TechnoServe Coalition Wins Global Youth Empowerment Award

WASHINGTON - May 28, 2015 - PRLog -- Under a new U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) award, TechnoServe will carry out expanded youth economic development programs as part of a consortium led by FHI 360. The consortium is among six awardees selected by USAID under its YouthPower Implementation award to improve young people’s capacities and opportunities in developing countries worldwide.

TechnoServe will focus on economic development and livelihoods under the award. Currently, people between the ages of 15 and 24 comprise 17 percent of the world’s population, but account for 40 percent of the world’s unemployed.  An additional 350 million young people are underemployed around the world.

This work continues TechnoServe’s long history in youth economic development, working on three continents with a range of public and private partners. Examples of TechnoServe’s current youth-focused work include:

• Facilitating training for 48,000 young people in rural parts of East Africa to prepare them to start businesses or access wage-paying jobs;

• Providing instruction in business, entrepreneurship and life skills to 8,000 girls from some of Kenya’s most impoverished urban neighborhoods;

• Organizing business plan competitions for young entrepreneurs in Côte d’Ivoire, leading to the creation of 55 operational companies, 390 direct jobs, and revenues of more than $1.5 million.

“With large and growing youth populations in so many developing countries today, real economic growth depends on generating sustainable opportunities for young people,” said TechnoServe CEO William Warshauer. “We are excited to work with USAID, FHI 360, and our other partners to tap into the incredible energy and creativity of young people around the world to help lift themselves and their families out of poverty.”

USAID’s YouthPower Implementation project has been developed in response to the agency’s Youth in Development Policy and will strengthen youth systems and programs in order to create positive outcomes in the areas of health, education, political engagement and economic empowerment.

About TechnoServe

TechnoServe is a nonprofit organization that develops business solutions to poverty. We work with enterprising men and women in 30 developing countries to build competitive farms, businesses and industries. By linking people to information, capital and markets, we help them create lasting prosperity for their families and communities. With more than 12 million people positively impacted by TechnoServe’s work since 1968, we believe in the power of private enterprise to transform lives.

For nine straight years, TechnoServe has earned a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, placing us in the top 1 percent of all its rated nonprofits.