Can technology deliver impact as well as scale for youth programing?

Transcription

1 Can technology deliver impact as well as scale for youth programing? 4 Case studies from the Middle East Youth Economic Opportunities Conference Washington DC September 2013 Justin Sykes Rachel Awad Mohammed AlMBaid Jeffrey Avina Chamseddine Ouerdiane

2 Case #1: Access to Career Guidance tools and advising in Palestine Mohammed AlMbaid MENA Regional Director

3 Youth lack access to career guidance services The Context: Youth unemployment: 27% across the Arab region Career guidance in the Arab world is a fledgling concept, and the capacity to deliver quality career guidance services to the regions youth remains extremely underdeveloped. The majority of youth in the region finish high school and university without ever considering career interests and options. The Challenge: Practitioners and researchers have identified the lack of career guidance services as on of the key challenges for regional employability support.

4

5 Silatech and it s partner Mindmill have developed a suite of online psychometric tools which are helping to address this challenge in 2 ways:

6 Tamheed is now being used by youth in hundreds of institutions across MENA, including universities, NGOs, schools and governments: Syria Other Palestine Qatar Egypt

7 The Case of Palestine Like many other countries, Palestine faces the challenge of high youth unemployment and motivated youth with little access to information, guidance and employment resources. In 2012 IYF Palestine partnered with Silatech to make Tamheed Career Guidance available to youth in Palestine. As of today there over 20 Tamheed certified advisors delivering career guidance to Palestinian youth at 10 institutions throughout the West Bank. over 1000 students in Palestine have participated in on-on-one career guidance sessions so far through this initiative and the demand is growing.

8 P Youth in Ramallah meet with advisors at a career guidance program organized by IYF (Feb. 2012) WHAT STUDENTS ARE SAYING Every student should be required to take these and get counselling to help them decide what to study. I have learned things about myself and my strengths that I never knew before. I am thinking seriously about my future as a result of this guidance. WHAT CAREER ADVISORS ARE SAYING The training and the materials are extremely useful. We are now able to better support the youth of our country. Thank you for enabling us to provide a service that our young people need.

9 Case #2: Online Employability Resources in the MENA Region Jeffrey Avina Director of Citizenship & Community Affairs MENA

10 The Challenge: Youth in MENA lack access to information and resources to support them on the path to economic empowerment Skills Guidance Internship & Volunteer Opportunities Business Planning Financial Literacy Content in Arabic Language skills Workplace Readiness CV & Interview preparation Many of these resources are already available, but youth are struggling to find them

11 .com An online portal created to empower Arab youth and help them realize their potential. The portal connects them with resources needed to enhance and develop the skills they need to compete within the work force. Career guidance, cv writing, mock interviews, internships, business planning, jobs

12

13

14 E-learning for employability

15

16 Localization

17 Case #3: Reaching Tunisian Youth by Mobile Phones Chamseddine Ouerdiane President

18 Addressing the needs of youth via mobile phone The Context: Context Youth in Tunisia are extremely skeptical about government support for their economic empowerment. Tunisia has a strong Civil Society and NGO network focused on supporting Tunisia s youth. Mobile phone penetration in Tunisia has gone from 6% in 2002 to 105% in 2012, with youth penetration rates even higher. The Challenge: Helping to bridge the gap between Tunisian youth and labor market info, skills development, entrepreneurship, reaching the youth in an engaging and sustainable way.

19 A comprehensive mobile solution A partnership between Proinvest/Edupartage, Silatech and Tunisiana, reaching hundreds of thousands of youth across Tunisia

20

21 Why Najja7ni Employment? Mobile apps enable young people to assess their knowledge regarding employment and entrepreneurship New ways to encourage young people to discover their interests both on a personal and professional level Easy to use, appropriate for all ages. Works on basic phones or smart phones.

22 Using Najjahni Emploi, youth in Tunisia can access information about relevant topics: Career Guidance Entrepreneurship Labor Market and training opportunities Financial Literacy

23 Initial usage reports Within 1 month of going live, over 298,000 Tunisians had registered for the Najjahni service. 3 months later 60% of those users were still actively engaged with the service. No formal advertising or promotion.

24 Demonstration 1. Career Profile 2. Am I ready to look for a job? 3. Can I be an entrepreneur? 4. Learn how to manage your money 0. Return 2 At the end of each test, the user will be given the score/result: Your Score is 21/22 1. Back to the main menu 1

25 Case #4: Using the power of the crowd to finance Arab entrepreneurs Justin Sykes Director, Microenterprise

26 The Challenge The failure of most Arab countries to integrate young people - economically, socially and politically - has been a major cause of the Arab Unrest. Innovative solutions are urgently needed to solve these social challenges. Youth Unemployment. The Arab world has the largest youth cohort and the highest unemployment rates Enterprise development is key to job creation. But, funding is a bottleneck to business survival. It is worse when you are young. The MENA region has the lowest levels of youth financial globally.

27 Why Crowd Funding? Technology combined with the power of social networks offer a unique opportunity to achieve scale Crowd funding platforms can provide financing alternatives to individuals and enterprises globally. Increasing Internet usage by young Arabs & the Diaspora offers opportunities to connect traditional charitable giving to crowd-funding There is a need for specialist Arab web egiving platforms & fund transfer solutions

28 The nascent MENA crowd funding landscape Micro-enterprise SME Debt/Equity Creative Crowdfunding Crowd sourcing Ideas Funding Arab crowd-funding is small, nascent, with limited reach. A period of intensive growth, decay, mergers and acquisitions is likely The timing is right to enter this market strategically

29 Our Response: E-giving Pilot - Kiva Arab Youth Kiva is the world s largest micro-lending platform. Kiva Arab Youth (KAY): Since March ,000 lenders 3,100 youth borrowers $3.8 m in funding 98% repayment rate Media Coverage Kiva Blogs: 28m visitors pm Twitter: 4,900 Tweet count, 489,706 followers 20,000+ Fans on Facebook

30 Beyond KAY Our Opportunity Building upon our learning, increasing relevance for the Arab Region. This is through a focus on: Choice of Language Regional payment systems Committed donor base Lower foreign currency restrictions More locations and country coverage Greater diversity of projects New avenues for charitable giving

31 Introducing Narwi Narwi means to tell a story, as well as to nourish. We tell the stories of ambitious young men and women from throughout the region with different backgrounds, aspirations and needs. Our mission is to connect these young Arab microentrepreneurs with capital and knowledge, mobilized through the crowd, which enables them to grow sustainable businesses and create jobs for others. We help young Arabs tell their story. You help them write it.

32 Narwi how it works Using Narwi, you can donate money, your skills or even your time to support a young Arab entrepreneur of your choice. Through your donation, you can help these young Arabs to grow their businesses, create jobs and realize their entrepreneurial dreams. Funds are given as revolving donations, so that your contribution moves on to support others as well. We call it smart giving.

33 Change a life today

34 Q&A