EDC’s “Our World, Our Work” Initiative Hits Major Milestone, Reaches 250,000 Young People
Since its launch in 2023, EDC’s Our World, Our Work (OWOW) initiative has been driven by one ambitious mission: help ensure that 1.8 billion young people—the largest potential youth workforce in history—are ready for a workforce reshaped by rapid technological, environmental and demographic changes.
OWOW is addressing this challenge head-on by helping connect 1 million young people to quality green jobs by 2032. This month, we hit a major milestone in our 10-year campaign: 250,000 young people now connected to green jobs through hands-on training, market-relevant skills, and partnerships that open real pathways to work.
Propelled by early gains in the Philippines, OWOW’s success thus far is the result of public, private and training sector partnerships, and working hand in hand with the existing Philippines education system to enhance the scale and sustainability of green workforce pathways for its young people.
Through its forward-looking curriculum design and practical training, deep labor market insights, and accompaniment, OWOW is showing promise for equipping young people—in the Philippines and other countries—with the skills and confidence they need to thrive in a fast-changing world.
Partnering with the System to Go Farther, Faster
The initiative’s early success in the Philippines resulted from working closely with the workforce development system—including the Department of Education, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and the Department of Trade and Industry—to rapidly identify green and blue opportunities, develop training, and build linkages that help youth transition to green and blue work opportunities or launch businesses.
EDC brought together government, schools, and employers across the Philippines to plan a fair shift to a greener economy. But central to our approach is youth leadership: We worked with local youth alliances to tailor solutions for each city and combined national research with 15 neighborhood-level job studies to show where the jobs are and what skills they require. This pointed to fast-growing fields like construction, waste management, transportation, farming and fisheries, tourism, clean energy, and manufacturing—areas where training hadn’t kept up.
Together with employers, we redesigned courses and added job-readiness support to close those gaps. Now, more than 69,000 young people have taken part in community conservation and circular economy projects, like “Trash to Cashback” and glass-recycling efforts that link environmental action to real economic opportunities.
With our national education and training partners, we added a green lens to life skills and work-readiness classes and launched a short course on the green and blue economy. We teamed up with universities on climate-smart agriculture. And through 15 “Power-Up” events, we helped 426 small businesses tap incentives and take practical steps to go greener.
Transformation Pathways by Country
EDC is now applying the lessons learned from success in the Philippines to build pipelines in programs across Liberia, Senegal, South Sudan, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia. Below are some early results from these projects.
Senegal: Greening Skills Across Schools and TVET
- 1,983 teachers and 312 school administrators delivered in-demand, transferable skills in 268 secondary schools each year.
- 1,626 teachers and volunteers received in-service training and coaching to incorporate green skills across 116 technical and vocational education and training (TVET) centers and 153 middle schools.
Liberia: From Learning to Earning in a Growing Green Economy
Through EDC’s Youth Advance project, EDC worked with dozens of local partners and 165 employers across Montserrado, Grand Bassa, and Lofa counties.
- 21,000+ young people reached, nearly 8,000 youth moved into jobs or launched a business.
- 13,018 out-of-school youth rebuilt literacy, numeracy, and work-readiness skills (and formed 350 savings groups).
- 5,977 youth with some schooling gained market-aligned skills and completed 2,700+ work-based learning placements
- ~960 university students and recent grads finished the Future Proof Skills course with real workplace projects.
South Sudan: Green & Blue Skills with Community-Led Delivery
OWOW integrated into the Youth Empowerment Activity, a community-based model delivered with South Sudanese partners and 90 youth-led groups across six states.
- ~20,000 out-of-school youth, 58% young women, joined flexible four- to nine-month courses that combined literacy, numeracy, English, work-readiness, entrepreneurship, health, and civic engagement.
- 4,700 youth learned climate-smart agropastoral and sustainable fishing skills, and 150+ gained hands-on experience assembling and installing solar suitcases.
- A nationwide Youth Corps network built peer leadership and service, and youth translated learning into better work; 78% reported improved job quality, with 1,365 Cohort 1 graduates already in green/blue jobs.
- 2,500 volunteer trainers and delivered materials to remote areas, showing how the OWOW approach can scale in fragile settings.
Indonesia:
Through the EDGE program in Cirebon, West Java, OWOW focused on data-driven green entrepreneurship and AI-assisted research. Youth applied AI tools (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini) and GIS mapping to collect, interpret, and visualize community data, enabling evidence-based decision-making at the village level.
- 62 youth trained and mentored; 5 youth-led community projects implemented across six villages addressing local economic and environmental challenges through circular business models, such as turning fish waste into animal feed.
- 126 community members indirectly reached, including farmers, fishers, women entrepreneurs, and micro-business owners.
- 11 Bank of America volunteers provided post-fieldwork mentoring, strengthening youth confidence in data analysis, presentation, and stakeholder engagement.
What We Learned
Across very different contexts, the same patterns kept unlocking real jobs at scale. Here’s what it actually takes to turn green and blue opportunities into paid work.
- Make green work visible. Many young people want to help the planet but think it only happens through volunteering. When they see real job paths—paying roles in clean energy, circular economy, climate-smart agriculture, and more—they choose them.
- Back small businesses to go big. Youth-led ventures and MSMEs power most economies. When we show the business case for greener practices (lower costs, new markets), adoption spreads—and so do entry-level jobs.
- Build the right team locally. Government, employers, and training providers need to move in sync. Together, we can fix three common roadblocks: (1) misalignment between public programs and private hiring needs, (2) missing or outdated jobs data, and (3) weak local demand and buy-in.
- Lock in change, not one-off projects. Update curricula to match green jobs, run labor-market studies with youth, form local alliances that keep everyone coordinated, mobilize green finance for training and startups, and tell stories that lift up women and young people in STEM.
What’s Next
By 2032, Our World, Our Work aims to help 1 million young people step into quality, future-ready jobs across blue, green, and established sectors.
We’ll get there by working hand in hand with employers to co-design training and open more work-based learning and first-job slots. We’re expanding trusted green/blue credentials so young people can show what they know on day one. We’re fueling youth-led enterprises by unlocking financing, coaching, and markets so small businesses can grow and hire. And we’re advancing gender equity, opening doors for women and girls in high-growth, nontraditional roles.
We can’t do it alone.
If you’re an employer, partner with us to co-design training and hire OWOW graduates.
If you’re in government or a DFI, align policy and finance to speed green job creation.
If you’re a donor or partner, help us scale from 250,000 to 1,000,000 youth in decent green and blue jobs.
