Background

In March 2005, Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki marked the official launch of the Third Global Youth Employment Summit YES Kenya 2006, when he received the Summit Torch. This torch is a symbol of hope. It traveled from Alexandria to Mexico and from Mexico to Kenya. President Kibaki also launched a new Ministry of Youth Affairs and urged it to expedite efforts to bring together relevant line ministries, civil society organizations, development partners and the youth themselves in a new drive to unemployment.

Objectives of YES Kenya 2006

YES Kenya scheduled a four-day summit in September on the theme, Creating Markets…Unleashing Entrepreneurship. The meeting of the leaders of the 83 national networks is expected to draw more than 2,000 youth delegates from at least 120 countries. The agenda included talks on attracting more foreign direct investment, building core competencies for trade, and youth capacity building. Innovative policies, best practices and ideas will be shared drawn from all parts of the world and will be used to develop future collaborative action for employment generation. The summit will entail ministerial meetings, plenary sessions, open forums, workshops and skills development seminars.

The event will be hosted by the Government of Kenya under the auspices of Ministry of Youth (Kenya). The Patron, President Mwai Kibaki, will open the Summit. Other high level guests will be the Minister for Youth Affairs, Mr. Mohammed Kuti, and the Minister for Labor, Mr. Newton Kulundu and UN-HABITAT Executive Director, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka. Others include Prime Ministers of various countries, heads of community based organizations, UN Agencies and other multilateral bodies. The four-day Summit will be held at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) 13 - 16 September.