Community Service as a Pathway to Work

Community Service as a Pathway to Work is a five-year, $48 million project meant to enable 500,000 young Ethiopians to attend community service activities and gain job preparedness skills. The idea is to combat high levels of youth unemployment in Ethiopia, especially among women, by not only training them for new jobs, but giving them the ability to develop and start their own businesses.

Sponsored by the Mastercard Foundation, Community Service as a Pathway to Work is a collaboration between CCP and Youth Network for Sustainable Development (YNSD), a local umbrella of more than 160 Ethiopian youth-centered organizations and associations with extensive experience in youth mobilization.

Of the 500,000 young people completing training and community service, YNSD and CCP aim to enable at least 200,000 young people to find dignified and fulfilling jobs in public or private sectors or create their businesses over the next five years. The funding from the Mastercard Foundation includes at least $15 million in microfinancing that young people can apply for to get their newly established enterprises off the ground.

The initiative will also be undertaken in post-conflict areas (19 percent) to reestablish the social fabric and build social cohesion while influencing economic growth and youth employment prospects.