Orange Corners and AstraZeneca partner to boost youth entrepreneurship in Africa
Orange Corners (OC) and AstraZeneca have announced a new partnership to support the Orange Corners programme in the Palestinian Territories focused on creating an enabling environment for young entrepreneurs.
As part of the collaboration, AstraZeneca will provide funding to the programme through its Young Health Programme (YHP), a holistic and integrated community investment programme focused on connecting adolescents to health and wellbeing. AstraZeneca will also participate in OC’s mentorship programme, offering support for young entrepreneurs.
Orange Corners aims to improve job prospects for youth between the ages of 18 and 35, in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. OC is active in 14 countries, with 17 hubs and counting. The programme strengthens ecosystems for youth entrepreneurship and youth employment. Furthermore, Orange Corners stimulates the entrepreneurial mindset of young people. It offers incubation, acceleration, access to finance, education and training, support for policy development and business challenges, with a strong involvement of the Embassies of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and partners from the private sector, such as AstraZeneca.
Rami Scandar, Country President for the Near East and the Maghreb Cluster at AstraZeneca, said: “Jordan and the Palestinian Territories have some of the youngest and best educated populations in the world, but their young people are disproportionately affected by unemployment. By supporting the Orange Corners programmes in Jordan and the Palestinian Territories, we hope to provide young entrepreneurs with the support and opportunities they need to grow, with access to a network of expertise and experience, helping them to develop their innovative ideas into thriving businesses.”
Harry Verweij, Netherlands Ambassador to Jordan: “Innovation, entrepreneurship and youth employment are important pillars in the Netherland’s portfolio of Private Sector Development that aims in assisting towards a resilient economy in Jordan. “Orange Corners” is a Dutch flagship program that focuses on those pillars. It has already produced tangible outcomes in 14 countries and 20 cities in the region.”
Since its launch in 2010, the AstraZeneca Young Health Programme (YHP) has reached over 40 million young people with information about non-communicable disease (NCD) risk behaviours. The YHP programme also helps to develop young leaders and youth-serving organisations through mentorships, scholarships, grants and learning opportunities to foster sustainable, collective leadership focused on improving youth health.
Working in partnership with over 30 not-for-profit organisations around the world, the YHP has trained over 190,000 young people in the delivery of interventions and over 74,000 frontline health workers in adolescent health. The YHP is currently running in 34 countries globally.
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