News Releases

ImagineNations and World Bank Announce Global Partnership for Youth Investment

WASHINGTON (20 Aug. 2007) — ImagineNations Group and the World Bank today announced a formal and enduring relationship that shares a common mission: To improve the lives of young people through their economic advancement and social inclusion with a special emphasis on adolescent girls and young women.

This new Global Partnership for Youth Investment (GPYI) aims to test new approaches and to catalyze and support the development and implementation of cutting edge and innovative interventions to expand the set of economic opportunities available to young people.

"The ImagineNations-World Bank Global Partnership for Youth Investment offers a robust opportunity to leverage and scale up effective initiatives. It will reach large numbers of youth enterprises and entrepreneurs to help drive their growth and increase positive impact on their communities," said Alan Fleischmann, managing director of ImagineNations, who serves as chairman of the executive committee of GPYI.

In time, the partnership will build from a dozen committed partners and grow to include scores of social entrepreneurs, thought leaders, investors, financial institutions, global brands, media, private corporations, non-government and civil society organizations - all working together.

"The Partnership will play a catalytic role in broadening and deepening country driven engagement in support of youth employment, enterprise development and investment," said Pawan Patil, senior economist at the World Bank and chief executive of GPYI.

The Partnership's five goals are:

To build and sustain a committed alliance of global partners and donors with a special emphasis on corporations and tapping corporate philanthropy.
To mobilize financing toward advancing youth entrepreneurship, empowerment and citizenship, and manage a Global Fund for Youth Investment.
To identify and finance initiatives around the world that work, and take them to scale, impacting tens of millions of young people.
To build a knowledge bank from innovative research and development of microfinance investment products for youth and youth enterprise that are disseminated as a global public good.
To develop and support a south-south technical assistance and capacity building facility that brings models of what works from one developing country to another.

About ImagineNations Group

ImagineNations® Group is a global alliance of entrepreneurs, thought leaders, investors, financial institutions, philanthropists and global brands -all working together to empower and inspire a new generation of successful young adults in the developing world with employment and livelihood opportunities. By designing and launching investment funds and financial institutions, ImagineNations and its partners are providing young entrepreneurs with financial resources and business/leadership coaching that young people need in order to start micro- and small businesses.