Enterprise development

Building Youth Capacity and Network in Asia Pacific

The ILO's technical cooperation project to empower 50,000 youth and vulnerable people using sustainable, scalable and impactful training tools in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Philippines, Thailand and Timor-Leste.


Youth entrepreneurship workshop in Cambodia supported by the ILO. © Impact Hub

The ILO DWT-Bangkok has been promoting entrepreneurship and small-medium-enterprise development in Asia and the Pacific. Over a decade, the ILO’s activity-based learning programmes have supported some 300,000 youth through collaborations and partnerships with a number of organizations including government ministries, employers’ organizations, workers’ organizations, cooperatives, UN agencies, development agencies, academic institutions and NGOs in Asia Pacific.

This new project envisions to connect those communities and countries to create a regional network of partners using ILO tools. This network will provide new learning and skills development opportunities for past and future participants of ILO trainings such as youth, women, entrepreneurs, vulnerable people, those with disabilities, cooperative members, social enterprises, small business owners, informal workers or factory workers. To create the regional network, the project will partner with various international and local organizations and deliver activity-based trainings to 50,000 beneficiaries who are youth and vulnerable people in the region.

Expected results

The main objective of this project is to capacitate and connect development organizations which support the youth and vulnerable communities to strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystem for inclusive growth and productivity in the region. Through the institutional capacity building, the project expects to empower 50,000 youth and vulnerable people in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Thailand and Timor-Leste by March 2024.

Outcomes

The project will deliver the following three outcomes to achieve the objective.

Outcome 1: Promotion of entrepreneurship
Working with international and local development partners, the project will deliver activity-based trainings for youth and vulnerable people to advance their knowledge and skills of entrepreneurship and good livelihood.

Outcome 2: Reinforcement of organizational capacity
The project will capacitate its development partners and local organizations to organize trainings, capture impacts and adopt learnings with scalable, sustainable and participant-driven methodology.

Outcome 3: Creation of international network
The project will organize online events on monthly basis to connect international and local partners in the region. The events will invite past participants, entrepreneurs, youth leaders, and various aspiring guests from the region to share useful information and promote better livelihood.

For further information please contact:

Ms Heejin Ahn
Technical Officer on Entrepreneurship and SSE Development
ILO Decent Work Technical Support Team for East and South-East Asia and the Pacific
Email: ahnh@ilo.org