The YES Campaign was initiated in 1998 by a small team at EDC led by Ms. Poonam Ahluwalia, President of the newly formed YES Inc. (January 2007), and it took 4 years and 40 consultations held globally to formulate the goals, build global commitment, create a global alliance and prepare thematic documents to launch the Campaign in 2002. This is an iterative campaign where the process is not cast in black and white – its strength is learning by doing, being flexible and nimble and quickly taking action where needed.

In 2002 in Alexandria Egypt, the decade-long YES Campaign was launched – with the goal to work on youth employment issues as one of the most compelling problems the world was facing.

In 2003 in Hyderabad, India the Campaign moved to its next level of identifying sectors for employment and 5 sectors were identified and discussed – renewable energy, water and sanitation, ICT, rural development, and HIV/AIDS.

In 2004 in Veracruz, Mexico, the YES Campaign was ready to showcase the work of its 70 Country Networks juxtaposed with existing expert agencies work and that of NGOs and governments and it was a Summit featuring action and ready to move beyond conversation and debate.

In 2005 in Asuncion, Paraguay the First Regional Youth Employment Encounter, was hosted by YES Latin America and the Government of Paraguay, and the YES Paraguay Network in partnership with UNDP, World Bank, UNFPA.  The purpose of this Encounter was to understand the UN MDGs and how they could be fulfilled in the LAC region through a youth employment and entrepreneurship led approach.

In 2006 YES Kenya, Nairobi focused on Creating Markets…Unleashing Entrepreneurship, identifying markets at the Bottom of the Pyramid,  markets in eco-entrepreneurship, building trade capacity, attracting foreign direct investment, building an entrepreneurial culture, capacity building through the YES Academy and the YES Leadership Institute. The YES Fund – a Global Fund for the Youth Entrepreneurship was designed and launched at the Clinton Global Initiative 2006 with the support of a small grant from Microsoft.