Launch!! of the 2020 World Youth Report on Youth Social Entrepreneurship and the 2030 Agenda
The World Youth Report is a flagship publication of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and addresses youth development issues around the world. This report is published every 2 years.
The 2020 edition of the World Youth Report seeks to contribute to the conversation on the potential of youth social entrepreneurship to support youth employment and development while helping accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. After having anchored social entrepreneurship in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Report examines the situation of young people and whether youth social entrepreneurship can offer employment opportunities and support youth participation as well as other elements of youth development. The Report then assesses the potential of youth social entrepreneurship to support the 2030 Agenda implementation, especially for communities at the “last mile”, and examines various types of challenges faced by young social entrepreneurs.
An additional chapter explores how new technologies can be leveraged to address some of these challenges as well as further support youth social entrepreneurship in its efforts to advance sustainable development. The final chapter offers policy guidance to facilitate the development of enabling, responsive and sustainable national ecosystems for young social entrepreneurs. The Report clearly notes that social entrepreneurship is not the antidote to the youth unemployment crisis and does not releases policymakers from their broader obligation to address the needs of youth in a comprehensive and sustainable manner.
Throughout the report, info boxes and case studies illustrate the impact youth social entrepreneurship can have when entrepreneurial ecosystems are aligned with the needs, characteristics, constraints and ambitions of young people.