Case studies

Fadi Elobra faced an uphill struggle to establish a learning centre for children in his impoverished home town.

Read more about his story

"In life one must make sacrifices in order to attain one’s goals."

Read why Jean-Guy Furois from Canada became a mentor

Sarala Bastian from IndiaGhadah Baaqil from Saudi ArabiaJorge Alberto Noveron from Mexico

Our impact


The mission of Youth Business International is to champion youth enterprise by growing a global network which provides young people with the opportunity to start their own business.

We support our network by helping them develop our proven model of providing young entrepreneurs with access to credit, volunteer business mentoring and business start-up services.

To facilitate the growth of this network and raise the profile of youth enterprise, we develop international partnerships with governments, businesses and civil society organisations.

Our five strategic objectives are:

1. Strengthen the operational capabilities of the network
2. Assess the quality and performance of the network
3. Raise resources for the network
4. Expand the network to new countries
5. Act as an advocate for the network

To find out how we performed in 2008 against these objectives, read our annual report.


The growth of the YBI Network

  • The YBI Network has grown by 30% per annum for the past four years

  • In 2008 the global network enabled nearly 7,000 young people to set up in business

  • To date the programmes have assisted 97,000 young entrepreneurs to start new businesses, employing over an estimated 250,000 people

  • Around 70% of new businesses started are still trading after 3 years