CYFI’s Final Chapter “Letting go” is not an activity that CYFI has undertaken lightly. CYFI’s leadership found very few examples of organizations who had intentionally closed their doors at a time when the organizations were still going strong. So, they knew they would need to build their strategy from scratch. In order to responsibly wind down operations, CYFI laid the groundwork for a possible exit strategy for several years. First, the organization’s leadership needed to test their “gut feeling” that the sector had reached a tipping point, ensuring that a brokering role was no longer needed to keep momentum going. CYFI hired a consultant to interview key stakeholders across the network and gauge the state of the field for economic citizenship for children. They also analyzed the data from the diagnostic to see the shifting patterns in the sector and the progress of countries in shaping their economic citizenship policies for children and youth. The message returned by the study and the results from the diagnostic analysis were clear: country-level activities had reached a point where “pushing the issue” was no longer needed. CYFI then explored the opportunity to transition into a technical assistance role rather than close its doors entirely. While this role ran contrary to the organizational ethos, they wanted to explore all options before making a final decision. Through the stakeholder interviews, CYFI discovered that although partners required technical assistance, these services
were readily available from other organizations which had emerged in recent years as a result of growing interest in the field, brought on by their movement-building work. CYFI did not want to reconfigure their organization, nor compete with these players, which were integral to the movement, and which were already well-positioned to serve the need for assistance. CYFI then considered shifting its strategic focus away from economic citizenship to focus purely on forming an entirely new “honest broker” role around youth entrepreneurship through its flagship program Ye!. Ye! had significant traction and a growing community dedicated to youth entrepreneurs in 160 countries. CYFI explored the opportunity to grow the momentum in a similar way to the movement they created around economic citizenship, and wanted to tested the appetite in the sector for this program. It soon became clear however that the space for youth entrepreneurship was already crowded by many players. Rather than an “honest broker,” this sector needed an institutional player to hone the organizational field rather than inspire new entrants. Ultimately, based on the study and exploration of alternative roles and issue areas, CYFI were satisfied that its role and function as an organization had come to an end. The management and board took the important decision to close its operations by December 31st 2019.
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