ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

Six years into the Syrian war, Jordan hosts over 650,000 Syrian refugees, and nearly 15% are youth between the ages of 18 and 25. Syrian refugee youth, especially those living outside of refugee camps, face many challenges in Jordan, including limited educational and economic opportunities, discrimination, and lack of access to basic services.

In both Jordan and Kenya youth are increasingly propelled into the gig-economy, thereby effectively becoming micro-entrepreneurs. But being an entrepreneur in the gig-economy is no easy feat: it requires skills and knowledge that most youth do not possess.

The International Republican Institute (IRI) launched its citizen security program in Panama in 2015. The program focused on supporting local governments to find new ways to engage youth from at-risk and low-income communities to help develop solutions to citizen security and local development challenges.

The Partnership Initiative for the Niger Delta (PIND) highlighted practical challenges in preparing youth for jobs in an oil-rich environment plagued by the wealth illusion and unrealistic expectations that most youth will find employment in the oil industry.

"I am READY" is a cognitive behavioral curriculum specifically designed for use with at-risk youth in employability programs, incorporating both content as well as instructional delivery.

This presentation explores the role of key stakeholders in the public and private sector and civil society in the design and implementation of a National Financial Education strategy in Jamaica that will initially target youth, the Jamaican Financial Empowerment Programme (JFEP). Participants will hear from key stakeholders from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information in Jamaica and the Bank of Jamaica about the enabling policy environment and infrastructure for JFEP.

As at today, almost 300,000 NYSC “Corpers” are deployed annually to serve across all the 36 states of Nigeria. There has been a missed opportunity to evolve NYSC to align itself to meet with present workforce development challenges facing Nigeria. The public private partnership between GE and NYSC and Cognity Advisory was established to galvanize a culture of skilled entrepreneurs from the NYSC cohort by training of 40 NYSC staff as trainers who then train no less than 1000 Corpers (over 40,000) per year.

The demand for workers in a changing world of work is continuously evolving. More than ever, schools and employment programs need to be able to detect skills needs from industry in an iterative fashion to ensure they are preparing young people for the jobs of today and the future. Businesses have an important role to play in this process and are often engaged through participation in advisory committees or offering internships/apprenticeships.

How can resource-weak youth turn challenges for starting up businesses into opportunities based on their own resources? How can organisations promote an entrepreneurial and creative mindset that makes youth change makers? How can we measure low-income entrepreneurial behavior, considering the context of today?

What support do young entrepreneurs need to design and adopt technologies for the agrifood industry? The Youth Think Tank, a youth-led research initiative of the Mastercard Foundation and Restless Development, identified challenges facing young people in the agritech sector in 7 African countries. This presentation explores one of the findings - the need for incubation spaces where youth innovators and adopters can share ideas and access information, tools, resources and mentorship.