2024 Q1 Board Book (Staff)

The March 25-28th, 2024 Board Meeting focused on the Foundation's strategic program development, data-driven decision-making, and enhancing organizational agility, all aimed at creating dignified and fulfilling work for young people, especially in Africa, and for Indigenous youth in Canada. This period involves the review of existing programs, the implementation of new strategies, and a strong emphasis on both internal improvements and partnerships.

Key activities and initiatives include:

1) Strategic Alignment and Planning: The Foundation is refining its strategies, with a focus on an entrepreneurship-led approach in Nigeria, aiming to enable an additional 2.5 million young people to access dignified work by 2026. The Young Africa Works strategy is central to the Foundation's 2030 goals, seeking to enable 30 million young people to access dignified work.

2) Program Performance Review: Country baseline studies in Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Nigeria reveal that, while progress has been made, programs tend to favour urban youth from higher socio-economic backgrounds. There is a noted gap in engaging younger, rural, and lower socio-economic status segments. The Foundation is working to develop more inclusive strategies.

3) Key Program Initiatives:

* Community Health Worker programs aim to train 600,000 workers across 13 countries, with 70% being women.

* Saving Lives and Livelihoods is transitioning to a second phase focused on integrating COVID-19 management into national immunization programs.

* Tuzimbe in Uganda is designed to expand access to finance for young entrepreneurs.

* The Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program is scaling up its e-learning initiative.

* A new Global Business Services Program is set to create 500,000 jobs in the BPO/IT sector.

* The Women Economic Empowerment Through Cashew Processing Program (WEECAP) aims to create 330,000 job opportunities for youth in the cashew value chain.

4) Impact Measurement: The Foundation is developing an approach to measure the impact of its Policy and Thought Leadership strategy. The approach will focus on amplifying programmatic impact, strengthening youth voices, improving policies, and changing mindsets.

5) Organizational Development: The Foundation is enhancing its organizational agility through a series of initiatives aimed at improving processes and clarifying roles. A Culture Roadmap is being developed to guide internal norms and ways of working.

These activities demonstrate the Foundation's commitment to achieving large scale impact through strategic initiatives and partnerships, with a focus on internal development and inclusive practices.