Youth Unemployment and the emergence of the discouraged job seeker

Young people remain particularly stricken by the global financial crisis. Currently, some 73.8 million young people are unemployed globally and the slowdown in economic activity is likely to push another half million into unemployment by 2014.

The youth unemployment rate – which had already increased to 12.6% in 2012 – is expected to increase to 12.9% by 2017. The crisis has dramatically diminished the labour market prospects for young people, and many experience long-term unemployment right from the start of their labour market entry, a situation that was never observed during previous cyclical downturns.

Currently, some 35% of all young unemployed have been out of a job for six months or longer in advanced economies. As a consequence, an increasing number of young people have become discouraged and have left the labour market. Long spells of unemployment and discouragement early on in a person’s career also damages their long-term prospects, as professional and social skills erode and valuable on-the-job experience is not built up.

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Round up of what’s new on Yipe!

Business Startup

How to Go about Setting up Your Small Business
For someone starting out in business, success is the ultimate goal. Many people have the desire to work for themselves or run a small business but often it’s knowing where to start that means people fall at the first hurdle.

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Events

Kenya’s National Youth Summit set to kick off a new era in youth development
Kenya’s National Youth Summit 2013 set to kick off from January 31st to February 1st 2013 will bring together 2,000 young leaders from across the country’s 47 counties to inspire pride, patriotism and social cohesion among the young people.

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Awards:

Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship 2014
The Skoll Foundation provides Skoll Awards every year to select few social entrepreneurs whose proven innovations have demonstrated impact on some of the world’s most pressing problems. The Skoll Award recognizes organizations with the potential to not only be individually successful, but also to catalyze large-scale, system-level change.

Kenya’s National Youth Summit set to kick off a new era in youth development

Kenya’s National Youth Summit 2013 set to kick off from January 31st to February 1st 2013 will bring together 2,000 young leaders from across the country’s 47 counties to inspire pride, patriotism and social cohesion among the young people.

According to the 2009 Kenya Population and Housing Census, the youth aged below 35 years account for more than 70%. This is a significant cohort of the national population that can influence social, economic and political transformation. The youth are therefore critical in achieving the ambitous goals set out in the nation’s development roadmap known as Vision 2030.

With 2013 being a year for general elections, the National Youth Summit is informed by the need to rebrand and inspire young people to act as peace ambassadors who choose to take responsibility and make a difference in their communities.

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Call for Applications for Grants Applications Review Training and Volunteering

Deadline for Applications: January 20, 2013
Duration of Volunteer Assignment: 4 Days (January 28-31st 2013).
Target Number of Volunteers: Five (5)

Akiba Uhaki Foundation provides opportunities to young East Africans for on-job learning experience in a social justice grant-maker to develop and pursue a passion for promotion of human rights and social justice; to improve research as well as analytical skills and build knowledge in advocacy, proposal development, project management and grants administration.

In this regard, the Foundation is looking for in or out-of-university students for engagement in it’s grants applications review process. Successful applicants will be taken through a short training on grants proposals evaluation, grants budget review as well as M & E. At the end of the assignment, all the volunteers will be issued with a certificate. A small stipend will be provided for daily expenses. They will also be entered into Akiba Uhaki’s database for call-up for other future assignments that may arise.

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Dhamira Moja Youth Group social enterprise profile

Dhamira Moja Youth Group (DHAMO) is a community based organization founded on the principal of empowering young adults who lack skills and have little or no formal education in Kenya’s Busia County.

The Dhamo idea is an African-born global grassroots movement connecting the privileged young (and young at heart) to issues of poverty in Africa and providing them with a framework for action. Anyika Khaimba, the Executive Director was kind enough to answer a few of our questions regarding Dhamira Moja.

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Call For Applications for the Fund for Evaluation in Youth Employment

The Fund for Evaluation in Youth Employment was established by the Youth Employment Network (YEN) to contribute to the evidence gap for effective programme design and delivery. The Fund will provide technical and financial support to qualified organizations for designing and conducting their impact evaluation.

The Fund for Evaluation in Youth Employment employs a strategy of LEARNING-APPLYING-SHARING. These three components include building the capacity of practitioners and policy makers to evaluate their youth employment policies and programs.

Funding for this call for applications is only for the support of monitoring and evaluation and does not cover any project delivery associated costs.

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Youth unemployment and the lost generation

A Financial Times article on the Soaring youth unemployment brings to the fore once again the major crisis facing the world today. What to do with the millions of young people without a sustainable means of livelihood?

Even though job creation policies are becoming more ubiquitous, there is a hard to bridge gap between the youth that spend more time being unemployed and their lucky age mates who get employed early.

The Fledgling Fund

The Fledgling Fund supports innovative media projects that can play critical roles in igniting social change. Film and other creative media can bear witness to the challenges faced by vulnerable individuals, families and communities in ways that statistics can not, and that it can create a broader understanding of social problems and inspire concrete action. Well-structured and creative audience engagement initiatives can leverage media’s ability to ignite social change by moving people from awareness to action. The Fledgling Fund strives for a portfolio of media projects that:

• Support projects that are timely, tell compelling and important stories, represent a unique perspective or an intriguing solution to an entrenched social problem, and have strong potential as a vehicle for social change.
• Demonstrate how films coupled with well-structured and measurable outreach and audience engagement campaigns can raise awareness about complex social issues, encourage dialogue, share possible solutions, and move people to action.
• Encourage the innovative use of media, such as Web 2.0 strategies, and short form videos, to engage new audiences around important social issues.

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World Summit Youth Awards 2012

Registration is now open for World Summit Youth Awards 2012 that are open to young people (under the age of 30 years from any of the UN member states) that have developed any sort of innovative project or product using information technology aimed at helping their community.

The applicant may be a developer of website or mobile apps, e-content writer, journalists or writer, application designer, technologist or anyone contributing to address poverty, protecting the environment, sharing knowledge and empowering young people.

Award Highlights

The Youth Award is not a cash award. The reward for winners is to be recognized on a world stage, to be invited to the winners’ events, to be able to connect with each other and discuss with renowned experts in the field of ICT for Development. Last year, winner’s events took place in New York, USA.

The WSYA selects and promotes best practice in e-Content. It demonstrates young people’s potential to create outstanding digital contents and serves as a platform for people from all UN member states to work together in the efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

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Synergos Senior Fellows Program

Synergos, the international organization – working with partners to mobilize resources and bridge social and economic divides to reduce poverty and increase equity around the world – is now open to accepting applications for the Synergos Senior Fellows Program. The program offers this fellowship to civil society leaders who are committed to collaborative action to bring sustainable, systemic improvements for the communities they serve.

The Fellowship Program offers peer support in designing, convening and managing partnership processes and institutions; help with methodologies; space for sharing experience; and opportunities for professional growth and enhancing leadership skills.

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