employment

What Questions Do You Have on Youth Financial Services?

Youth are particularly vulnerable to economic problems. They often don’t have access to financial services due to lack of education and employment. Governments are aware of this and are working to find solutions.

Local boys look on during the visit of World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim to the low income suburb of Gwaltoli on his tour of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh state, India.

"India must take advantage of having a young population. Never doubt the possibilities for this country,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim to youth in India. During an hour-long NDTV program, President Kim answered questions that ranged from reducing poverty to tackling water crises in the country.

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What can be done to help African youth improve their prospects for a brighter future?

The first step might be to understand the challenges they face.

Recently, Microsoft Chairman and philanthropist Bill Gates wrote a terrific piece in the Wall Street Journal on why we need to measure the world’s problems to solve them. “You can achieve incredible progress if you set a clear goal and find a measure that will drive progress toward that goal…,” said Gates.

That’s true.

Last week, we launched a global conversation on what will it take... to end poverty? ....for your family to be better off? .... for all to get an education? This week, people from around the world joined the discussion with their own question: #whatwillittake for youth to get better jobs?

Jordan’s young women graduates are finding jobs through a voucher project that pays the first six months of their salaries to employers willing to hire them.

As I skateboarded around downtown Washington last summer, in my shabby shirt and torn up shoes, I thought the World Bank buildings were just some everyday banks, where one went to exchange international money.

Little did I know that the very next summer I would be catching the metro―instead of my skateboard―wearing a button up shirt, tie, slacks, and shiny shoes, to intern in the External Affairs department of the World Bank.

We all know that making profit is the most important goal for many industries. They need to achieve this to compete with other industries and to show their strength in the marketplace. For example, many manufacturers in developed countries look for a low cost labor force in order to make greater profits. How do they achieve that? Well, they simply move outside their home countries to other countries where they hire workers with low wages.