ILO Tanzania to celebrate five (5) years of empowering youth through entrepreneurship in Tanzania

 International Labour Organization (ILO) has announced today that the National Capstone Conference in Tanzania will take place on the 7^th of May at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre aiming to showcase the success of The Youth Entrepreneurship Facility (YEF) and its partners over the past five years and celebrate the achievements with its young beneficiaries and partners.

Since its inception, the YEF has unleashed entrepreneurial potential of more than 30,000 emerging and existing entrepreneurs through the business development training, supported the start- up and growth of 17,000 businesses and the creation of 40,000 jobs for young people, by far exceeding the initial outreach and impact targets.

Speaking about the upcoming conference ILO Tanzania Country Director, Mr. Alexio Musindo, said the program will be closing in June 2015 and the Capstone Conference in Tanzania will present results from country-level activities, and investments on skills and entrepreneurship; on improving the productivity of young people, and on sustainable business models and offshoots that are expected to carry forward some activities of the project.

‘The Conference will be a platform to convene a variety of 300 stakeholders, partners and beneficiaries who are committed to entrepreneurship, promoting policies and programs to enhance employment, especially among youth’ said Mr. Jealous Chirove, Chief Technical Advisor.

Conference participants will include policy makers; representatives from different ministries ( e.g. Ministry of Labour and Employment; Ministry of Information, Youth ,Culture and Sports; Ministry of Education and Vocational Training); representatives from donor community ; private sector, industry representatives; civil society youth serving-organizations; researchers; and YEF beneficiaries among many others. These include;

·        promoting a culture of entrepreneurship

·        integrating entrepreneurship in education system

·        increasing the evidence base on what works on youth employment

·        facilitating youth led organizations to implement innovative solutions to youth entrepreneurship

·        facilitating access to business development services and finance for young people

The participants especially the project partners will be expected to make presentations and facilitate discussions based on specific initiatives implemented in collaboration with the project.

The Guest of Honour is expected to be the Hon. Minster of Labour and Employment, Ms. Gaudencia Kabaka,