Youth Development

PAJE-Nièta (Projet d’Appui aux Jeunes Entrepreneurs or Support to Youth Entrepreneurs Project) provides 10,000 rural, out-of-school Malian youth with improved basic education, work readiness and technical training, social and leadership development, and accompaniment towards livelihood activities. Nièta means “progress” in Bambara, a Malian language.

The Educational Quality Improvement Program 3 (EQUIP3) is a Leader-with-Associate Award that is designed to improve earning, learning, and skill development opportunities for out-of-school youth in developing countries.

EQuALLS2 increases access to quality basic education and livelihood skills in areas most affected by conflict and poverty in the Philippines (primarily the Muslim areas in the Mindanao island group in the south). EQuALLS2 is a large-scale project that seeks to benefit 345,000 children and youth in 37 municipalities and four cities by training 37,238 educators and school officials, building the capacity of 850 local education stakeholder groups, and expanding local education resources through public-private partnerships.

The Skills and Knowledge for Youth Employment (SKYE) project in Guyana seeks to strengthen youth’s access to justice and equip youth with market-driven skills and attitudes to improve their ability to transition to the workforce. SKYE will target a total of approximately 600 youth beneficiaries who do not have the necessary education, skills and behaviors for integration into the workforce; many will be school dropouts and/or involved in the juvenile justice system.

The Social Legacy Program (SLP) reaches out to youth and other vulnerable groups in the Europe and Eurasia region, giving them the tools they need to become local leaders and promote social change. Due to widespread socio-economic insecurity and a dramatic collapse in basic social services, these groups face great barriers to finding work and gaining viable skills, while the region on the whole struggles to make the transition towards market-oriented, democratic societies.

Ruwwad, taken from the Arabic word for “pioneers,” is a ground-breaking program created by Palestinians, for Palestinians. Its mission is to empower Palestinian youth and the adults who serve them, so that both groups can become strong local leaders and change-makers. Since 2005, Ruwwad has been planned, designed, and implemented “by youth, for youth,” with a focus on positive leadership development for young women and men ages 14 to 30.

The Youth Employment and Participation (YEP) Project aims to better prepare Kosovo youth for work in a growing market economy and for engaged citizenship in a developing democracy. To meet this goal, the YEP team will work together with selected market areas, engaging employers and other local, regional, and national leaders to blend together resources, skills, and policies for a sustainable system of opportunities and supports for out of school and out of work young people.

The Garissa Youth Project (G-Youth Project) aims to empower youth in Kenya 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.

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”.

The Akazi Kanoze Youth Livelihoods Project, an EQUIP3 Associate Award, aims to develop a thriving youth livelihood support system in Rwanda to increase the prosperity of not only youth, but also the public and private institutions that support and benefit from youths’ productive engagement in Rwandan society. To achieve this goal, Akazi Kanoze will provide youth in Kigali with market-relevant life and work readiness training and support, hands-on training opportunities, and links into the employment and self-employment job market.