Today’s youth are prompted to disrupt societal norms and standards as they have become irrelevant to them. They foster connections among like-minded people of the same interests in the global world. Young people of generation Z are reshaping communication, connection, employability, and the workplace internationally. Thus employers feel urged to change to a new paradigm integrating different ways of dealing with mobility, gig economy, the drive to make an impact by serving and shattering the “way things are done” in society altogether i.e. collaborative social innovation.
Lead Author: Olesea Fortuna GEN Moldova
Approaching the shift humbly by asking these digital natives how to serve them better and co-create ”communaholic” groups with them: responsive, open and continuously experimenting to design pertinent solutions, platforms created with shared learnings while maintaining a dialoguer and realistic outlook on ethical issues that concern this generation.
Reasonably it is better to ask them and invite them to find fixes in the process of innovating together in solving certain social challenges by providing a basic understanding of the value of social innovation, entrepreneurship, and tools for development.
Facilitators from Afrika, Asia, Europe and Latin America represented by ten countries gathered to share their insights from their last year’s work on how to create support the youth to make a social impact in their own communities:
1. Recognize yourself in the alternative society universe
Host Organization: Sagar Ghimire ERASMUS+ Coordinator, Nepal - Host Organizer
Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation are not supposed to be radical: consider yourself as part of this world and form enterprises having that in mind. Personally, I am trying to explore the nuances of Social entrepreneurship in Europe and Asia (so-called developed and developing nations) to find common ground between idealistic and materialistic in the creation of new-age-businesses.
2. Understand what social innovation and enterprise are about. Observe and investigate your context
Contributors: Que Nguyen and Pham Kim Ngoc, Vietnam - CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STUDIES (CSDS)
The purpose of a social enterprise is to address and attempt to solve social and environmental problems the community is facing. And while doing so being financially sustainable and potentially generating return profits. Social enterprises run like a business, however, their purpose and the main reason for existing is to make progress and help impact a certain social issue, as opposed to being solely run to grow the business in scale and amass profits. Financial returns that social enterprises make can be invested back into communities to further their social and environmental goals, and to help improve the lives of people from marginalized communities, for example: creating employment. With an established social enterprise, sustainable businesses are able to provide steady support and awareness to those in need.
For example in terms of unemployed youth, the enterprise could provide them with training to educate them on skills required for working, making it easier to secure a job and start a career, greatly improving their prospects in life, as they can become more financially stable. As well as providing assistance to those in need, forming a social enterprise would also create job positions for those needed in running the organization. The social enterprise would be able to research key issues in the community specific to the purpose of the organization and then develop solutions to these problems. Social enterprises make a positive contribution and create change to society while being able to run sustainably. They are a rapidly emerging type of business and able to receive funding.
For example, In Vietnam, a challenge is the lack of support from the government, as a result, we would need to advertise more heavily to make people aware of the enterprise and acquire funding as needed, with international organizations such as the British council. The idea of social enterprise is still relatively new and was not recognized in Vietnam’s enterprise law until 2014, even so, many organizations have emerged and formed. In the future, as the phenomenon grows, it is likely more international organizations and universities will offer support to new social enterprises, which will enrich the country on different levels.
3. Open collaboration innovation: Share your experience and stay open to receive
Contributor: Diana Gonçalves Portugal - Geoclube - Associação Juvenil
The participation in the SET YP Project offered me the chance to widen my knowledge in Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and expand my competences as a Youth Worker, Trainer, and Entrepreneur, that I can see myself putting into practice in the following years. It was an amazing opportunity to learn from experts in the field, learn from shared experiences from other participants, and learn from sharing my own experience and get different and valuable feedback. In addition to the educational part, it is mandatory to mention the wonderful cultural experience in Nepal, so different from my “usual” reality, that definitely enriched me as a “person of the world”! At last, the greatness and of this experience have a lot to do with the uniqueness of the people that compose it and make it an amazing experience.
4. Build tools, relevant connections and stay resilient
Contributor:Laura Lisbeth Mantilla Seijas, Brigada de Voluntarios Bolivarianos del Peru
Young people with social entrepreneurship have the energy and capacity to transform their mission of life, of our community and therefore of our country. Having tools that illustrate the steps to follow with the experience that is acquired allows us to view the most vulnerable populations and direct changes with sustainability that is in balance with our environment. Young people today need to “believe to see” that a better, fairer and balanced world with our nature is possible. That we can generate profitability capabilities by undertaking business ideas, but with a holistic view. This human-centered project is determined to generate transnational changes. In this open-minded spaces, people feel free to express their opinions, share insights and experiences, and construct communication and guides to innovate local communities. I feel very motivated, wanting to undertake a better version of myself and my community.
5. Stay inclusive and co-create with your community
Contributor: Anna Boroshok Belgium- Fearless Female Founders
“Networking With Purpose” was meant to create a blueprint for business building for the Belgian women community, by addressing bottlenecks, helping each other grow with collective expertise. It is amazing how much wisdom and support you can gather in such a short period of time. Together we have been shaped into an impactful community of support, resilience, and persistence where each can learn from their peers with similar difficulties. Learning from my peers on the STE YP was priceless for me as a community builder, witnessing social enterprises from many countries, disrupting their communities, grasping their challenges and best practices. Discovering how communities of Rwanda lead by example in gender equality and where even developed countries can learn from communities that are better in certain areas. We all learned a lot from each other and from the sessions during the program and I am sure it gave all of us more strength and confidence to continue growing our social enterprises.
6. Search for networking, partnership and growth opportunities in your ecosystem and learn from your peers.
Contributor: Teresia Ndoti Kenya - International Transformation Foundation
Kenya is considered as the hub of innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa since it offers the infrastructure and conditions to nurture it. We have several organizations that have created hubs and environments so as to support and encourage entrepreneurs from all sectors so as to boost the economy as well as reduce the high unemployment rate in the country. In Kenya currently, there is no such distinction of Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship (SE) and the regular ones, therefore all fall in entrepreneurship. The economy of Kenya has improved a great deal because of the following effects of SE – optimization of resource use, reducing of imports and growing local production, job creation. The Youth can explore possibilities of funding of their social enterprises through government funding, such as Uwezo Fund, Youth Enterprise Development Fund among others, international or granting organizations,.funding from their savings or family members and be inspired by others that have done it (https://www.afripads.com/, https://www.juakali.co.ke/ ). As an individual working in the NGO field that works in the field of social entrepreneurship, this project has really helped me acquire more knowledge on it especially in terms of what tools to use such as the problem tree and the business canvas model. I am now better equipped with tools and skills in social entrepreneurship. Also, the project has provided me with the platform to train other youths on social entrepreneurship and to create awareness by sharing best practices across the world.
7. Coordinate your efforts with other local and international community players
Project Leader - Natasha Roelofs CODEC Belgium
A wonderful project, wonderful cooperation with wonderful outcomes, wonderful participants hosted in a wonderful country. All of these are the result of the work of thought leaders from the ten countries involved and acknowledged below.
The consortium of this project was set up by CODEC Belgium as the coordinating party in collaboration with System & G Greece / Latvia Geoclube – Associação Juvenil EVS Fundacja Centrum Aktywności Twórczej PlanBe, Plan it Be it ICYE Colombia Brigada De Voluntarios Bolivarianos del Perú – BVBP ICA CSDS VN International Transformation Foundation VHS Bhaktapur (the host organization) and GEN Moldova as the training organization.
Implemented between 16-24 February 2020 in Bhaktapur, Nepal, the SET YP seminar exceeded the expectations of all engaged. As a part of the Capacity Building in the Field of Youth project “Social Entrepreneurship Training 4 Youth Power / SET YP”, this aims to develop structured and innovative solutions towards increasing the employability potential of young people throughout providing them with knowledge on social entrepreneurship & innovation.