Youth Employment Systems (YES)-Kenya is a national youth multi-stakeholder network established in 2002 and registered in Kenya as a society. YES Kenya is involved in promoting youth employment in Kenya and committed to the global call of creating sustainable livelihoods for Youth through 7 core areas namely; Education, Employment Creation, Employability of youth, Equity, Entrepreneurship, Environmental Sustainability and Empowerment. YES Kenya brings together a membership of more than 8400 young people individually and representing various organizations at National and grassroots levels. YES Kenya is thus part of the Global YES Campaign representing Kenya in the international Campaign. |
Vision
YES Kenya envisions a society where development initiatives are targeted towards youth employment, and that such initiatives are sustainable, inclusive and above all allow participation of all peoples.
Mission
The mission is to seed “Employment for sustainable livelihoods”. This will be achieved through a process of pro-poor civic engagement; project formation and implementation, building of grassroots movements and influencing policy reforms through meaningful and intergenerational dialogue.
Our Belief and Values
YES...Every person is capable of leading and realizing their leadership abilities.
YES...The power of knowledge-sharing includes identifying, creating, disseminating, replicating, adapting, and learning successful practices based on quality and innovation.
YES...We must all be catalysts that inspire fresh and innovative approaches to human development.
YES...Youth are the creative change agents of today, and they must be helped in every way to drive this effort.
Objectives
YES Kenya serves the following objectives;
(1) Build the YES Fund: Global Program for Youth Entrepreneurship (Clinton Global Initiative)
(2) Build Capacity of the YES Country Network to develop and implement programs
(3) Organize the 3 remaining YES Summits (Azerbaijan 2008, Sweden 2010 and Alexandria 2012)
(4) Organize Youth Social Entrepreneurship programs
Our Work
We are currently involved in implementing six Key Programs developed around the 6 E’s, including; Employment Creation, Employability, Equity, Environmental Sustainability, Empowerment, Entrepreneurship Plus Education.
Education:
This program is designed to increase the capacity of youth in the employment campaign through training, exchange program, skills and skills transfer, community information centers, and the newly created social entrepreneurship program. The Exchange Program aims to have an intra generational dialogue among the youth locally and promote among youth in Kenya and the Great Britain and other countries.
Activities
- Trainings, workshops and Organizing local and international exchange programs
- Promotional and networking forums on career fairs, internships and skills transfer
- Establish, Partner and support Community Information Centers/ Community Resource Centers
- Develop and disseminate information on the 6 E’s plus education of the YES campaign
- Outreach events on the Youth Employment Campaign
- Civic education on youth Employment creation
Policy and research:
This program aims at influencing relevant research and policy and legislative oriented making processes to secure pro youth employment opportunities. This involves collating and collecting information for dissemination to the youth constituency in Kenya.
Activities
- Collecting & Collating research information and generating research themes
- Policy and legislative oriented consultative forums
- Participate in the formulation of pro youth policies
- Monitoring and evaluation of the pro youth policies
- Engage with the government led vision 2030 processes
Advocacy:
This program aims at generating and sustaining interest and support for the YES campaign. This is done through civic education, and outreach events and engaging with the MDG’s.
Activities
- Outreach events for the Youth Employment Campaign
- Undertake civic education on youth Employment creation
- Engage with the MDG’s processes
Networking:
This program aims at enhancing networks and developing sustainable strategic partnerships at local, regional and global levels.
Activities
- Organize local, regional and global youth stakeholder forums between youth development practitioners and youth (Youth Employment Summits)
- Mobilize youth to participate in the global YES campaigns and forums
- Establish and functionalize a database on existing and emergent youth networks and strategic partners.
YES Fund:
This program aims to identify, nurture and support youth entrepreneurship initiatives. The YES fund is working to raise fund and create markets and unleash entrepreneurship in Kenya by helping Young Entrepreneurs to identify business opportunities, prepare their business plans and compete for the best ideas. This fund will support young entrepreneurs to participate in the Business Plan competition and the winners will be provided small-scale risk capital, start-up funding, credit and loan guarantees, and innovative business development services to start their businesses.
Institutional development:
This program aims to strengthen the internal institutional structures of YES Kenya, thus ensuring that the vision of the organization is achieved both effectively and efficiently as it works towards improving young peoples lives.
Activities
- Functionalize a secretariat to coordinate activities of the network
- Initiate endowment funds for financial sustainability
- Strengthen the management and organizational structure of the network
- Periodic organizational self assessment for network members
Milestones
YES Kenya has been very instrumental in key processes that have contributed to the welfare of the Youth in the country. YES Kenya has gained credit from the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development, Ministry of Gender, Sports, Culture and social services, Ministry of Youth Affairs and the Office of the President, Public Service Reforms Secretariat. Some of our Key Milestones are as follows
- Co-hosting the Youth Employment Summit YES Kenya 2006 which brought together more than 1200 delegates from over 100 countries. The Summit saw a publication of over 80 Original Thematic Publications.
- Participation in the Road Map to Youth Employment in Kenya Thematic groups.
- Participation in the National Youth Policy discussions and provincial view collection forums
- Lobbied to the formation of the Ministry of Youth Affairs in Kenya
- Participation in the committees on the Diaspora Policy and the External Jobs and Remittance Policy discussions and the session paper formulation.
- YES Kenya hosts the Africa Regional Hub for the Youth Employment Campaign in Africa.
- An expansive Network of Youth and Organizations across Kenya. 245 Organizations and 8400 Individual Members.
Your Help
…All good ideas are pipe-dreams if not backed by committed leadership and investment – we are seeking yours. We have spent the last five years placing the issue of youth employment on the global agenda, making a call for action, building coalitions, and piloting good ideas. We need your help to move the Youth Employment Campaign to the next level to our shared passion for generating youth employment to the resources that can make it happen. We have uncovered bubbling youth leadership and drive; identified promising sectors for employment generation; enrolled world leaders; built partnerships; discovered quantifiable, innovative and practical solutions; and overseen the development of world-wide youth networks that provide the perfect vehicle for unleashing the talents and energies of youth to create sustainable livelihoods. With your active involvement we can make a world of difference in the lives of thousands of youth in developing countries around the globe. We invite you to make a difference…
You can help by sponsoring one of our programmes or just a one off activity… Please contact us for more details on how you can help us take the YES campaign further.
…After the final no there comes a yes and on that YES the future of the world hangs…”
Wallace Stevens (1879 – 1955)
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