Baltimore, Maryland, USA -- Building on the 2007 World Development Report’s call to invest in more than a billion young people living in developing countries, the International Youth Foundation will help lead a new global initiative, supported by the World Bank, to better understand the problems facing young people in their transition to work. The program will also identify effective programs and approaches to help address these challenges. IYF joins the International Labor Organization’s Youth Employment Network (YEN), the Child Protection Initiative (CPI) of the Arab Urban Development Institute (AUDI), and the Understanding Children’s Work Project (UCW) in the new consortium.  Together they plan to increase understanding about “what works” through research, learning and evaluation; design and implement youth training pilot programs; and promote effective policy dialogue and capacity building among local governments.

 

“IYF has a real track record in designing and implementing effective job training and job placement programs in Latin America and other areas of the world,” says William S. Reese, President and CEO of the International Youth Foundation. “So we look forward to working with this distinguished group of partners to help develop best practice models and strategies that can then be replicated to positively impact far greater numbers of youth worldwide.”