As we start the day we welcome our Ethiopian partners all dressed up in white in honor of their New Year. We now all feel 7 years younger as they celebrate the year 2007 in Ethiopia. After this festive start that warmed up the room, we jumped into our session. 

Christine Little, our facilitator, walked participants through a review of the last two days. Particpants reviewed the images they drew with the youth and recapped the main concepts that we covered together using a garden metaphor. First they mentioned what they perceived from the stories of the youth they met. Passion, self confidence, determination, hard work, willigness to take on risks and ambition. It was striking to see how these young entrepreneurs were thinking big, wanting to become a doctor, building a small factory processing milk, becoming a pilot and owning a plane, becoming Minister of Finance... 

Next participants reviewed the experiences of the past four years, looking at what worked and what was challenging. The emerging lessons build the foundation for financial service providers and the field of youth financial inclusion.

Based on these learnings and the inspiring stories of clients and their peers, our partners generated a vision for the next four years and concrete steps to take them there. In answer to the question: in what ways can our organizations be places where youth can flourish?