Youth Archives

May 20, 2024

IESC drives young entrepreneurs to vital business growth
While a vibrant small business sector is essential to Sri Lanka’s growth and development, entrepreneurship is not always considered to be a promising career path, especially for young Sri Lankans. Before the pandemic, the percentage of enterprises started by youth under 35 in Sri Lanka was only about four percent of all startups.

To inspire and encourage a mass audience of young…

March 25, 2024

Transitioning from a university lecture hall to a corporate environment is a road filled with challenges that youth must navigate. Young aspiring pharmacists in North Macedonia took a step forward on this journey with support from the USAID Youth Actively Create Opportunities Activity.

In an innovative approach, students had an opportunity to engage directly with the private sector, stepping into the “hot seat” for simulated interviews with…

December 6, 2023

Recently in Skopje, CEED Hub Skopje spearheaded the city’s inaugural Climathon (climate change hackathon). Hosted through the USAID Youth Actively Create Opportunities Activity in North Macedonia, implemented by IESC in collaboration with CEED Hub Skopje and Youth Educational Forum, this initiative brought together over 50 young enthusiasts, startups, and students to collaboratively devise solutions for pressing local environmental…

December 23, 2020

Although the Government of Sri Lanka responded swiftly and decisively to the COVID-19 pandemic, minimizing the spread of the virus in the country, the 24-hour curfews and restrictions on gatherings made in-person trainings and educational sessions impossible. In response to this challenge, USAID’s youth skills development and entrepreneurship project, YouLead, catalyzed private sector collaborations to rapidly expand its outreach to youth…

Mangos Are His Passion!

April 1, 2019

ENGINE Supported capacity building leads to Successful Mango Cultivation Business

As a child, in lieu of playing with his friends, John Mwakitalu would opt to work in his family’s garden where he would “help the plants grow”. He was fascinated with the plants’ life cycles and wanted to learn more. In pursuit of this knowledge, John attended Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, and studied with the SUGECO Business…

February 24, 2016

Jackie Howard (left) and Caroline Flowers (right) pose with their BBA diplomas.

In 2012, Caroline Flowers and Jackie Howard spotted a flyer at their university’a flyer that would shape the next three years of their college experience and beyond. It was a flyer was soliciting interns for IESC’s USAID-funded Investing for Business Expansion Program (IBEX), which provides business loan facilitation and technical assistance…

August 22, 2014

From left to right: Will Lerch, Charlotte Goodenow, Saachi Makkar, Namita Paul, Udunopa Abalu, Porscha Winston

As the summer winds down, it’s time to say goodbye to our summer interns. We enjoyed having them in our headquarters office in Washington, D.C. and we appreciate all their hard work and enthusiasm. Our interns make vital contributions to the organization.

This summer we had…