Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) and Volunteer Service Enquiry South Africa (VOSESA), with support from The MasterCard Foundation, announce the release of a research study that assesses how National Youth Service (NYS) programs in Sub-Saharan Africa might better prepare young people for the 21^st Century workforce.

The study, titled “National Youth Service in Sub-Saharan Africa: Strengthening NYS as a Strategy for Youth Employability, Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Livelihoods”, serves as a resource for designing NYS programs as an effective tool for youth development and employment; builds a network of NYS staff, policy makers and practitioners focused on youth employment and provides recommendations for increased private sector engagement.  
 
ICP and partner VOSESA, a nonprofit research organization in South Africa, have developed four resource documents: (1) a landscape paper on the National Youth Service in Sub-Saharan Africa; (2) a synthesis of promising youth employability through service programming practices within and outside Sub-Saharan Africa; (3) case-studies of NYS program design and implementation in Kenya, Ghana and South Africa; and (4) a report which summarizes these findings. The study and results were discussed at a learning Forum in November 2013 in Johannesburg, South Africa with key NYS practitioners, policy makers, representatives of the private sector and other stakeholders from 23 countries in the region. The Learning Forum was supported by the National Treasury/Jobs Fund and the National Youth Development Agency of the government of South Africa. 

This project stems from an existing tradition of NYS programs in Sub-Saharan Africa, which were originally designed to cultivate a sense of national identity and mobilize skills for development in post-independence societies. Today, NYS programs operate in the context of a deepening regional youth unemployment crisis, which averages over 20 percent, according to African Economic Outlook. NYS programs engage hundreds of thousands of young people each year and have the potential to equip them with strong civic skills and prepare them for employment and livelihood opportunities. Despite its potential as an economic strategy, until now, there has been little information pertaining to exactly how effective NYS programs are at increasing youth employability. 
 
Susan Stroud, founder and Executive Director of ICP, commented on the importance of the ICP/ The MasterCard Foundation study, “National Youth Service programs throughout the region are a set of institutions that capture large numbers of young men and women for an extended period of time.  Governments are investing significant resources in NYS programs at a time when they are also very concerned about the high unemployment rates of young people in their countries. If NYS programs can be designed and implemented in a more intentional way, to serve as pathways to employment and livelihoods, governments will realize a much better return on their investments.  However, we lack critical information about NYS programs in the region and promising practices that link youth service with employability that could be shared with practitioners and policymakers.  This partnership provides a much-needed evidence-base to inform future NYS practice and policy.” 
 
“This study will highlight opportunities for collaboration between NYS staff, policy makers, youth employment practitioners, and the private sector,” says Deepali Khanna, Director of Youth Learning at The MasterCard Foundation. “It will be an important resource for understanding how to effectively link NYS programs to emerging market opportunities.”
 

Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) is a nonprofit organization that facilitates the development of innovative, high-quality youth civic engagement programs and policies around the world. We believe that well-structured youth service programs provide innovative solutions to social and environmental issues, while helping young people develop skills for future employment and active citizenship. ICP aims to build a world where young people in every nation are actively engaged in improving their lives and their communities through civic participation.
 
To realize these goals, ICP carries out the following functions: (1) Incubates innovative ideas and scalable models for scaling up national youth service and service-learning; (2) Creates and expands global networks of individuals and organizations committed to developing youth civic participation; (3) Consults with governments, international organizations, and other clients on designing national youth engagement policies and programs, trainings and evaluation programs; (4) Conducts research and publicizes information on youth civic engagement, especially national youth service and service-learning, and (5) Serves as a financial intermediary to support the development of innovative youth service programs and to promote the development of national youth service policies.
 

The MasterCard Foundation advances microfinance and youth learning to promote financial inclusion and prosperity. Through collaboration with committed partners in 49 countries, the Foundation is helping people living in poverty to access opportunities to learn and prosper. An independent foundation based in Toronto, Canada, it was established through the generosity of MasterCard Worldwide at the time of the company’s initial public offering in 2006.
 
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