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.

Powering the Future

EDC’s Ford PAS program introduces a new curriculum on alternative energy sources.

Learning and Earning in Timor-Leste

A new EDC program is providing youths with education and livelihood skills.

Discovering Technology in Jordan

As technology businesses are booming in Jordan, educators are striving to prepare schools and students to keep pace. In 2003, an education initiative was launched to upgrade technology skills and knowledge. EDC’s Daniel Light spent time in these classrooms evaluating the program.

Global Knowledge for Development (GKD) List Archive Database

The GKD List has generated an enormous amount of global knowledge about the role of information/communications technologies (ICTs) in sustainable development, much of which could not be obtained in any other way. With support from infoDev, EDC is building a Web-based database of the GKD messages to provide a valuable user-friendly resource from the rich flow of information that GKD provides. The database will contain cases, guidelines, information about appropriate technologies, resources, and lessons learned, which can be easily accessed by query.

Advancing Corporate Social Responsibility in Asia

At a community center in Bangkok, small-business owners are logging on to the Internet for the first time, using Microsoft Word, Excel spreadsheets, and other business software. These local entrepreneurs—including fruit sellers, garment makers, and artisans—are learning their technology skills courtesy of the multinational computer firm, Hewlett Packard (HP).

A Second Chance in Haiti

From dropout to vagrant to teen mother, 19-year-old Manoucheka Lizaire’s life quickly unraveled as she followed a path familiar to girls living in poverty. In Haiti alone, thousands of teens are like Manoucheka—out of school and living on the streets, in domestic servitude, or with families too poor to provide them with an education.

A New Start for Out-of-School Teens in Haiti

EQUIP3/Haitian Out-of-School Youth Livelihood Initiative, or IDEJEN as the project is known locally, operates twelve youth centers. Each center provides 50 students between the ages of 15-20 with an education in basic reading, writing, and mathematics. Students also receive lessons in health, nutrition, conflict-resolution, and other life-skills. In addition, they learn a marketable trade such as sewing, woodworking, auto mechanics, handcrafts, hotel services, or agricultural businesses.

Breaking Barriers

Every other Monday night, in a temporary office located in the Waltham (Mass.) Hospital, a one-of-a-kind Board of Directors convenes. The issues before the board on this night are typical of many social service agencies: the cost of tuition for the workshops they offer; the success of recent outreach efforts; the development of parent councils in the local schools; the new accounting software. But the board itself isn’t at all typical.

Bringing Business, Engineering, and Technology into High School Classrooms

Faced with the challenge of designing a program that would bring current business issues into the high school classroom, a team of EDC curriculum writers and researchers began their work in an assembly plant.

Creating a Youth Employment Center

A few months before International Youth Parliament 2000 (IYP2000), I started a project called the Career Planning Center, with the aim of helping young professionals from the Balti region find a job.