COMMONWEALTH YOUTH PROGRAMME AFRICA CENTRE

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COMMONWEALTH YOUTH PROGRAMME AFRICA
CENTRE COMMONWEALTH SECRETARIAT Youth Enterprise
Development and Youth Employment Experiences and
Lessons from Commonwealth Africa ENIWET KAKUWA
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AIMS
The programme aims to provide

• integrated package of low cost
• easily accessible credit
• enterprise training
• development to young entrepreneurs

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OBJECTIVE

• To promote the development of sustainable micro
  enterprise employment among young people

• To promote economic growth and national
  development

• To demonstrate a model of good practice in micro
  credit for young people

• Attracting the interest of donors, governments
  and other development agencies in youth
  enterprise development

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KEY FEATURES OF BEST PRACTICE INITIATIVES

• Training provided and loans distributed by NGOs
  with experience in micro- credit and enterprise
• Group lending and use of group savings as
  collateral against loans to ensure repayment
• Democratic participation by beneficiaries
• Entrepreneurial development and management
  training as a prerequisite for participation
• Provision of information and support services
• Business support services to young business
  entrepreneurs

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GROUPS
THE SAVING CLUB
THE BUSINESS PLAN
THE CONTRACT AND REPORTS
THE LOAN
LOAN DELIVERY
LOAN REPAYMENT
SAVINGS
SUSTAINABILITY
INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
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ADVANTAGES OF THE MODEL

• Promotes self- employment option for young people

• Self- supporting

• Entry into the commercial network for young
  people

• Implementation costs spread over a no. of
  agencies/ covered under the programme

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• Necessary input is political will to commit
  government to supporting YED programmes through
  development of policy frameworks and budget
  allocations

• Applies strict commercial disciplines and leaves
  all partners better equipped to counter poverty

• CYP encourages governments to create policy and
  institutional structures and flexibility in
  legal and banking systems

• CYP provides information, materials, advice and
  technical assistance

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LESSONS FROM THE PAST

• Use an agency with experience in enterprise
  training or credit delivery

• Implementing agency selected on basis of
  political neutrality, institutional capacity,
  commitment, innovativeness, flexibility in
  accounting for local conditions

• Inappropriate to select government agency to
  implement programme

• Need to provide orientation training to staff

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• Regular monitoring and evaluation of programme
  is needed

• Regular consultations and checks with partner
  NGO necessary to ensure implementation of project
  is smooth

• Provision of youth exchange activities is
  essential to facilitate sharing of best practices
  among young people in running sustainable
  enterprises

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CHALLENGES

• Allocation of funds are not proportional to
  magnitude of youth unemployment

• Little effort at monitoring and evaluation of
  programmes

• Personnel lack skills, experience and awareness

• Cumbersome loan transactions

• Wider acceptance of potential of youth
  enterprises needed

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SUGGESTIONS
IMPROVE PERFORMANCE OF YED PROGRAMMES AT FOUR
LEVELS-

• Level of borrower who lacks experience with
  credit institutions
• Level of financial organizations not pre-
  disposed to lending to youth
• Level of existing regulations
• Inadequacy of loan- able funds, strict collateral
  requirements, and negative attitude of some
  lending institutions towards youth borrower

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ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS

• Direct credit to economic activities in which
  youth are most active

• Mobilizing capital for youth activities

• Incorporating flexible repayments for small loans

• Promotion of YED programme in decentralized
  manner

• Incorporation of purchasing and/or marketing
  systems

• Refine group guarantee mechanism to reduce risk
  of defaults

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• YED policies need to be put in place in Africa to
  integrate efforts into national economies

• Undertake appropriate legal reforms

• Linking potential youth enterprise programmes
  with capital by strengthening capacity of major
  institutions and capacity building

• Need for National Enterprise Policy in informal
  sector to enable young people to access credit
  facilities, infrastructure and so on

• Partnership between private sector/ business
  community in mobilising resources and providing
  business support services