We are EMpower

We partner with local organisations in emerging market countries, and other change-makers, to enable marginalised young people to transform their lives and communities.

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The Latest from EMpower

New Commentary in Alliance Magazine

Theodoros Chronopoulos, Senior Programme Officer for Africa and Russia at EMpower, penned an important piece "Fortify Young Minds: Invest in Youth Mental Health."

Read Theo's Op-Ed

Read Our New Blog on Youth Participatory Approaches

In a new piece for AVPN, Dr. Nisha Dhawan and Tanvi Mishra explore how EMpower has engaged young people over the years and how our programmes are the better for it.

Read the Blog

Rekha Nair Joins EMpower’s US Board of Directors

We are excited to welcome Rekha Nair to the EMpower US Board! Rekha been a dedicated supporter of EMpower since 2014 and was the long-time Co-Chair of EMpower’s Next-Gen, a global initiative that brings together our next generation of young philanthropists. She is currently Executive Director, Emerging Markets Sales, at Standard Chartered Bank.

Looking for a Social Media and Digital Marketing Consultant

EMpower is seeking to hire a short-term consultant to support us with social media strategy and execution as well as digital marketing. We are hoping to bring someone on board who is able to play both an advisory and implementation role in helping us achieve our digital engagement goals.

Learn More

Are you a DEI expert?

EMpower has made significant progress over the last few years in infusing inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility in our internal culture, systems, and processes. Now we're looking for a consultant to take us through the next steps in our evolution. We're seeking someone to build out a roadmap to help us achieve our goals and long-term vision.

Learn More

EMpower Impact to Date

For 20 years, we have worked alongside local organisations and young people to advance innovative programming and best practices to enable youth to live their full potential.

1,343

Grants Made

$45 Million

Awarded

922,000

Youth Directly Impacted

3.1 Million

Lives Touched

Help Make a Difference Today

Youth Development Tools

EMpower is committed to sharing knowledge, tools and lessons-learned that can inform and strengthen youth programmes.

Learn More →

We work globally to empower marginalised youth, especially girls.

There are more than 1.8 billion young people in the world, and many emerging market countries currently have their largest populations of young people ever. And these numbers are only expected to grow over the next 10 years. Already experiencing significant poverty, discrimination, violence, and exclusion, young people living at the margins now face the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19. The crisis has taken an unprecedented toll on their schooling, health, safety, and livelihoods. Our support to local partners aims to create more opportunities, assets, networks, and safe spaces for young people. EMpower provides financial grants and other value-added support to local organisations in emerging market countries in three interconnected areas that are key to youth development:

Economic well-being 85 million young people are estimated to be unemployed, nearly half of all the unemployed worldwide. Read more →

Safe, healthy lives Half of all new HIV infections occur among young people between 15 and 24 years of age, with young women facing infection rates 1.6 times higher than young men. Read more →

Inclusive Learning Around 129 million girls are out of school, and millions more are in school but not learning. Read more →

Find Out More About How We Empower Youth

Partnership with Impact

With partnership at the heart of our work, EMpower learns from and with our partners, leveraging and sharing learnings from our 100 active grantee partners in 15 EM countries.

Featured Grantee Partner

UmRio

UmRio, a recent grantee partner of EMpower, focuses on improving school dropout rates and academic performance in a poor and often violent favela in Rio using a surprising entry point: rugby.

Over 90% of those who join drug gangs in Rio’s favelas are between the ages of 13 and 18. They sometimes see this as their only option, as they have limited access or motivation to go to school and few alternative opportunities or role models. They face financial pressures, so getting an education falls by the wayside. And COVID has only made things worse: As a country, Brazil experienced one of the longest periods of school closure in the world. In the favela of Morro do Castro, where UmRio operates, only 15% of children and young people participated in remote classes during the pandemic, and a whopping 60% have returned to school unable to read or write.

In this environment, UmRio offers another choice. Rugby helps instill values of self-respect and discipline and improves young people’s team building and communications skills. And the organisation goes beyond the sport and provides academic learning opportunities, one-on-one mentoring, as well as professional and personal development. Over the past eight years, UmRio has supported more than 2000 children and young people, inspiring them to make better choices and to return and stay in school.

Publications

Learning Communities On the Move

The Learning Communities On the Move model, developed through an EMpower and CARE partnership, lays out a roadmap for organisations and programmes to shift harmful social and gender norms by centring girls' expertise and dynamic contributions. We believe girls should have access to the decision-making spaces that affect their lives and rights and can lead the way in creating sustainable change and lasting impact in communities.

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A Word with James Donald: Posted 17 November 2022

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Collaborative Online Learning During COVID: New Strategies During New Times: Posted 16 November 2022

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We are looking for an Argentina Programme Officer Consultant!: Posted 10 November 2022

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03 November 2022
Annual Dinner UK

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Make a Difference with EMpower

Our Underwriters pay for all of our administrative and fundraising costs, so 100% of your donation goes directly to empowering marginalised young people.

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