Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator

Last updated
Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator
Formation2011
Founder Nicola Galombik
Location
  • South Africa
CEO
Kasthuri Soni [1]
Key people
 Maryana Iskander
Website harambee.co.za

Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator is a South African nonprofit founded to address the youth unemployment crisis by connecting employers to first-time job seekers.

Contents

About

Harambee seeks to address the South African youth unemployment crisis by helping companies hire young, first-time job seekers. [2] The organization has developed a mobile-based network that collects job-seekers' details, assesses candidates, offers training, and matches them to employers looking for their skillsets. By signing up for and showing up regularly to classes and training, candidates can demonstrate reliability, and thus employability. [3] The goal is to encourage companies to take a chance on workers with no experience, often from poor households. As of May 2019, Harambee has a network of 500,000 young job seekers and 500 company partners. [4]

According to RTI International, Harambee was involved in the development of a curriculum for digital literacy and professional networking skills [5] hosted on the gcyerti.com website. [6]

Recognition

Harambee has been the recipient of a number of grants and awards, including the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, [7] a finalist for the 2019 Conscious Companies award [8] and the Global Center for Youth Employment award. It was one of the Aspen Institute's 2015 John P. McNulty prize laureates [9] and also received recognition from USAID [10] and a $3.5 million grant in 2020. [11] In 2019, they were voted the 8th most popular brand in South Africa in the "Coolest Campaign Targeted at Youth 2019" category. [12]

History

Harambee was founded in 2011 by Nicola Galombik, who is also the Executive Director at Yellowwoods, a global investment group based in South Africa. The name "Harambee" is Swahili for "we all pull together". [13] The organization was incubated by Yellowwoods in partnership with the South African Government's National Treasury's Jobs Fund. [14] Maryana Iskander took over as Chief Executive Officer in 2012. According to Iskander, their initial goal was to "scale and place 10,000 people into their first jobs". [8] In 2015, Harambee made an on-stage commitment at the Clinton Global Initiative to provide unemployed youth in South Africa access to 50,000 jobs and work experiences. [15] As of June 2019, Harambee had connected 100,000 young South Africans to employment. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeffrey Skoll</span> Canadian engineer, internet entrepreneur and film producer

Jeffrey Stuart Skoll is a Canadian engineer, billionaire internet entrepreneur and film producer. He was the first president of eBay, eventually using the wealth this gave him to become a philanthropist, particularly through the Skoll Foundation, and his media company Participant Media. He founded an investment firm, Capricorn Investment Group, soon after and currently serves as its chairman. Born in Montreal, Quebec, he graduated from University of Toronto in 1987 and left Canada to attend Stanford University's business school in 1993.

Harambee is an East African tradition of community self-help events, and is also the official motto of Kenya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skoll Foundation</span> US philanthropic foundation

The Skoll Foundation is a private foundation based in Palo Alto, California. The foundation makes grants and investments intended to reduce global poverty. Billionaire entrepreneur Jeffrey Skoll created the foundation in 1999.

Fundación Paraguaya is a Paraguaryan social enterprise. Founded in 1985, it seeks to develop solutions to poverty and unemployment, and proactively disseminate them throughout the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Stoneman</span>

Dorothy Stoneman is the founder and former CEO of YouthBuild USA, Inc. and former chairman of the YouthBuild Coalition, with over 1,000 member organizations in 45 states, Washington, D.C. and the Virgin Islands. She has been widely recognized for her contributions to the civil rights movements, poverty elimination efforts, and the emergence of the youth development field in the United States. Among the numerous awards she has received, Stoneman was awarded a MacArthur "genius" Fellowship (1996), and the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (2007).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Partners for a New Beginning</span>

In his "A New Beginning" speech on June 4, 2009, at Cairo University in Cairo, Egypt, President of the United States Barack Obama stated "I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings." During the speech, he also committed to "host a Summit on Entrepreneurship this year to identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations and social entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world".

VillageReach is a registered 501(c)(3) that works with governments to solve health care delivery challenges in low-resource communities. Its headquarters are in Seattle, Washington, with international offices in Mozambique, Malawi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Africa. The VillageReach approach includes developing, testing, implementing and scaling new systems, technologies and programs that improve health outcomes. This is achieved by extending the reach and enhancing the quality of health care. The benefits are manifested through supply chain and logistics improvements, information and communication technology, human resources for health, private sector engagement and advocacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Youth unemployment</span> Situation of young people who are willing to work but unable to find a job

Youth unemployment is a special case of unemployment with the youth, here being those between 15 and 24 years old.

Chemonics International Inc. is a private international development firm based in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1975 by Thurston F. (Tony) Teele as a subsidiary of Erly Industries. The employee-owned company offers a variety of services globally and with more than $1.5 billion in USAID contracts in 2019 is the largest for-profit recipient of U.S. government foreign aid. As of 2019 the company has approximately 5,000 employees in 100 countries.

Taddy Blecher is a South African actuary, management consultant and educational entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of CIDA City Campus and was given the World Economic Forum's Global Leader for Tomorrow Award in 2002 and again in 2005.

Garreth Bloor is President of the Canada-Africa Chamber of Business in Toronto and a South African founder of a venture capital firm. Previously he was elected to the Cape Town City Council in 2011 and subsequently appointed to the Mayoral Committee in February 2013. He served a second Mayoral executive role heading Tourism, Events and Economic Development until the end of his term, having previously served as Mayoral head of Economic, Environment and Spatial Planning.

Silatech is an organization based in Qatar, founded by Mozah bint Nasser. The current CEO of this organization is Mr. Hassan Al Mulla. Silatech means "your connection" in Arabic. The initiative seeks to create jobs and economic opportunities for young people in the Arab world, targeting 18- to 30-year-olds. by 2016, Silatech claims to have helped 200,000 young Arabs to obtain jobs. The initiative’s model involves building partnerships with governments, private companies and NGOs.

KickStart International is a nonprofit social enterprise headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. KickStart designs and mass-markets climate-smart irrigation technology to smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, in order to enable a transition from subsistence agriculture to commercial irrigated agriculture. Donor funds are used to design the irrigation pumps, establish supply chains, demonstrate and promote the pumps, and educate farmers on the benefits and methods of small-scale irrigation.

INJAZ Al-Arab is a non-profit organization for education and training in workforce readiness, financial literacy and entrepreneurship across the Arab World. INJAZ Al-Arab is the Regional Operating Center of JA Worldwide (JAW), one of the largest global non-governmental organizations dedicated to addressing fundamental social and economic challenges faced by young people. INJAZ Al-Arab is also an active participant in the United Nations Global Compact. Over 7 million students have participated in a broad base of entrepreneurship training opportunities aimed at developing basic business skills to start and run their own businesses while obtaining soft skills increasingly demanded by the private sector. Since its inception, INJAZ Al-Arab has built a network of over 100,000 classroom volunteers, who are leaders from the corporate world. INJAZ Al-Arab has a Regional Board of Directors, which comprises 15 executives, as well as a team of staff, led by Akef Aqrabawi, President and CEO of the Middle East/North Africa for JA Worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Awuah Jr.</span> Ghanaian engineer and educator; founder and president of Ashesi University

Patrick Awuah Jr. is a Ghanaian engineer, educator, and entrepreneur. Awuah established Ashesi University, a private, not-for-profit Ghanaian institution in 2002. He has received awards as an individual and as the founder of Ashesi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maryana Iskander</span> Egyptian-born American social entrepreneur and lawyer (born 1975)

Maryana Iskander is an Egyptian-born American social entrepreneur and lawyer. In 2022, she became the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Wikimedia Foundation, succeeding Katherine Maher. Prior to her position, Iskander was the CEO of the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator and a former chief operating officer of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julie Cordua</span>

Julie Cordua is an American entrepreneur serving as the chief executive officer and executive director of Thorn since 2012, and previously serving as the vice president of marketing at (RED).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicola Galombik</span>

Nicola Galombik is a South African social entrepreneur and businesswoman, known for founding Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, an award-winning South African nonprofit. She currently serves as the executive director of Yellowwoods, an investment holding company based in South Africa. Her career has included developing policy for the government of Nelson Mandela, and creating the education strategy for South African Broadcasting Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dita Přikrylová</span> Czech NGO Czechitas founder

Dita Přikrylová is a Czech software engineer, a social entrepreneur, and the founder of Czechitas, a non-profit organization based upon Girls Who Code which provides technical education and networking possibilities for women and youth in information technologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Babban Gona</span> Nigerian social enterprise organization

Babban Gona, which means "Great Farm" in the Hausa language, is a social enterprise organization that provides support for smallholder farmers in Nigeria to become more profitable.

References

  1. ↑ "About". Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  2. ↑ "GSB partnership focuses on youth development". University of Cape Town. University of Cape Town. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  3. ↑ "5 Cool Things That Could Make The World A Better Place By 2030". NPR.org. NPR. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  4. ↑ "Harambee, Youth Employment Accelerator, winner in NGO's category". Mail & Guardian. Mail & Guardian Online. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  5. ↑ Urquhart, Robert; Shaw, Patrick; Lehoahoa, Edwin; Johnson, Eric M. (2020-05-14). "Increasing digital platform use to help youth find work" (PDF). doi: 10.3768/rtipress.2020.pb.0023.2005 .{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ↑ "LinkedIn Curriculum". 2017. Archived from the original on 2019-12-28.
  7. ↑ "Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator". Skoll Foundation. Skoll Foundation. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  8. 1 2 "Conscious Companies awards applauds 2019 finalists". IOL. Independent Media and affiliated companies. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  9. ↑ "2015 McNulty Prize Laureates Announced". The Aspen Institute. The Aspen Institute. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  10. ↑ U.S. Agency for International Development (2021-07-12). "USAID Announces $18.4 Million in Support of Cutting Edge Innovations". usaid.gov. Archived from the original on 2019-11-23. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  11. ↑ "USAID gives $3.5m boost to Harambee for youth employment". Biz Community. Bizcommunity.com. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  12. ↑ "Sa's Youth Have Spoken – The 2019 Sunday Times Gen Next Winners Announced". Arena Events. Arena Events. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  13. ↑ "5 Cool Things That Could Make The World A Better Place By 2030". NPR. NPR. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
  14. ↑ Kruger, Danielle. "Harambee wins 2019 Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship". IT News Africa. African Innovator Group (Pty) Ltd. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  15. ↑ "Harambee's exceeds youth employment commitment to Clinton global initiative". IT News Africa. ITNews Africa. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  16. ↑ Mabaso, Sipho. "Youth-owned township businesses complain of market access barriers". IOL. Independent Media and affiliated companies. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.