The Youth-to-Youth Fund (Y2YF) for the PROSPECTS Opportunity Fund: Advancing Young People’s Engagement and Meaningful Participation under the PROSPECTS Partnership Programme.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) is implementing the Youth-to-Youth Fund (Y2Yf) in Ethiopia with the support of Edukans Foundation. The Y2YF is part of the area of work on Advancing Young People’s Engagement and Meaningful Participation under the PROSPECTS Partnership Programme.The PROSPECTS Partnership Programme is funded by the Government of the Netherlands and builds on the combined strengths, experience, and values of the IFC, the ILO, the UNHCR, UNICEF, the World Bank, and the Dutch Government to develop a new paradigm in responding to forced displacement crises. The PROSPECTS new area of work entitled “Advancing Young People’s Engagement and Meaningful Participation in the PROSPECTS Partnership” is being implemented by the ILO, UNICEF and UNHCR. The objective is to empower and meaningfully engage young people in forced displacement contexts so that they develop their skills and confidence to lead socio-economic and cultural activities, start an enterprise, address protection concerns, volunteer in their communities, advocate on issues that are important to them, and provide input to programming, including PROSPECTS.

Young people in forced displacement contexts, particularly refugees, and internally displaced people (IDPs), face specific legal, policy and economic constraints that limit their opportunities to realise their rights and access decent work, banking services, education, skills development, and career development opportunities. Conflict and forced displacement also negatively impact young people’s cognitive and physiological development – often at a particularly critical age and stage of their development.

In response to these challenges, one of the outcomes of the “Advancing Young People’s Engagement and Meaningful Participation in the PROSPECTS Partnership” initiative is to skill and empower young people to be effective partners and to lead and drive change in their communities and their lives. Accordingly, the ILO is working with an implementing partner, Edukans to implement the Youth-to-Youth Fund (Y2Yf). Y2Yf is designed to build the capacity of youth-led organizations (particularly refugee youth-led organizations) to support potential entrepreneurs and create decent job opportunities for youth in displacement contexts. The Youth-to Youth Fund (Y2Yf) is a competitive grant scheme designed to support youth-led organizations with funding, capacity building and direct technical assistance to implement innovative, small-scale projects on youth entrepreneurship as a means to create decent employment for youth in Addis Abeba and Somali Region.