Call for proposals: Implementing Partner to co-design and implement the ILO’s Youth -To- Youth Fund (Y2YF) model in Addis Ababa, Amhara Region, Benishangul Gumuz, and Somali regions

The Government of the Netherlands is financing a partnership initiative entitled “The

PROSPECTS Partnership Programme”. The PROSPECTS is a global partnership that aims to

improve the access of host communities and forcibly displaced people to education, social

protection and decent work. PROSPECTS operationalizes the humanitarian-developmentpeace

nexus, creating strong partnerships between humanitarian and development actors

to leverage comparative advantages, and improve coordination and efficiency to boost their

overall impact for refugees and host communities, as envisioned in the outcomes of the

2016 World Humanitarian Summit under the New Way of Working. Spearheaded by the

Government of the Netherlands, it brings together the International Finance Corporation

(IFC), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the UN

Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank to help transform the way in which

governments and other stakeholders, including the private sector, respond to forced

displacement crises.

Young people in forced displacement contexts, particularly refugees, and those who are

internally displaced (IDPs), face specific legal, policy, social and economic constraints that

limit their access to education, skills development, and decent work, and affect their ability

to realise their rights. Conflict and forced displacement can also negatively affect their

cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development, further limiting their prospects for a

successful transition into adulthood and sustainable employment.

In response to these pressing challenges, the ILO implemented the Youth-to-Youth Fund

(Y2YF) in 2022 as a youth employment intervention that combines employment creation and

entrepreneurship development with young people's meaningful engagement and

participation. The first phase of the Y2YF was implemented between 2022 and 2024 in Addis

Ababa and the Somali Region of Ethiopia through an implementing partner that supported

10 youth-led organizations. The programme sought to address youth unemployment in

contexts affected by forced displacement while empowering young people and youth-led

organizations to identify and implement locally relevant solutions. During its first phase in

Ethiopia, the Y2YF supported over 1,000 youth to start new businesses or strengthen existing

enterprises through entrepreneurship training, coaching, mentorship, and access to finance

linkages created through the program. In addition to creating direct employment

opportunities for participating youth, the programme generated wider benefits by

contributing to employment and livelihood opportunities for members of their

communities. By promoting economic inclusion and collaboration among young people

from refugee and host communities, the Y2YF also contributed to strengthening resilience,

social cohesion, and peaceful coexistence.

Building on the experience and lessons learned from the first phase, the ILO plans to

implement a second phase of the Youth-to-Youth Fund in Addis Ababa, the Somali Region,

Amhara, and Benishangul-Gumuz. The second phase will seek to supports small‐scale youth

entrepreneurship development projects implemented by youth‐led organizations. It will

also strengthen the capacities of youth-led organizations to design and deliver innovative,

youth-driven solutions that benefit refugees, internally displaced persons, and host

communities.

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The ILO is therefore looking for an implementing partner to support the design and

implementation of the Youth-to-Youth Fund (Y2YF) model, tailor it to the needs of youth in

forced displacement contexts in Ethiopia and implement it Addis Ababa, Amhara and

Benishangul Gumuz, and Somali Regions.

2. Youth- to-Youth Fund (Y2YF)

The Y2YF is a competitive grant scheme managed by a national implementing partner that

supports youth-led organizations with funding, capacity strengthening and direct technical

assistance. It is designed for youth-led organizations to propose innovative project ideas on

how to create entrepreneurship and business opportunities for other young people. The

organizations with the most innovative project ideas receive a grant and complementary

capacity building to help them implement their projects and test the viability of their ideas.

The proposals should include project ideas that contribute to the promotion and/or

development of business opportunities for young people as a means to create employment.

The winning organizations, through their projects, are expected to create opportunities for

youth to start or improve their small enterprises or other entrepreneurial initiatives. The

proposed project ideas should thus focus on how to empower and enable young people to

establish enterprises, improve enterprises whether micro or larger to be more growth

oriented.

The Youth-to-Youth Fund supports youth led organisations in Ethiopia to support youth to

start and improving their business. The Youth-to-Youth Fund is not a Business Idea or

Business Plan Competition. The Fund does not support entrepreneurs/for-profit

enterprises or applying youth-led organizations themselves to become entrepreneurs or

employers. The applying youth-led organizations should facilitate and support the process

of youth becoming entrepreneurs rather than the organization itself aspiring to make profit

from entrepreneurial activities. Any components of the proposed project with a key purpose

of generating profit for the implementing organization cannot be funded by the grant. In

the case of social enterprise organizations, any income generation activity should be used

to conduct activities that will be directed to program beneficiaries and also to sustain the

project activities.

The project ideas should address some of the challenges that are faced by young people in

forced displacement contexts who are, or aspire to be, entrepreneurs or to improve and

expand their business. These include for example:

 Lack of access to capital and finance

 Lack of skills and educational opportunities to start and improve business

 Lack of business development skills

 Limited access to markets and business to business linkage

 Lack of experience and skills

 Lack of social capital / networks

 Lack of access to financial capital for a variety of reasons some of which are listed

above

 Challenges to register and formalize their enterprises

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Approaches to tackle these obstacles can be found, for example, in the following

areas that will support youth to start and improving their business:

• Access to support services: providing access to business development services

(BDS) and information such as market information, management, financial literacy,

asset building, e-business assistance, mentoring, product development, and

technology advice.

• Capacity building: providing or facilitating training on vocational or life skills/core

skills to enhance the competency level as well as confidence of young people and

support job search support activities.

• Access to finance: linking young people with financial institutions. Providing youth

with the tools, capacity, and confidence to request financial services for the creation

or expansion of their own enterprises or working with financial institutions to make

their services more available to young entrepreneurs.

• Building social capital: facilitating the development of mechanisms that help

young people increase their networks, client base, support systems, market access,

and negotiation power, such as forming or joining networks, associations, or

cooperatives. For example, support for association building for young entrepreneurs.

• Formalization: supporting the registration and formalization process of existing

micro- and small-scale businesses run by young entrepreneurs.

• Value chain linkages: creating links between existing businesses, or between

exist