Today, young people are more connected, more creative, more informed and more persuasive than any previous generation. Young people are responding to the challenges of the day with innovative approaches, contributing fresh ideas, creating the world they want, and driving human development for themselves, their communities and their societies.

At the same time, approximately 300 million young people are either unemployed or underemployed. In other words, nearly half of the 700 million young people in the region face economic insecurity.

To improve and encourage an inclusive environment for youth innovation and entrepreneurship that is in line with the objective of SDGs and China’s Mid-and-long-term Youth Development Plan (2016 – 2025), UNDP would like to seek opportunities to cooperate with relevant government counterparts to promote the Regional Youth Programme for Leadership, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Youth Co:Lab) in China. 

The Regional Youth Programme is UNDP’s multi-dimensional and multilevel response to tackle the challenges that young people, including the most marginalized, face today in the Asia-Pacific region. As one of the key outputs, the Asia-Pacific Forum on Youth Leadership, Innovation and Entrepreneurship was convened in China in collaboration with the All China Youth Federation and the China Youth Daily to engage young people to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs through leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship. It provided a platform for young people to showcase how the social issues were solved through business model and aimed to empower youth in achieving SDGs through social innovation and entrepreneurship.

Objectives:

·       Foster youth-led entrepreneurship and accelerate the implementation of the SDGs, with a strong focus on networking and policy-making;

·       Join with stakeholders to build a systemic enabling environment for youth entrepreneurship to counter and engage with challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution;

·       Provide a platform to showcase the work and achievements of young social entrepreneurs across the region through the Asia-Pacific Youth Impact Awards;

·       Strengthen the capacity and south-south knowledge exchange for youth entrepreneurs and social innovators across the Asia-Pacific region.

Expected results:

Component 1: A regional policy dialogue on youth leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship convened on 1st -3rd August 2018

1.     300 participants from governments, incubators, civil society and private sectors, academia, youth organizations, start-ups attended the forum and committed to make contributions to build an enabling environment for youth entrepreneurship;

2.     Youth Empowerment Alliance was launched to gather with enablers and discuss the how to strengthen the youth entrepreneurship ecosystem from their industry;

3.     Awareness was raised to incorporate the SDGs to the business models;

4.     Demo Day was conveyed to showcase the excellent Youth-led start-ups from Asia-Pacific region;

5.     3 most promising youth-led start-ups among the 17 selected and nominated teams from alliance partners in the Asia-Pacific region were awarded the outstanding SDG Enterprise awards.