Youth Business International Blog

By Andrew Devenport, Chief Executive, Youth Business International

CSR Americas 2012 took place in Quito, Ecuador, this week and bought together several hundred CSR professionals from the two continents, some NGOs, philanthropic foundation professionals and a number of staff from the Inter-American Development Bank, the organisers of the event.

I’d never been to Quito before and my first impression was definitely on my lungs, at 9,000 feet above sea level the air felt rather thin.

I’m a subscriber to Private Eye, a satirical British magazine, which might explain why one of the opening, off the cuff remarks of an early speaker struck a chord with me as wickedly un-politically correct, whilst the mostly Spanish speaking audience seemed unmoved.

Talking about the large proportion of young people in many Latin American countries and comparing it to the ageing populations in many developed nations the speaker said: “to be frank people in some developed countries would die to have the youth population demographics of Latin America.

Taken literally, the speaker was of course absolutely right in a perverse way, as the only quick way for developed countries to have the youth population demographics of Latin America is for (older people) to die!

Clearly my mischievous conclusion is a bad idea and of course totally misses the point which that in these troubled times when there are so many young unemployed people, it is tempting to see them collectively as a burden on society. By definition of course young people are our future and we ignore their protests over the past 18 months in Tunis, Cairo, Madrid and Athens at our peril. No society can afford a ‘lost generation’ and studies show that the longer a young person takes to find employment post education the greater the long term economic and human impact.

All of which brings me onto the real purpose of my visit: seeing how Youth Business International can play a role in the major new NEO partnership recently announced by the Inter-American Development Bank.

NEO stands for New Employment Opportunities for young people, and was launched in April by the IDB in partnership with Walmart, Microsoft, Caterpillar, Cemex and McDonald’s as well as with YBI’s frequent NGO partner, the International Youth Foundation.

The people at the IDB agree that a small but meaningful percentage of these trained young people will have the talent and the interest to start their own businesses and we’ll be working with them to see how we can take advantage of this opportunity.

The Prince of Wales, President of Youth Business International, has written about how stronger communities can be built through service to others.

In an editorial in Canada’s The Globe and Mail newspaper, HRH describes how on his current visit to the country, to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, he is looking for practical opportunities to celebrate how Canadians are serving their communities, the country and, indeed, the wider world.

Read the full article.

The Prince of Wales said that he is delighted that “the Prince’s Charities Canada foundation is supporting a project called Operation Entrepreneur, which will help Canadian Forces men and women, including wounded personnel, to retrain and broaden their opportunities for a successful transition to civilian life.” This project will be launched later today at an event attended by His Royal Highness in New Brunswick.

This project is run in partnership with YBI’s member in Canada, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation – which recently announced that it had reached two major milestones – supporting 5,000 young entrepreneurs and spurring the creation of 20,000 new jobs in Canada!

Youth Business International has been prominently featured in the 2011 Barclays Citizenship report as one of the main non-profit organisations that the bank is working with in the area of enterprise skills.

Barclays’ US$1m Unlocking Enterprise partnership with YBI is bringing a brighter future to thousands of young people around the world. The three year project, which started in July 2010, is focused on a number of areas including supporting the launch of Youth Business America and developing a global IT infrastructure for the YBI global network.

In addition, Barclays is also the sponsor of the YBI Entrepreneur of the Year competition, helping to raise the profile of successful young entrepreneurs, inspire young people, and demonstrate the impact that entrepreneurs can have in their local communities.

In the introduction to the report, Barclays CEO Bob Diamond says:

“Like many businesses, we are increasingly concerned by the high levels of unemployment among young people, and the long-term problems this might cause, both for those individuals and for society.

Our community investment programme is focused on providing young people with the necessary financial, enterprise and life skills to achieve economic independence and security.”

The report explains:

“Barclays’ partnership with Youth Business International (YBI) helps young people start their own business and create employment. YBI works with 18–35 year olds to provide access to capital, training, mentoring and other business development services. Our support will enable YBI to provide services that will benefit 50,000 under-served young entrepreneurs in 34 countries. In 2011, our support helped YBI entrepreneurs start over 7,000 new businesses around the world.”

In addition to YBI, Barclays works with Unicef and Junior Achievement in the area of enterprise skills, helping thousands of people in the UK and around the world to build their own businesses.

Leena Akhter from Bangladesh is one of the case studies profiled in the report. Leena set up her women’s clothes business Amber Boutiques and Blocks with the help of YBI member the Bangladesh Youth Enterprise Advice and Helpcentre (B’Yeah).

 Read the Barclays Citizenship report.

Youth Business International’s 2012 Network Review is live – and we think you should take a look!

Last year the members of our global network helped 7,709 young people to start their own business.

That’s nearly 8,000 young people – one person every hour of every day – who have been given the means to take control of their lives and create a business that can go on to create additional jobs for others.

We’re proud of what we have achieved, but there’s so much more to do.

Read our new Network Review to find out more.

One of the fastest growing members of the YBI network is the Kenya Youth Business Trust (KYBT) based in the Kenyan cities of Nairobi and Mombasa 

As the first round of the ongoing Comic Relief funded enterprise outreach programme draws to a close the small KYBT team are already well under-way rolling out their next initiative; and the project is an excellent example of actors in the  startup ecosystem working together to deliver positive community outcomes. Sanergy (a combination of sanitation and energy)  is an entrepreneurial start up company which provides a new type of sanitation solution in Kenya.

The business became a reality when the three MiT students  behind the project  saw an opportunity to improve sanitation in  Kenyan slum communities and simultaneously generate a source of clean energy by using  an obvious waste product to generate energy.

Sanergy is building a large network of franchise toilet units, which are themselves run and operated by local entrepreneurs. Each day the waste, which is stored in airtight containers, is collected and taken to a central processing facility where it is converted into clean and efficient biogas. From here the resultant electricity is sold directly into the national grid in Kenya.

read more »

Youth Business International is delighted to be prominently featured in the latest corporate citizenship report from Accenture.

The report, entitled, Our Journey Forward, explains the work that Accenture has been doing across five parts of its corporate citizenship strategy: Corporate Governance, Skills to Succeed, Environment, Our People and Supply Chain.

read more »

If you read our CEO Andrew’s most  recent  blog,  you will already know that a big chunk of the YBI team spent last month in Liverpool at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress. The Congress is a huge event which moves around the world,  bringing together hosts from all 120 countries that host Global Entrepreneurship Week.

read more »