Commonwealth Asia Regional Conference on

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• Commonwealth Asia Regional Conference on
• Investing in Youth Employment
• (22-24 February 2011, Colombo)
• The CYP Asia Centre in collaboration with the
  Ministry of Youth Affairs Skills Development,
  Government of Sri Lanka

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• Main Objectives
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• To provide a platform to various stakeholders to
  discuss regional context, trends, policy
  commitments and challenges of youth unemployment
  with a focus on youth entrepreneurship/enterprise
  development and decide on a slew of practical
  actions for the promotion of youth enterprise.
• To explore possibilities for strategic
  partnership/collaboration with International and
  National development organizations, banking
  institutions, corporate sector for youth
  enterprise development.
•  

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• Specific objectives
•  
• To share the findings of the CYPs regional
  situational analysis on youth employment with an
  emphasis on youth enterprise.
• To showcase practical interventions on youth
  enterprise/entrepreneurship development,
  including good practices across the Commonwealth.
• To share perspectives of financial institutions
  and corporate sectors on youth entrepreneurship
  and enterprise development.

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• Expected Outcomes
•  
• Create a repository of knowledge on regional
  youth unemployment trends, policy issues and
  concerns, including good practice models on
  youth entrepreneurship/enterprise development.
• Increase awareness about young peoples
  bankability to credit.
• Develop practical action plans for the promotion
  of youth enterprise/entrepreneurship development
  interventions.
• Building strategic partnership/collaboration with
  relevant stakeholders

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• Key areas of discussion
• Review and reassessment of policies and
  programmes in the member 8 countries by
  Assessment Report, Country presentations, expert
  views
• Focused on establishing strategic partnerships
  underscoring the roles and responsibilities of
  various stakeholders in promoting and enhancing
  youth employment and enterprise
• Defining and establishing clear regulatory,
  policy and institutional mechanisms toward
  promoting and accelerating youth employment and
  enterprise

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•  Situational Analysis on youth employment in the
  Commonwealth Asia Region
• CYPs presentation of the situational analysis on
  youth employment with emphasis on youth
  enterprise, carried out through a desk review of
  secondary data, set the tone of the discussion at
  the conference. The focus of the CYP assessment
  was broad, and emphasis was placed on areas
  related to CYPs mandate in order to further
  inform the discussions.

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• Policy and institutional framework
• Among other issues, the emphasis was on
  conducting a review of processes and mechanism
  with a focus on financial inclusion of the youth,
  and establishing and implementing clearly thought
  out entrepreneurship development schemes offering
  comprehensive and integrated packages of services

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• Access to finance
• The consultation called for a need to prioritize
  easy access, availability of micro finance and
  other innovative financial support for budding
  and established entrepreneurs, as well as, sought
  a larger role of the financial sector to come
  forward to support youth enterprise development.

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• Education and skill building
• The consultation dwelt on a range of discussion
  areas, including the need for integrating
  entrepreneurship education in school and college
  environment, encouraging entrepreneurial thinking
  and innovation, and comprehensive vocational
  training programmes.

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• Stakeholders participation
• The consultation stressed on the importance of
  forming strategic partnerships with financial and
  corporate sector on one hand, and educational
  institutions and community organizations on the
  other, with the objective of fostering an
  enabling environment through building and running
  programmes on advocacy, skill training, capacity
  building and other business support services to
  promote youth enterprise.

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• -Creating a knowledge portal for providing
  access to a variety of information including the
  labour market, technical and non technical
  support services and networks for entrepreneurs.
• -Documentation and dissemination of good
  practices

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• Recommendations
• To review and reassess the policy and
  institutional framework to support young budding
  entrepreneurs and existing businesses
• to formulate a national action plan / strategy to
  foster youth enterprise development
• Promote a more enabling environment improve the
  legal, financial and institutional framework
• encourage financial institutions to provide
  collateral free credit and other financial
  services.
• Integrate entrepreneurship into the mainstream
  education system
• partnerships with stakeholders including
  financial and corporate sector, chambers of
  industry and commerce, and other private sector
  non profit/ support organizations

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• A guiding framework for action
• Promoting an enabling environment, a culture of
  entrepreneurship among youth
• Creating a national level platform in every
  member country
• Integrated and coordinated approach to youth
  enterprise

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• Promoting an enabling environment, a culture of
  entrepreneurship among youth
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Role of / Stakeholders Strategies / Activities
Ministry of Youth, Develop a communication strategy on youth enterprise entailing- Services, Statistics on youth unemployment (with benchmarking tools), Good practices etc. Advocacy and awareness creation
Ministry of Finance/Banking, Education Prime Ministers Office (PMO) Provide financial incentives for private sector to fund Youth Enterprise programmes Facilitation of linkages between different stakeholders to support and grow future entrepreneurs Integrating entrepreneurship education in the school, college, university system Encourage enterprise building as a viable career option
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• Promoting an enabling environment, a culture of
  entrepreneurship among youth
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Role of / Stakeholders Strategies / Activities
Financial Sector / Institutions Creating an enabling environment Conduct seminar/ training workshops
Corporate Sector / Chambers Support services by establishing incubation centre and by providing infrastructure Help drive creativity and innovation amongst youth
NGOs / Other support organizations Advocacy and awareness raising to create an enabling environment Capacity building of youth Training the trainers
CYP High level interventions on promoting youth enterprise development Provide technical and advisory services
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• Creating a national level platform in every
  member country
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Role of / Stakeholders Strategies / Activities
Ministry of Youth Setting the scene through national youth policy Formulation of a national action plan working with multi stakeholders focusing on advocacy and awareness creation, financial and non-financial support services Developing strategy for Implementation Resource mobilization Monitoring and Evaluation Framework Creation of special youth enterprise development fund
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• Creating a national level platform in every
  member country
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Role of / Stakeholders Strategies / Activities
Ministry of Labour, Finance / Banking, Commerce, MSME Mainstreaming youth employment in to the national employment strategy Financial inclusion policy for youth Setting the scene through employment enterprise related policies Create incentives for private sector to fund Youth Entrepreneurship programmes 5. Facilitation of linkages between different stakeholders involved in Youth enterprise development and delegate management of programmes third party experts
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• Creating a national level platform in every
  member country
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Role of / Stakeholders Strategies / Activities
Financial Sector Collateral free easy loans at a differential rate of interest for the youth Change focus from product-centered to customer focused financial services Develop appropriate products and services for emerging youth enterprises
Corporate Sector / Chambers Funding youth initiatives and projects, provide mentorship Open source initiatives enhancing visibility and reach for entrepreneurs Training and apprenticeships Business linkage opportunities Offer mentoring and advice both to young entrepreneurs and to those involved in Youth Entrepreneurship
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• Creating a national level platform in every
  member country
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Role of / Stakeholders Strategies / Activities
NGOs / Other support organizations CYP Articulate the needs of the youth and the challenges facing them Provide leadership and mentoring youth Community building programmes, awareness campaigns Capacity building Carry out, facilitate and co-ordinate,implementation programmes Lobby with the government to ensure changes achieved in suitable and timely manner Creating a regional platform on youth enterprise development with UN and other international agencies Convene Regional level expert meetings to share successful experiences
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• Integrated and coordinated approach to youth
  enterprise
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Role of / Stakeholders Strategies / Activities
Ministry of Youth Constitute a broad based inter-ministerial committee with clearly defined Terms of Reference Organizing national level meetings and workshops
Ministry of Finance / Banking More allocation of funds to promote youth enterprise
CYP Identification and mapping of stakeholders / potential alliance Creating a knowledge portal Data and statistics on youth, Documentation and dissemination of good practices
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• THANK YOU!