The 2^nd Annual Youth Enterprise conference (Sept 15-16, 2008) www.youthenterpriseconference.org gave 320 practitioners, donors and youth from 45 countries an opportunity to create stronger programming and measurement tools for global youth. The keynote speeches were streamed live to the conference website; many of the presentations will be available on-line after September 22.

It was an eye-opening experience for DOT-USA Interns Angela Baldwin, Jason Blocker and Doyle Reid who will be posting their own thoughts in their blogs. It was a pleasure to share the conference with them. I loved watching their excitement build as they saw ways to incorporate what they were learning with their Internship activities. Ecuadorian hip-hop meets Moss Point, MS!

For me, the biggest take-away was that next year, DOT Interns should actively participate. We have a great story to tell and can contribute meaningful learning to the field of international youth enterprise, employment and livelihoods.

Summary of Workshops and Other Events:

It was hard to choose between the many programs offered at the conference. Dr. Imran Matin, Deputy Executive Director of BRAC spoke about the importance of creating safe spaces for adolescent girls, in which they can read, play, and learn. Molly Tschang (Cisco) and Dara Duguay (Citi) were two panelists who spoke about the role of the private sector. Marcus Goldstein of the World Bank gave a common sense address on the value of impact assessments. Donors from World Bank, Nike Foundation, Cordes Foundation, UN-Habitat, and USAID were equally straightforward in their panel discussion of their organization’s vision with regard to youth.

Most of the roundtables, workshops and breakout sessions I attended were on the topic of Monitoring and Evaluation. Eric Rusten (Director of New Ventures, Academy for Educational Development and Tania Ogasawara, Executive Director of ADE Brasil linked their workshop “Are We Measuring the Right Things?” via webcam with  two young entrepreneurs in  Brazil. We had a real-time (translated) discussion about program impacts with Weidson Melo and Avaneide Silva, demonstrating one powerful use of technology.

Annie Bertrand, the World Youth Initiative Advisor for Mercy Corps had her workshop participants fine-tune the program outputs Mercy Corps is building into its Youth Transformation Framework ™. M&E tool. My table group got into quite a discussion about numeracy as a skill.

Maria Mascarucci and Mary Namukoko explained how they used local enumerators (surveyors) equipped with PDA’s to conduct a survey of 2000 community participants in rural Tanzania and Zambia in a 5 week time period We role-played using the PDA’s, checked out the array of portable solar charging technology and became believers.

Saeed Bancie, the Enterprise Development Officer for Heifer International in Homa Bay, Kenya, gave a well-designed presentation on “Youth Impacted by HIV and AIDS: Moving Into the Market”.  Afterwards we agreed that the orphans who receive animals and horticultural products from HI could benefit from ReachUp! training.

Several people knew about DOT and were very complimentary about its work.  David Hartingh (Director, Trade and Enterprise Development, International Executive Service Corps) discussed his conversations with DOT about the IBM project in Turkey; Mutinta A Munyati, Human Settlements Officer, UN-Habitat in Kenya said ‘I love DOT” and was extremely enthusiastic about Elizabeth Ndanu Muthui , the DOT Kenya Intern who is delivering the ReachUp! Training to youth in UN-Habitat programs. Many others from Barbados, Senegal, Benin, Kenya, Sierra Leone, UK and elsewhere are eager to learn more.