Q&A: How to win funding from the Global Youth Empowerment Fund

BARCELONA — Over $100,000 is up for grabs for the world’s young people as the U.N. SDG Action Campaign and Junior Chamber International launch their annual Global Youth Empowerment Fund. The initiative began in 2016 and is designed to empower young people to get involved in grassroots community projects by providing training and direct grants to projects advancing the 2030 sustainable development agenda. Arrey Obenson, secretary-general at JCI — a nonprofit organization that works with youth to create a positive impact in their communities — said the focus was on youth because they should be the driving force behind the SDGs, but often lack the funds to implement ideas. “We believe the future belongs to young people. Young people are those with the biggest stake in global development, the biggest interest in its success. They are also a major untapped resource,” Obenson said. “We're not looking to fund individuals, we're looking to fund collaboration between people.” --— Arrey Obenson, secretary-general, JCI The fund’s current cycle opened on May 3 and applications will be accepted until June 1. Last year, winning projects received up to $5,000 each. This year the fund is set to disperse more money than ever. “By funding young local leaders directly, the fund invests in a sustainable, more equitable future,” Obenson added. Obenson details what the judges are looking for and how applicants can increase their chances of taking home the cash. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. What tips do you have for this year’s applicants? Projects are funded with grants that typically range around $5,000, and are assessed for their scalability, community impact, and execution strategy. We’ve developed a platform where you’ll find a guide to help groups develop their project ideas. It’ll also provide them with project management tools that provide a framework so that the group can work to identify their objectives. The advice I would give for anybody applying is that [success] lies very much in the ‘why.’ For example, why do we have children going to school without food? Being able to figure out the “why” will tell us how, because we want solutions that are going to last. Then, we really would like to know that these organizations that apply are already existing as organizations. We're not looking to fund individuals, we're looking to fund collaboration between people so we want to see a lot more collaboration already happening. There has to be an existing group of people that have a reference and connection to the community they’re working in. That also establishes some credibility for them as a group. Can you share some examples of projects that have previously been awarded funding? I always talk about one project in Ghana where a group of people identified thousands of children in Accra who were going to school hungry. As a result, they started a project — Food 4 All Africa — to collect food for children. With the $5,000 we invested in this project, they were then able to scale up from just one school to many more and that project has now grown into a food distribution business. There's also a very interesting project focused on the power of women called Young Women for Good Governance. They support women by developing the skills they need to become entrepreneurs. They have a wide range of activities they provide. What kind of projects would you like to see in this year's selection? One of the things we’d like to see — and that we've already seen a lot of — is a mobilization of young people around climate change. That's something that we’re expecting to see in the projects because there's been a lot of conversation around that. We're also always looking forward to having projects on gender equality because we really believe that providing opportunities for women is going to accelerate action of the SDGs. These are key areas.