Hand in Hand speaks at World Bank

28 Apr 2017

Hand in Hand Eastern Africa CEO Pauline Ngari addresses the Global Parliamentary Network

Washington, DC – The world’s poorest residents are doomed to stay that way until governments do more to nurture them as entrepreneurs. That was the message delivered by Hand in Hand Eastern Africa CEO Pauline Ngari to hundreds of MPs from dozens of countries at the World Bank last week.

Speaking to the Global Parliamentary Network, a group of policymakers who meet each year as part of the World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings, Pauline urged parliamentarians to:

• adopt accelerator programmes to help grow SMEs;
• put entrepreneurship studies front and centre in national curricula;
• foster relationships between microfinance institutions and training organisations.

Her session, ‘Fighting Inequality Through Job Creation & Growth’, also featured speakers from the World Bank, IMF and Peace Child International. It preceded a roundtable discussion featuring Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, and Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank.

“Delivering programmes is what we do – and advocacy helps us do it,” said Hand in Hand International Co-CEO Dorothea Arndt. “The World Bank is the perfect venue to share our message, establishing jobs and entrepreneurship as key planks in the development agenda. Thanks, Pauline, for sharing it so ably.”

Youth Job Creation

The conference also hosted the launch of the ‘Youth Job Creation Policy Primer – 4th Edition’, a document outlining the problem of youth unemployment and proposing solutions for policymakers. Hand in Hand figured centrally, not least for our Entrepreneurship Clubs and four-step ‘systems approach’ to job creation. Several case studies featuring our members were also featured.

Click here to visit the policy primer website.