financial
education into school systems.
- Display their products and shared their organization's best practices in
the exhibits hall.
- Demonstrate their leadership by sponsoring this unique event.
For more information, please download our frequently asked questions.
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