Empowering Youth to Change the World with ICT and Entrepreneurship/Empowering Youth to Change the World with ICT and Entrepreneurship

Empowering Youth to Change the World with ICT and Entrepreneurship
Sunday 29 Mar 2009
Rinalia Abdul Rahim


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Empowering Youth to Change the World with ICT and Entrepreneurship
Sunday 29 Mar 2009
Rinalia Abdul Rahim

By Rinalia Abdul Rahim
Strategy Council Member of the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development
and former Executive Director of the Global Knowledge Partnership (2001-2008).


Young people are the world's largest resource in development. Forty percent of the world's population is under 20 years of age and over 1 billion people are between the ages of 15 and 25. In some developing countries, youth constitute more than two thirds of the population.

Young people who are given early access to information and communications technologies (ICT) tend to become early adopters and adapters of the technologies, skills valued for spurring innovation and economic growth. Youth are at the forefrontof societal transformation through ICT because technology is what they have grown up with, what they know more about than their parents, and what gives them an edge. 1 With the Internet, young people have acquired a powerful new tool to connect, communicate, innovate and take action on things that matter to them on a scale that transcends their locality, making them global actors.

Young people's high level of social consciousness are often underestimated, but they care about many things including climate change and the environment, the spread of HIV and other diseases, economic inequality and the lack of employment opportunities, social justice and human rights. Because of their ideals, those among them who are proficient with ICT and are motivated to create change have apropensity for linking the use of the technologies to development goals. However, without entrepreneurial skills, they lack the necessary ability to sustain their efforts and overcome challenges that stand in their way.

As enablers of ICT-facilitated development and as social entrepreneurs who want to make a difference in the world, empowered youth can be a potent force for change. Yet there are still few strategies and initiatives that truly empower young people tobecome leaders in creating sustainable social, environmental and economic impact worldwide. There are many initiatives that engage youth through conferences and connect them for virtual networking, but few go on to provide a comprehensive support structure that enables youth to create development impact for themselves and for others.

The World Summit on the Information Society in 2003 acknowledged that young people are the future workforce, leading creators and early adopters of ICT, and that they must be empowered as learners, developers, contributors, entrepreneurs and decision-makers.2 The reality is that some young people are already part of the global workforce due to poverty and circumstances. A large number of them are unable to find employment. The International Labour Organization reported 76 million youth were unemployed in 2008, comprising 40% of total world unemployment. Little progress has been made in improving the position of youth in the labor market and young people still suffer disproportionately from a deficit of decent work opportunities. Moreover, youth who are employed often work long hours under informal, insecure and intermittent work arrangements characterized by meager earnings, low productivity and reduced labor protection.3 The issue of youth employment is and will continue to be an important variable when considering effective youth empowerment strategies and it makes a focus on entrepreneurship critical.

To break the cycle of poverty and unleash youth potential in creating change for themselves and for society, a multiple focus on ICT, learning (formal or informal), and entrepreneurial skills development is required, but this alone is not enough. Mechanisms that facilitate youth action, support their learning and help them mobilize resources are also needed.

Key learning on youth empowerment strategies can be drawn from the experience ofthe Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP), which has worked for more than 10 yearsin the field of ICT and knowledge for Development. Since its inception in 1997, the GKP understood the importance of realizing the potential of young people as stakeholders in development and in building knowledge societies. The GKP youth strategy evolved over time by learning from young leaders around the world, who use ICT to produce and use knowledge to initiate or support sustainable development initiatives. In 2006, the GKP Youth Strategy converged into a core focus on youth, ICT and entrepreneurship via the Youth Social Enterprise Initiative (YSEI) program. The strategy focuses on five elements in empowering young people: Community-Building, Knowledge Generation and Sharing, Projects Support, Skills Development and Policy Advocacy.

Community Building
Young people need support networks that can help them communicate, draw inspiration and gather resources to take action. These networks include not just their peers who share the same interests, but also mentors and others who support their cause. To facilitate the emergence of a global community and network of and for young people working on ICT policy and practice, the GKP and its members have initiated and supported various youth networking and community-building initiatives involving face to face as well as online interactions.4 More than 3000 young leaders in ICT have been networked through these mechanisms and their engagement was brought to a higher level through knowledge sharing activities.

Knowledge Generation and Sharing
As young people gain experience and move on to other things, they often take their valuable experiences with them, leaving others to relearn the lessons of the past. To ensure continuity of learning, it is important to have mechanisms for capturing the lessons from the past as knowledge resources as well as to share that knowledge as widely as possible. GKP and its members have generated various knowledge resources based on programmatic experiences that can help young people learn from past initiatives. The resources include a series of guidebooks on a wide range of topics such as how to develop national youth campaigns based on youth activism during the World Summit on the Information Society; how young people can build communities and engage in Internet Governance issues at the national level; and how to plan social enterprises and solve problems innovatively. A wikipedia for young social entrepreneurs, which serves as a dedicated and expandable knowledge resource, has been developed under the YSEI program. Moreover, ICT success stories based on the projects of young people worldwide have also been published and disseminated widely. Complementing the knowledge resources are inspiring peer-to-peer, face-to-face knowledge sharing activities targeted at young leaders in ICT where they learn from each other's experience and build their network of peers.5

Project Support
Young people usually lack substantial mainstream support in terms of funding for the sustainable implementation and replication of their initiatives. During the World Summit on the Information Society process (2003-2005), the GKP organized its Youth Awards to bring international recognition to the outstanding work of young people around the world that used knowledge and ICT to promote development.6 In 2004, the GKP introduced an experimental Projects Fund that provided seed funding for small and innovative ICT projects targeted at youth, women, the poor andindigenous or displaced communities.7 The learning from the Awards and Projects Fund enhanced the understanding of what is needed to support the involvement and leadership of young people in ICT projects that align with development goals. In 2006, after two years of deliberation involving its members, GKP launched the Youth Social Enterprise Initiative (YSEI) as a program that provides comprehensive supportfor young social entrepreneurs in developing countries between the ages of 17 to 30, who use ICT to achieve broad sustainable development objectives. The program, which started with a focus on Asia, provides support in the form of seed financing, essential knowledge, mentorship and access to diverse networks. In addition to the program's seed funding, selected young social entrepreneurs in the program were provided with opportunities to present their social business proposals for start-up andscale-up funding from potential investors including venture capitalists.8

"To date, YSEI has supported over 100 early stage social enterprises in South Asia andSouth East Asia with capacity development and networking, and out of these, 18 young socialentrepreneurs have been selected to be YSEI Fellows and receive financial support based onthe strength of their social business proposal. 94% of them have achieved sustainabilityfor their social enterprises through YSEI support. The support process starts with the callfor proposals, the selection of early stage social enterprises that fit the investment criteria, thedue diligence, the social venture plan development workshop as final due diligence activityand the financing coupled with mentorship and incubation. The support process has aduration of roughly 18 months per round."

Sunit Shrestha, Managing Director, ChangeFusion
& Program Lead, GKP Youth Social Enterprise Initiative (YSEI)



Skills Development
The GKP Youth Fellowship Program in 2004 provided internship opportunities for 14 selected youth from developing countries and placed them with 12 GKP member organisations working on ICT for development issues at the grassroots level in Africa and Asia.9 The program yielded valuable insights in understanding the kind and range of skills that young people need to be effective in supporting and driving development initiatives in developing countries. Due to lack of experience, young people are usually not able to initiate and sustain their initiatives effectively. To compensate for lack of experience they need to be trained to develop problem solving and entrepreneurial skills. The Youth Social Enterprise Initiative (YSEI) began providing a series of training workshops for selected young socialentrepreneurs as well as young people with the potential to become social entrepreneurs in 2006. The training covered aspects of business plan development, problem solving, and fundraising. To expand the training to more young social entrepreneurs worldwide, YSEI has entered into partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2008 to develop modules on social entrepreneurship for the ILO's "Know About Business" training program targeted at aspiring entrepreneurs. YSEI has also identified over 100 professionals and seasoned entrepreneurs interested in becoming volunteer YSEI mentors. As part of the mentorship process, the volunteers will be matched with young social entrepreneurs in the program for coaching and guidance on management and business issues.

Policy Advocacy
Youth input in ICT policy development is important as the policies can provide the necessary framework, support and legitimacy for young people to initiate and sustain their initiatives. As young people usually lack the opportunity to participate in national, regional and international ICT policy development processes, GKP has implemented various initiatives to channel their input and also enable their participation in a meaningful way. In 2001, the GKP recommendations to the G8 Digital Opportunities Task Force on ‘Bridging the Digital Divide' included input gathered from consultations with youth from over 50 countries across 4 regions.10 In 2003, GKP and its members provided support for the Youth Caucus of the WorldSummit on the Information Society (WSIS), which successfully engaged 200 youth participants at the international level and more than 80,000 young people at the national level in 25 developing countries. 11 Support was also provided for NationalInformation Society Youth Campaigns in 21 countries to foster the active participation of youth in national level policy-making during WSIS. 12 GKP also supported efforts to create a stronger voice for women and girls in the WSIS process, particularly for young women in the Arab world13, while ensuring that the concerns of other marginalized groups were addressed.14 New areas for policy engagement to nurture youth entrepreneurship worldwide emerged in 2007 from GKP's Third Global Knowledge Conference (GK3)15 and in 2008 from the inaugural Science with Africa policy conference.16


After 10 years of working with youth on youth empowerment issues within the context of ICT and knowledge for development, the Global Knowledge Partnership's focus on youth, ICT and entrepreneurship is the correct one in tackling the problem of youth unemployment while addressing sustainable development needs worldwide. The GKP strategy has not only enabled the inclusion of youth, but also helped young social entrepreneurs create development impact for themselves and for others. It is to be noted that the collaboration and leadership of key GKP members, who were passionate about youth, were instrumental in the learning and evolution of the GKP youth strategy.17 For further impact, the learning needs to be leveraged, similar initiatives need to be linked for increased synergies via partnerships, and the collective capacities and effectiveness of the initiatives need to be enhanced while encouraging investments on youth initiatives involving ICT and entrepreneurship at all levels (i.e., national, regional and international).

As enablers of ICT-facilitated development and as social entrepreneurs who want to make a difference in the world, youth should continue to be empowered as a potent force for change in creating sustainable social, environmental and economic impact.The comprehensive approach of the GKP youth strategy represented by the five elements of Community Building, Knowledge Generation and Sharing, Projects Support, Skills Development and Policy Advocacy has proven to be effective as mechanisms for mobilizing youth engagement, leadership and action. The approach has further value in that its application is not limited to the field of ICT or youth and can be deployed across target groups such as women and indigenous communities as well as across issue areas such as agriculture, education, health, climate change adaptation, and more. The degree of success will be dependent on how knowledge is harnessed and how partnerships are managed in the process.

For more information, visit http://www.globalknowledgepartnership.org


GKP Youth Social Enterprise Initiative (YSEI) Program
http://www.ysei.org

The Youth Social Enterprise Initiative (YSEI) is a high-engagement social venture program ofthe Global Knowledge Partnership for emerging young social entrepreneurs in developingcountries. Led by GKP members ChangeFusion (previously known as ThaiRuralNet), MitraTechnology Foundation and Orphan IT, YSEI provides young social entrepreneurs whoqualify for its Fellowship with support in four key areas:

Knowledge: Essential development knowledge and tools on social entrepreneurship
Financing: Seed funding, start up funding and scale up funding for selected enterprises
Mentorship: Technical consulting through mentorship
Networks: Access to diverse networks


Social Enterprises and Young Social Entrepreneurs in the GKP Community

GKP MEMBERS

ChangeFusion (http://www.changefusion.org) - GKP Member; GKP Youth Social Enterprise Initiative Program Lead
ChangeFusion group, formerly known as Thai RuralNet, is a provider of social innovation design, investment and incubation services with a specific focus on catalyzing high-impact, scalable and sustainable social innovation. ThaiRuralnet began as an initiative of university students in Thailand.

eHomemakers (http://www.ehomemakers.net) - GKP member; Winner of the GKP Gender & ICT Awards 2005
eHomemakers is South East Asia's only community network that promotes self-help, business partnerships and entrepreneurship development for those who want to balance work and home life, especially for women.

Digital Divide Data (http://www.digitaldividedata.com) - GKP member; Winner of the GKP Youth & ICT Awards 2003
Digital Divide Data is an innovative, internationally acclaimed non-profit based inCambodia and Laos that uses a strong business model to generate profits that are invested back in the growth and development of its staff.

MITRA Technology Foundation (http://www.mitra.org.in) - GKP Member; GKP Youth Social Enterprise Initiative Program Partner
MITRA is an entrepreneurial initiative by a group of graduates from the Institute of Rural Management working towards promoting the spirit of volunteering in India through its flagship program 'iVolunteer'.

Orphan IT (http://www.orphanit.com) - GKP Member; GKP Youth & ICT Awards Winner 2003; GKP Youth Social Enterprise Initiative Program Partner
OrphanIT is a capacity building non-profit organization created to provide an effective and results driven consultancy services to telecentres and ICT groups in developingnations and communities.

Taking IT Global (http://www.takingitglobal.org) - GKP Member; YCDO Program Partner
TIG is a social network that connects millions of youth to provide opportunities forlearning, capacity-building, cross-cultural awareness, and self-development throughthe use of Information and Communication Technologies.

Warisan Global (http://www.warisanglobal.com) - GKP Member
Warisan Global is a social enterprise that works to bring about fundamental change through projects with social impact especially for youth and rural communities.


YOUTH SOCIAL ENTERPRISE INITIATIVE: ASIA FELLOWS 2008-2009

More information at http://www.ysei.org

Salah Uddin Ahmad - XayanIT, Bangladesh
XayanIT works with skilled but underprivileged youth interested in careers in the information and communications technologies (ICT) field.

Brinda Ayer - School and Community Horticulture Enterprise, India
The School and Community Horticulture Enterprise aims to supplement the national mid-day meal scheme with an appropriate level of vegetable nutrition to improve overall school enrolment and child health in India.

Audrey Codera - YouthWorks, Philippines
YouthWorks is a micro-finance institution that incubates grassroots youth in setting up and maintaining their business to develop economically independent and socially aware youth entrepreneurs through microfinance leveraging on ICT.Md.

Faisal Islam - Padma, Bangladesh
Padma is social development organization in the south west region of Bangladesh that aims to provide marginalized farming communities with access to an agricultural knowledge management system to improve their livelihoods.

Jaspal Shakya - Community Friendly Movement, India
By leveraging on technology and the power of retail, CFM seeks to create wealth for its primary stakeholders-artisan communities at the bottom of the supply chain, by creating a market for quality handmade products at competitive prices.

Marielle Punzalan Nadal - Idea!s, Philippines
Idea!s is a communications consultancy that empowers non-profits by utilizing information and communication technologies (ICT) as the most effective tool foradvocacy and fundraising activities.

Raj Ridvan Singh - SOLS 24/7, Timor Leste
SOLS 24/7 offers a comprehensive two year training and boarding program on lifeskills education for youth from disadvantaged families and is expanding the program founded in Cambodia to Timor Leste.

2005 GKP YOUTH & ICT AWARDS WINNERS

More information at http://www.globalknowledgepartnership.org/awards

The 2005 GKP Youth & ICT Awards aimed to highlight the outstanding work of young people who have transformed social development opportunities into a sustainable social enterprise through innovative use of ICT.

Audrey Codera, Philippines - "Community-based youth entrepreneurshi program"(http://www.youthtoendpoverty.org)

Jean-Paul Bauer, South Africa - "Operation Fikelela (Operation Access) for fighting poverty through access to education" (www.ikamvayouth.org)

Mark Okowa, Kenya - "Development of an ICT centre for the youth, to build their capacity in information technology, fight HIV/AIDS and poverty"(http://www.abckenya.org & http://www.elci.org)

Nileshni Sekar, Fiji - "Deaf handmade card project" (http://www.fijifriend.com)

Raj Ridvan Singh, Malaysia - "Providing education and life skills to poor school dropouts especially girls from rural areas" (http://sols247.org)

Rana Gulzar, Pakistan - "Youth empowerment skills capacity building programs for young women"

Salah Uddin Ahmed, Bangladesh - "Xayan IT: Enabling ICT skills development and employment creation for youth in Bangladesh" (http://www.xayanit.com/)

Wu Yang, China - "Household wastewater recycling management" (http://www.wiseuse.org)

2003 GKP YOUTH & ICT AWARDS WINNERS

More information at http://www.globalknowledgepartnership.org/awards

The 2003 GKP Youth & ICT Awards aimed to bring international recognition to the outstanding work of young people who have used ICT for the promotion of development around the world.

Timothy Keller, USA - "Digital Divide Data Cambodia"(http://www.digitaldividedata.org)

Tetyana Bila, Ukraine - "Creation and development of the Independent Children Media Centre Children's Voice" (http://fyce.org/mediacenter/)

Louis Dorval, Canada - "Engineers Without Borders Scala Project - IT Centres in the Philippines" (http://scala.ewb.ca/)

Nishchal Nath Pandey, Nepal - "Integrated education and capacity-building for girls and children"

Denise Odhiambo, Rwanda - "Rwanda Youth Rehabilitation Initiative" (http://www.solvepoverty.com/apc/cyberhost/youth)

Kennedy Edwine Onyango, Kenya - "Suba Youth Training Program (The Bridge)"

Ebben-esser Hatuikulipi, Namibia - "The Impact of HIV/AIDS in Katutura" (http://www.schoolnet.na/projects/Katutura_AIDS/)

Mika Vanhanen, Finland - "ENO-Environment Online" (http://eno.joensuu.fi)

Lucy Ryan, New Zealand - "Living Heritage" (http://www.livingheritage.org.nz)

Emily, Sarah and Elise Boyd, Australia - "MatMice: Free Homepages For Kids"(http://www.matmice.com/)

Dale Lachlan Pillars, Philippines - "Employment and Entrepreneurship"(http://www.OrphanIT.com)


2004-2005 GKP PROJECTS FUND RECIPIENTS

The GKP seed grant for small and innovative ICT projects targeted at youth, women, the poor and indigenous or displaced communities was awarded to the following initiatives in Africa (East, West, Central and South), Asia (Central, South, South East), Europe (East), Latin America, and Oceania:

"Capacity Building for Women and Youth Operators for Nigeria's First Rural ISP" project by Fantsuam Foundation, Nigeria

"Improving Rural Development in the Upper Nkam Division in Cameroon through Open and Distance Training Programme for Rural Women" project by PROTÉGÉQV, Cameroon

"ICT Resource Centre for Schools and Youth Participation" project by the Rural Development Volunteers Association, Solomon Islands Pilot project to establish two Regional Media Centres for indigenous communities by the Promedios de Communicacion Comunitaria A.C, Mexico

"SheBlogs: Open Source Web Publishing Tool for Women" project by WomensHub, Philippines

"Building Capacity in Women's Health: Harnessing ICT for Healthcare ProviderTraining in Developing Countries" project by the Department of Medical Education,School of Medical Services, University Sains Malaysia / Global Health through Education, Training and Service, Inc.

"Online and e-Advocacy for Pacific Women: ICT Capacity Building" project by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community's Pacific Women's Bureau, New Caledonia

"Digital Youth Radio" project by HELP Resources Inc., Papua New Guinea

"Pallitathya Help Line (Rural Information Help Line)" project by D.Net - Development through Access to Network Resources, Bangladesh

"Using ICT to Preserve Our Skill in Handicraft Making for Future Generations" project by Tagiilima Handicrafts Association, Inc., Samoa

"Youth Stay BiH" project by the Foundation for Creative Development, Bosnia-Herzegovina

"Introduction of New Technologies in Prodrugi Crisis Center's Activity" project by the Public Foundation Prodrugi Crisis Center, Kazakhstan

"Radio Listening Groups on Violence Against Women" project by the Association of Media Women, Kenya

"Training Centre to Promote Free and Open Source Solutions for Girls' and Women's Empowerment in South Africa" project by Women's Net, South Africa



Contents of this document is licenced under Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - Share Alike 3.0


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Footnotes

1 Youth Creating Digital Opportunities Strategic Framework by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Taking IT Global and the Global Knowledge Partnership, 2002

2 World Summit on the Information Society Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action, 2003

3 International Labour Organization Reports on Global Employment Trends 2008 and 2009

4 The initiatives include the Youth Building Knowledge Societies e-community (1999), the GKII Youth Forum (2000), the Youth Creating Digital Opportunities (YCDO) coalition and community that drew young people and their supporters during the early World Summit on the Information Society process(2002-2003), the FutureShifters.net, an online community for young social entrepreneurs (2006), the Young Social Entrepreneurs' Forum (2007), and the GKP Forums on Entrepreneurship (2008).

5 GKP and its members have organized many such activities across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and North America. The knowledge sharing activities include: the GKII Youth Forum (2000), the GKP Workshop for Young Women Leaders in ICT (2003); the GKP Workshop for Asia Pacific Youth Leaders in ICT (2003); the GKP Youth Fellowship Meeting (2004); the GKP Africa Workshop on Role of Youth in ICT4D (2005); the GKP WSIS Tunis Youth Workshop (2005); the GK3 Young Social Entrepreneurs' Forum (2007) and the GKP YSEI Fellows Workshops (2006, 2007 &2008).

6 19 winners were selected among hundreds of applicants worlwide. The projects of all finalists in 2003 were included in the GKP publication on "ICT for Development Success Stories" to disseminate good practices and inspire others - see (http://www.globalknowledgepartnership.org/publications).

7 Close to 1500 applications were received and USD300,000 disbursed as project support over the course of two years.

8 GKP created the opportunities for selected YSEI Fellows to "pitch" for funding from venture capitalists and other types of investors at the GK3 Young Social Entrepreneurs' Forum in 2007 and at the GKP Forum on Social Entrepreneurship in 2008. As a program, YSEI raised more than USD600,000 between 2006 and 2008.

9 Hosts for the 2004 GKP Youth Fellowship Program: The African Women's Development and Communication Network, the Bangladesh Friendship Education Society, the Digital Divide Data, the Fantsuam Foundation, the Foundation for Media Alternatives, MailStation.Net, the Mitra Technology Foundation, the Open Forum of Cambodia, PROSHIKA, the Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Center, ThaiRuralNett and the Youth for Technology Foundation.

10 Input initially gathered via the Youth Building Knowledge Societies e-conference in 1999 led by GKP member the International Institute for Sustainable Development and refined by the GKP Youth Advisory Council in 2000 during the Second Global Knowledge Conference and in 2001 - see GKP recommendations to the G8 DOT Force at (http://www.globalknowledgepartnership.org/publications).

11 The intervention led to the adoption of the strongest language on youth in a non-youth oriented UN declaration. See YCDO Coalition Report, 2004.

12 The campaigns provided the space and support for young people to come together and share experiences on information society issues, and dialogue with key national policy makers on ICT as atool for economic and social development.

13 See GKP workshop for "Young Women Leaders in ICT" held in conjunction with the Pan-Arab Regional Conference on WSIS in June 2003.

14 GKP was part of the informal group that drafted the Tokyo Declaration (i.e., the Asia Pacific perspective and input to WSIS), and ensured that the concerns of youth together with those of women and the Pacific islanders were given due consideration.

15 At the GK3 conference, 7,000 idea contributions on how to create a world of entrepreneurs were distilled into 20 and clustered into seven areas: Entrepreneur Learning, Network, Advocacy, Tools, Energy, Finance, and Market Access. See (http://www.gkpeventsonthefuture.org/gk3/ and http://www.globalknowledgepartnership.org/20ideas)

16 Boosting African R&D initiative, an outcome of Science with Africa, included a focus on young Africans as learners and innovators. The initiative is the result of a partnership intervention involving GKP members the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Brainstore Ltd and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. See (http://www.uneca.org/sciencewithafrica/).

17 The International Institute for Sustainable Development (Canada), Taking IT Global (Canada), ThaiRuralNet (Thailand), Orphan IT (Australia), Mitra Technology Foundation (India), the National Information Technology Council (Malaysia), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNESCO, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Canadian International Development Agency , the Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (India), CMB Training Center (Moldova), Young Asia Television (Sri Lanka), the Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Center (Egypt), the African Women's Development and Communication Network (Kenya), the Bangladesh Friendship Education Society, Digital Divide Data (Cambodia), the Fantsuam Foundation (Nigeria), the Foundation for Media Alternatives (Philippines), MailStation.Net (Philippines), the Open Forum of Cambodia, PROSHIKA (Bangladesh), Microsoft Corporation, the Youth for Technology Foundation (Nigeria) and the Omar Dengo Foundation (Costa Rica).
Comments (2) Views (1632)
Comments
Posted by: Mizzeck Banda | 18-Apr-09 06:33 PM | send email
I like the initiative of taking ICT to the rural communites. I would like to find out what what support you would provide me, i have just started a youth development project and one of the projcets is to set up ICT centres in rural Zambia.
Thank You
Posted by: azraf | 28-Apr-09 07:06 PM | send email
Nice, Good and beautiful. azraf ed acord, Bangladesh.
Post Your Comment


YOUTH SOCIAL ENTERPRISE INITIATIVE: ASIA FELLOWS 2008-2009


More information at http://www.ysei.org
Rinalia and Sunit with the Youth Social Enterprise Initiative (YSEI) 2008 Fellowship finalists
during the launch of the Fellowship at the GKP Pavilion in the WCIT 2008 Exhibition
in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (May 2008)


Thepparat Tantikalayaporn - Chivalry Silk, Thailand
Chivalry Silk's mission is to increase the income of 30,000 silk artisans in Northern Thailand by 2013. Silk production in Thailand currently is not providing a stablesource of income to artisans, who suffer from middleman exploitation.

Cyril Devan - Elevyn, Malaysia
To generate income on a fair trade basis for artisans in remote areas of Malaysia who often suffer from middlemen exploitation, Elevyn is using an innovative, web 2.0-based, online platform that links the selling of handmade products to the support of social and environmental causes.

Aysha Saifuddin - Kaarvan, Pakistan
Kaarvan's aim is to provide 4,000 women entrepreneurs a "one stop" shop for business development and fair trade services by 2010 through a marketing and salesstrategy that would culminate on an online platform for e-commerce.

Ragvendra Singh - Krishak Mitra, India
Krishak Mitra is improving the livelihood of small and marginal farmers in India by employing an agriculture decision-making software. By collecting small fees from the usage of the software, they intend to maintain their operations and at the same time improve farmers decision-making capacity.

Stephanie Caragos - LetIThelp, Philippines
LetIThelp takes on solving structural unemployment and underemployment in poor communities by providing capacity building on specific IT skills that are in market demand and match trainees to job opportunities.

Ajay Shakya - Microfinancejobs, India
Microfinancejobs developed an online jobs platform to bridge the gap between 1,500 microfinance institutions in India and 10,000 professionals who are willing to work inthe microfinance field.

Khristine Lopez - Mobile Telecentres, Philippines
In metro Manila most public schools students have limited or no access to computers and Internet. Mobile Telecentre provides onsite ICT skills training and career opportunities to over 6,000 students in metro Manila by using ICT tools.

Patipat Susumpow - Open Dream, Thailand
Open Dream provides low-cost web and application development service to social groups and organizations by leveraging the network of social software developers forproject collaboration.

Alexander Reyes - Rural Light, Philippines
Rural Light aims to electrify a prototype community centre that also acts as an intermediary to a wide range of services such as refrigeration, lighted facility foreducation and ICT-based information for the purposes of marketing the products/services of the community.

Ali Khan - Youth Engagement Services, Pakistan
The absence of youth-focused programs in Pakistan makes youth highly exposed tocrime, unemployment and terrorism recruitment. By providing seed financing andincubation for youth-led micro social enterprise Youth Engagement Service Network is filling this gap.


YOUTH SOCIAL ENTERPRISE INITIATIVE ASIA FELLOWS 2006 - 2007

More information at http://www.ysei.org

Salah Uddin Ahmad - XayanIT, Bangladesh
XayanIT works with skilled but underprivileged youth interested in careers in the information and communications technologies (ICT) field.

Brinda Ayer - School and Community Horticulture Enterprise, India
The School and Community Horticulture Enterprise aims to supplement the national mid-day meal scheme with an appropriate level of vegetable nutrition to improve overall school enrolment and child health in India.

Audrey Codera - YouthWorks, Philippines
YouthWorks is a micro-finance institution that incubates grassroots youth in setting up and maintaining their business to develop economically independent and socially aware youth entrepreneurs through microfinance leveraging on ICT.Md.

Faisal Islam - Padma, Bangladesh
Padma is social development organization in the south west region of Bangladesh that aims to provide marginalized farming communities with access to an agricultural knowledge management system to improve their livelihoods.

Jaspal Shakya - Community Friendly Movement, India
By leveraging on technology and the power of retail, CFM seeks to create wealth for its primary stakeholders-artisan communities at the bottom of the supply chain, by creating a market for quality handmade products at competitive prices.

Marielle Punzalan Nadal - Idea!s, Philippines
Idea!s is a communications consultancy that empowers non-profits by utilizing information and communication technologies (ICT) as the most effective tool foradvocacy and fundraising activities.

Raj Ridvan Singh - SOLS 24/7, Timor Leste
SOLS 24/7 offers a comprehensive two year training and boarding program on lifeskills education for youth from disadvantaged families and is expanding the program founded in Cambodia to Timor Leste.


2005 GKP YOUTH & ICT AWARDS WINNERS

More information at http://www.globalknowledgepartnership.org/awards

The 2005 GKP Youth & ICT Awards aimed to highlight the outstanding work of young people who have transformed social development opportunities into a sustainable social enterprise through innovative use of ICT.

Audrey Codera, Philippines - "Community-based youth entrepreneurshi program"(http://www.youthtoendpoverty.org)

Jean-Paul Bauer, South Africa - "Operation Fikelela (Operation Access) for fighting poverty through access to education" (www.ikamvayouth.org)

Mark Okowa, Kenya - "Development of an ICT centre for the youth, to build their capacity in information technology, fight HIV/AIDS and poverty"(http://www.abckenya.org & http://www.elci.org)

Nileshni Sekar, Fiji - "Deaf handmade card project" (http://www.fijifriend.com)

Raj Ridvan Singh, Malaysia - "Providing education and life skills to poor school dropouts especially girls from rural areas" (http://sols247.org)

Rana Gulzar, Pakistan - "Youth empowerment skills capacity building programs for young women"

Salah Uddin Ahmed, Bangladesh - "Xayan IT: Enabling ICT skills development and employment creation for youth in Bangladesh" (http://www.xayanit.com/)

Wu Yang, China - "Household wastewater recycling management" (http://www.wiseuse.org)


2003 GKP YOUTH & ICT AWARDS WINNERS

More information at http://www.globalknowledgepartnership.org/awards

The 2003 GKP Youth & ICT Awards aimed to bring international recognition to the outstanding work of young people who have used ICT for the promotion of development around the world.

Timothy Keller, USA - "Digital Divide Data Cambodia"(http://www.digitaldividedata.org)

Tetyana Bila, Ukraine - "Creation and development of the Independent Children Media Centre Children's Voice" (http://fyce.org/mediacenter/)

Louis Dorval, Canada - "Engineers Without Borders Scala Project - IT Centres in the Philippines" (http://scala.ewb.ca/)

Nishchal Nath Pandey, Nepal - "Integrated education and capacity-building for girls and children"

Denise Odhiambo, Rwanda - "Rwanda Youth Rehabilitation Initiative" (http://www.solvepoverty.com/apc/cyberhost/youth)

Kennedy Edwine Onyango, Kenya - "Suba Youth Training Program (The Bridge)"

Ebben-esser Hatuikulipi, Namibia - "The Impact of HIV/AIDS in Katutura" (http://www.schoolnet.na/projects/Katutura_AIDS/)

Mika Vanhanen, Finland - "ENO-Environment Online" (http://eno.joensuu.fi)

Lucy Ryan, New Zealand - "Living Heritage" (http://www.livingheritage.org.nz)

Emily, Sarah and Elise Boyd, Australia - "MatMice: Free Homepages For Kids"(http://www.matmice.com/)

Dale Lachlan Pillars, Philippines - "Employment and Entrepreneurship"(http://www.OrphanIT.com)


2004-2005 GKP PROJECTS FUND RECIPIENTS

The GKP seed grant for small and innovative ICT projects targeted at youth, women, the poor and indigenous or displaced communities was awarded to the following initiatives in Africa (East, West, Central and South), Asia (Central, South, South East), Europe (East), Latin America, and Oceania:

"Capacity Building for Women and Youth Operators for Nigeria's First Rural ISP" project by Fantsuam Foundation, Nigeria

"Improving Rural Development in the Upper Nkam Division in Cameroon through Open and Distance Training Programme for Rural Women" project by PROTÉGÉQV, Cameroon

"ICT Resource Centre for Schools and Youth Participation" project by the Rural Development Volunteers Association, Solomon Islands Pilot project to establish two Regional Media Centres for indigenous communities by the Promedios de Communicacion Comunitaria A.C, Mexico

"SheBlogs: Open Source Web Publishing Tool for Women" project by WomensHub, Philippines

"Building Capacity in Women's Health: Harnessing ICT for Healthcare ProviderTraining in Developing Countries" project by the Department of Medical Education,School of Medical Services, University Sains Malaysia / Global Health through Education, Training and Service, Inc.

"Online and e-Advocacy for Pacific Women: ICT Capacity Building" project by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community's Pacific Women's Bureau, New Caledonia

"Digital Youth Radio" project by HELP Resources Inc., Papua New Guinea

"Pallitathya Help Line (Rural Information Help Line)" project by D.Net - Development through Access to Network Resources, Bangladesh

"Using ICT to Preserve Our Skill in Handicraft Making for Future Generations" project by Tagiilima Handicrafts Association, Inc., Samoa

"Youth Stay BiH" project by the Foundation for Creative Development, Bosnia-Herzegovina

"Introduction of New Technologies in Prodrugi Crisis Center's Activity" project by the Public Foundation Prodrugi Crisis Center, Kazakhstan

"Radio Listening Groups on Violence Against Women" project by the Association of Media Women, Kenya

"Training Centre to Promote Free and Open Source Solutions for Girls' and Women's Empowerment in South Africa" project by Women's Net, South Africa



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Footnotes

1 Youth Creating Digital Opportunities Strategic Framework by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Taking IT Global and the Global Knowledge Partnership, 2002

2 World Summit on the Information Society Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action, 2003

3 International Labour Organization Reports on Global Employment Trends 2008 and 2009

4 The initiatives include the Youth Building Knowledge Societies e-community (1999), the GKII Youth Forum (2000), the Youth Creating Digital Opportunities (YCDO) coalition and community that drew young people and their supporters during the early World Summit on the Information Society process(2002-2003), the FutureShifters.net, an online community for young social entrepreneurs (2006), the Young Social Entrepreneurs' Forum (2007), and the GKP Forums on Entrepreneurship (2008).

5 GKP and its members have organized many such activities across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and North America. The knowledge sharing activities include: the GKII Youth Forum (2000), the GKP Workshop for Young Women Leaders in ICT (2003); the GKP Workshop for Asia Pacific Youth Leaders in ICT (2003); the GKP Youth Fellowship Meeting (2004); the GKP Africa Workshop on Role of Youth in ICT4D (2005); the GKP WSIS Tunis Youth Workshop (2005); the GK3 Young Social Entrepreneurs' Forum (2007) and the GKP YSEI Fellows Workshops (2006, 2007 &2008).

6 19 winners were selected among hundreds of applicants worlwide. The projects of all finalists in 2003 were included in the GKP publication on "ICT for Development Success Stories" to disseminate good practices and inspire others - see (http://www.globalknowledgepartnership.org/publications).

7 Close to 1500 applications were received and USD300,000 disbursed as project support over the course of two years.

8 GKP created the opportunities for selected YSEI Fellows to "pitch" for funding from venture capitalists and other types of investors at the GK3 Young Social Entrepreneurs' Forum in 2007 and at the GKP Forum on Social Entrepreneurship in 2008. As a program, YSEI raised more than USD600,000 between 2006 and 2008.

9 Hosts for the 2004 GKP Youth Fellowship Program: The African Women's Development and Communication Network, the Bangladesh Friendship Education Society, the Digital Divide Data, the Fantsuam Foundation, the Foundation for Media Alternatives, MailStation.Net, the Mitra Technology Foundation, the Open Forum of Cambodia, PROSHIKA, the Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Center, ThaiRuralNett and the Youth for Technology Foundation.

10 Input initially gathered via the Youth Building Knowledge Societies e-conference in 1999 led by GKP member the International Institute for Sustainable Development and refined by the GKP Youth Advisory Council in 2000 during the Second Global Knowledge Conference and in 2001 - see GKP recommendations to the G8 DOT Force at (http://www.globalknowledgepartnership.org/publications).

11 The intervention led to the adoption of the strongest language on youth in a non-youth oriented UN declaration. See YCDO Coalition Report, 2004.

12 The campaigns provided the space and support for young people to come together and share experiences on information society issues, and dialogue with key national policy makers on ICT as atool for economic and social development.

13 See GKP workshop for "Young Women Leaders in ICT" held in conjunction with the Pan-Arab Regional Conference on WSIS in June 2003.

14 GKP was part of the informal group that drafted the Tokyo Declaration (i.e., the Asia Pacific perspective and input to WSIS), and ensured that the concerns of youth together with those of women and the Pacific islanders were given due consideration.

15 At the GK3 conference, 7,000 idea contributions on how to create a world of entrepreneurs were distilled into 20 and clustered into seven areas: Entrepreneur Learning, Network, Advocacy, Tools, Energy, Finance, and Market Access. See (http://www.gkpeventsonthefuture.org/gk3/ and http://www.globalknowledgepartnership.org/20ideas)

16 Boosting African R&D initiative, an outcome of Science with Africa, included a focus on young Africans as learners and innovators. The initiative is the result of a partnership intervention involving GKP members the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Brainstore Ltd and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. See (http://www.uneca.org/sciencewithafrica/).

17 The International Institute for Sustainable Development (Canada), Taking IT Global (Canada), ThaiRuralNet (Thailand), Orphan IT (Australia), Mitra Technology Foundation (India), the National Information Technology Council (Malaysia), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNESCO, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Canadian International Development Agency , the Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (India), CMB Training Center (Moldova), Young Asia Television (Sri Lanka), the Regional Information Technology and Software Engineering Center (Egypt), the African Women's Development and Communication Network (Kenya), the Bangladesh Friendship Education Society, Digital Divide Data (Cambodia), the Fantsuam Foundation (Nigeria), the Foundation for Media Alternatives (Philippines), MailStation.Net (Philippines), the Open Forum of Cambodia, PROSHIKA (Bangladesh), Microsoft Corporation, the Youth for Technology Foundation (Nigeria) and the Omar Dengo Foundation (Costa Rica).