​Unemployment disproportionately affects youth. As a result, many young people turn to self-employment. Youth entrepreneurship can provide young people with a sustainable livelihood, building valuable life-long skills and contributing to the wider socio-economic growth of their communities.

But how can development programmes best support sustainable youth entrepreneurship? How can we adapt to different contexts? What sort of follow up services should we provide? And how can we build strong partnerships between organisations working in youth entrepreneurship? 

Raleigh International is a UK-based sustainable development charity working to create strong, sustainable youth enterprises in rural communities around the world,  as part of the UK government-funded International Citizen Service programme. The programme is led by Voluntary Service Overseas in partnership with development organisations. It uses peer mentoring to bring together young people from the UK and developing countries each year to develop and implement business ideas.

Addressing rural youth unemployment is a priority for governments around the world and innovative entrepreneurship programmes like this one can offer real solutions.

In 2015, ODI reviewed two Raleigh projects in Nicaragua and Tanzania. This event will present the major findings from the review, drawing lessons for others contributing to tackling youth unemployment in developing countries.