A Global Youth Education and Technology Incubator Pursuing our Planetary Interest by Promoting...
-
Upload
donavan-bearfield -
Category
Documents
-
view
225 -
download
0
Transcript of A Global Youth Education and Technology Incubator Pursuing our Planetary Interest by Promoting...
A Global Youth Education and Technology Incubator
Pursuing our Planetary Interest by Promoting Informal Education, Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development
among Young People in Less Developed Countries
Fredrick LEE-OHLSSONCollege of Europe, Bruges, Belgium
Bernt Chr. BJAANESBocconi University, Milan, Italy
Photo by James Nachtwey
Some facts …
Every hour 1,000 children starve to death in the world …
100 million child deaths are predicted in the world over this decade …
Of that astounding number, 60 million are avoidable if the countries of the world embark on serious health education and health delivery programmes …
As long as such injustice exists are you as an individual of the XXIst century truly free?
What are the MDGs?
At the Millennium Summit in September 2000, the United Nations (UN) adopted eight goals to be achieved by 2015
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development
MDGs: Opportunity and Challenge
Some progress has been made but …
Still more than 1 billion people are living on less than a dollar a day
Still half of the developing world lack access to sanitation
Still every week in the developing world 200,000 children under five die of disease and 10,000 women die giving birth
The MDGs provide us with a unique opportunity, a unique responsibility and a unique challenge
Unleashing Entreprenurship for Reaching the MDGs
New, creative and sustainable solutions needed
1. strong expansion in the sustainable private sector investment is the main driver of accelerated economic growth, essential for reducing poverty and making rapid progress towards the MDGs
2. domestic private initiative and entrepreneurship particularly SMEs have enormous potential
3. the private sector, driven by market-based incentives, also have the demonstrated ability to contribute to important development goals
How can the potential of the private sector and entrepreneurship be unleashed to in developing countries? The role of the private sector in poverty alleviation effort, especially in developing countries, is crucial:
’Youth is the Wealth of the Nation’
The Stumbling Blocks for Youth in Less Developed Countries
Youth unemployment
Brain drain
The effort-result gap
Lack of horizontal integration
What do these three men have in common with us?
Werner Heisenberg Albert Einstein Niels Bohr
The theories of Einstein, Bohr and Heisenberg, were some of the most creative science ever …… and they were all created when they were young (age 22–27)!
Moving from Brain Drain and Youth Unemployment to Business Project
Generation How to promote sustainable development
through high-growth business?
How to take into account the MDGs when generating high-growth businesses?
And what role for young people?
Is it possible to set up high-growth businesses by young entrepreneurs that promote sustainable development and support the implementation of the MDGs in LDCs?
MDGs as a Platform for Creating Business Growth
We dare to argue that this is not only possible, but that
the best business start-ups in the future will be those that have this as an aim
Time for a Different Solution…
… and a New Approach
The Advantages of an Incubator
Informal Education
New Technologies
Innovation and Creativity
We want to create the most dynamic generator of high-growth businesses, by bringing together young minds and people within and across less developed countries, to an environment, where the individual, including the individual idea, is second in importance, to the benefits of pooling resources, ideas and knowledge
Objectives of the Incubator
1. to create new high-growth businesses inspired by the MDGs at any level (local, regional and national) that young people from less developed countries can carry out in their countries
2. to draw young peoples’ attention to the MDGs and promote their implementation
3. to give entrepreneurship a youth dimension and to make young people in less developed countries the entrepreneurs of tomorrow
4. to promote research in areas such as entrepreneurship and promote the host country as a country of opportunity, while supporting the formation of a national entrepreneurship culture
5. to promote less developed countries as a model of entrepreneurial economy and a location of opportunity
100 young people aged 18 to 30 on an annual basis to reside in the Incubator
A number of MDG themes will be identified by a panel of experts which will pick forward-looking themes with the potential to generate sustainable high-growth businesses in less developed countries
The themes will be the foundation for various Business Action Groups (BAGs)
Contents of the Incubator
Functioning of the Incubator
KNOWLEDGEKNOWLEDGEPOOLPOOL
Researchers
International Foundations
Business strategists
Philanthropists
Founders
Venture Capitalists
Incubator Residents
Differentbackgrounds
Differentdisciplines
Differenttheoreticalconditions
Differentideas
WithVisionNorthern European Youth Forum Held in 2003 in Sweden 150 young people and professionals from the region met to
develop strategies on the MDGs Endorsed by the UN Secretary-General and the Swedish prime
minister who sent representatives
Northern European Youth Forum Held in 2004 in Norway 150 young people and professionals from the region met to develop projects and social entrepreneurial activities on the
MDGs Supported by the Norwegian government, the UN, the World Bank, the European Commission
Europe-Asia Youth Forum on the MDGs
TEAMBUILDINGto form a tight group
CREATIVITYto form a creative spirit
BRAINSTORMINGto generate ideas
GROUPINGto create a structure
FACTSto get the maximum of knowledge and information
PROJECT MANAGEMENTto get knowledge on howto develop a manage a
business project
PARTNERSHIP & CO-OPERATIONto get tools to and understanding how to involve partners in collaboration and financing
IMPLEMENTATION & ACTIONto get knowledge how toimplement business ideas
BUSINESS ACTION GROUP
10 incubator participants
with complementary background
A New Methodology
The Triangle of Success
Dynamic
Motivating Living
Every generation has a central concern, whether to end war, erase racial injustice, or improve the conditions for the poor. The possibilities are too great, the stakes too high, to bequeath to the coming generation only the prophetic lament of Tennyson: ‘Ah, what shall I be at fifty ... if I find the world so bitter at twenty-five’.
Robert F. Kennedy(1925–1968)
Thank you for your attention!
Fredrick LEE-OHLSSONStudent of M.A. in EU International Relations and Diplomacy
StudiesCollege of Europe, Bruges, BelgiumM.Sc. in European Studies and Political ScienceGöteborg University, Gothenburg, SwedenE-mail: [email protected]
Bernt C. BJAANESStudent of M.Sc. in General Management & CEMS Master in
International Management Bocconi University, Milan, ItalyB.A. in EconomicsQueen’s University, CanadaE-mail: [email protected]