2014 SUMMIT RESOURCE

The agricultural sector needs to engage youth in order to increase global food production. In doing so, agricultural transformation can balance out-migration from rural areas and thus contribute to stable growth. This document presents the conceptual framework for distress migration of rural youth. The framework focuses on the migration of rural youth (aged 15–24), who account for a large proportion of migrants and are a particularly vulnerable group. The framework comprises three sections: 1. Analysis of the main factors determining the propensity of rural youth to migrate; 2. Assessment of the likely impacts of distress migration of rural youth in terms of rural development for local areas of origin; 3. Illustration of the most promising policies and programmes to reduce distress migration of rural youth and maximize its developmental benefits for the communities of origin.

Globally, many initiatives exist to promote youth entrepreneurship, but robust evidence of what works and in which context is lacking. Presenters in this session have responded to this challenge by creating the Youth Entrepreneurship Contexts Framework. The Contexts Framework, and this workshop, is designed for practitioners, policymakers, M&E and learning specialists, and young entrepreneurs. Based on pilots in France, India, Afghanistan and Uganda, presenters explained how this tool can be used by sharing the framework along with evidence and insights that include:

In order to best prepare students for jobs, it is important to understand the current trends and challenges in the market. At the 2014 Global Youth Economic Opportunities Summit, Claudia Pompa from the Overseas Development Institute, presented on the global trends that are shaping the future of jobs. These drivers range from demographic changes to adoptions of new trade agreements. 

At the 2014 Global Youth Economic Opportunities Summit, Joanna Melymuk, Program Manager of Plan Canada, presented how to best empower youth through participatory monitoring and evaluation.  After presenting on the Youth Microfinance Project, which aims to promote asset building through Youth Savings and Loans Associations (YSLAs), pilot linkage possibilities of graduated individuals and groups to formal financial institutions, and provide life skills and financial education training to enhance youth’s chances of successful transition into adulthood, Melymuk introduces the Most Significant C

At the 2014 Global Youth Economic Opportunities Summit, Mel Harwin of Transform Aid International, presented on the link between child participation in development effectiveness and what challenges exist in youth participation. The research presented is part of a joint NGO research and learning partnership that comprises various organizations including ChildFund, Plan International, inSight Sustainability, UMN, UTS, Live & Learn, and the Institute for Sustainable Futures.

Economic development programming in the absence of attention to children limits your project’s potential for sustainable change. Therefore, directly engaging them in the M&E process can increase the program's impact At the 2014 Global Youth Economic opportunities Summit, Diana Rutherford, Research and Evaluation Specialist at FHI 360, presented on the importance of incorporating child-level M&E in economic development.

Instruction in entrepreneurial skills offers a potentially transformative impact on the work and career focus of young people. Most obviously, it can help entrepreneurial minded young people to start and succeed in their own businesses, contributing to employment solutions for the community as a whole. But even those workers not destined to start their own business need to acquire a deeper understanding of what it takes to make a business succeed. Mainstreaming entrepreneurship content into the national education systems is the obvious way to reach scale.

Online portals have the potential of providing a cost-effective and scalable solution to workforce development and livelihood issues, connecting job seekers and employers in a direct, immediate fashion. Do these portals have the foundation to provide real life impact on young people’s lives and the economy at large? In this session, at the 2014 Global Youth Economic Opportunities Summit, Brianna Bailey presented on the challenges and successes of JOVEN360’s professional development platform in Central America.

While tourism is one of largest industries globally, youth are often underrepresented in terms of employment and enterprise development opportunities. This session, presented at the 2014 Global Youth Economic Opportunities Summit, examined the tourism sector through the eyes of youth, their desires and aspirations, and how global industry trends in tourism, such as the increased importance of e-marketing, can be leveraged for more innovative employment opportunities.

In the session, "Effective Models & Approaches to Creating Mentoring Programs in Different Contexts," at the 2014 Global Youth Economic Opportunities Summit, participants had the opportunity to explore the relationship between mentorship, gender, and economic opportunity and discuss various practices (e.g. peer-to-peer, inter-generational, co-gender, online) that have proven to be effective in diverse contexts and with various youth populations.