Driving responsible and sustainable businesses led by underserved entrepreneurs

Programme Overview

Across our global network, we are seeing a growing strong desire and effort among the entrepreneurs we support to run sustainable, environmentally conscious businesses. It is therefore vital that we provide them with the right support to achieve this.

This is why, in September 2022, we launched a new programme supported by JPMorgan Chase to support underserved entrepreneurs in Germany, France, South Africa, Spain, and the UK to build more sustainable and environmentally conscious businesses. Between September 2022 and December 2024, the programme aims to support 300 micro and small businesses across the five countries to assess how sustainable their business is, make practical changes to become more sustainable, and communicate their impact. The underserved small businesses are typically owned by people who are facing socio-economic disadvantages and inequalities and have been traditionally disconnected from business resources. This includes women, youth, Black and Minoritised ethnicities, migrants, and people with low income.

The programme will initially be delivered by our members KIZ in Germany, Positive Planet in France, Hatch Enterprise in the UK, Youth Business Spain, and our delivery partner Fetola in South Africa. YBI will then roll out the toolkit to an additional 10 entrepreneur support organisations (ESOs) in the above five countries to support even more underserved and young entrepreneurs to make their businesses more sustainable.

In addition, YBI will support all 15 ESOs to incorporate decent work training, adapted to their country context, into their support offerings for underserved and young entrepreneurs to empower them to become responsible employers.

Programme Structure

The programme will be delivered in three phases:

• Phase 1 – Sustainability Toolkit co-creation: Guided by YBI’s Green and Social Entrepreneurship Lead and a sustainability expert, our members and delivery partner will co-create a sustainability toolkit to improve and strengthen their services to help underserved and young entrepreneurs better understand the relationship and impact between profit, planet, and people and apply sustainability principles to their business practices.
• Phase 2 – Pilot 1: From March to July 2023, our members and delivery partner will pilot the sustainability toolkit to support 100 micro and small businesses across Germany, France, South Africa, Spain and the UK to assess how sustainable their operations are, make practical changes to become more sustainable, and communicate their impact. In addition, our members and delivery partner will deliver decent work training, adapted to their country context, to empower business owners to become responsible employers.
• Phase 3 – Sustainability Toolkit Training of Trainers (ToT) and Pilot 2: In 2024, YBI will deliver a Training of Trainers (ToT) programme to 10 additional entrepreneurship support organisations (ESOs) in Germany, France, South Africa, Spain and the UK to help them build or improve their support offering for underserved and young entrepreneurs and support 200 micro and small businesses to become more sustainable. These 10 ESOs will also deliver decent work training, adapted to their country context, to empower business owners to become responsible employers.