Connexus supported a one-year holistic project to improve employment opportunities and enterprises for youth in Eastern Congo, including design of market-driven training and coaching programs and a monitoring and evaluation system to measure the financial and social performance impacts. Through the program, Connexus designed and delivered four training sessions on basic accounting and cash flow management to 100 young entrepreneurs and their coaches. Connexus also facilitated youths’ access to finance by promoting financial literacy and savings mobilization.
Two performance assessments, conducted and analyzed by Connexus, found that the young participants had significantly improved incomes (42% on average), reduced the gender wage gap, increased food and health expenditures, and reduced behaviors associated with HIV/AIDS contraction.