This text highlights the importance of World Youth Skills Day and its theme for 2024, “Youth Skills for Peace and Development.” It emphasizes the role of young people in building peace and promoting sustainable development in Yemen. The text also describes the coffee cupping training supported by the SIERY project, which aims to empower young Yemenis in the coffee value chain.This text highlights the importance of World Youth Skills Day and its theme for 2024, “Youth Skills for Peace and Development.” It emphasizes the role of young people in building peace and promoting sustainable development in Yemen. The text also describes the coffee cupping training supported by the SIERY project, which aims to empower young Yemenis in the coffee value chain.
In 2014, the United Nations General Assembly declared 15 July as World Youth Skills Day, recognizing the importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship, to promote fair and inclusive sustainable development.
The theme for World Youth Skills Day 2024, ‘Youth Skills for Peace and Development’, highlights the critical role young people play in building peace and advancing development solutions.
Peace and sustainable development are inextricably linked; in peaceful societies, businesses can flourish, jobs are created and access to services is improved, leading to improved living conditions. Development solutions, in turn, promote resilient economies, strong governance systems and better infrastructure, which permanently reduce poverty and inequality.
In Yemen, young people under the age of 30 make up approximately 30% of the population. They face many complex challenges as a result of the ongoing and protracted crisis, including high unemployment, limited access to basic services and food insecurity. Without equipping young people with the necessary skills to address these issues, the prospect of a peaceful and resilient Yemen will remain elusive.
Empowering young people to foster economic growth through cultural and creative industries
Coffee cupping
In Yemen, the potential for the coffee chain is enormous, but so is the gap in quality control capacity.
Coffee cupping is an essential quality control method used by coffee professionals in the industry. It helps them evaluate the characteristics of coffee beans and blends and enables experts to find coffee that suits the needs and requirements of buyers. For years, Yemen had only one internationally certified coffee cupper, which challenged the ability to expand into international markets.
The UNDP Strengthening Institutional and Economic Resilience (SIERY) project, generously funded by the European Union, supports the coffee value chain in a number of ways, including building a coffee market and improving the capacity of coffee farmers. It also helps young Yemenis improve their coffee skills.
Meet Muneef, one of the 45 participants in one of the coffee cupping trainings supported by the SIERY project.
