PAJE-Nièta (Projet d’Appui aux Jeunes Entrepreneurs or Support to Youth Entrepreneurs Project) is a five-year youth development initiative funded by USAID/Mali’s Basic Education and Accelerated Economic Growth divisions. The project works to provide 10,000 rural, out-of-school youth with improved basic education, work readiness and technical training, social and leadership development, and accompaniment towards livelihood activities. Nièta means "progress" in Bambara, a Malian language.

The project, together with Government of Mali’s Agency of Youth Employment, employs an innovative Mali Youth Volunteer Corps strategy. PAJE-Nièta is recruiting and training 200 educated, unemployed youth to serve as community-based literacy, work readiness, and youth leadership trainers. The project will also integrate appropriate information technology to support linkages to agriculture market information, workforce opportunities, and job networking and cell phone multimedia lessons to enhance instruction and learning.

By the end of the project, Malian youth will be more educated, economically productive, civically engaged, and empowered to build economically productive and civically active lives for themselves, their families, and their communities. PAJE-Nièta is an associate award of the Educational Quality Improvement Program 3.