Project profile — Entrepreneurship and Business Growth for Youth in Ethiopia

• Ethiopia (100.00%)

• Secondary Education: Vocational training (11330) (20.00%)
• Other Social Infrastructure And Services: Employment policy and administrative management (16020) (10.00%)
• Communication: Information and communication technology (ICT) (22040) (10.00%)
• Business And Other Services: Business support services and institutions (25010) (60.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (significant objective)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (significant objective)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (not targeted)
• Youth Issues (significant objective)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (significant objective)

The Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT’s) project aims to increase incomes of young Women and Men in urban areas of Ethiopia by improving their employment-readiness skills and strengthening youth-run small businesses. Talented and qualified Ethiopian youth are also recruited and deployed as trainers within their communities to deliver a peer-to-peer entrepreneurship development program to unemployed youth. The project uses information and communication technology and provides business development services and capacity-building support to businesses and partners to deliver effective entrepreneurship programs for youth. The project aims at building the entrepreneurial and business skills of 75,000 young people between the ages of 18 and 29, enabling them to find employment or create micro- and small- enterprises. It also builds the capacity of 6,920 youth who already own small enterprises to successfully expand their businesses.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1) improved business readiness among beneficiaries; (2) strengthened economic performance of youth-run small businesses; and (3) improved, more inclusive and better coordinated business support services for youth offered by local organizations.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (September 2022) include: (1) supported youth and women at every stage of their business development, from career readiness to business ideation to growth through four distinct programs, reaching 55,828 participants (61% young women), start up reached 40,367 participants (69% young women), scale up reached 2,969 participants (75% young women) and Women’s Empowerment Program reached 4,965 participants (100% young women); (2) participants created over 23,129 businesses (14,750 created by young women, 8,379 by young men); (3) 41% of new businesses remained open for more than 12 months; (4) 31% of participants increased their revenue by 30% or greater; (5) 46% (50% young women) of scale up participants reported an increase in the scale of their business of 20% or greater; (6) 23% of participants (20% young women) accessed credit; (7) Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) partnered with over 600 organizations to expand the reach of their training, offering entrepreneurs various business support services by organizing expert presentations on relevant business and mind set change topics, experience sharing events, networking events, women's network building, facilitating market linkages and Microfinance institutions/MFI referrals; (8) 88% of DOT’s interns (87% young women, 89% young men) improved their capacity to deliver gender-responsive training; and (9) 88% of partner organizations' staff improved their capacity to deliver business skills training in a gender-responsive way.

• Proactive disclosure