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: fredrickleeohlsson@gmail.com

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: berntcbjaanes@gmail.com