Revista de Negócios e Gestão Hoteleira

The Future Is in Youth Entrepreneurship

Jean Muthamia

The future is in youth entrepreneurship. This is why: 16% of the global population is comprised of youth; youth are the drivers of innovation, economic growth and are keen to positively contribute to their local and national communities; youth bring the muchneeded innovation in public and private sectors and are pivotal in tackling old problems with new technologies, scale and sustainability. SNV’s Opportunities for Youth Employment (OYE) is a market-based approach, anchored on the premise that providing the youth with tools, networks and exposure can enable them to identify concrete opportunities and ultimately create self-employment and entrepreneurship based on their ambitions and interests. Through eco-system development approach, OYE connects companies, markets and unemployed skilled youth with one another “Match”; provides relevant and practical training and leadership development “Pull” and longer-term coaching and mentoring to youth to create meaningful employment and entrepreneurship while working with national governments for scale and sustainability (Pull). We pay special attention to the position of young women as they face additional barriers to enter the labour market. As evidenced in countries where we work, youth incomes are increasing, they are building

resilience and are diversifying into other incoming generating opportunities while integrating  modern farming techniques with traditional farming methods as a result of OYE interventions. Please visit SNV website to learn more about OYE’s impactful work on youth and communities:

https://snv.org/sector/agriculture/product/opportunities-youth-employment-