26 February 2016- UN-Habitat hosted the Ambassador Yahel Vilan, and Deputy Ambassador Nadav Peldman from the Embassy of Israel in Kenya, at the UN headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya on 15 January 2015. The Ambassador and his delegation were briefed on UN-Habitat’s experiences from the study mission to Israel that was organized by MASHAV during 16-21 January 2016. The meeting provided specific insights to respond to the needs of youth in agriculture, service delivery, employment and income generation in Africa.

The support from Israel builds on UN-Habitat on-going in Kiambu in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda amongst other member states. The State of Israel will, in 2016, support the training of young women and men entrepreneurs beginning with Kiambu in Kenya, Liberia, and Uganda. UN-Habitat will draw on MASHAV’s – the State of Israel’s Agency for International Development –wide experience to youth enterprise development, youth center development, and accelerator and incubator processes for supporting innovation and business. The proposed African Youth Enterprise Development Program will establish training programs for youth engaged and/or seeking to enter the business sector, cultivate a cohort/network of trainers, and create start-up incubation programs for the youth.