In 2023, icipe and the Mastercard Foundation signed a five-year agreement for a new initiative that will leverage and scale-up these achievements, incorporating an even wider consortium of partners, and a more ambitious goal of directly benefiting 1 million unemployed young people. Dubbed the Mass Youth Employment in Apiculture Programme (MaYEA) in Ethiopia, the programme targets 80% of its employment opportunities to vulnerable, rural, and peri-urban young women, and an additional 10% to people with disabilities and refugees. The Mastercard Foundation has committed USD 79.96 million, out of which USD 9.3 million will go to icipe for the implementation of the programme. Other partners of the MaYEA programme include ORDA Ethiopia, International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), Bees for Development Ethiopia (BfDE), Population Health and Environment Ethiopian Consortium (PHE-EC), SOS Sahel Ethiopia, and Movement for Ecological Learning and Community Action-Ethiopia (MELCA-Ethiopia). Read more: https://www.icipe.org/news/mastercard-foundation-icipe-and-partners-sign-new-agreement-scale-their-formidable-youth