1. The Youth Employment Network (YEN) is an interagency initiative of the World Bank, the ILO and the UN. We have been engaging, educating and motivating actors to provide improved employment opportunities to youth for over a decade. Our four core areas are promoting and replicating innovation, impact evaluation, policy advice, and knowledge sharing through our online portal (www.yenmarketplace.org).
One of YEN’s key products is the Youth-to-Youth Fund, a competitive grant and capacity building scheme. It enables youth-led non-profit organizations to pilot and replicate innovative projects that create employment for young people by helping them set up micro-enterprises in niche markets.
The Y2Y Fund is a laboratory of ideas that come from youth - from start to finish – and promote sustainable local economic development. For more information or for descriptions of our previous grant recipients, please visit www.ilo.org/yen.
WHY DO WE DO THIS?
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To build the capacity of youth-led organizations and enable youth to move from being passive recipients to become active participants in the creation of youth employment.
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To facilitate the testing of innovative businessideas that enable young people to gain decent employment as entrepreneurs.
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To learn from lessons and significantly expand on innovative business ideas that work.
HOW IT WORKS
The Y2Y Fund is a tested approach to enterprise creation which contributes to the success of enterprise promotion projects. All our grantees provide their young beneficiaries with a comprehensive training program that includes five critical components: soft skills training, technical training, entrepreneurship training, supervised practical experience and, when needed, the provision of the necessary materials and equipment to establish a micro-enterprise.

2. JOB CREATION. Numerous jobs and businesses have been created though the Fund: at least 1200 jobs in West Africa and over 400 businesses in Uganda alone. The projects are creating successful businesses in areas where there were previously no opportunities for youth.
SUSTAINABILITY. Over 75% of jobs created in the pilot round still exist one year later. Improvements to our programme based on lessons learned are expected to further raise this percentage.
IMPACT. The higher revenues gained have increased young people’s access to health care, a more varied diet, education, and improved housing for them and their families. Young people say the project has also helped increase their self-esteem and status in the community.
INNOVATION. The Fund has been successful in creating a number of “firsts”: the first ink remanufacturing business in Sierra Leone, the first plastic recycling unit in Guinea, the first Solar Kiosks in Sierra Leone’s Eastern region. Many of the projects successfully integrate development needs into their business models, for example: access to water, improved sanitation and hygiene, women’s empowerment, green energy, and nutrition.
STRONG REPLICATION AND EXPANSION POTENTIAL. The business ideas have strong potential for replication in other areas and countries. We are also helping youth cooperatives to expand and grow by linking them to the export market. Whole Foods Market, the largest natural food supermarket chain in the world, has already expressed interest in six of our cooperatives becoming their suppliers.
CHANGING PERCEPTIONS. The Fund has shown that youth are capable of finding effective and innovative solutions to the youth employment challenge; in 2011 just seven organizations in Sierra Leone created 200 jobs for youth. This fact is turning heads and causing the public and private sectors to take youth more seriously as actors for change and progress.
Dico Kaba, 28, is a cooperative member at a poultry farm in Guinea. She has seen a significant increase in her income since the project started and her cooperative has already saved $1,500 and expects to turn a profit of over $6,000 this year.
Ibrahim Moigua, 24, is the coordinator of a project that helped 11 youth set up a scrap metal recycling business in Sierra Leone.
CONTACT: The Youth Employment Network, Tel: + 41 22 7996584, E-mail: yenetwork@ilo.org