LocationsWhat Young Social Entrepreneurs Are Teaching Us About Skills, Scale, and Sustainability
July 15, 2025
Many young social entrepreneurs started with very little: no team, no funding, no formal training. And yet, many of them made a substantial impact in addressing the region’s toughest challenges, such as climate change, gender inequality, education gaps, healthcare inaccessibility, and fragile public services. So, what sets them apart?
They didn’t just have a bold idea. They believed in that idea deeply enough to keep showing up for it, through rejection, pivots, and restarts. They were people who remained curious, took initiative, and continually engineered new solutions as new problems arose. They weren’t just starting their initiatives; they were equipping themselves for the long game, unlocking new levels of adaptability, creativity, and resilience with every new challenge they faced.
This mindset isn’t something they’re born with. It’s something they learn, often by doing, and that's something we can do too.
Digital Edge of Social Impact
Many youth-led innovations from Youth Co:Lab, an initiative co-led by UNDP and Citi Foundation, are deeply rooted in community-driven impact and often stretched to their limits. They juggle daily decisions about funding, staff capacity, and service delivery, all while staying mission-focused. Since 2017, Youth Co:Lab has supported over 3,200 youth-led initiatives across the Asia-Pacific through our Springboard Suite, which has helped them develop entrepreneurial skills such as business planning, fundraising, impact measurement, storytelling, and partnership building, while staying grounded in their values.
Through interviewing Youth Co:Lab alumni working across diverse sectors, like DigiSwasthya, which delivers affordable telehealth in rural India; GAWIREA, which promotes women’s leadership in Indonesia’s energy sector; Sankalp Shiksha, focused on STEM education for underserved youth; the Centre for Gender And Politics (CGAP), which advocates for gender inclusion in South Asian politics; and Grow School Philippines, which champions environmental and agricultural education. It consistently emerged that digital skills are central to how they scale, sustain, and lead with impact.
It emerged that using tools like digital dashboards, online training modules, and standardized processes has helped young social entrepreneurs build lean and decentralized teams while maintaining quality and reach. These digital systems aren’t just about efficiency; they are the foundation of resilience in under-resourced environments. They also enable youth-led social enterprises to track their impact, generate visual reports, and tell data-driven stories that build accountability and trust with both communities and funders.
Many young entrepreneurs are adopting digital-first, low-cost operational models while diversifying their income streams through crowdfunding, earned income, and partnerships. Beyond tools and funding, they credit digital connectivity, cross-sector collaborations, access to mentorship, and global platforms for helping them unlock resources, influence policy, and co-create solutions that foster ecosystems of change.
Digital Skills to Spark Social Innovation
To continue supporting young leaders who are already running impactful initiatives, it’s equally important to inspire and prepare those who are still discovering their path. The Youth Empowerment Portfolio of UNDP in Asia and the Pacific created the Movers Programme. This peer-led movement introduces youth across Asia-Pacific to the Sustainable Development Goals while building soft skills, leadership confidence, and entrepreneurial mindsets. For many, it’s their first time facilitating a workshop, leading a conversation, or bringing an idea to life. Through hands-on practice, they begin to see themselves not just as learners, but as changemakers.
And as the community grew, so did the demand for deeper learning that sparks creativity and drives real-world change. Skill Our Future, an initiative by UNDP, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and Microsoft, was designed as a dedicated digital learning platform to equip young people with 21st-century skills that foster both career and community impact. It offers curated courses on a wide range of topics, from AI fluency and digital branding to climate storytelling and entrepreneurship, helping young people grow not just as job seekers but as problem solvers.
Becoming an Entrepreneur was created through a collaboration between Youth Co:Lab and Skill Our Future, a self-paced online course series designed to turn ideas into action. It walks young people through the fundamentals of identifying a problem, understanding their community, prototyping solutions, and building with purpose. Rooted in real-world examples and guided by a hands-on workbook, the course encourages creativity, sparks curiosity, and empowers young people to take meaningful action, regardless of their starting point.
Entrepreneurship is a journey of continuous learning, driven by curiosity, creativity, and the courage to act. You don’t need the perfect idea or the perfect moment to begin. Every big journey starts small. Start by learning to build practical skills, as it is the first step toward turning ideas into impact.
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