YES Insider # 19
June 15, 2004: Inside the Insider
YES Malawi Advisor elected President of Malawi
UN Habitat times its conference with YES Mexico 2004
YES Tanzania supports a 129 days torch race to spread the message of the YES
Campaign in all 149 districts of Tanzania
Doing Well by Doing Good: High Performance Social Entrepreneurs panel in
Boston features Poonam Ahluwalia, Executive Director
YES-UNIDO Training programme launched in Zambia
YES Campaign makes presentation at World Bank HIV/AIDS event in South Africa
YES Networks in Eastern and Central Europe get activated
UN Habitat hosts Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on strategies for creating urban
youth employment solutions for youth in Africa
1. YES Malawi Advisor elected President of Malawi
A founding member of the YES Malawi elected as the new President of Malawi.
Dr. Bingu Mutharika, a doctorate in economics, has promised to launch a
three million dollars national fund to support small-scale enterprises
especially run by youth, women and small-scale businessmen.
The delighted members of the country network congratulated Dr Mutharika on
his election and reiterated their hope that Malawi will be a land for the
youth, through established youth empowerment programmes.
The YES Malawi had nominated Dr. Mutharika to its Advisory Team in July 2002
To know more about this historical development, visit the YES Malawi page on
projects.takingitglobal.org/YES-Malawi
2. UN Habitat times its conference with YES Mexico 2004
The second Safer Cities International Conference on Urban Youth at Risk in
Latin America and the Caribbean will be held in Monterrey immediately after
the YES Mexico 2004. This decision to time the international conference
after the YES Mexico indicates the growing collaboration between the UN
Habitat and the YES Campaign.
An official of UN Habitat informs, "The Monterrey conference starts
immediately after the closing day of the YES Mexico. These dates, 8-13
October 2004, were chosen to ensure maximum participation and partnership
between YES Campaign and the UN HABITAT."
Other multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and UNODC are also
exploring potential ways of making their contribution to the conference
preparations and coordination that will lead to an Integrated Strategy on
Urban Youth at Risk in Latin America and the Caribbean at the end of the
Monterrey conference.
It is noteworthy that Mrs. Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka recently joined the YES
Campaign's high profile global Campaign committee, which guides and advises
the Campaign towards its mission.
3. YES Tanzania supports a 129 days torch race to spread the message of the
YES Campaign in all 149 districts of Tanzania
Hon'ble Dr. Ali Mohamed Shein, the Vice President of Republic of Tanzania,
flagged-off a "Uhuru Torch Race" at Kaitaba Stadium in Karega Region of
Tanzania. The race carrying YES Campaign message will cover all 149
districts of Tanzania in a 129 days non-stop.
The message shares the 6Es of the YES Campaign - that frame efforts to
create the complex ecology of services and will to ensure employment for
youth.
Members of the YES Tanzania excited about this run and expect widespread
response and coverage in the media. Kaanaeli Kaale, YES Country
Coordinator-Tanzania, says "The government's plan for promoting the YES
Campaign is excellent" She added, "We estimate that over 90 percent of the
Tanzanian population will know about YES campaign - as the race involves
almost everybody and is getting good media attention"
To know more about the "race" please visit
projects.takingitglobal.org/YES-Tanzania
4. Doing Well by Doing Good: High Performance Social Entrepreneurs panel in
Boston features Poonam Ahluwalia, Executive Director
Executive Director of the YES Campaign, Ms. Poonam Ahluwalia spoke about the
efforts of YES Campaign to bring about a paradigm shift in the youth
employment and poverty eradication issues at the prestigious TiECON 2004.
Highlighting the achievements of YES Campaign in the past two years, she
said that YES believes that problems should be seen as opportunities to
grow.
The annual TiECON 2004 Conference was held in Wakefield MA, from June 3 to
June 5, 2004. It was well attended by veterans and young start-up
entrepreneurs. The event with the central theme of Entrepreneurial
Renaissance covered a wide range of topics - from Arming Startups to
Building Skills; Creating opportunities to Developing Technology; Expanding
Trends to Finding Markets.
Andrew Wolk, President and CEO of Root Cause Institute, Senior Lecturer MIT
Sloan School of Management; Sonal Shah: Co-founder Indicorps, Associate
Director for Economic and Foreign Policy, Center for American Progress; John
Wood, Founder and CEO, Room to Read; David Bornstein: Author of "How to
Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas" also
participated.
5. YES-UNIDO Training programme launched in Zambia
The Minister of Youth, Zambia launched the YES-UNIDO training programme in
Zambia recently. Kenroy Roach, Global YES Country Networks coordinator, the
regional director of the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP), representatives
from COMESA, regional grouping of Southern and Eastern Africa countries,
Zambian Energy Department and the local UNIDO project team attended the
launch.
Following the launch was the highly successful four-day training programme.
Says a beaming Francis Chinguta, entrepreneurship coordinator of the YES
Campaign, "The launch was highly successful and the training programme was
even more successful. The trainees are very happy both with the
presentations and presenters."
The overall objective of the UNIDO project is to harness the potential of
renewable energy technologies through youth entrepreneurship development and
contribute to the Zambian Government's objective of providing electricity
and reliable energy services to rural areas, and improving their standard of
living through income generation activities.
UNIDO is also collaborating for a renewable energy project in India, through
the YES Academy launched at the Hyderabad YES Regional Forum 2003 in India
last year.
For more details about the YES Renewable energy project, please write to
Francis Chinguta at francis@yesweb.org
6. YES Campaign makes presentation at World Bank HIV/AIDS event in South
Africa
On June 2, 2004 the World Bank held a country innovation day called
"HIV/AIDS: Turning Ideas Into Action" on for the finalists of the
Development Marketplace Innovation competition in South Africa. This
included a panel discussion on HIV/AIDS and youth livelihoods where Kenroy
Roach, YES Networks Coordinator, made a presentation. In addition Wendy
Santis, is adapting the publication "HIV/AIDS and Employment: Protecting
Young People and Involving Them in Work-Related Solutions" for the African
context. Both Kenroy and Wendy work for YES Campaign's parent organization
Education Development Center, Inc.
YES Campaign and its South African partner Youth Development Network (YDN)
also set up a kiosk at the development marketplace where they distributed
promotional material about these two youth initiatives and the YES Mexico
Summit 2004.
For more details, please get in touch with Kenroy Roach at kenroy@yesweb.org
7. YES Country Networks in Eastern and Central Europe get activated
YES Country Networks across Eastern and Central Europe are getting more and
more involved with the activities of the YES Campaign. The Country
Coordinators are working hard to outreach and engage the diverse
stakeholders of their societies.
Some of the activities of the YES Networks are briefly mentioned here.
YES-Macedonia organized meetings with UNDP office in Skopje; Members of YES
Russia participated in a workshop for psychologists and social workers about
multicultural adaptation, which is a relatively new management challenge for
Russian companies. YES Country Coordinator-Russia shared information about
the global YES Campaign and the Mexico Summit and urged members to register
for the same.
Members of YES-Azerbaijan founded a Youth Employment Coalition- comprising
diverse stakeholders. The Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of
Education and the Ministry of Energy along with international donor
organizations have agreed to join the coalition. The Members of the
coalition are working for hosting a major presentation soon.
YES Azerbaijan is also in the final stages of signing an agreement with the
UNDP for a joint project.
Members of YES Georgia participated in conferences on "Renewable Energy for
New Georgia" and "Regional Development Strategy" organized by the Ministry
of Fuel and Energy, Georgia.
To know more the development of the Eastern Europe and Baltic region, get in
touch with
Mr. Nugzar Meladze
Regional Coordinator, YES Campaign
nugzar@yesweb.org
8. UN Habitat hosts Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on strategies for creating
urban youth employment solutions for youth in Africa
The Expert Group Meeting (EGM) organized by the UN Habitat was attended by
the partners from UN, World Bank, Civil Society Organizations and youth
representatives. The meeting was vibrant with discussions on generating
employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for youth in the urban areas of
Africa. Many effective practices were presented at the meeting, and the
discussions were focused on strategic action to promote youth employment and
entrepreneurship. Some of the suggestions from the meeting were:
· Strengthening the efforts of the government to promote youth
entrepreneurship.
· Exploring the opportunities for youth in labor intensive public
works.
· How to enhance youth participation in municipal administration and
services.
Puneetha Palkurthi from the YES Campaign participated in this meeting and
presented a draft discussion paper on "Youth Unemployment: An Opportunity
for Creation and Innovation in Social Enterprise Development." The YES
Network coordinators from Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and Somalia
participated in the Youth Round Table Discussion and contributed
substantively to the proceedings. One of the major outcomes of the meeting
will be a strategy paper that will soon be presented in YES Insider.
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