Khabar Khair (Only Good News) –  Abdul Jalil Al-Salami

    Youth empowerment is an integral part of development issues and providing opportunities and protection for youth, and one of the key factors for sustainable inclusive development. Rather, young people were chosen to lead development as they are the positive, productive force for change in society, to boost development and change for the better.

     There are a lot of institutions, programs and civil society organizations working in Yemen in the field of development that have various projects in economic support and empowerment, including governmental institutions, and other institutions and initiatives of civil society organizations.

     The Social Fund for Development is one of the most prominent institutions working in the field of economic and social empowerment in Yemen, through four programs: The Community Empowerment Programme, Rawafed program, Labor-Intensive Works Program, and THE 6X3 PROJECT.

    The latest statistics of the Social Fund for Development revealed that during the second quarter of 2020, The Community Empowerment Programme supported more than 325 self-initiatives, with 17 million riyals.

     According to statistics of the Social Fund for Development, the number of collaborative councils established by the program since the beginning of 2018 is about more than 3,925 collaborative councils, in addition to creating 3,925 local development plans.

     While the number of trainees trained at Rawafed Program for supporting and rehabilitating university graduates, is about 6,492 young people, including 2,839 females, distributed among 20 governorates.

     According to the statistics of the Social Fund for Development for the period 2016-June 2020, the total number of direct beneficiaries of income – employees – amounts to 238 thousand people, including 146 thousand young people.

    The government has also adopted the 3×6 approach to create innovation in youth employment based on savings, the approach contains three phases: inclusion, ownership, and sustainability with six main activities designed to promote livelihoods for vulnerable and crisis-affected groups to shift from emergency employment to sustainable development.

    Microfinance institutions, Yemen Foundation for Training and Rehabilitation, and Silatech are one the most important institutions concerned with training, developing, and building youth skills for local and international recruitment.

    Young people are called “the 2030 Agenda campaign” due to their pivotal role not only because they are beneficiaries of actions and policies as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda, but also as implementing partners, and being the primary social and economic driving force in every society.

    The most important civil society institutions and organizations working in youth empowerment in Yemen are Youth Leadership Development Foundation (YLDF), Rowad Foundation, in addition to Youth Mobile Initiative implemented by UNESCO.

    Youth Leadership Development Foundation was established with the aim of supporting young people to express their opinions and needs and to participating in the development of Yemen. The foundation provides its services to young men and women in Yemen constantly, with the aim of helping them to reach economic sufficiency and security.

    Rowad Foundation was established in 2013, and was established by a number of Yemeni businessmen, aimed at engaging and empowering young people in the field of entrepreneurship and development.

      While UNESCO is implementing Youth Mobile Initiative, aimed at empowering youth in peacebuilding and responding to the humanitarian crisis through information and communication technology, the initiative seeks to involve young people in computer science programming which will help in overcoming the challenges of sustainable development.