Sustainable Development

EDC facilitates global knowledge-sharing about the meaning and mechanisms of sustainable development. Drawing on the strengths of information and communication technologies, EDC works to create sustainable livelihood opportunities for youth, organizations, and governments. Our EQUIP3/Youth Trust: Learning and Earning for Out-of-school Youth project helps institutions in several countries prepare out-of-school children and youth for their roles in the world of work, civil society, and family life. The project collaborates with local youth serving organizations, including nongovernmental organizations, government agencies, private businesses, and education agencies to engage out-of-school and disenfranchised youth in addressing the social service and economic development needs of their communities, while helping young people acquire the skills they need to create productive lives.

Building Opportunity around the World

For young adults in EDC’s international workforce training programs, the results rarely go unnoticed—the proof is in the paychecks.

Just Back: Cornelia Janke

Cornelia Janke just returned from her 10th trip to Haiti, where EDC is working to improve job opportunities for youth. It’s an enormous challenge in a country with 70 percent unemployment.

Youth Produce a Lasting Impact

Community organizer Meera Devi (standing) leads a class in the village of Kuchhp

A Year after it ended, an EDC project in India that used tourism to engage youth in income-generating, health promoting, and community development activities, is continuing to have an impact.

Gender, Diversities, and Technology Institute

EDC’s Gender, Diversities, and Technology Institute works at the intersection of gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, culture, and sexual orientation seeking to understand how technology can support the development of democracy and human rights. Projects focus on increasing participation in and distributing ownership of the “new knowledge society” brought about by emerging technologies.

dot-EDU (Digital Opportunity through Technology and Communication Partnerships-Learning Systems)

dot-EDU was an information and communication technology (ICT) intervention mechanism for USAID Missions seeking to improve education systems in their respective countries. dot-EDU sought to assist developing countries in strengthening learning systems that improve quality, expand access, and enhance equity through carefully planned applications of digital and broadcast technologies. The dot-EDU mission had two foci. First, dot-EDU provided training and technical assistance to support USAID Missions in developing and implementing technology-assisted applications.

Bosnia and Herzegovina–Excellence in Innovation: Using Information and Communications Technologies to Promote Economic Growth

EDC contributes to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s economic growth by identifying “high impact” information and communication technologies (ICT) applications that will quickly and significantly improve the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in entire industries. This project is designed to be Phase 1 of an ICT for Economic Growth Project that would partner with entrepreneurs and SMEs in Bosnia and Herzegovina to develop sustainable e-BIZ Enterprises, which offer fee-based high impact ICT services that create enduring, concrete, and widespread improvements in SME competitiveness.

Asia HIV/AIDS Project

EDC/HHD works with local partners in four countries in South and Southeast Asia to provide care and support as well as prevention education to children affected and infected with HIV and AIDS. Project activities include providing financial and in-kind assistance to orphaned children to attend school, vocational training for young people who must now support their families, and training peer educators so they can educate their friends in their own communities about HIV prevention.

Yemen Innovations in Technology-Assisted Learning for Educational Quality (INTALEQ)

The INTALEQ (INnovations in Technology-Assisted Learning for Educational Quality) project is a public/private partnership initiative that will help Yemeni students “step up” to the future by giving them a chance to master the types of skills necessary to flourish in the 21st century. INTALEQ (which means “step up” or launch in Arabic) offers a replicable model for leveraging the power and pull of technology, not just to teach computer and internet skills, but to improve core teaching and learning in Yemeni high schools, particularly in the essential areas of math and science.

EQUIP3/Shaqodoon: Somalia Youth Livelihood Program

The Shaqodoon program was created to provide Somali youth with greater access to training, internships, work and self-employment opportunities in order to productively engage youth and add to the stability and development of the region. Shaqodoon is Somali for “jobseekers”.

EQUIP3/Garissa Youth Project

Designed to respond to Garissan youths’ needs and assets, the Garissa Youth Project (G-Youth Project) aims to empower youth to make sound career and life decisions as they transition from high school to the next phase of their lives. The project is also building the capacity of local institutions and networks to sustain the much-needed services that G-Youth will provide.