I attended a very practical and informative conference at which wide variety of experts came to Damascus on the 23/4th of January to discuss the development of a Civil Society in Syria.

Lord Malloch Brown in his opening speech stressed the need for a effective tri-partite partnership between Government, Civil Society and Business in a market-oriented economy. As Syria moves towards a social market model the need for a strong Civil Society has become increasingly apparent. As we were informed, Syria has around 1000 NGOs compared with 20,000+ in Egypt and 9,000 in Jordan.

The conference discussed the development of a Civil Society from a number of perspectives. We looked at issues such as Youth Employment and Empoyability, Rural Development and Culture. We debated how to build capacity and competance, how to balance regulation and freedom to innovate and how to encourage both central and local initiatives.

In a powerful speech Her Excellency Mr Asma Al Assad stressed the need for an effective civil society working in close partnership with government and business. The Syria Trust set up under her patronage has created as a catalyst to hasten the growth of a strong Civil Society. Although focussing on certain issues such as youth, rural matters and heritage it also has a role to provide a model of good practices developed to meet the specific needs of Syrian Society.

I presented a discussion paper on Youth Employability and Entrepreneurship which addressed one of the key issues facing Syrian society, namely Youth Unemployment which can be found under Publications.

Philippa Frankl our Executive Director held a December workshop in Mumbai on our methodologies for helping street kids create a livelihood for themselves. The workshop covered self-employment, financial awareness and independence and employability. Over 15 local youth organisations came to hear Philippa. They are working with kids found scavenging in the slums, sleeping rough or arriving at the train and bus stations.

The reaction to our training materials and methods was very enthusiastic and Philippa has been asked to return in March to to run a pilot training course that we hope to extend to many more youth organisations both in Mumbai and the rest of India.

On June 19th I visited the Wuhan Youth Palace where the Association plans to carry out its first pilot learning -to-learn programmes. We were really impressed with the facilities which serve 10,000 young people a week providing them with training courses and a wide range of extra-curricular activities.

Mr Li and his team gave us a tremendous welcome and we had some very thoughtful discussions on how to broaden the offer available to young people in Wuhan to meet the vision of the China Youth Development Complex project which is “to help young people learn through experience the creativity, life skills and global citizenship they need to lead fulfilled lives”.

We also visited a couple of Teen-zones, a very new idea developed by the ACYF (All China Youth Federation) to extend the reach of the work of Youth Palaces to many more young people. As can be seen from the photo below these are located in the heart of city communities and provide a space for young people to chill out and try new ideas and programmes outside the normal school curriculum.

Philippa Frankl has been appointed the Executive Director of Street Kids International UK. Philippa comes from the Princes Trust where she was a senior programme manager. We are delighted she has joined us. She is an expereinced manager and bringing experience of working with young people both in the UK and abroad where she ran programmes in Peru and as a volunteer in Nicaragua and Mexico.

With her arrival Street Kids UK is now open for business and will be looking to build on the growing success of its Canadian parent organisation.

Dame Sue Street was the Permanent Secretary at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) from autumn 2001 to late 2006. She was responsible for the overall strategy, delivery and expenditure of the whole department. This included major projects like the winning bid for the London 2012 Olympic Games and the renewal of the BBC Charter, as well as policy for the arts, culture, heritage, sport, broadcasting, tourism and the creative industries such as film and fashion design. In January 2007 she took up her appointment as Strategic Advisor to Deloitte, along with other portfolio appointments.
Her Past
Previously Sue was very involved with the criminal justice system and also with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. She was an active proponent in the drive to improve literacy and numeracy skills among young offenders, and worked closely with Martin Narey, at the time Director General of the Prison Service, to try to prevent reoffending through improved employability. Sue worked with DCMS on the creativity agenda, an initiative exploring the educational requirements of the evolution of the British economy as it moves away from a manufacturing focus towards the more creative industries. In addition, as head of the anti-drugs policy unit Sue worked hard to ensure that drug prevention education was implemented into the National Curriculum, although she is the first to admit that in doing so she realised how crowded the National Curriculum already is and how much there is for children to learn! Finally, Sue helped meet the pledge to increase sport in schools through her work with DCMS.
Current Situation
As a strategic advisor at Deloitte, Sue feels that education is a crucial area that the firm must work in to help drive revenue. She has been a key player in enhancing our offerings in both Further and Higher Education, through building on her existing contacts with various Vice-Chancellors and using these to advise the Education & Skills Team and make further connections.

CCTV held a series of interviews with Richard Street on his views on Entrepreneurship. the Chinese government is pushing hard to promote entrepreneurship throughout the country. Over the next three years campaigns, competitions and extensive training initiatives will be initiated to raise awareness of the need for and benefits of people becoming entrepreneurs. CCTV is holding a series of interviews with practitioners and experts talking about entrepreneurship and exchanging their views and experiences.

StreetKids International is a leading global charity in the field of helping street children learn how to take control of their own lives. Over the last 20 years StreetKids has helped partners in 60 countries to provide training in enterprise, sexual health and drugs, www.streetkids.org

To meet a growing demand for their programmes, the Canadian Board decided to start a sister charity in the UK and asked Richard Street to become its Chair. StreetKids UK will manage programmes and develop the resources to help meet this demand.

StreetKids use award winning animated videos, extensive training materials and a network of master trainers from many countries to enable partner organisations to work with street children. StreetKids has been recognized by the United Nations as a Global Best practice leader in youth work.

CARE International UK are steadily building their campaigning and advocacy strengths. I have been involved in this as a Trustee and as the Chair of the Communications and Marketing committee. Their recent campaign Living on the Edge is rapidly building awareness of the need in Africa to anticipate the crises that plague the continent. Details of this work can be found at www.careinternational.org.uk/?lid=7687&bid=259.

I have so impressed with the work of Carol Monoyios and her team and I would urge all my friends and colleagues to get involved in their work in over 70 countries around the developed world. You can do this through their website at www.careinternational.org.uk/?lid=8583

The SHABAB programme was launched by Her Excellency Mrs Asma Al Assad on August the 21st in a special evening in the Sheraton Hotel, Aleppo The programme is now operating in 6 cities around Syria with plans to expand in the near future.

It was very fitting that the launch took place in Aleppo where the business community have rallied round to support and encourage young people in their city to learn about business and entrepreneurship. This was recognised by Her Exccellency during the celebrations when she presented them with certificates thanking them for their contribution.

The team now numbers 13 and regular training is taking place to expand the scope of the help that SHABAB can give to young Syrians seeking to become more employable. Strong support has been given not only by the business community but also by various Ministers who are building the need to develop the business skills and awareness of young people into their policies and regulations.

View of the performance through the door of the church at Seillans

A delegation from the National Association of Children’s Youth Palaces, the All China Youth Federation and the Youth and Children Foundation for Social Education came to see how UK ‘s experience can help them develop extra-curricular support for young people in China.

During the visit the group was taken to see the work of the Natural History Museum, the British Museum, Enterprise Education, @Bristol and the BBC. There is a strong wish to build ties with the youth programmes of all these institutions to become part of their plans for an Olympic youth legacy with the next steps being finalised later this year.

During the visit the delegation presented me with a certificate recognising my role as an adviser to Youth Business China, a nation-wide youth entrepreneurship programme.

The SHABAB team working on ideas for a Business Clinic

Chairing one of the workshop sessions

Talking with the Chief at his village of Kamayura

This event was a great success. The Barbican Concert Hall was a sell-out with an audience of 2,200. They were able to learn about the work of CARE.. The chorus was able to raise funds for its own work in promoting choral singing and composing and to support CARE’s work overseas. CARE was able to raise its profile, explain its mission and recruit interested members of the public to provide ongoing support for their work.

CARE works through 12 national member organizations who come under the global CARE International umbrella. The confederation has more than 60 years of experience and is one of the world’s largest non-religious, non-political humanitarian organizations devoted to fighting poverty. CARE runs development programs in nearly 70 countries and has a staff of nearly 15,000 employees in the field. Approximately 90% are nationals in the countries where CARE works.

Go to Case Studies for examples of Ukraine’s young entrepreneurs