Lightening Talks from YEO Action Teams Join us for lightening talks by the 1st cohort of YEO 2030 Action teams. Led by youth champions and working with the global ecosystem, the action teams have been working on tasks that are big enough to matter and small enough to get done over 12 months to accelerate SDG 8. The Action teams will share their progress with respect to green jobs, youth inclusion and engagement, financial inclusion, mentorship for entrepreneurs and leveraging social capital through skills building programmes in the MENA region. Speakers: • Taibat Hussain, Founder, Rising Child Foundation and Young People’s Action Team Member, UNICEF Generation Unlimited • Sarah Little, Director of Programs and Business Development, Education for Employment • Simon Mtabazi, Co-Founder & Social Innovation Adviser, Kikundi App • Rebecca Barbary, Manager, Youth and Workforce Development at Palladium • Boris Tkachenko, CEO of Mentoring Institute and Board of Trustees Member, Youth Business International

Inclusion Plenary Beyond Diversity: Why Intersectional Inclusion is Essential for Development Community development is shifting towards a more inclusive and co-created approach, but what does this look like in practice? How can funding and investment systems effectively partner with and learn from young community leaders who have experienced discrimination? What does deconstructing your own bias look like, and how does that expand throughout your work and life? This panel seeks to answer these questions, and more, through a dialog between youth activists, entrepreneurship incubators, and industry leaders. Moderator: Justine O'Sullivan, Advisor, Youth and Inclusion, Making Cents International Speakers: Anita Tiessen, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Youth Business International Regina Mwangi, Program Officer at Sightsavers Kenya Wevyn Muganda, Founder of Isirika Social Enterprise

Alliance for International Youth Development (AIYD) USG Policy Plenary The Future is Now: Reimagining Youth in U.S. Foreign Assistance Policy Organization: Alliance for International Youth Development (AIYD) Recognizing that half the world’s population is under the age of 30, and that the world’s youth are already influencing the geoeconomic and social global landscape and development outcomes, this session will look at how the U.S. Government--though executive agency policy and congressional legislation--is refreshing and augmenting its attention to youth in its foreign and development policy and strategy. From USAID’s newly updated Youth in Development Policy and MCC’s Inclusion and Gender Strategy to State Department’s appointment of Special Envoy for Youth Engagement to the fiscal year 2023 omnibus requirement to report on spending for youth programs; there is much to unpack. In addition, development priorities concerning gender, localization, equity, recovery, resilience, and responding to climate change bring further policy and program opportunities for youth. Join AIYD for an interagency discussion with policymakers and shakers on directions of U.S Foreign Assistance policy by, with and for youth. Moderator: Rachel Clement, Manager, Project, Influencing U.S. Government, ChildFund International and AIYD Policy Co-chair Speakers: • Alex Nemeth, Deputy Special Envoy for Global Issues, US Department of State • Katerina Ntep, Millennium Challenge Corporation’s Deputy Vice President for Sector Operations in MCC’s Department of Compact Operations • Hilary Taft, Technical Specialist for Youth, USAID • Taibat Hussain, Founder, Rising Child Foundation and Young People’s Action Team Member, Generation Unlimited • Dr. Nicole Goldin, Global Head, Inclusive Economic Growth, Abt Associates and AIYD Policy Co-Chair

Youth Responsive Programming in Sensitive Contexts: Examples from Ukraine, Serbia, and Jamaica Track: Global Context Organization: Making Cents International Content warning: This session contains a conversation about conflict areas/situations, trauma, mental health and psychosocial support, violence, war, and youth living in vulnerable contexts. The conference panel titled "Youth Responsive Programming in Sensitive Contexts: Examples from Ukraine, Serbia, and Jamaica" aims to explore how three youth economic opportunities programs are responding to challenges faced by vulnerable youth in sensitive contexts. Panelists will discuss the need to integrate mental health support and Positive Youth Development (PYD) and trauma-informed care principles into programming to provide the necessary support to participants and staff. The panel will feature representatives from three youth-serving organizations in Serbia, Jamaica, and Ukraine who are implementing workforce development and income generation programs in challenging contexts with youth who have experienced trauma from war, crime, violence, and discrimination. The discussion will cover underlying factors that must be addressed in programming to succeed in these contexts, the importance and ways of integrating mental health support into programming, the essential role of implementing partners in sensitive contexts, and the support they need to be successful. Speakers: • Aleksa Savić, Executive Director, Grupa Izadji (Group Come Out) • Dwayne Gutzmer, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Institute of Law & Economics (ILE) • Inna Lubynets, Team Lead, Ukraine, Making Cents International • Lauren Littles, Specialist, Economic Opportunities, Making Cents International

Greater Than the Sum of Our Parts: Working Together for Youth Mental Health Content warning: This session contains a conversation about conflict areas/situations, trauma, mental health and psychosocial support, and youth living in vulnerable contexts. COVID, conflict, climate disasters, and discrimination of all kinds continue to weigh on the mental health of the 1.12 billion youth across the globe, negatively impacting their ability to access and sustain work. The need for cross-sectoral, holistic, and comprehensive youth mental health programming has never been greater, and the international development community’s efforts to reimagine youth economic opportunities will only be successful when the current mental health crisis is addressed. In a dialog moderated by Adam Brown, our panelists will discuss their innovative, evidence-based, cross-disciplinary work with vulnerable youth in Ukraine, El Salvador, and Eswatini, the essential role that community members play in their respective programs, and where to go from here. Speakers: Adam Brown, Head of the Trauma and Global Mental Health Lab at the New School for Social Research Kateryna Vorobey, Research Associate, Making Cents International Margaryta Oksanichenko, Workforce Development Manager, FHI 360 (Ukraine) Celina de Sola, Co-Founder and President, Glasswing International Sanele Sibiya, Executive Director, Rock of Hope & Grantee under Youth Excel (Eswatini)