Young entrepreneurs pivot towards recovery

COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on young entrepreneurs, forcing them to pivot their businesses accordingly. A research report by Youth Co:Lab titled One Year On: How Young Entrepreneurs in Asia-Pacific Responded to Covid-19 showed how the pandemic has challenged youth-led enterprises in Asia and the Pacific on multiple fronts.

The survey of 376 young people from 30 countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific shows that 92 per cent have been negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, with 85 per cent shrinking or limiting their businesses to survive. Despite this, 87 per cent demonstrated their resilience by changing and adapting their business strategies. Significantly, 86 per cent developed new products and services, and transformed their operating models.

Youth Co:Lab is Asia-Pacific's largest youth-led social entrepreneurship movement, co-led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Citi Foundation.

Its third Youth Co:Lab Regional Summit held virtually last week brought together over 4,700 young social entrepreneurs, incubators, accelerators, investors and governments across 120 countries and territories, to turn sustainable development ideas into viable business models.

Issues discussed include climate change, gender equality and female empowerment, and how to ensure no one is left behind.

One speaker at the summit was Tawhida Shiropa, a young social entrepreneur who started a mental health and well-being counselling service in Bangladesh called Moner Bondhu (meaning "Friends of Your Mind").

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Her initial desire to help her mother cope with depression turned into a larger mission of helping the vast and neglected numbers of people suffering from mental health issues - a problem exacerbated by Covid-19. When the pandemic hit, Ms Shiropa was forced to suspend in-person counselling and pivot to an online platform providing tele-video counselling. In the period from March to December 2020, her social enterprise received over 18,000 calls from all over Bangladesh, highlighting the urgent need for such services.

Peter Babej, CEO of Citi Asia-Pacific, said: "Covid-19 recovery strategies must incorporate measures to tackle the worsening youth unemployment crisis. Social entrepreneurship offers a route for young people to create jobs, tackle challenges faced by their communities, and drive inclusive growth and sustainable development.

"Citi and the Citi Foundation are committed to working with all partners to help young people develop their own solutions to the biggest social problems impacting their communities, and meet the sustainable development goals."

The Asia-Pacific is home to 55 per cent of the world's young people, or 660 million youth between the ages of 15 and 24. This segment's problems of unemployment have worsened due to the pandemic.

In Singapore, UNDP, Citi Foundation, National Youth Council Singapore and other government representatives support the empowerment of youths through the Youth Co:Lab-Youth Action Challenge (YAC), which sees hundreds of Singapore-based participants addressing pressing local and global challenges through their projects and enterprises. Teams that emerge tops at the YAC present their solutions at the Youth Co:Lab Regional Summit.