Geoffrey Bush, Diageo’s director of corporate citizenship, and Amar Raj Singh, Diageo India's country manager, recently attended the Asian Summit on Youth Entreprenuership and Employment in Delhi, and announced a new Youth Development Bond. Also attending were the Prince of Wales, the Prime Minister of India, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and other officials from the World Bank, United Nations and International Labour Organisation.
The conference, the first of its kind, was organised by jointly by Youth Business International (YBI) and the Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST) to celebrate its 10th anniversary. BYST is an organisation in India which helps to develop entrepreneurs by providing young disadvantaged people with start-up loans and mentors, to enable them to start their own businesses and realise their ambitions.
Through Johnnie Walker’s ‘Keep Walking’ programme, our business in India worked closely with BYST to run a young entreprenuer pilot project, part-funded by the Diageo Foundation, firstly in Pune, and later in the Indian state of Maharashtra. During his visit to the summit, Prince Charles received a cheque for £55,000 from the Diageo Foundation, as the final instalment of its endowment of the project. Over 60 young people involved in this scheme have since set up their own businesses, providing employment for over 200. A similar Keep Walking programme has also been successfully rolled out in Mexico.
YBI’s role is to promote similar programmes in different countries across the world. The Summit brought together government, industry, private sector and NGOs from all over Asia to discuss youth unemployment and the launch of an Asian Centre of Excellence as a springboard to setting up programmes across Asia.
Geoffrey Bush was invited to speak on a new innovative financial model which has been developed by YBI, with support from employee volunteers from Diageo’s treasury department in London. This financial model is to be called the Youth Development Bond and was recognised at the summit as having the potential to scale up the young entreprenuer progamme at a global level. In his speech, Geoffrey said ‘it’s a proven model, and can be adapted to suit different countries and cultures, and different economic circumstances. It can help both prosperous and disadvantaged individuals and communities.’
The Prime Minister of India, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee said ‘I would like to congratulate the Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust and all other associate organising, for organising this conference on employment and entrepreneurship among the youth. The subject of unemployment is not only important for India, but for the entire world’.
Key conference issues:
- Asia has 300 million unemployed youth in the 18-35 age group.
- Millions of young Asians work for less than a dollar a day
- China and India are the world’s fastest growing economies
- Youth unemployment and under-employment in South Asia is as high as 50-60%