By Hend GadAllah

Ministry of Youth and Sports headed by Dr. Ashraf Sobhy holds the closing ceremony of the "Youth Challenge 2020" initiative. It was launched last January in cooperation with UNICEF, the United Nations Development Program, and the Plan International Foundation. The five winning teams in the semi-final qualifiers of the initiative are honored on Thursday corresponding to September 24, in the Civic Education Center in Al Jazira.

Dr. Ashraf Sobhy stated that the initiative reflects the support and sponsorship of the political leadership for the Egyptian youth and providing all sustainable means to develop the creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship skills and train them to participate effectively in achieving Egypt’s vision 2030. He emphasized the ministry sets the implementation of a set of programs and projects in the field of entrepreneurship and life skills, among its priorities, in cooperation with international institutions and organizations concerned with training and qualifying youth in all governorates to keep pace with the labor market and achieve sustainable development.

He also that the Youth Challenge 2020 program aims to train the youth on innovation for development and to implement innovative and creative community entrepreneurship projects based on effective partnership and the programs were performed by the Ministry in partnership with international organizations.

It is noteworthy that the initiative was implemented through the Central Administration for Projects and Youth Training in ten governorates, namely Cairo, Alexandria, Assiut, Sohag, Qena, Aswan, Kafr El Sheikh and Gharbia. It was through implementing several TOT workshops from the Meshwary Program and the Youth Leadership Program in addition to implementing 11 camps. Five teams from the 10 governorates have been escalated, and each team receives 16,000 EGP to be borne by the participating authorities. The winning teams are followed up to nominate and escalate two teams to participate in the global competition "Youth Challenge" within the framework of the Global Platform for Generation Initiative. These teams will receive additional funding to the Entrepreneurship Incubator.