Learning Narrative: Youth-led enterprise development

Youth in Action (YiA), is a six-year youth learning and livelihoods program in partnership with Mastercard Foundation. The program works to improve the sustainable livelihoods of over 40,000 out-of-school girls and boys in rural Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Uganda.

As part of the program’s research and learning agenda, the team created a series of six Learning Narratives that draw together key learning in areas related to youth livelihoods programming. The Learning Narrative on Youth-led Enterprise Development focuses on YiA’s youth-led business development methods and the strengths and limitations of the strategies used by YiA. The YLED approach is centered on youth leadership – giving youth the chance to learn, act, practice and implement selected business options. The approach has four intertwined phases: gateway, cash transfer, implementation, and post-distribution monitoring. Interventions and actions embedded in each phase are periodically assessed for quality assurance and receive mentorship and community follow-up support to enhance performance.