Poverty Eradication and Community Empowerment (PEACE) is a microfinance institution founded in 1999 in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, whose mission is to serve the entrepreneurial poor by providing sustainable and quality services for employment and income generation, with the ultimate objective of enhancing household food security in rural and urban Ethiopia. PEACE currently offers loans, savings accounts and other products and services to more than 17,000 borrowers and 21,000 savers. PEACE sees empowering youth, especially girls, through savings and related services as an important new means to accomplish its mission.

Through a request for applications by the UNCDF-YouthStart programme in August 2010, PEACE was one of 18 financial service providers selected to conduct market research aimed at understanding youth needs.1 Based on the market-research results, PEACE submitted a business plan to design, pilot test and scale up youth financial services offered in tandem with non-financial services over a period of three years. In August 2011, the UNCDF-YouthStart programme awarded PEACE a grant of US$720,657 to fulfil this purpose. PEACE also formed a partnership with Women’s World Banking to receive valuable technical support during the pilot test.