The Future is Yours
Every day, when watching the news, we see pictures of famine and floods, droughts and demonstrations, confronting us with the effects of increasing resource scarcity, climate change, food security, civil unrest and poverty. We see the increasing numbers of people left behind. Many wonder how on earth we are going to address all these challenges. […]
Building Schools & Delivering Quality Education in China
Interview with Huaping Yang, Finalist for Youth Business International’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 Award Spirited entrepreneur Huaping Yang has overcome failure to launch an education business which today enables hundreds of students to work towards achieving their goals. Chinese company Chengdu Aosite Education (AST) is a three-pronged after-school tutoring chain for students of […]
Building Schools & Delivering Quality Education in China
Interview with Huaping Yang, Finalist for Youth Business International’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 Award Spirited entrepreneur Huaping Yang has overcome failure to launch an education business which today enables hundreds of students to work towards achieving their goals. Chinese company Chengdu Aosite Education (AST) is a three-pronged after-school tutoring chain for students of […]
Forging a Sustainable Future in Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka’s Northern Jaffna District, a region ravaged by 30 years of war and unrest, Prinson Thuraiaiya’s unique brass foundry business (producing castings from waste metal) encompasses entrepreneurial spirit, sustainability and a positive social mission. This is Prinson’s story…. I was born into a poor family. I keenly engaged in school education hoping to […]
It’s Africa’s Time: Encouraging Inclusive Business Models in Africa
While Africa’s challenges are well documented, there’s an increasing recognition that the continent is on an upward trajectory. And yet Africa’s wealth disparities are amongst the biggest in the world and over the long run this will undermine economic growth, productivity and the development of markets. Economic growth alone is not enough. As a result […]
Project Inspire: MasterCard & UN Women Support Youth Involvement in Women Empowerment Projects
This year marks the third year since we launched Project Inspire: 5 Minutes to Change the World – a digital initiative dedicated to inspiring young people to build sustainable projects that will benefit disadvantaged women and girls in Asia/Pacific, the Middle East or Africa – together with the Singapore Committee for UN Women. Aimed at […]
Project Inspire: MasterCard & UN Women Support Youth Involvement in Women Empowerment Projects
This year marks the third year since we launched Project Inspire: 5 Minutes to Change the World – a digital initiative dedicated to inspiring young people to build sustainable projects that will benefit disadvantaged women and girls in Asia/Pacific, the Middle East or Africa – together with the Singapore Committee for UN Women. Aimed at […]
Youth Unemployment in Sierra Leone
The high rate of youth unemployment is one of the challenges the Business Booster is designed to tackle. Now that my time in Sierra Leone is almost over, having spent 10 weeks surrounded by locals at home, in the office and during my free time, and inspired by the theft of my laptop two days […]
Building an Affordable Learning Market
By Katelyn Donnelly, Executive Director, PALF and Ravi Patel, Analyst, Affordable Learning Fund As we approach 2015, it is clear that the international community will not meet its commitment to universal primary education (MDG goals). As of 2011, UNESCO estimated 57 million children of primary school age were still not enrolled in school. Additionally, 69 […]
A Sri-Lankan Coconut Entrepreneur’s Story of Success
An Interview with Nimali Gunawardana, Nimali Chips and Fibre Mill, Sri Lanka Nimali Gunawardana (25) and her business, Nimali Chips and Fibre Mill, have been hailed as pioneers. Within a year she has created an environmentally-friendly enterprise producing and exporting coir for mattresses and coir piths and, more uniquely, making coconut husk chips which is […]
Meet Anowara Shuley: Sewing Fabrics and Reaping Success
Anowara Shuley is challenging traditional beliefs, empowering destitute women and educating the poor. Following a family dispute which left her destitute, she embarked on a self-funded tailoring course. At the age of 24 she launched her business, Shawon Hosto Shilpo, producing fashion and handcrafted products for sale in Dhaka in Bangladesh. However, due to a […]
Meet Mohan Singh: Inspiring Entrepreneurship through Mentoring
Do you remember that one teacher or guide who made a positive and lasting impact on your life? If you have ever provided support or advice based on your own life experiences, you have been a mentor to someone. And everyone needs a mentor. “Mentoring” might not be a glossy word but it is a […]
Impact Investment and Beyond – Mapping Support For Social Enterprises
There is a lot of excitement about the potential of social enterprise to deliver innovative solutions to development problems. There also is a lot of interest from a wide range of actors – donors, commercial banks, NGOs and business schools – to understand, finance and provide support to social enterprises. For example, impact investors have […]
Turning Waste into Wealth – A Young Entrepreneur’s Contribution Towards Community, the Environment, and National Happiness
At just 30 years old, Karma Yonten is Bhutan’s first citizen to turn waste management and recycling into a business. The old saying goes that “one man’s meat is another man’s poison”: Karma saw opportunity in the country’s maligned, unsightly and toxic landfills, which had dangerous side-effects for people’s health. His pioneering enterprise, Greener Way, […]
Accelerating Peace through Youth Entrepreneurship
I recently participated in a conference on fighting piracy in Somalia. The topic: how to combat the thousands of men, AK47’s strapped to their backs, that were taking skiffs into the azure blue waters of the Indian Ocean to hijack and loot ships. The conference had a packed schedule, and international security officials discussed everything […]
Technology Boosting Economic Opportunity in Rural Ghana
Almost half of the world’s people live on less than $2.50 a day. In my country, Ghana, nearly 30 percent of the population and almost 60 percent of those under 25 survive below this grim poverty line—facing stark daily choices between spending on food, healthcare, education and shelter. In a world where the wealthiest one […]
Worldwide enterprise knowledge-sharing is key to tackling youth unemployment
Over the next decade 1.2billion young people will enter the job market globally. But potentially only 300million jobs will be available. The youth unemployment debate has topped UK agendas in recent months. While there has been a slight decline, almost 1 million 16-24 year olds were out of work as of June 2013. Unemployment is […]
Harnessing the Business Potential of Honey
I have recently been focusing my time on a honey production company called KEYDA, one of the two selected youth led companies on whom the business booster will be tested in the third phase of the pilot. To get a better picture of their current status and in order to assure a certain level that […]
Large Companies and Collaboration for Inclusive Business
Mo Ibrahim’s Recipe to ‘Deliver Africa’s Promise’
Alice Allen, Head of Advocacy, Care International UK What do you get if you combine the youngest participant in the 2012 Olympics (13), ‘making agriculture sexy’ and the establishment of a business corruption index? The answer? Africa delivering on its promise and fulfilling its economic and social potential, according to the Sudanese-born, global mobile communications […]