Baltimore, Maryland, USA -- Building on the 2007 World Development Report’s call to invest in more than a billion young people living in developing countries, the International Youth Foundation will help lead a new global initiative, supported by the World Bank, to better understand the problems facing young people in their transition to work. The new program will also identify effective programs and approaches to help address these challenges. IYF joins the International Labor Organization’s Youth Employment Network (YEN), the Child Protection Initiative (CPI) of the Arab Urban Development Institute (AUDI), and the Understanding Children’s Work Project (UCW) in a new consortium that seeks to increase understanding about “what works” through research, learning, and evaluation; to design and implement youth training pilot programs; and to promote effective policy dialogue and capacity building among local governments.

“IYF has a real track record in designing and implementing effective job training and job placement programs in Latin America and other areas of the world,” says William S. Reese, President and CEO of the International Youth Foundation. “So we look forward to working with this distinguished group of partners to help develop best practice models and strategies that can then be replicated to positively impact far greater numbers of youth worldwide.”

As part of its role in the partnership, IYF will develop linkages among the partners to demonstrate the value added of joint initiatives. IYF will also invest in pilot programs in Jordan and Kenya to advance knowledge on effective programming in skills development for disadvantaged youth. To lay foundations for these programs, IYF will host learning events in these two countries which will enable key stakeholders from the public, private, and civil society sectors to share knowledge and coordinate efforts to promote youth employability. To launch the new initiative, the World Bank has committed US$500,000 through its Development Grant Facility (DGF) for the current year, and encourages the participation of other donors and partners to complement its support for the overall initiative.

For more information on IYF’s work in the employability sector, please click here.