The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation (TCCAF) has unveiled a new digital technology platform that will connect young people to employment, training and mentoring opportunities in its pan-African youth empowerment initiative, Youth Empowered for Success (YES!).
The new YES! technology platform will enable wider accessibility and greater scale for the program, providing life skills training, business skills training and access to employment and mentoring for 25,000 young Africans over the next three years.
The YES! initiative – launched in June 2015 – will initially empower marginalised youth in six countries through a $4.5 million TCCAF investment, while building technology and strategic partnerships to reach 500,000 youth by 2020.
The YES! program is currently being introduced in Kenya, South Africa and Tunisia by TCCAF and implementing partners Mercy Corps, Microsoft, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator and Kuza Biashara, before also being implemented in Liberia, Nigeria and Uganda during phase one.
The new YES! Technology platform will ensure inclusive reach for the initiative, providing access to services for both young people who live in remote locations and those with limited literacy skills. The platform, built by TCCAF and its program partners, has been designed to support widely-available technology including SMS messaging and voice-based mobile devices and will also be available through devices at YES! program hubs.
The hubs in turn will be powered by solar panels and supported by standalone battery powered wireless internet devices. This will ensure that even the most disadvantaged youth between the ages of 18-35 will have access to critical YES! program services.
The digital platform offers a simple interface and features that include access to personalized learning and connections to program partners from government, civil society and the private sector. This ensures participating youth can gain critical in-demand training and skills as well as access to jobs, internships, mentorships and other employment and entrepreneurship opportunities.
The YES! Technology platform has also been designed to be scalable and replicable across Africa, ensuring immediate and iterative improvements can easily be made based on local program details and feedback from youth participants.
“The rapid pace of technology adoption across Africa presents significant opportunity for private sector, civil society and government partners to engage with youth in new ways while building the skills and connections that are essential for employment,” said Kelvin Balogun, Trustee, The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation and Business Unit President, Coca-Cola Central, East and West Africa.
“Harnessing the talent and ambition of youth will be essential to Africa fulfilling its long-term potential, and we aim to help support this aspiration through Youth Empowered for Success. The launch of the new YES! digital platform is an important introduction in allowing us to reach more young people across Africa while rapidly scaling the program as it expands into new countries across the continent.”
In Kenya, the YES! program will train youth with life-skills along with market-driven technical and business skills through a blended model of offline training conducted by Mercy Corps and online through the YES! technology platform. Young people will be linked to jobs and business or micro-franchise opportunities in growth segments of the Kenyan economy, such as the construction, agriculture, renewable energy and hospitality sectors.
The initiative will also help young entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and thrive by connecting them to mentors and sources of capital. Finally, the program will help provide an environment to enable youth economic empowerment by helping youth register their businesses and benefit from Kenya’s existing youth-friendly policies, such as the government tender policy that prioritizes youth, women and people with disabilities.
The new YES! Technology platform is being rolled out in Nairobi County and will be available to youth who are participating in the program.
About The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation
The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation (TCCAF) is an entity funded through Coca-Cola that implements community development programs throughout Africa. TCCAF has committed resources and is collaborating with partners to provide communities with improved access to safe drinking water and sanitation through the Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN), to contribute to strengthening Africa’s health systems through Project Last Mile, and to create opportunities for youth empowerment through the Youth Empowered for Success (YES) program.
The Foundation’s community activities focus on three key areas central to life in Africa: water, health and empowerment. By providing assistance in the most critical areas of need, TCCAF strives to improve the quality of life for communities in Africa and expand the opportunities for those who live there. Additionally, The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation is involved in humanitarian assistance in Africa, for disaster relief and emergency assistance.
About Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps, co-creator of the YES! initiative, is a leading global humanitarian organization working on the world’s toughest challenges. With a network of experienced professionals in more than 40 countries, we partner with local communities to bring big ideas and bold action together with local insight to help people survive, overcome hardship and build better lives. Working with 3.5 million young people globally since 2010, Mercy Corps connects vulnerable youth to the right resources they need to recover from crisis and help their communities thrive.
About Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator
Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator (Harambee) connects employers seeking entry-level talent to young, high-potential work-seekers who are currently locked out of the formal economy. Harambee has a proven track record of addressing this demand-supply mismatch by creating a “network” to connect employers and first-time work seekers. Over the past four years, Harambee has placed over 12,000 young people with many of South Africa’s top companies and provided demand-driven work seeker support to over 120,000 young South Africans.
About Kuza Biashara
Kuza Biashara is a Kenyan Innovation targeted at Youth, Women & Small business owners providing them with education, mentorship, networking, business opportunities, tools and best practices to learn, connect and grow. Kuza has created the world’s first micro learning digital platform, Kuza Edge, to empower Youth, Women & Small business owners on the African continent. Kuza has a reach of over 1,000,000 youth & women across 15 African countries via its social media & digital platforms.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news.
Officially launched in 2014 Tukoworks.co.ke provides Kenyan youth with free resources, training, career guidance services and entrepreneurial opportunities through a network of accessible tools and content on various opportunities in addition to skills and enterprise development resources. Microsoft has additionally launched similar youth employability platforms in South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Botswana & Ivory Coast in Saharan Africa.
Source: TCF
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