Tag Archives: youth

A Global Voice for the Private Sector

Posted on 25 April, 2013 by | Leave a comment

doha-conference-participants

In 2013, the world faces many challenges, ranging from youth unemployment to the destruction of the environment to armed conflicts that continue to take lives and devastate countries. This week, more than 2,000 representatives of Chambers of Commerce from around the world gathered  to discuss these issues — and the role of the private sector in addressing them — at the 8th World Chambers Congress in Doha, Qatar.

The themes were as diverse as the participants, but one common thread emerged: the business community needs to be involved in helping to solve these pressing problems. And private sector voices are most effective in a democratic context.

Indeed, many of these issues are linked, often to issues of economic exclusion, which can incite violence and perpetuate cycles of conflict and poverty. “Enemy number one to economic development is armed conflict,” said Joost Hintermann of the International Crisis Group, quoting IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

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How To Support Youth Entrepreneurship

Posted on 17 April, 2013 by | Leave a comment

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Around the world, youth unemployment represents a significant challenge to countries’ economic and social prosperity. According to the World Economic Forum, youth comprise 40 percent of the world’s unemployed. Globally, the youth unemployment rate is more than double that of adult unemployment: 12.6 percent for youth compared to 4.5 percent for adults. On a personal level, the story of Mohammed Bouazizi—the Tunisian fruit vendor whose tragic death sparked the Arab spring—continues to resonate with people around the world struggling to find economic opportunity.

Many factors contribute to the challenging economic landscape confronting young jobseekers, including lack of quality education, the global economic crisis, resource shortages, and more. One underlying factor, however, is that the public sector—traditionally a primary engine of employment in many countries—is unable to keep up with demand. Instead, young people endure chronic unemployment or underemployment, often trapped in temporary or low-productivity jobs.

One important solution to these complex issues is to build young people’s entrepreneurial capacity. Entrepreneurship provides much needed alternatives for those in need of work, while also reinvigorating countries’ economies through job creation. Entrepreneurship can lead young people to become more active members of their communities, invested in creating a better and more innovative environment for their business.

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Posted in Global

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Young Women Entrepreneurs Overcome Challenges in Peru

Posted on 12 March, 2013 by | Comments Off
EmprendeAhora participants at the inauguration of the 2012-013 EmprendeAhora program. (Photo: EmprendeAhora)

EmprendeAhora participants at the inauguration of the 2012-013 EmprendeAhora program. (Photo: EmprendeAhora)

Entrepreneurship and business ownership is becoming an increasingly attractive career path for many young women in Latin America — with the help of programs like the CIPE-supported EmprendeAhora entrepreneurship and leadership courses in Peru.

In recent decades more and more women have begun to enter into the labor market and formal private sector, leading to an increased productivity for businesses and higher economic growth rates. As former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton mentioned at a recent conference, between 2000 and 2010, women’s participation in the labor market in Latin America and the Caribbean grew by 15 percent. Without such growth, the World Bank estimates that the level of extreme poverty in the region would be 30 percent higher. These facts demonstrate the importance of women actively participating in the formal economy.

Nevertheless, such participation is not always easy. Would-be women entrepreneurs have to overcome many obstacles in order to achieve economic independence. In the case of Latin America and the Caribbean, as in many other regions, certain obstacles make it difficult for women to enter the formal private sector or become entrepreneurs. While in some cases legislation can create unnecessary hurdles, many times obstacles come in the shape of family members, societal norms, or even a lack of confidence that causes women to underestimate their own entrepreneurial capacity.

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Posted in Latin America and the Caribbean

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Fifth Annual CIPE International Youth Essay Competition Winners Announced

Posted on 27 February, 2013 by | Comments Off

CIPE is pleased to announce the winners of the fifth annual International Youth Essay competition today. This year we received more than 300 entries from 62 countries, including Belarus, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Iraq, Jamaica, Paraguay, and Russia. The three categories this year were Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Inclusive Growth, and Social Transformations. The winners were selected by an international panel of judges including CIPE’s partners from business associations, think tanks, and other international development organizations around the world, as well as CIPE staff.

Past winners have gone on to publish a book with their winnings, start a similar contest in Romania, and found an NGO in Ghana focused on youth, garnering media attention from the likes of the Wall Street Journal. Keep an eye on these rising stars as they continue a tradition of excellence.

Grand Prize winner – Democracy that Delivers for Entrepreneurs:

Chandrima Padmanabhan (India) “Entrepreneurship in India: The Evolution of the Pedestrian Pariah.” Chandrima will attend CIPE’s Democracy that Delivers for Entrepreneurs conference on April 9-10 in Chicago.

Grand prize winner Chandrima Padmanabhan

Grand prize winner Chandrima Padmanabhan

Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Beyond technology

1st place: Todor Raykov (Bulgaria) “To Flee or WHEN to Flee?”

1st place winner in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation category Todor Raykov

1st place winner in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation category Todor Raykov

2nd place: Natalia Korchagina (Russia) “Making Ideas Happen. Helping Ideas Succeed”

3rd place: Jones Cecil Ntaukira (Malawi) “The Great Miracle: Occupy Youth Entrepreneurship”

Inclusive Growth: The entrepreneurial environment for scaling up business

1st place: Obed Ankrah (Ghana) “Promoting Inclusive Growth: the Entrepreneurial Environment for  Scaling up Business”

Ankrah Obed

1st place winner in the Inclusive Growth category Obed Ankrah

2nd place: Anna Grishkina (Russia) “Opportunities into results”

3rd place: Ngutor Saaka (Nigeria) “Inclusive Growth: The entrepreneurial environment for scaling up business – a panacea for youth unemployment in Nigeria”

Social transformations: The role of entrepreneurs in building democratic societies

1st place:  Prince Karakire Guma (Uganda) “Fostering Democracy in Uganda: The Unexplored Contributions of Young Entrepreneurs”

Prince Karakire Guma

1st place winner in the Social Transformations category Prince Karakire Guma

2nd place: Surath Giri (Nepal) “Building Entrepreneurial Ecosystem for Fostering Entrepreneurship: Lessons from Nepal”

3rd place: Nivya Murthi (India) “Youth Social Entrepreneurship for building a stronger India”

The winning essays will continue to be published as Economic Reform Feature Service articles, and winners will be profiled on the CIPE Development Blog in the coming months. Congratulations to the winners and everyone who entered!

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Introducing the first class of Think Tank LINKS Fellows

Posted on 23 January, 2013 by | Comments Off

As the nation’s capital celebrated the second inauguration of President Obama this past weekend, CIPE and Atlas Corps also had our own celebration: welcoming the first class of Think Tank LINKS Fellows.

From now until early July, three young researchers will participate in the CIPE-Atlas Corps sponsored Think Tank LINKS Fellowship. A leadership development program, the three fellows will shadow researches and experts at leading Washington, DC-based think tanks to learn about how successful think tanks operate in the U.S. while conducting research in issues of democratic or economic reforms.

We are excited to introduce our first group of Think Tank LINKS Fellows to everyone!

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Unpacking Corruption in Pakistan

Posted on 12 December, 2012 by | Comments Off

Pakistan is considered one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Transparency International’s recent survey ranks the country 134th on the Corruption Perception Index, with only 42 countries scoring worse. It is encouraging that Pakistanis now openly talk about corruption: according to a recent public opinion poll conducted by Gallup Pakistan asking about the most disliked thing in Pakistan, corruption topped in the list at 16 percent.

Various donor agencies have been working in Pakistan for many years on reducing the menace of corruption. Some major reform work has been done in the Federal Board of Revenue, the department that collects taxes on income, sales, and property. Under a grant from the British Government, e-filing of these taxes was introduced in 2005. That reduced the interaction between the tax officer and taxpayer and also said to have reduced the opportunity for corruption.

Having said this, many sources of potential corruption remain. For example, newspaper reports suggest that in the past four years, Pakistan’s five large public sector organizations lost Rs 393 billion ($4 billion USD).

Despite an increase in media reports on corruption, until recently the business community was reluctant to speak publicly about corruption that is rampant in other segments of Pakistani society. When CIPE started talking to the business community about its role in reducing corruption, the response of businesspeople was lukewarm. They were concerned that if they started advocating for reducing corruption, they might be penalized by the government agencies, and as a result might end up losing more money.

To help bring attention to the problem, the Young Entrepreneurs Forum (YEF), which is a part of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, earlier this year launched a corruption perception survey, funded by a small grant from CIPE Pakistan.

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Posted in South Asia

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Bridging the Knowledge Gap

Posted on 5 December, 2012 by | Comments Off

I recently came across the below ad online — part of a series called Google Search stories. The video demonstrates the positive effect that access to information– in this case access to the world wide web– can have on entrepreneurship and business creation in developing countries.

The video tells the story of Kenyan farmer Zack Matere, who noticed that his healthy crop of potatoes was suddenly dying one by one, much to his puzzlement. After riding his bike 12 km to a cyber cafe and doing a Google search for potato pests and diseases, he identified the problem: ants.  The search results offered a simple solution to the problem, which Matere used on his crops once he returned home.  Two months later, the crops had rebounded and he was able to harvest them.  He even used that initial Google search to find a customer for his crops in a neighboring town who paid more than what he was currently getting.

Not only did Matere use the Internet to help save his crops, he also used it to help farmers in rural communities to access information and knowledge necessary for finding solutions to the everyday challenges that they face. After witnessing the powerful effects that the Internet had on his life, Matere needed to help the community see that the Internet and access to information was important and relevant for their lives.  Many farmers cannot afford a mobile phone with Internet access and have to travel long distances to access the Internet in cyber cafes with Internet access that is often down.  To fix this problem, Matere became the link between the Internet and the community.

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Posted in Africa, Global

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