Youth Entrepreneurship and Sustainability

The YES Campaign is an action-oriented initiative in 55 countries that responds to the enormous global challenge of youth unemployment through a youth leadership and enterprise-based model - driven by four main objectives: (1) convening stakeholders to set global agenda for youth employment (2) building leadership and entrepreneurship capacity of youth (3) promoting in-country youth employment linked to development challenges (4) building multi-sectoral in-country coalitions to develop national strategies for widespread youth employment.

	CNN features YES Azerbaijan 2008
	Poonam Ahluwalia shares how green jobs can be generated

	5th Global Youth Employment Summit: on Youth Entrepreneurship and Sustainability
	YES Global Green Jobs Summit USA, plans are afoot to organize our first Summit in the US
	YES Azerbaijan 2008 was a huge success
	A Regional Forum was held in Panama City, Panama
	World Leaders Ismail Serageldin, Van Jones and Günter Pauli, join YES Inc. Board
	Thanking YES Champion Bo Ekman, Chair Tallberg Foundation by Poonam Ahluwalia
	The YES Fund was renamed as the Youth Enterprise Generator
	YES was named Global Partner in Global Entrepreneurship Week
	Become a YES Champion!

	State of the YES Campaign Report
	Latin America Agenda on Youth Entrepreneurship
	Huella Emprendedora (Case Studies on Latin American Entrepreneurs)
	YES Fund Report - 2008
	The Nagaland State Youth Consultation Report on Employment (Part-1) ( Part-2)
	3Ps Country Report

Dear YES Family

I am pleased to announce that the YES Board on January 14, 2009, changed our name to "Youth Entrepreneurship and Sustainability" to reflect our current and intense focus.

As I look back on 2008, the highlight was the glorious 4th Global Youth Employment Summit held in Baku, Azerbaijan. I want to thank HE Mrs. Mehriban Aliyeva, First Lady of Azerbaijan, and HE Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, First Lady of Egypt, for being our gracious patrons. I also want to thank Hon. Minister Azad Rahimov and his team of Farhad, Narmin and Rustam, and the YES Azerbaijan Network led by Rovshan Muradov for their untiring efforts to organize this Summit. And no thanks would be complete without acknowledging our YES Board Chair Ismail Serageldin who truly believes in the power of YES and youth. Without his efforts, many of our dreams would remain unrealized.

YES Inc. is now in its second year after branching out from EDC and is 10 years old as an initiative. We faced many challenges, and had many solid accomplishments in 2008. We had to deal with the growing pains of a one year-old trying to do the work of a 9 year-old…but tenacity and hard work pays off and we were able to:

1.	Fine tune our strategy at our London planning meeting - 2 million youth green jobs/enterprises.
2.	Convene the Latin American YES Leaders at a Regional Forum in Panama
3.	Convene our 4th Global Youth Employment Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan
4.	Launch preparations for the 5th Global Youth Employment Summit in Dalarna, Sweden
5.	Engage three new Board members: Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Library of Alexandria, as Chair; Gunter Pauli, Founder and Director of Zero Emissions Research Initiative; and Van Jones (President and Founder of Green for All).

We know these are difficult times, and moments like these remind us to keep going. We are now needed more than ever to build the local capacity and youth leadership that will generate green employment opportunities. This is not the time to get resigned, it is the time to lift ourselves up and renew our promise to our youth-our promise of a world that cares, a world that will not give up, and a world of limitless possibilities. We invite you to join forces and paint the canvas of our world with the color of our dreams!

In Solidarity

Poonam Ahluwalia
President, YES Inc.


	YES Azerbaijan hosted YES’ 4th Global Summit.
	YES Bhutan continues to work in various areas, including environmental conservation.
	YES Chile forms important partnerships for promoting youth entrepreneurship.
	YES DRC is beginning many new, environmentally friendly projects this year.
	YES Egypt organized a Youth Entrepreneurship Forum.
	YES Guatemala developed a Community Leadership program aimed at training adolescents.
	YES Guinea Bissau is working with various partners to create a Job Center
	YES Iran organized the “Tehran National Meeting on Youth Employment”
	YES Iraq is working to empower youth in the face of violence.
	YES Jordan held events in preparation for creating new employment opportunities.
	YES Kenya is preparing multiple pilot projects for 2009.
	YES Mexico received USD 20 million to continue its work in creating business incubators.
	YES Namibia increases youth entrepreneurs' access to loans.
	YES Nepal encourages youth to portray their creative thoughts in creating environment friendly space
	YES Nigeria helps young entrepreneurs articulate their business ideas and learn to set measurable goals
	YES Pakistan is advocating for incorporation of youth social entrepreneurship programs in educational institutions
	YES Rwanda continues to work on many interesting initiatives.
	YES Somalia has been promoting peace and conflict resolution.
	YES Tanzania affiliate Femina HIP promotes health and entrepreneurship.
	YES Togo participated in a study on youth employment.
	YES Uganda implemented three trainings in partnership with UN HABITAT.

*Registered as
Youth Employment Summit (YES) Campaign, Inc.
Cambridge College, 1000 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
Email: info@yesweb.org