YES Alexandria Forum 2007

A Forum focusing on the

YES Fund - Global Fund for Youth Entrepreneurship
(A Clinton Global Initiative)

Alexandria, Egypt
August 27 - 30, 2007

Hosted by the Arab Republic of Egypt
Chaired by HE Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, First Lady of Egypt

Overview of the YES Campaign

In September 2002, under the co-chair of President Bill Clinton and First Lady Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, 1600 delegates including 1000 youth from 120 countries launched the decade long YES Campaign. This Campaign is predominantly a youth-led response to the enormous global challenge of youth unemployment. Young leaders in over 60 countries, through the infrastructure of YES Country Networks, are bringing together diverse stakeholders to take actions that result in productive and sustainable employment for youth. The YES Campaign works with national and global partners to develop and deploy effective programs targeted at realizing the following goals

• Develop capacity of youth to lead in-country youth employment initiatives;
• Promote (in-country) youth employment to address key development challenges; and
• Build in-country coalitions to develop national strategies addressing youth unemployment
  

Initiated in 1998, it took four years and 60 consultations held globally to formulate the goals, build global commitment, create a global alliance and prepare thematic documents to launch the YES Campaign in 2002. An iterative campaign, where the process is not cast in black and white, it’s main strengths are learning by doing, flexibility and nimbleness and a quick action response, 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 five sectors were identified and discussed namely 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 the work of existing expert agencies, civil society organizations and governments. It was a Summit featuring Action and ready to move beyond rhetoric.

In 2006, YES Kenya called for ‘Creating Markets, Unleashing Entrepreneurship’. It focused on identifying markets at the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’, markets in eco-entrepreneurship, building trade capacity, attracting foreign direct investments, building an entrepreneurial culture, and capacity building through the YES Academy.

Background

More than a billion jobs need to be created between now (1998) and 2010 to accommodate young workers entering the labor force and reduce unemployment. If jobs can be found for them, the "workforce bulge" can be the basis for more investment, greater labor productivity and rapid economic development. This will generate revenues for social investments such as health, education and social security, to meet the needs of both old and young and secure the basis for future development.

One billion young people (15-24 years old), 85 percent in developing countries, are in the labor market with few skills, and even fewer opportunities for productive work. Nearly three billion people, that is, half the world's population, are under the age of 25 years. They are entering different sectors of the society in large number, putting immense pressures on governments around the world to wake up and face new challenges. These include an increased need for jobs and livelihood, growing need for health care and education, and increased stress on the environment.

The social and economic disparities continue to grow, increasing the number of people living below the poverty line each day. Today, 1.3 billion people survive on less than a dollar a day and three billion people live on less than $2 a day. High levels of unemployment and rapidly deteriorating standards of living are resulting in destructive social unrest and dangerous levels of tension. This is most evident amongst the youth who make up 50 percent of the world's population.

Ironically, all of these challenges are exploding at a time when humanity is more prosperous than it has ever been. The knowledge base and connectivity to create opportunities for sustainable livelihoods for the world's youth are available. The challenge is to raise awareness and build an adequate understanding of the issues we face and collaborate in promoting youth employment. It is essential that knowledge is disseminated, capacity is built, and the will generated to resolve this crisis, and build opportunities for youth employment.

The YES Alexandria 2007, is a mid Campaign event organized primarily for the leaders and members of the YES Country Networks and other key stakeholders from across the world. A relatively small Forum bringing together around 150 select delegates/ participants, it intends to build capacities and support the leaders of the YES Campaign in different parts of the world to develop strategy and programs in the IT sector, integrated rural businesses, and youth employment through social entrepreneurship. Key objectives: 

• To frame and move forward the strategic goals of YES Inc.;
• To train and develop capacities of YES Coordinators and other participating youth in three strategic areas for entrepreneurship development: Information and Communications Technologies, Integrated Rural Businesses, and Youth Employment and the role of Social Entrepreneurship. This would be achieved through conducting intensive workshops in each of these areas.
• To strengthen the YES Networks by building capacity in three thematic tracks: Community Building, Program Development, and YES Programs; and
• To build and strengthen institutional capacity by fostering linkages and synergies between the YES Coordinators and the YES Inc.

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina, host of the launch of the Youth Employment Summit Campaign in 2002 and future site for the end of the campaign forum in 2012, is the perfect place for the leaders and members of the over 80 YES Country Networks and other key stakeholders from across the world to meet for this mid-Campaign event.  The Conference Center (BACC) is a state-of-the-art meeting and exhibition facility located on the waterfront across from the Eastern Harbor and Silsilah Peninsula and a center of culture and a beacon of knowledge to serve Egypt, the Mediterranean Region, Africa and the world.  The BACC houses four conference halls, four meeting rooms, two exhibition halls, a VIP lounge and a VIP meeting room, three restaurants and a coffee shop

The Agenda for the YES Alexandria 2007 has been divided into 2 parts.  The first 3 days are dedicated to the capacity building of the youth participants and the YES Country Network coordinators, although all participants of the Forum are welcome to attend.  Each day will open with a plenary session with topics highlighted as being of interest to and a necessity for all the youth participants. These will be followed with parallel sessions that are structured in three thematic tracks, these will be offered on two consecutive days so participants will get the opportunity to attend more than one session by signing up for it in advance.

The organization for these days is the following:

1. Pre-Forum 3 Days Aug 26 - 28 2007
   1. Plenary Workshops: YES Networks Housekeeping
      1. Technical Assistance for Capacity Building of YES Networks
      2. Stimulating and Tracking Grassroots Enterprising: Master Training Program for Youth Entrepreneurship
      3. The Monitoring and Evaluation On-Line Tool for YES Networks
      4. YES Fund - Building Linkages with Partners and Consumers
      5. World Café: YES Community Building
2. Parallel Track Sessions
1. Track A: Community Building
   1. A1: Working with Policymake
   2. A2: Working with the Media
   3. A3: Web Tools for Community Building
2. Track B: Program Development
   1. B1: Fundraising and Project Development
   2. B2: Developing Sustainable Institutions
   3. B3: Building Partnerships
3. Track C: YES Programs
1. C1: Business Entrepreneurship Development (Leveraging Existing Global Funds for Enterprise Development)
2. C2: Social Entrepreneurship
3. C3: Building Coalitions for YES Programs
3. FORUM – 2 Days August 29, and 30 2007
   These two days will engage development leaders and leverage their knowledge and experience for the benefit of all participants.  The Agenda includes the following:
   Plenary Sessions:
   1. P1: Opening Ceremony
      About YES Inc. where YES Campaign is at the mid-point and the plan for the next 5 years
      
   2. P2: Innovative Thinking and Collaboration in the Face of Challenges – The most pressing challenges leaders and teams face today require innovative thinking and collaboration across traditional boundaries—departments, organizations, sectors, and cultures. To bring about the level of transformation needed in our organizations and our world right now, we need a new way of learning and of leading—one not limited to reflecting the patterns of the past but one that tunes into the possibilities of the future.
   3. P3: About The YES Fund: Aims to create a systems approach to build a coalition of partners all over the world to work on ‘creating markets and unleashing entrepreneurship’
   4. P4: Innovative approaches to promoting youth entrepreneurship- Business in Development Network: A Case Study - Sharing how to create ecology for business development (1) For investors (2) Writing a business plan (3) finding screeners and coaches.
   5. P5: Creating Change Makers through Youth Social Entrepreneurship
   6. P6: Closing ceremony
      • Visioning - YES Coordinators introducing themselves and sharing their Accomplishment, Vision and work plan with all delegates
4. Breakout Capacity Building Workshops
   2 sessions each Session one addressing the “why” and Session two the “how”
   1. B1: Enterprise Development and ICT - This intensive track will focus on enterprise development in Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) since the YES Fund pilot project, funded by Microsoft, is focused on building IT enterprises.  This workshop will share how the YES Networks can participate in developing partnerships to participate in the YES Fund project, specifically focused on IT.
   2. B2: Enterprise Development and Integrated Rural Development - The focus of this intensive track will be on the YES Network programming in the rural areas.  Delegates will develop proposals for integrated rural businesses, those that do not depend on one revenue source; that secure the integration of several generators of value added like the integrated farming system; and focus on basic needs like food, water, health, housing, and energy.
   3. B3: Enterprise Development and the role of Social Entrepreneurship - The focus of this intensive track will be on finding ways for building a strong global network of young social entrepreneurs who will lead effective organizations/initiatives to fulfill the UN Millennium Development goals of their countries, and shape youth employment policies and programs  This session will take the curriculum of the Youth Social Entrepreneurship Academy and come up with innovative and creative solutions for action in the social sector. The goal will be to set and fulfill the agenda for social entrepreneurship that can bring about real and enduring change for communities in need.