The International Labor Organization estimates that around 88 million young women and men throughout the world are unemployed, accounting for 47 per cent of 186 million unemployed persons globally. As one of the Millennium Development Goals of the UN, developing and implementing strategies for decent and productive work for youth has become a major challenge for the global community as well as for governments, employers' and workers' organizations.

The reduction of unemployment is a major challenge for Kenya and every year, thousands of young school-leavers look for employment that will provide decent working and living conditions. In situations where wage employment is stagnant or even shrinking, self-employment and entrepreneurial activities can be valuable alternatives.

Promoting entrepreneurship and enterprise creation is regarded as one way of increasing youth employment, which in turn contributes towards alleviating the vicious circle of poverty and social exclusion. VYP promotes entrepreneurship as one of four global priority policy areas.

The Kenya government through the youth development fund has started an initiative to get more young people involved in entrepreneurship but while in support of the government ideas, VYP finds it lacking in structures and necessary follow-ups that are required when dealing with such a young and often unfocused age bracket.

Be Your Boss (BYB) is a practical tool that VYP is using to addresses the challenge of youth unemployment. Its general objective is to contribute towards the creation of an enterprise culture in a the country or society, as stipulated by the ILO recommendation 189, by promoting awareness among young people of the opportunities and challenges of entrepreneurship and self-employment, and of their role in shaping their future and that of their country's economic and social development.

The specific objectives of BYB are to: