Internship, Knowledge Exchange & Partnerships

Internship, Knowledge Exchange & Partnerships and Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference Planning

March 8th-13th, 2012 (6 days) Invitation
Inter-European Development Bank's, Lisbon, Portugal

The Youth Economic Opportunities learning platform is the first community of practice and knowledge exchange portal developed by and for the youth economic opportunities sector dedicated to:

Connecting and sharing knowledge, experiences, and lessons learned;
Exchanging the latest resources, jobs, and funding opportunities; and
Impacting the world’s 1.8 billion young people.

We offer an open and innovative environment for collaborative and dynamic learning and knowledge sharing around the following technical areas and cross-cutting themes:

Workforce Development
Financial Services
Enterprise Development
Gender
Evaluation & Assessment

Unique features include:

Making Cents International’s annual “State of the Field in Global Youth Economic Opportunitie s" publications, now available as an interactive online e-book format.
Hundreds of resources, including the latest publications, videos, and tools.
Over 100 global initiatives led by organizations, networks, and projects working to support economic opportunities for young people, including an interactive map.
Upcoming events, including industry trainings and conferences.
Youth Economic Opportunities Blogs for leading industry experts to share innovative ideas and lessons learned.
The latest news & announcements and career opportunities in the youth economic opportunities field.

The Youth Economic Opportunities learning platform is an initiative of Making Cents International, a dynamic social enterprise based in Washington D.C. that has been increasing economic opportunities in developing countries for more than twelve years. Making Cents is known as a source of high quality technical services, and a thought leader in the economic growth arena. Its training, technical assistance, and knowledge management activities consistently improve the ability of target populations - especially youth, women, smallholder farmers, and vulnerable populations - to begin and grow businesses, participate in profitable value chains, access finance, and obtain meaningful work. Making Cents has worked in over 50 countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Caribbean, Europe, and the Middle East.

Our Partners

Thank you to our partners for helping connect, exchange, and make an impact on the world’s 1.8 billion young people.

The Citi Foundation

The Citi Foundation is committed to the economic empowerment and financial inclusion of low- to moderate-income people in communities where Citi operates. The Foundation works collaboratively with a range of partners to test innovations with potential to achieve scale and promote leadership and knowledge building in Microfinance, Financial Capability and Asset Building, Enterprise Development, Youth Education and Livelihoods, College Success, and Neighborhood Revitalization. Through a "More than Philanthropy" approach, the Foundation puts the strength of Citi's people and business resources to work to enhance partnerships and help improve the lives of people and communities.

The MasterCard Foundation

The MasterCard Foundation is an independent, private foundation with over $3 billion in assets. Its global mandate is to enable people living in poverty to improve their lives – and the lives of their families and communities – by expanding their access to microfinance and education. The Foundation was established through a generous gift of shares from MasterCard Worldwide at the time of the company’s initial public offering in 2006. Based in Toronto, Canada, the Foundation operates independently of MasterCard Worldwide. Foundation policies, operations and programming decisions are determined by its Board of Directors with its President and CEO.

If this conference will be of interest and benefit to your organization, you can then nominate up to five (1-5) active members from your organization to participate and benefit from this conference.

We want to bring to your knowledge that our sponsors will be sponsoring the round trip flight tickets of international delegates coming from developing countries.

Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference 2013
For questions related to the Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference information contact the GYEO 2013 Conference Secretariat:
Info line: +351- 91-266-3345
Fax: +351-91-899-3834
Email: gyeo2012@ndtvmail.com
Email: GYEO2012@youtheconomicopportunities.fws1.com
Homepage: http:// youtheconomicopportunities.fws1.com

Purpose and Background

Today's global youth population of 1.5 billion stands at a historical high, and 90% of these young people live in developing countries. The International Labour Organization's Global Employment Trends for Youth 2010 report states that 81 million of the world's 620 million economically active youth are currently unemployed, which is the highest youth unemployment rate on record. The young people who do maintain salaried employment often work for low wages, in unsafe conditions, and for shortened hours. The world is experiencing a youth employment crisis that is perpetuating cycles of poverty and preventing growth and development.

Organizations and individuals around the world are increasingly recognizing the employment challenges youth are facing, and are seeking innovative and proven solutions to support young people's efforts to obtain a decent job or start a business. As a result, more than 400 professionals from over 60 countries annually attend Making Cents' Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference to share promising practices and lessons learned, form new partnerships, and gain technical capacity in evidence-based approaches.

In just five years, this annual conference has become the premier learning event for this field. It is helping to fill critical gaps in understanding and is catalyzing new partnerships that are taking initiatives to scale and helping them to achieve sustainability. As a direct result of participating in this conference, past participants have:

Gained new technical capacity;
Established new partnerships;
Gave or received invitations to submit funding proposals; and/or
Revamped programs and policies in response to information they obtained.

For the 2011 Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference, 400 leading stakeholders gathered from 60 countries

After each Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference, Making Cents synthesizes the learning shared at the event to develop a practical "State of the Field" publication, which is circulated globally. The 2011 "State of the Field" publication will be published in 2012.

PARTNER WITH US

About Microlinks

Microlinks aims to extend and multiply the impact of the learning and innovation

Microlinks captures new learning in microenterprise development, disseminates it among practitioners, European mission staff, and other donors, and connects those actors to each other in order to improve development outcomes around the world. Using a knowledge-driven approach to microenterprise development, Microlinks aims to extend and multiply the impact of the learning and innovation developed through microenterprise research and practice.

Microlinks offers features and functionality to provide a dynamic, collaborative learning environment. There are many ways to tap into industry “know-how” on Microlinks:

Connect with a growing number of Microlinks practitioners from public and private sectors
Stay on top of industry trends with news and the Enterprising Ideas Blog
Access 1,000+ publications and tools and get suggestions on related resources
Read field stories and post questions for the authors*
Contribute to online discussions in Speakers Corners and seminar Q&A*
Register for Microlinks signature events and view the industry calendar
Explore EU-vetted good practice in the Value Chain Development Wiki
Take self-paced, interactive e-learning courses*
Watch 175+ screencasts and video interviews from our popular seminar series
Submit publications, events, news, and opportunities*

European's vision for microenterprise development includes increasing the ability of poor households to protect their assets and seize economic opportunities; helping microenterprises become more competitive in local, regional and global markets; and promoting policy and regulatory reforms that can ensure that economic growth is accompanied by poverty reduction.

European' Microenterprise Development team supports Microlinks and a broad array of knowledge-sharing tools, strategies, and events through the Knowledge-Driven Microenterprise Development program, implemented by The QED Group, LLC and its sub-contractors,International Resources Group and Training Resources Group.