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Ammon News - In collaboration with the Development and Employment Fund (DEF)

AMMONNEWS – On July 2, 2013, USAID Funded Youth for the Future Project hosted a dialogue on the outcomes and lessons learned from its two-year Youth Entrepreneurship Pilot.

Youth for the Future (Y4F) is a five-year initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the International Youth Foundation carried in partnership with the Government of Jordan. The program is creating an enabling environment for disadvantaged youth (ages 15 to 24) through partnering with the public, private, and civil society sectors. These partnerships aim to improve services for at-risk youth who are out-of-school, unemployed and lack opportunities.

The session was attended by USAID representatives, the Development and Employment Fund (DEF) Director General’s Assistant Mr. Khaled Jaradat; Arabian Business Consultants for Development (ABCD) Chairman, Laith Al-Qasem; Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation (JEDCO) Ms. Hana Oraidi, Director cross cutting Support; and SCOPI Academy Managing Partner, Raed Madanat; along with representatives of micro-finance institutions (MFI), organizations supporting youth entrepreneurship in Jordan, IYF partners, youth beneficiaries, and community-based organizations (CBO).

The event highlighted the outcomes of the final report of the training pilot for the Youth Entrepreneurship Project designed to support disadvantaged youth in launching and managing the initial phases of their business start-ups, helping them to secure sustainable sources of income, and giving them a sense of purpose. Through the two-year pilot project, over 133 18-24 year old unemployed and out-of-school men and women received business skills training, mentoring, and technical support to equip them to start their own businesses.

During a discussion panel, Laith Al-Qasem elaborated on the design and implementation mechanisms for programs that support young aspiring entrepreneurs, Hana Oraidi highlighted mechanisms that encourage and empower local entrepreneurship at the local and national levels; Raed Madanat spoke about entrepreneurial training, mentorship, and technical support techniques in the area of entrepreneurship; and Mr. Khaled Jaradat touched on mechanisms to help young individuals get loans to accelerate their small and medium start-up businesses. The session showcased success stories and firsthand experiences from several Youth Entrepreneurship Project beneficiaries, and concluded with a Q & A segment and the dissemination of the final report on the Project.

Commenting on the discussion session, IYF Jordan Country Director, Rana Al Turk, said, “It is important for us to gauge the feedback of our targeted communities and stakeholders after we launch a new experimental training program. We are able to do this by organizing workshops and roundtables to discuss outcomes, highlight challenges, and look at ways we can improve. This methodology stems from our belief in the importance of garnering feedback and suggestions on our work, so we are able to develop it in a manner that offers maximum benefit to youth and their communities.”