Youth
Co:Lab will drive social innovation and entrepreneurship to address the unemployment
challenges faced by young people in the region
A regional program
that targets social challenges and unemployment by harnessing youth leadership,
entrepreneurship and innovation was launched by the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) in partnership with Citi Foundation.
The global youth
unemployment rate is currently over 13 percent*, that is about 71 million young
people, aged 15 to 24, are unemployed worldwide and about half of these live in
Asia Pacific.
In addition, the
Global Youth Survey 2017: Economic Prospects & Expectations study commissioned
by Citi Foundation found that of the 7,000 respondents polled, 69% had dreams
of starting their own business but only 44% were trying to do so, citing a lack
of education and skills and concerns of failure.
The survey polled
respondents across 45 cities worldwide. A majority of 78% also agreed that
apprenticeships and internships were critical to future success but 60% did not
feel that there were enough of such opportunities in their cities.
Targeted at helping
young people overcome some of these challenges, the Youth Co:Lab program will
convene a series of National Dialogues and Social Innovation Challenges across
Asia-Pacific that will culminate in a Regional Summit to be held in Bangkok in
March 2018.
The National
Dialogues serve as platforms for young people to directly engage policy makers,
private sector partners including incubators, youth-led organizations, NGOs and
academia, on how to develop and accelerate youth-led entrepreneurship and
social innovation.
Alongside the
National Dialogues, the Social Innovation Challenges, akin to start-up hackathons,
enable
participating youth to showcase their proposed ideas and solutions to tackle
some of the world’s biggest social challenges.
Through these
platforms, young entrepreneurs will connect with governments, mentors, incubators,
and investors who will help equip them with entrepreneurial capabilities and skills.
This includes mentoring and networking opportunities as well as support to
start and accelerate their social enterprises.
UNDP and Citi
Foundation launch their partnership during the Youth Co: Lab National Dialogue: Inspiring
Innovators, Leaders, Entrepreneurs and Actors for Development (i2 LEAD),
held at Makati City. The two-day Dialogue brings together some 100 delegates
including government officials, private sector participants, academia and youth
representatives to identify challenges and solutions to improve the support and
ecosystem for youth entrepreneurship in the Philippines.
Speaking at the
launch, Jim McCue, Citi Shared Services Asia Pacific/Japan Head and Risk Shared
Services Manila Head said, “We are proud to be partnering with UNDP to empower
young people to take control of their future. Youth Co:Lab is part of Citi and
the Citi Foundation’s Pathways to Progress** initiative to prepare urban youth
to thrive in today's economy. We are doing our part by collaborating with
municipal and community leaders in cities around the world to tackle youth
unemployment. In addition, I firmly believe that empowering young people to
lead through entrepreneurship and social innovation is a critical part of the
solution.”
Statistics show many
Asia Pacific countries are experiencing a “youth bulge” with adolescents and
young adults making up a third of the population. In the Philippines, the median
age of its population is 24.2 years and 32% of the 103.5 million population is
under 15. It has the third youngest population in the ASEAN after Laos and
Cambodia.
“The youth of the
Philippines’ not only have a stake in the country’s development trajectory but
can also play a critical role in shaping that trajectory. The challenge is to
harness the creativity and dynamism of the young and align these to tackling
some of the country’s most significant development challenges. UNDP is
delighted to work with Citi Foundation in providing a platform to enable
youth-led social enterprises to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs in
the Philippines,” UNDP Philippines Country Director Titon Mitra said
“We hope to catalyse
youth innovations, provide young entrepreneurs with better access to market
information and business skills, and with government, provide a better enabling
environment for youth-led enterprises. With Citi Foundation, we hope to inspire
young innovators, leaders and entrepreneurs to become influential and
successful actors for development.”
UNDP and Citi
Foundation, alongside local network partners, are pioneering the National
Dialogue & Social Innovation Challenge in various countries in Asia
Pacific. In its inaugural year, key countries including Thailand, Philippines
and China are being piloted and plans are already underway to scale up the
Youth Co:Lab program across the region next year.
For updates, follow
#YouthCoLab on social media, and visit the Youth Co:Lab Facebook.
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