Youth Economic Opportunities Conference: Poonam Ahluwalia (Youth Employment Summit) on market access for youth

Insights from the 2012 Youth Economic Opportunities Conference

September 11-13, 2012 | Washington, DC

Following her participation in the plenary session, "Changemakers at Work," during the the Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference, Poonam Ahluwalia, President and Youth Employment Summit and founder of YouthTrade, spoke with Microlinks about her extensive work with youth. In 2002, the Youth Employment Summit launched a decade-long campaign of action that concludes this year, creating 55 country networks to organize almost 400 projects all over the world.

In this interview, Ahluwalia urges the youth development community to let go of resignation and to be unstoppable, tenacious, and unreasonable in seeking opportunities for youth. She also highlights a new program, YouthTrade, that is similar to the FairTrade model but instead certifies goods and services of young people under 35 to provide the architecture for market access. The first retail outlet is WholeFoods, and YouthTrade will be reaching out to conscious companies and consumers to share the stories of young people to help empower youth through market access. Watch to learn more:

Bio: Poonam Ahluwalia

Poonam Ahluwalia is the founder and executive director of the Youth Employment Summit (YES) and managing director of the YES Academy International in Hyderabad, India. Under her leadership, YES has created and implemented a 10-year international campaign to ensure that youth throughout the world have access to the education and training programs, skills development opportunities, resources, and credit that they need to build productive, decent, and sustainable livelihoods. She holds an M.S. in mass communications from Boston University, Boston, Mass. and an M.A. in political science from Rajasthan University, Jaipur, India.