YBI launches new report ‘Entrepreneurship within Reach: Connecting young people to opportunity’

YBI today launches a new flagship report ‘Entrepreneurship within Reach: Connecting young people to opportunity’, sharing our learnings and insights from the last 20 years of youth entrepreneurship support. 

This comes at a critical time for investing in young entrepreneurs. The devastating economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the global youth unemployment crisis of recent years and left millions of young people around the world at risk of falling behind and living in poverty. 

Entrepreneurship gives young people an opportunity to generate income and create decent work for themselves and others. This new generation of young entrepreneurs will have a vital role to play as we ‘build back better’ for a more sustainable and inclusive economic future. 

However, to unlock their entrepreneurial potential, young people, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, need support. They often face a multitude of challenges on many different levels, ranging from a lack of knowledge and skills to cultural barriers and adverse economic and political conditions.  

The YBI report ‘Entrepreneurship within reach: Connecting young people to opportunity’ uses data, third party evidence and insights from 20 years of supporting young entrepreneurs as a network to establish what works and what is needed to ensure inclusive and impactful youth entrepreneurship support. Across the network, YBI members are taking an integrated approach comprised of three main components:  

• Personal development refers to building positive mind-sets and attitudes via mentoring, soft and life skills training, and increasing leadership capabilities.  
• Business development training includes technical training, guidance on how to start and grow a successful business, digital upskilling and ongoing aftercare.  
• Enabling environment facilitation focuses on access to finance, networks and markets to provide opportunities otherwise inaccessible to most young entrepreneurs.  

With the YBI network’s support, 102,000 young people started a business, and 100,000 jobs were created by young entrepreneurs between 2014 and 2020.  

Anita Tiessen, CEO Youth Business International (YBI), says: 

“The pandemic has had a devastating impact on the prospects of young people around the world, and this is a critical moment for a step change in investment in their economic futures. We need to equip this new generation with even more integrated, inclusive entrepreneurship support services to help them to beat the odds in building new businesses, creating decent work for others, and contributing to a more sustainable and equitable world.”  

The research was conducted by Dalberg. Please download the press release here and read the full report here.