Rural poverty is endemic in most of the Middle East and North African countries and youth are one of the groups that suffer most – unemployed rural youth have one of the highest incidences of poverty of all groups in MENA.

There are many drivers for youth unemployment, including training and labor market mismatch, lack of social and business networks for youth, a bias toward government jobs over private sector jobs and self-employment, inadequate employability and entrepreneurship skills, and insufficient access to and use of appropriate financial services and capabilities.

These last two constraints to successful employment – inadequate employability and entrepreneurial skills and insufficient access to and use of appropriate financial services and capabilities – are the focus of a partnership between Making Cents International, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Silatech. Together, we will test innovative models in Morocco, Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt in the “IFAD Rural Youth Economic Empowerment Program” that have potential for scale up and sustainability. In the process, the program aims to increase the employment and self-employment of youth aged 15-35 by 2016.