Promoting Youth Entrepreneurship

1
Promoting Youth Entrepreneurship

• David J Lamotte

2
Background

• The UN/ILO/World Bank High-Level Panel on Youth
  employment has identified Youth Entrepreneurship
  as one of four priorities for a National Youth
  employment Action Plan.
• Youth Entrepreneurship - Making it easier to
  start and run enterprises so as to provide more
  and better jobs for young women and men
• The other complimentary areas being Employment
  Creation, Employability and Equal Opportunities.

3
Why promote entrepreneurship

• Entrepreneurship and business creation are
  also a growing alternative for young people whose
  age group often faces a labour market with double
  digit unemployment rates. Traditional career
  paths and opportunities are disappearing rapidly.
  A growing number of young people are taking up
  the challenge of starting their own business.
  (Juan Somavia,
  Director General ILO)

4
Entrepreneurship is a means not an end

• "Youth people's challenges are complex."
• ? Multiple solutions/pathways. (YEN 4 Es).
• Starting a business is not an end but a means to
  achieve an end.
• If a young woman starts an enterprise (or
  becomes self-employed) and after one or two years
  she finds an interesting job offer and gets to be
  employed by somebody else, it is a success?

5
Advantage of promoting youth entrepreneurship

• More employers
• Employees who better understand business
• More innovative and socially responsible
  enterprises
• More jobs (most likely jobs for other young
  people)
• Better informed consumers

6
The situation facing many young people
A young women is looking through the local
newspaper and finds the following advertisement?
Entrepreneurs wanted Help grow an enterprise
from scratch in an business that offers no
barriers to entry, many competitors, very low
margins, highly labour intensity, no propriety
technology, few economies of scale, weak brand
distinction and little regulatory protection. No
credit available! Serious inquiries only.
Jobs of this type are the reality for many young
men and it is even more difficult for young women!
Would you apply for this job?
Yes or No
7
The high-level panel says that

• All countries need to review, rethink and
  reorient the legal and institutional framework to
  make it easier to start and run a business.
• Governments and international organizations
  should work to develop policies to integrate the
  informal sector into the mainstream economy,
  raise its productivity and improve conditions of
  work.
• Governments, (national and local levels) need to
  encourage a broad and dynamic concept of
  entrepreneurship to stimulate both personal
  initiative and initiatives in a broad variety of
  organizations
• Specifically the High-level panel provided a
  detailed recommendation (No. 7) on promoting
  innovation and entrepreneurship for young women
  and young men.

8
Situation in the region

• Promoting youth entrepreneurship is a widely
  recognised need. It was mentioned in nearly all
  the country papers.
• Also there was a recognized need to promote an
  entrepreneurial culture particularly in the
  Pacific.
• Most countries in the region have projects or
  programme to help young people start a
  businesses.

9
Broad types of youth entrepreneurship programmes

• Business start-up programmes
• Programmes specifically for young women and young
  men
• Programmes in which young people are a large
  proportion of participants
• Programmes designed to promote or foster a more
  entrepreneurial culture

10
Examples of business start-up programmes

• Financial and human resources (mainly from the
  private sector) to provide mentoring, credit and
  sometimes training.
• Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (India)
• Young Professional Development Programme
  (Indonesia)
• Philippines Youth Entrepreneurship Foundation
  involving the ECOP, Rotary, (soon to be
  replicated in Indonesia)
• Fiji Chamber of Commerce and Industry
• Skills training (commonly on-the-job) and
  entrepreneurship training
• "The LEARN Foundation (Bangladesh) recruits
  young people from minority communities and
  provides on-the-job training in skills on ICT
  plus entrepreneurship training

11
Programmes designed to promote or foster a more
entrepreneurial culture

• Sponsoring, running or judging youth enterprise
  competition
• Shells Operation Livewire
• School based businesses and competitions
• Promoting role models
• Australias Young Achievers

We do not have many examples of these types of
programmes reported in our country papers.
Is this because the do not exist or that we do
not know about them?
12
What we can learn from these programmes

• Behind every good programme, there is a social
  entrepreneur who has a vision and makes thing
  happen
• Successful programmes have very good internal
  management
• Programmes must help young people take advantage
  of market opportunities, based on their
  (potential) capabilities and assets as well as
  their aspirations.

13
And

• Focus on core competencies and partnership". One
  programme (organization) can not provide
  everything so it must form partnership with other
  programmes.
• Public-private partnership is a key to
  sustainability.

14
Framework for effective programmes
From ILOs IFP/SEED
15
Impact of these programmes

• These programmes clearly help the young
  participants overcome the many obstacles they
  face in starting a businesses.
• Unfortunately, these programmes do not reach
  sufficiently large numbers of young people.
• We should not necessarily think in terms of
  another project or programme but start thinking
  more strategically.
• Our strategy should foster partnership between
  and build on the existing efforts of governments,
  employers organizations, trade unions, youth
  organizations and other civil society groups to
  learn from each other and to pool efforts and
  resources.

16
Developing a youth entrepreneurship strategy

• Recommendation No 7 of the high-level panel
  provides some insights into the broad components
  of a youth entrepreneurship strategy.
• The strategy should foster partnership between
  and build on the existing efforts of governments,
  employers organizations, trade unions, youth
  organizations and other civil society groups to
  learn from each other and to pool efforts and
  resources.

17
Promote a more enabling environment

• ILOs Recommendation No. 189 On General
  Conditions to Stimulate Job Creation in Small and
  Medium Enterprises, provides useful guidance.
• It says amongst many priorities we need to
• Review and reorient the legal and institutional
  framework to make it easier to start and run a
  business.
• Encourage financial institutions to provide
  credit and other financial services.
• Foster an entrepreneurial culture
• Ensure that young women have the same
  opportunities as young men

18
Integrate entrepreneurship into the mainstream
education system

• Examine our education system to see to what
  extent it promotes entrepreneurship and
  self-employment as viable and rewarding career
  options.
• Do the examples of work situations in the text
  books reflect entrepreneurship and
  self-employment pursuits.
• Integrate entrepreneurship education into the
  mainstream academic and vocational curricula.
  E.g. (ILOs Know About Business)
• In a math class the students might be asked to
  work out a cash flow plan for a small business
  and identify the costs of hiring employees.
• In a language course students might learn about
  business terminology and practice making a sale
  in another country.
• In a history class the development of new
  businesses might be part of the study of an era
• Provide business start-up training and support
  for graduates who want to start their own
  business. E.g. (ILOs SYB and IYB programmes)
• Vocational institution graduates
• University graduates

19
Promote access to credit for young entrepreneurs

• Commonly finance (including micro-finance)
  institutions view young people as being
  relatively risky. Also for this target group
  lending scheme does not seem to work well.
• Finance institutions in some countries avoid
  unmarried young women because (1) when they get
  married, they may move to a different community
  and (2) when they get married, their husbands
  will take over authorities on financial matters
  and are unlikely to honour financial commitments
  that their wives made before they get married.
• Many of the more successful youth business
  start-up programmes combine access to credit with
  business development services.

20
Foster partnership with employers and workers

• Sponsoring, running or judging youth enterprise
  competition.
• Providing mentoring and advisory services
• Providing work experience and on-the-job training
  opportunities.
• Doing business with young entrepreneurs
• Encourage representative organizations to
  advocate on the needs of young women and young
  men entrepreneurs.

21
Foster the involvement of young women and young
men

• Encourage participation and ownership of
  decision-making in entrepreneurship programmes
• Promote the formation of entrepreneurship clubs
  and associations as self-help organizations
• Involve and consult these organizations.

22
I would be happy to answer questions and receive
comments