Click here to read the January 2013 Newsletter!

After a successful pilot of KAB in Sindh province, the training of facilitators under KAB took place in Lahore, Punjab.

The participants came from PVTC (Punjab Vocational Training Council), PTEVTA (Punjab Technical and Vocational Training Authority), LCWU (Lahore College for Women University), COTHM (College of Tourism and Hospitality Management), and PRGTTI (Pakistan Readymade Garments Technical Training Institute).

It was a standard 10-days training. The participants highly appreciated the training.

A training of potential entrepreneurs took place under KAB. These entrepreneurs after having received the KAB training entered a business plan competition and presented their business plans to a panel of judges who selected the best plans and awarded cash prizes. The rest who didn't win were offered interest free loans by Akhuwat.

The title of this project was 'Khadija' under Gender Entrepreneurship for Decent Employment, a programme of the ILO office in Islamabad. The participants of this training were all women.

To mark the 2012 Global Entrepreneurship Week, the program "Promoting Gender Equality for Decent Employment" (GE4DE) organized an award ceremony on November 17th 2012 in Lahore to award prizes to the six best business plans developed by GE4DE trainees.

A total of 43 women from Lahore and Rahim Yar Khan, who had received skills training under the Khadija programme, an entrepreneurship training and business plan development package named after Hazrat Khadija (RA), took part in the competition. Eleven business plans were shortlisted: five for the hospitality sector, five for textiles and one for fashion design.

Sonia Bokhari was awarded the first prize of Rs100,000 by Unilever Food Solutions for her plan for the hospitality category, while Abida Malik won the runner-up prize of Rs50,000.

Sadia Afzal was awarded Rs50,000 as the winner and Rabia Yasmeen, Saba Abdul Sattar, Hira Jabbar and Ayesha Tehseen and Rehana were awarded Rs25,000 each as runners-up for textiles and garment manufacturing by the Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

The Old Associates of Kinnaird Students granted 10 sewing machines to Nadia and Shugufta Rasool, who are to jointly run the Derra Jattan Zardozi Embroidery Training and Production Centre.

The Khadija programme continues the Islamic tradition of recognising women as equal contributors to economic development, said Shaista Pervaiz Malik, advisor to the chief minister.

Salim Ranjha, founding member of Akhuwat, announced interest-free loans for all the trainees of the Khadija programme.

Masood Ali Khan, CEO of Takhlique and founder of Hall of Fame Pakistan, appreciated the high quality of the business plans, especially considering that none of the women had received any formal business training prior to the Khadija programme.

“A strong entrepreneurial culture is the foundation of a dynamic economy. Developing this culture will lead Pakistan in the right direction,” said Qaisra Sheikh, the president of the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the chief guest at the event

Fasili Masalu Boniphace (KAB alumni,2011) has been nominated winner of the INDIAFRICA young visionary fellow 2011/12.

This has come as a result of promoting youth entrepreneurship and his PESA project (Project for Entrepreneurship Support Activities).

Youth employment is now a priority in most regions of the world. There is growing focus and investment in youth employment programs, but at the moment there is limited evidence on what works, which leads to low impact and wasted resources.

With this in mind, the Youth Employment Network (YEN) and Making Cents International have partnered up to create the What's Working? competition to find out what strategies and approaches are working and share them among the youth employment community.

The What’s Working? competition highlights success stories. Organizations who have had positive results from their youth employment projects can submit an entry form about their project, including what challenges they faced and what lessons they learned. The winners are selected through online voting, comments, and a judges panel. The winning projects will receive a monetary award of USD 800 and have their Smart Note published on the YEN Marketplace website and at the 2013 Global Youth Opportunities Conference.

The overarching focus of the competition is on rural youth and increasing opportunities in rural areas. Submissions will be accepted in any of the following 5 areas:

• Workforce Development
• Financial Services and Capabilities
• Enterprise Development
• Adolescent Girls and Young Women
• Monitoring, Evaluation and Impact Assessment

The deadline to enter is December 31, 2012 and public voting closes on January 6, 2013. The judges will then score the entries and announce the winners on January 23, 2013. Best of luck to all the applicants!

Yet there are 3 rounds of competition, just in case:

Round 1: September - December 2012               Round 2: January - April  2013               Round 3: May - August 2013

Recognising Entrepreneurial Education Initiatives Across Africa

2012 COMPETITION NOW OPEN!

1^st Prize $10,000 ~ 2^nd & 3^rd Prizes $5000 ~ 55 country prizes of $1000 available

The EDUCATING AFRICA Pan-African Awards for Entrepreneurship in Education is a competition initiated by Teach A Man To Fish and generously sponsored by our partner organization Educating Africa. It continues to reward organizations in Africa that use innovative and entrepreneurial techniques to fill gaps in educational services across the continent. The competition is open to all organizations based in Africa working in education, from primary through to tertiary, as well as in non-formal and adult education.

Previous winners have ranged from agricultural training initiatives, to family learning and vocational training, and even targeted international volunteering agencies – we are looking for anything and everything that combats poverty in an innovative, sustainable and effective way, so no matter how large or small your organisation, get in touch!

This year’s competition will run from 29^th October, applications close on 20th December.

Click Here to know more and register

Access to credit, technology vital for breaking into manufacturing

“It has been a very long journey,” says Leticia Osafo-Addo, a business owner in Ghana. Her journey to success began nearly 30 years ago. She started off in her kitchen by making just 10 jars of black pepper sauce for friends. The chili sauce, popular in Ghana, is known as shito. Ms. Osafo-Addo’s was a success and demand for it grew.

Read the full article from UN Africa Renewal Magazine here

There are nearly 450,000 young people without jobs in Peru. They represent more than two thirds of the country's unemployed and of the 5 million young people who do have work, many are in 'precarious' conditions, without social benefits or job security. So instead of looking for a job, many young Peruvians prefer to looking toward themselves and starting their own businesses.