YuWaah India strengthens board structure to accelerate their work with young people

YuWaah (Generation Unlimited India) in India today announced that Ashwin Yardi, CEO of Capgemini in India, comes on board to be the co-chair of YuWaah, effective immediately along with Yasumasa Kimura, UNICEF Representative a.i who is the co-chair of YuWaah.

“YuWaah’s work to improve skilling, community development and economic opportunity for young people is truly one of the enduring legacies of the last two plus years.  I look forward to working as a co-chair and founding partner with the board and bringing in Capgemini’s support as a partner to connect young people with opportunities at scale.” said Ashwin Yardi, CEO of Capgemini in India.

The YuWaah Board would now function as a decision-making body and consist primarily of founding partners and board members who would be committing time and resources to support the YuWaah Secretariat for funding and functional expertise. They will play a key role to influence strategy and execution of YuWaah over a longer period as well as actively craft shared-value partnership with Governments & Private Sectors to truly build a collaborative platform.

UNICEF Representative a.i Yasumasa Kimura said, “YuWaah has set an ambitious target to enrol 300 young people as change makers. Meeting this goal will require bold strategies and swift actions. The new Board of YuWaah will help make the necessary tools and support available to youth in India, especially those most marginalized, and enable them to successfully navigate the 21st century demands.”

YuWaah’s current Board comprises of:

Board Members and Founding Partners

• Amit Agarwal, SVP India and Emerging Markets, Amazon,

• Andrea M. Wojnar, UNFPA India Representative and Bhutan Country Director

• Manjula Singh, Director Programmes, CIFF

Board members

• Dr. Balasubramanian, Founder (SVYM)

• Geeta Goel, Managing Director, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

• Madan Padakai, Founder & CEO, 1 Bridge Member

• Kevin Frey, CEO, Generation Unlimited, Global

• Kopal Gupta, YPAT Representative

• Richa Gupta, YPAT Representative

Co -Chaired by:

• Ashwin Yardi, CEO, Capgemini India

• Yasumasa Kimura, UNICEF Representative a.i

A special shout out to the outgoing and incoming YPAT (Young People Action team) members who keep us deeply connected to young people in their communities and remind us that NOW is the time to support and co-create with young people. Four of the YPAT members join the board every year, to ensure that there is strong representation of their community. Two of the members serve as active board members and the other two act as observers.

“We are excited to be part of the board as the past decade have revealed valuable lessons which cannot be ignored if the potential of the world’s largest youth population must be realized. During Covid we saw how lot of young people when mentored worked as Young Warriors to work in their community to create awareness of Covid appropriate behavior.” added Richa Gupta, YPAT, 2022.

“Majority of initiatives by governments and corporates are created without a thorough understanding of the aspirations and needs of young people for whom they are designed. Our participation in the YuWaah board helps us bring the voice from our community and see how the board can integrate programs between education, skills and employment and entrepreneurship”, added Kopal Gupta, YPAT 2020.

About YuWaah

YuWaah is a multi-stakeholder platform that aims to prepare young people to transition from education and learning to productive work and active citizenship. It was formed by UNICEF, together with public and private sector partners, UN Agencies, civil society organisations, foundations and young people as the Generation Unlimited (GenU) partnership in India. By 2030, in India, YuWaah aims to:

• Build pathways to aspirational socio-economic opportunities for 100 million young people

• Facilitate 200 million young people to gain relevant skills for productive lives and the future of work

• Partner with 300 million young people as change-makers and create spaces for developing their leadership

Launched in 2019 by the Honourable Minister for Women and Children’s Development, Smriti Irani, YuWaah also received strong words of encouragement from the Honourable Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, in the form of a letter of support. Follow YuWaah on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. For more information, visit  www.yuwaah.org