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.
Quick Facts Related to Adolescent Girls and Young Women:
* "Poverty compels many young women to seek employment in the informal sector, where they are channeled towards a narrow range of low-skilled jobs characterized by minimal pay, long hours, and unequal power relations that often lead to exploitation." Levine, R., Lloyd, C., Green, M., & Grown, C. (2008) Girls Count: A global investment and action agenda.
* "For developing countries as a whole, 34 percent of young women are estimated to be "jobless" - unemployed, out of the labor force, and not in school. There are several gender-specific supply- and demand-side determinants of low employment rates and earnings among young women, including girls' disproportionate share of unpaid domestic labor, lack of productive skills and contacts to help with a job search, limited life skills, opposition from family or male partners, and employer preference for hiring young men over young women in a range of industries and occupations." Katz, E. (2008). Programs promoting young women's employment: What works? The World Bank's Adolescent Girls Initiative.
* "The global workforce in 2007 was 200 million women stronger than a decade earlier. The 1.2 billion women in the paid labor force now comprise nearly half (46 percent) of the global workforce. Although a growing share of women have waged work, a significant proportion still are self-employed, mainly in micro or small businesses that yield low and irregular income. This is particularly the case in developing countries, such as those in sub-Saharan Africa, where fewer than 2 out of 10 women receive a formal wage." International Center for Research on Women. "One Woman = One Business: Why Business and Management Education is Essential to Economic Development." 2008.
Conference Overview and History
Making Cents International's Global Youth Enterprise & Livelihoods Development Conference provides a demand-driven and participatory learning space where members of all sectors can share information on 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 livelihoods 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 1200 people from more than 123 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 2) Effective Methodologies and Practices for Monitoring, 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. More than 350 practitioners, funders, educators, policy makers, members of the private sector and youth entrepreneurs participated from 50 countries. Please visit the main conference webpage to download the post-conference publication 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.
What Happened at the 2009 Global Youth Enterprise Conference?
The 2009 Global Youth Enterprise Conference convened 300 practitioners, funders, educators, researchers, policymakers, and youth entrepreneurs from 42 countries. Conference participants shared their lessons learned, promising practices, and innovative ideas related to youth enterprise, employment, and livelihoods development through the following tracks: 1) Program Design & Implementation; 2) Policy & Advocacy; 3) Monitoring, Evaluation & Impact Assessment; 4) Partnerships; and 5) Cross-Cutting. Through these tracks, conference participants exchanged information and experiences on various topics, such as working with adolescent girls, implementing initiatives in conflict-affected environments, microfranchising, entrepreneurship education, scale, sustainability, market-driven approaches, and others. A whole half-day focused on the new and growing field of Youth-Inclusive Financial Services. Making Cents is in the process of synthesizing the key learning points and programmatic examples from the conference to produce a practical publication, which will be disseminated and available for free download in April, 2010.
Why Should You Attend the 2010 Global Youth Enterprise & Livelihoods Development Conference?
Making Cents International invites members of all sectors to participate in this learning event and to:
- 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.
- 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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