The Entra 21 Alliance was created to fuel Latin America’s information technology economy by bridging the gap between jobs and young people.  More than half the population of Latin America and the Caribbean is under the age of 25, and the demand for information and communication technology (ICT) skills in the workplace is surging.  The potential for a large, young, skilled workforce in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) remained unfulfilled, however, because across the region, 36-66% of young people 15 – 24 years of age were not enrolled in school and could subsequently not find jobs.  Even those who could afford an education were inadequately prepared to compete in the contemporary, global marketplace.
 
The large number of youths in the region needing employment but lacking skills combined with the need for skilled technical workers to contribute to the region’s growing information-based technology prompted the creation of the Entra 21 Alliance.  Entra 21 works to improve the employability of disadvantaged Latin American and Caribbean youth (ages 16-29) by helping them gain ICT skills through internships, job training, mentoring, and job placement.  Through its efforts, Entra 21 is also helping to develop a strong and vibrant upwardly mobile and skilled workforce, which in turn will strengthen the region’s incipient democracies and developing economies. 
 
In response to the workforce crisis in the LAC region, the Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) established a $10-million grant.  In addition, the MIF issued a challenge to the International Youth Fund (IYF) to raise an additional $10 million.  USAID is providing $3 million to the IYF to meet this challenge.  Together the MIF, the IYF and USAID are financing Entra 21.

Partners
Governments: The United States of America through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
 
International Organizations: The Multilateral Investment Fund, an autonomous fund administered by the Inter-American Development Bank.
 
Civil Society: The International Youth Foundation and Counterpart International.
 
Private Sector: Microsoft, Lucent Technologies, and Merrill Lynch.

Partnership Targets
The partnership has two goals:

• To meet the fundraising targets set by the Multilateral Investment Fund and the International Youth Foundation; and
• To provide training in information and communication technologies (ICT) and employability skills for 12,000 youth in 26 countries through projects lasting up to 3 years. 

Progress Toward Targets
As of December 2003, the IYF had raised $5.4 million of its $10 million target, including $650,000 of its own resources, a $3-million USAID grant, and private sector contributions.  In addition to the $10 million matching grant the IYF is pursuing, nonprofit organizations in the region that initiate, develop, and execute the projects are raising an additional $5 million. 
 
Entra 21 grants will be awarded to approximately 40 nonprofit organizations and will average $375,000.
The Entra 21 Grant Review Committee has many proposals in various stages of the grant process.  Of the 159 preliminary proposals received to date, 50 have been invited to submit full proposals, and a total of 15 projects in 12 countries had been approved by December 2003.  These include:

• A training course in the Dominican Republic that placed 89 of 91 targeted youth in internships. 
• A program that will train 600 young people in Bolivia to help nonprofits in rural and urban communities link up with a new nationwide telecommunications network system.
• A program that will help 360 disadvantaged youth in the Dominican Republic gain the technical and personal skills they need to qualify for jobs being created in the city of Santiago.

As of December 2003, the first 15 projects approved had trained 1,882 students. These 15 projects have set a target of training 6,840 youth.  When all 40 projects have been completed, the number of youths trained is expected to reach 12,000. 

Each project is required to submit quarterly progress and financial reports, allowing the IYF to track the progress and success of each grantee.  Many of the individual projects are reporting positive results, and each has developed their own Web site to promote their respective activities.

The partners are working to refine a final version of a monitoring and evaluation database for tracking and reporting purposes and expect to finalize the database by late spring 2004.  The partnership has also attracted the attention of the development community, which raises its visibility to new investors.  Entra 21 was one of several IYF information technology related programs highlighted at the First World Summit on Information Societies that was held in Geneva, Switzerland in December 2003.

In the current quarter, the IYF is working to gain final Grant Review Committee approval for at least five more projects.  In addition, the MIF has hired an independent contractor to perform a mid-term evaluation of the program, and a Project Strengthening Workshop was given for eight new grantees in February 2004.

Next Steps
The MIF agreed to extend the program period by 12 months, to July 2006.  This extension will allow for additional 3-year projects and the time to thoroughly study and disseminate the impact of current grantees’ undertakings.  The Grant Review Committee will continuously review proposals and work to meet the target goal of 40 projects by this end date.  IYF-specific goals are making the monitoring and evaluation system functional and increasing the visibility of the alliance’s projects in order to attract more funding.  Though the IYF has passed the halfway mark to its $10-million target, fundraising is always a challenge.  To this end, inviting high-profile guests, such as ambassadors, the media, and government leaders to project launches is providing good publicity.  Two such launches were held recently in Campinas, Brazil and Asuncion, Paraguay.

Resources
Though the alliance is based on co-financing, the MIF has contributed $10 million, and the IYF finds donors to match their funding of individual projects.  IYF is matching the MIF funding on a one-to-one basis in association with multinational corporations, foundations, and government agencies in the Americas, Europe, and Japan.  The first such partners are Microsoft, Lucent Technologies, Merrill Lynch, UNICEF, Counterpart International, and the Finnish Children and Youth Foundation.  IYF also pledged $650,000 of its own resources.

As noted above, the IYF has raised $5.4 million toward matching the MIF’s grant.  USAID provided an initial grant of $3 million that enabled the IYF to match the MIF’s funding for learning components of the alliance.  In addition, local USAID missions in Colombia, Guatemala, and Nicaragua have verbally committed $700,000, $100,000, and $150,000, respectively, at a country level, and USAID/Washington has contributed more than $400,000 more.  The 15 projects that had been approved by December received grants ranging from $246,777 to $498,438, right around the projected average grant of $375,000.  In addition, several “Teaming Agreements” have been established, whereby a donor – civil society, private sector or otherwise - supports an Entra 21 grantee directly and the money is tracked by IYF.

U.S. Government Primary Point of Contact
U.S. Agency for International Development: Alfred Nakatsuma (Phone: 202-712-4182; E-mail: anakatsuma@usaid.gov).