Speaking at a National Consultation in Accra, Honorable Yaw Barima, Ghanaian Minister for Manpower Development and Employment, stated that the national consultation and the inauguration of coordinating committee for YES Mexico 2004 was "a step in the right direction" in addressing the problem of youth unemployment. He emphasized his government's commitment to ensure a decent work placement for young people in the country and cited examples of successful government programmes.

The consultation was organized by YES Ghana with support from the British Council- Ghana. Mr. Emmanuel Edudzie, YES Ghana Coordinator, led this consultation, which is a vivid illustration of growing partnership of the YES Networks with members of civil society and private sector across the world. Speaking at the consultation Emmanuel said, "There has been little movement beyond rhetoric to concrete and effective action. Efforts need to be infused with a sense of urgency, vision and resolve, and guided by practical experience."

The coordinating committee, which will oversee Ghana's participation in the Summit, is diverse with representation from the government, civil society and YES Ghana.

Dr. Pradeep Monga, senior technical adviser - UNIDO, praised the efforts of the YES Campaign (EDC Inc.) for its renewable energy project in Zambia. Inaugurating a workshop at the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Centre in Lusaka, Dr. Monga and renewable energy experts Dr. S. Dasappa and Mr. Binu Parthan, highlighted the innumerable employment opportunities this sector provided for youth.

The workshop was attended by over 100 Zambian youth, some of whom have been trained as "master trainers" in renewable energy by active member of YES Zambia. The workshop was a part of Dr. Monga and his colleague's visit to the project site of YES-UNIDO project.

Francis Chinguta, Entrepreneurship Coordinator - YES Campaign, said, "It was a very lively and powerful workshop. The young Zambians were convinced of the vast employment opportunities in the field of renewable energy".

UNIDO is also partnering with the YES Campaign for a renewable energy project in India.

YES India has been in thick of activities last month. Now spanning all regions of the country, YES India has grown exponentially after the highly successful Hyderabad YES Regional Forum in December 2003.

The YES Campaign office in New Delhi facilitated a special capacity building workshop in "Renewable Energy and Employment" for the state level representatives of the YES India Networks and along side organized a country strategy meeting and envisioned to charter a road map of the Network. The meeting chalked out a strategy to build a strong multi stakeholder delegation to the YES Mexico 2004 and showcasing some of the success stories from India.

YES India also launched its new chapter in the Eastern Region of the country, Kolkatta led by Dr. Gautam Gosh in the presence of distinguished guests from government, UN bodies, civil society members and media. To build policy advocacy and commitment at the district level, to promote employment, the Andhra Pradesh Chapter of YES India organized workshop in Rangareddy District on July 20, where eminent subject specialists spoke about the innumerable employment potential for youth in emerging sectors. Organized in association with the Directorate of Youth Services, Government of Andhra Pradesh the workshop was sponsored by a local NGO.

With the objective of imparting technical skills to the rural youth in the tribal areas of North East India, the Meghalaya Chapter of YES India recently conducted a one-day skill-building workshop on "bee keeping" supported by FAO New Delhi.

The YES Country Network in the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal has been very active trying to set a platform for peaceful dialogue and generation of productive employment opportunities for its young people. "Initiatives like the YES Campaign are extremely important in helping our youth, when the nation is passing through a very critical phase and youth are worst affected" said, Sudyumna Dahal, deputy country coordinator of YES Nepal.

YES Nepal organized a talk program titled, "YES Campaign: Immense opportunity for the Youth of Nepal" on the 23rd of July 2004 in Kathmandu. The programme was well attended by students, young professionals, entrepreneurs and representatives of youth media. The programme was organized to disseminate information regarding YES Campaign and the forthcoming YES Summit to diverse stakeholders of Nepalese youth.

Earlier, YES Nepal with the support of World Bank, organized a two week long National level youth consultation "Youth Perspective on Development" for Nepal Development Forum (NDF) 2004. More than 300 youth from all over the country participated in six different thematic workshops and e-consultations.

Earlier this year, a member of YES Canada along with a colleague organized an international meeting under the "Mobilité Jeunesse" programme in Edmundston (New Brunswick). The nine-day conference, funded by Agence Intergouvernementale de la Francophonie (AIF), was attended by 27 youth from Canada, Madagascar, Togo, Benin, Congo, Senegal and France.

The main goal of the conference was to bring together young francophones with diverse backgrounds to discuss ways to motivate them to become entrepreneurs. In five workshops, the delegates deliberated on the central themes of entrepreneurship viz. starting business; challenges facing young entrepreneurs; North-South partnerships; leadership and motivation and financing.

Intersection Nord-Sud Inc., a non-profit organization, which envisions supporting youth in entrepreneurship, was established after this conference. Also, a cross-cultural guide was published to help youth through the process of setting up an enterprise.

This publication, in French, is available for download at http://projects.takingitglobal.org/Intersection

YES Pakistan has recently set up Pakistan National Youth Service Academy -aimed to be a hub for promoting the concept of youth service amongst young volunteers. Ali Raza Khan, YES Pakistan Coordinator informs, "Our mission is to provide youth with a solid foundation of much needed skill education instead of traditional academic education". He adds, "It aims at providing training in the academically deficient areas, which are greatly needed by the youth for personal and professional development as well as community development".

YES Pakistan has also established two skill development centers in Hafizabad and Rawalpindi districts to provide opportunities to youth to learn new skills and share experiences with respect of community based projects. These centers are providing facilities for computer literacy, stitching training, adult literacy tuition, typing training, indoor games etc.

YES Pakistan has also been awarded with another project by the Government of Punjab to set up 100 Adult Functional Literacy Centers in Kasur District with support from Pakistan National Youth Service Volunteers.

For more information please email aliaccessed@homail.com

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is top on the agenda of the members of the YES Philippines. The Network known as the Philippines Youth Employment Network (PYEN) was a part of the exchange session on CSR organized by Responsible Citizenship Youth Movement (RCYM) and the Institute of Solidarity in Asia (ISA) in Manila.

"This exchange of ideas brought about several issues faced by the youth which the member institutions may be able to embrace in their CSR practices" notes Audrey Codera, Executive Director, PYEN.

Members of PYEN also attended a CSR Expo 2004 titled, "Bata, May Bukas Ka", where a member facilitated a session on youth employment. The session discussed the issues faced by youth concerning pre-employment, during employment and entrepreneurship. The session also looked into the various possibilities to combat these issues.

PYEN members were also a part of their national delegation to the prestigious ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Youth (AMMY) last year where they shared the mission and objectives of YES Campaign (EDC Inc.).

YES Egypt, also known as Sustainable Development Association (SDA), is growing up with more and more enthusiastic youth joining in. It has recently launched a new sub-network, "Youth Francophone Group of Alexandria" which comprises French speaking youth.

Abdallah Soheibh, Regional Coordinator informs, "This group is part of the SDA and has independent internal structure and special rules of membership". "The supervision, however, is with the International Committee of YES Egypt".

Group leader Hayman Mohamed Ahmed, says more about group, "Currently, our group has Francophones from Alexandria and [we] hope to have many more from across the world. It is an honor to receive support from Alexandria General Consulate of France, Alexandria French cultural center, Bibliotheca Alexandria and Alexandria University besides SDA".

The SDA members have also announced the launch of their new look website. The website www.sda-web.org, contains information on SDA projects, members and partners and other useful links.

The YES Country Networks across the world are building strong multi stakeholder delegation to the YES Mexico 2004. YES Country Networks members also participated, with great zeal and enthusiasm, in the International Youth Parliament in Sydney and are looking forward to celebrating International Youth Day on 12th August 2004 and participation in the World Urban Youth Forum in Barcelona, Spain.

The YES Mexico Country Network launched the award "Successful Young Entrepreneurs" with the Economy Ministry and Entrepreneur Magazine and the winners will be part of the Innovation Market Place expected to be held during the second Global Youth Employment Summit in Mexico Additionally, the YES Mexico team is developing a complimentary pilot program to promote Young Entrepreneurs with WalMart Foundation.

For More Information please contact: juan@fundacione.org