Why We're Here

In August 2010, the International Labor Organization warned of a "lost generation" of young people left out of the global economy and facing reduced life opportunities. They include over 80 million unemployed youth, and over 250 million youth in the ranks of the "working poor" – eking out uncertain and unsustainable livelihoods in the informal market, on the margins of society.

Generation Enterprise is committed to helping the "Lost Generation" find its way.

"Street youth" are homeless, unemployed, and underemployed youth eking out livelihoods in the shadows of "slum cities" around the world.

They are the products of three game-changing global phenomena:

1. Population Explosion

   According to the World Bank, we are in the midst of the largest youth cohort in human history. The population explosion is concentrated in the developing world, prompting governments to speak alternately of a "demographic dividend" and a “ticking time bomb."
   
   

   We are an increasingly urban planet.

   

   The world’s biggest “mega-slums” (Davis, 2006).

   
   

   Number of slum-dwellers today: 1 billion.
   By 2050, two billion more will join their ranks.
   

   
   

   Most slums are in developing countries.
   Most slum-dwellers are youth (25 or younger).
   Slum-dwellers already make up 1/6 of humanity.
   

 

2. Urbanization

   Today, half the world’s population lives in cities. Every week 1.3 M more people flood into urban centers. This is the largest migration in the history of humanity, and it’s rapidly accelerating. Most migrants end up in slums. Slum-dwellers already make up 1/6 of humanity. By 2050, two billion more will join their ranks, most of them youth.



3. Youth Unemployment

   Even before the Great Recession, the ILO estimated that developing countries needed to create 1 billion jobs over the next decade just to keep up with first-time job seekers. Youth now make up 50% of unemployed people on the planet. The stakes are high: halving youth unemployment in sub-Saharan Africa could increase GDP by 12-19%.
 

The “lost generation” is an economic, social justice, and international security issue.

Street youth cost their countries billions in lost potential, are vulnerable to exploitation, and tend to be targets for recruitment by criminal groups, from local gangs to terrorist cells.

Generation Enterprise creates a clear path for youth to go from poverty to self-sufficiency to community leadership.

Unlike training programs that prepare youth for jobs they may not find, we prepare youth to create jobs for themselves and for others.

Unlike traditional microfinance programs that focus on providing loans for anything from working capital to school fees and wedding expenses, we focus our loans on building strong, growth-oriented businesses that are coached and vetted by experienced local business leaders and our team of social venture capitalists looking for maximum social and financial returns.

We invest deeply in each class of Fellows, and we keep working with them to realize a return on that investment – one that pays dividends for the whole community.

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