Asia-Pacific: Project Funding

• Regions:     Africa | Asia-Pacific | Europe | Middle East & North Africa | Latin America & Caribbean

Regional Youth Funding in Asia and the Pacific

THE ASIA-EUROPE FOUNDATION (ASEF)

http://www.asef.org/

ASEF was established in 1997 by 25 European and East Asian countries, together with the European Commission, all of which are partners of the Europe-Asia Meeting. ASEF is funded by voluntary contributions from its partner governments, with a budget in 2008 of US$5.1 million. Most of ASEF projects are also supported financially by civil society organizations, public institutions, and the enterprises ASEF works with. ASEF is a foundation that:

  • advances mutual understanding and collaboration between the people of Asia and Europe through intellectual, cultural, and people-to-people exchanges;
  • acts as the civil society outreach of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), and works as a platform for Asia-Europe dialogue to stimulate permanent networks that reinforce Asia-Europe bi-regional relations; and
  • acts as an interface between civil society and ASEM governments, and consequently contributes to the ASEM process by generating unique recommendations for officials’ consideration.

With the objective of fostering future partnerships and cooperation while stimulating greater mobility for the next generation of Asian and European leaders, ASEF engages young volunteers, activists, trainers, artists, students, and others in sustainable networks. The activities are targeted at various youth constituencies from the fields of education, the arts, politics, and the economy. All programs provide a long-term foundation for building continuing dialogue and encouraging institutional contacts and collaborations.

SAMSUNG HOPE

http://pages.samsung.com/us/hope/index.html

SAMSUNG Electronics launched SAMSUNG Hope, the company’s new corporate philanthropic initiative aimed at bringing communities together to help underprivileged kids. Pledging a record US$700,000 in grants to 21 children beneficiaries across Southeast Asia and Oceania, the program empowers the community to actively contribute to causes they believe in through deciding how the grant will be allocated.

SAMSUNG has been actively contributing to addressing social issues in the region through initiatives such as Digital Hope, which was launched in 2003 to help bridge the digital divide. In the current economic climate, we are committed to doing more to help the needy. We are therefore excited to launch the new SAMSUNG Hope program with a record grant amount, and also go a step further by engaging the community in deciding the allocation of our grant. Through this empowerment, we aim to raise social awareness on the plight of underprivileged kids, and spur the community to help these kids imagine the future and realize their full potential.

YOUTH SOCIAL ENTERPRISE INITIATIVE (YSEI)

http://www.ysei.org

YSEI is a high-engagement social venture program for emerging young social entrepreneurs in developing countries in Asia. YSEI was founded in 2005 as a multi-stakeholder partnership, and it receives support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, UNESCO, and the Canadian International Development Agency. YSEI program principles are to:

  • build and maintain multi-stakeholder partnerships with academia, civil society, government, and the private sector that are critical to building strong support networks for young social entrepreneurs;
  • reach out to work with disadvantaged youth, as well as marginalized and underrepresented groups in society;
  • promote of gender equality and human rights by ending discrimination.

Through the Emergence Fellowship, YSEI invests in young visionaries who have big ideas and who need crucial startup support to turn their ideas into action. The startup support includes financing of up to US$15,000, development knowledge and tools on social entrepreneurship, technical consulting through mentorship, and access to diverse networks.