Blog: Savings and Economic Empowerment Program Underway for Orphaned Youth in Uganda
By Payal Pathak, New America Foundation
Fred Ssewamala, Associate Professor at Columbia University, YouthSave member, and Global Assets Project Senior Fellow, has received a $3.34M grant for a family-based economic empowerment program for AIDS-orphaned and vulnerable youth (11-14) called, Bridges to the Future. Funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD), Bridges to the Future will work with 1,440 Ugandan youth to promote savings for secondary education, microenterprise development, and mentoring and educational support.
Blog: YouthStart, YouthSave and Women’s World Banking Participate in the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Youth
By Maria Perdomo, YouthStart Programme Manager, UN Capital Development Fund
As part of the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Youth that took place in New York on 21-27 July 2011, the UNCDF-MasterCard Foundation initiative, YouthStart, hosted a side event on youth demand for financial services.
Blog: Making Cents International Recognizes Corrinne Ngurukie for Her Contributions to Advancing Youth Economic Opportunities
By Payal Pathak, New America Foundation
At last month’s Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference, hosted by Making Cents International, seven individuals were recognized for their commitment and tremendous contributions to the field. YouthSave’s very own Africa Regional Technical Advisor for Save the Children, Corrinne Ngurukie was chosen among nominations received from the 400 conference participants as a member of this impressive cohort.
Blog: A New Way to Answer the Global Call for Better Data on Savings for the Poor: SPINNAKER
By Jamie Zimmerman, New America Foundation
“We need data. We need to have a way to know what is working and what is not. There are no common indicators. There are no benchmarks for success. There are no systems in place to help us with this.” I listened attentively as my colleague and friend, Ben Shell, Senior Associate for New Product Development at Women’s World Banking outlined what he sees as one of the greatest roadblocks to developing, understanding and evaluating savings products for low-income youth at the Youth Financial Services Expert Working Group meeting held at the onset of this year’s Global Youth Economic Opportunity Conference, hosted by Making Cents International. Cited within this expert group as one of the top three challenges to product implementation in the field, lack of data and information around what works and doesn’t and for whom is an unfortunate and inescapable truth in the child and youth financial services field, where currently a ton of hope rests on a grain of evidence.
