August News /

Dear YES Family

I am excited to announce the dates for the YES Kenya 2006, September 13– 16, to be held in Nairobi.  I want to thank the President of Kenya for recognizing the urgency of tackling the youth employment issue and placing it firmly on the global agenda.

Today August 12, is International Youth Day and the focus is on “Making Commitments Matter."  As a mother, I believe that what matters most is that our youth have productive work and they become concerned and good citizens of their nations and the world. Together with you, we at the YES Campaign have been committed to ensuring that we create the human and institutional infrastructure to make this commitment real.  This is happening on the ground through our YES Country Networks.

We are fortunate that our work is led by young visionary leaders in 60 countries that are the true driving force.  I want to take this opportunity to thank each and everyone of them for their dedication and will to make their commitments real.

This newsletter highlights some of the specific actions that the YES Campaign is taking that clearly speak to the objectives of the World Program for Action:

1. Foster conditions and mechanisms to promote improved well-being and livelihood among youth.

• The YES Brazil Network is working to promote Municipal Youth Employment Action Plans as part of the YES-YEN collaboration.  In fact, with the financial support of the Apucarana municipal government, a task-force was createdamong the YES Brazil Network, the Municipality and a local NGO to undertake the design and implementation of a pilot “Municipal Youth Employment Action Plan”.  Not only does the YES Campaign foster conditions to promote youth employment, it also works to create the infrastructure necessary to address the issue.
• The YES Campaign opened its Regional Office for Latin America in Panama City, Panama in July 2005.   This institutional mechanism will serve as incubator of synergies and alliances for developing regional programs and projects for the YES Campaign.

2.  Strengthen national capacities in the field of youth and to increase the quality and quantity of opportunities available to young people for full, effective, and constructive participation in society.    

• Inspiring and building the capacity of young people to address their employment needs is a key focus of the YES Campaign and its Networks.  YES Dominican Republic, is hosting the first National Youth Entrepreneurs Contest, it will showcase young entrepreneurs and their enterprises as means of fostering interest and innovation in entrepreneurship among young people.
• Similarly, the Singapore Network organized, ‘40 Hours,’ a nationwide essay writing competition aimed at giving studentsa chance to write about their ambitions, andshadow their role model in their dream career. 
• The YES India Network provided scholarships to 19 youth from two state level YES Networks (Nagaland and Mizoram) to undergo a three-month intensive skill-training course in solar technologies dealing with solar photovoltaic, solar thermal and solar drying technologies with special emphasis given to entrepreneurship.
• At an institutional level, the Youth Development Network organized a planning and capacity building workshop in Johannesburg with delegates from Tanzania, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mauritius, Botswana, Angola, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo to strengthen their ability to carry out youth focused programs.
• The YES Networks in the Middle East continue to expand their reach to train youth with the skills necessary to be competitive in the labor market and to identify entrepreneurship opportunities.

These and other stories from the YES Networks inspire me daily.  If you are not already working with us please do join us in supporting the YES Networks in generating productive employment opportunities for young people around the globe.

In Solidarity

Poonam Ahluwalia