The Barbados-based Caribbean Center of Excellence for Youth Entrepreneurship (CEYE) has been selected to receive the prestigious Juscelino Kubitschek Award, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has announced.
CEYE, a not-for-profit company formally registered in 2011, is “an initiative borne out of an increasing demand by Caribbean countries wanting to provide decent work for their youth and women populations, utilizing best practices and innovative, non-traditional strategies.” It was chosen from among three international groups.
Institutions from Brazil and Nicaragua also won the award, which recognizes outstanding contributions in economics and finance, and social, cultural and scientific achievement, the IDB said.
CEYE is an “innovative, one of a kind regional mechanism, which will help to entrench the philosophy of entrepreneurship into the psych of Caribbean youth and women accelerating the culture of entrepreneurship, thus making it a natural school-to-work transition choice.”
For each category, there is a prize of US$100,000. When there is more than one winner per category, the award is divided equally.
The awards ceremony will be held in March in Bahia, Brazil, during the annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the IDB.
