The Youth Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development Project - Phase 2

An overview of current conditions in the world can produce many negative feelings.  The continued Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s brutal attack of Ukraine, food insecurity resulting from the halt in wheat and other critical agricultural products from Ukraine and Russia as a result of the war, the spread of autocratic regimes, global inflation resulting from the pandemic and Ukraine war and, of course, the existential threat posed by climate change and global warming, offer few areas of hope for the near future.  

There is one bright spot which is the possibly of youth globally – the “generation in waiting” – to adopt new approaches to global problems which differ from the destructive policies of their elders.  What can youth offer to provide a new spirit of hope in the future. 

 

In past posts, I have spoken about the power and promise of youth social entrepreneurship. Based on the belief that youth today constitute the only demographic which bring about meaningful social change, I worked with several colleagues to create the Youth, Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development Project (YSESD). 

 

Now in its fourth year, the YSESD completed its first phase in December 2021. Supported by a grant from the Hollings Center for International Dialogue in Istanbul, the YSESD brought together a group of youth social entrepreneurs from Turkey, Iraq, and Pakistan.  Phase 1 of the YSESD focused on mentoring.  It created cross-national teams of project participants who developed projects which could be implemented in the future. 

 

The response of these teams, which grouped youth social entrepreneurs from Turkey, Iraq and Pakistan, was extremely positive. The participants benefited from the ideas which came from different cultural contexts and reported that the synergy that developed during the project building was something they not experienced heretofore.  The YSESD’s progress in Phase 1 underscored the goal of building an international network of youth social entrepreneurs.  

 

Beginning with our 3 “pilot” countries in Phase 1, youth social could share information on the project’s platform with other YSESD participants beyond their teams, and obtain mentorship in YSESD workshops from successful social entrepreneurs in the MENA region, Pakistan Europe and the United States.

 

This spring, the YSESD began Phase 2 of the project.  Once again, the project is fortunate to have outstanding participants. This cohort not only includes youth social entrepreneurs from Turley, Iraq, and Pakistan, but also from Syria, Kuwait, Dubai, Palestine, and MENA region youth living in Europe.  Thus, the YSESD is widening its focus in the MENA region and in Pakistan.

 Mentoring is a core component of Phase 2, which is providing instruction using lectures and instructional materials from the YCombinator Start-Up School.  During bi-weekly meetings, YSESD participants join breakout rooms where they receive suggestions and comments on their social entrepreneurial ventures.  As in Phase 1, an effort is made to link youth social entrepreneurs from different countries. 

 

For example, during our last meeting this month, I worked with 2 youth social entrepreneurs from Turkey and another from Iraq.  The Turkish partners have developed a computer training venture which provides refugees and other educationally deprived youth in Turkey with computer skills training. The Iraqi youth social entrepreneur, and his partners in Iraq, have developed 7 schools in Iraq which offer primary and secondary school education.  Two of the schools serve youth in the poorest districts of Baghdad while the other 3 serve displaced youth in Iraq’s al-Anbar Province west of the Iraqi capital. 

 

The outcome of our mentoring session was the suggestion that the Turkish social entrepreneurs provide computer skills training to trainers in Iraq where schools provide limited education in this critical area.  The Iraqi social entrepreneur, and his partners, would reach out to an Italian NGO and USAID in Iraq to fund the project.  Thus, this initiative would link Turkish and Iraqi youth social entrepreneurs in a cross-national project from which both sides would benefit. 

At the same time, the YSESD, under the leadership of Mr. Berat Kjamili, CEO of migport.com, a company which specializes in providing career opportunities for refugees who have come to Turkey, is developing the YSESD platform for all project participants to use both to improve their ongoing social entrepreneurial ventures, to share ideas with their colleagues, and to meet with potential investors. 

YSESD and the MENA region and Pakistan

Turning to the MENA region and Pakistan, from which our YSESD participants are drawn, it is obvious that the countries in the MENA region and South Asia face myriad problems. One of the most dangerous is global warming caused by climate change which poses an existential threat.  Little, if nothing, is being done by states in the MENA region or in Pakistan to combat what should accurately be called the Climate Emergency.

Water shortages threaten many countries as drought spreads, rivers dry up and states fight over a critical resource. It was a key causal factor in the Syrian Arab Spring uprising when residents of 175 villages along the Euphrates River were forced to leave them and migrate westward as the reduced river flow would no longer support local agriculture.  Failing to receive state support, these migrants began demonstrating peacefully which led to a violent response by the al-Asad regime leading to onset of Syria's civil war which is still ongoing.

Like Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen and Jordan are facing serious water problems as are other countries in the MENA region. Pakistan is the third most water stressed country in the world with only a 10% capacity for rainfall storage. Further, Pakistan and many MENA region countries are unable to provide large segments of their population with clean, potable water.

Rising sea levels rw causing saline water from the Mediterranean to enter the two tributaries of Egypt's Nile River.  The Shatt al-Arab where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers join is also experiencing invasive saline water from the Persian Gulf. In both Egypt and Iraq, this phenomenon has hurt local agricultural production. 

Excessive heat exacerbates the water shortage problem by preventing crops from growing and being harvested. It is also contributing to desertification in the MENA region and Pakistan. Thus, the Climate Emergency contributes to food insecurity.  It also adversely affects the health of local populations because dust storms are becoming more frequent causing an increase in pulmonary diseases.

Hot temperatures and limited rainfall has also contributed to the spread of wildfires.  Large areas of Turkey along the Mediterranean suffered from extensive wildfire during the summer of 2021. Both Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and areas around Jerusalem in Israel also suffered extensive wildfires in 2021. This problem will only worsen in the bear future displacing people from their homes and forcing states to divert funds to tackle this problem.

Civil strife and the Climate Emergency have created a large refugee population in the MENA region and Pakistan.  Refugees have myriad needs which often aren't or can't be et by the host country.  Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, for example, have millions of Syrian refugees who have fled the civil war which has displaced half of the country's population.

How can youth social entrepreneurs help  address these problems? Many of the YSESD participants have already initiated excellent projects to help residents and displaced people adapt to the disruption which has affected their lives. These projects have offered training in many skills, including learning the local language and computer usage.  

Other projects engage in recycling waste.  These projects offer small amounts of money to local residents who bring their waste to recycling centers but help prevent the spread of disease.  They promote a community spirit where residents realize that their community can better handle waste products and receive compensation for better practices as well. One project in Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government provides employment for over 600 people who work in the recycling sector.

Another project has developed 7 schools in Iraq for poor and displaced Iraqis.  These schools have been able to educate both female as well as male children.  The schools charge a minimal fee or no fee at all if funds aren;t available.  In Baghdad poor districts, some parents who are illiterate have enrolled in the schools together with their children.

Proposed social entrepreneurial projects 

The following list constitutes the "tip of the iceberg," naely a small menu of the tremendous prospects for social entrepreneurial venues in the Global South, such as the MENA region, and Pakistan 

Land reclamation - One of the simplest applications of social entrepreneurship which is needed in the MENA region and Pakistan is combating climate change.  As drought and rising temperatures ravage the MENA region and parts of South Asia, desertification has spread. Establishing myriad social entrepreneurial firms, funded by the state, vegetation could be planted throughout areas which have turned to desert or were in the process of doing so.

Agricultural mentoring - climate change is fostering food insecurity in the MENA region and south Asia. With support of Ministry of Agriculture, youth entrepreneurial ventures could be developed to help farmers better use their limited water resources.

Recycling companies - food, cardboard, plastic, glass and metal waste are all recyclable.  They create problems with landfills, especially in dense urban areas.  Food waste can cause disease.  Thus, recycling is environmentally beneficial.  It can also generate financial resources for the social entrepreneurs. 

But perhaps the greatest inventive is the small amount of money local residents can obtain from  bringing their waste to local recycling centers.  Finally, food waste can be transformed into organic fertilizer which can be used in local gardens.

Local health care clinics - Working with local hospitals, physicians associations, faculties of health at regional and national universities, and with the national ministry of health, youth social entrepreneurs can organize to provide basic healthcare information and services to poor urban neighborhoods and rural areas which lack health care facilities.  

This process occurred on a temporary basis when youth leading the October Revolution in Iraq.  Offering basics such as soap and vaccinations, such clinics can both help poor, underserved populations to acquire basic healthcare while also serving as an informational conduit  to governmental agencies to use in improving healthcare services to the poor. 

Solar energy - electricity is a commodity which is in short supply in many countries of the Global South.  With rising temperatures, electricity is also essential to protect vulnerable populations, such as the elderly, the ill and children, though allowing them access to air conditioning.  Electricity is critical for preserving food and having access to information via the Internet.

In Egypt, a group of youth established a solar energy company, Karam Solar, despite initial oppositiøon fo the Egyptian government.  To date, it has provided solar panles to large areas of Egypt.  Its providing farmers with solar panels helped them obtain water from deeper in the ground, cut their irrigation costs by cutting down or even elimination the need for diesel fuel altogether (which sometime was not delivered to them in a timely manner), and improve their harvests.

The Karm Solar team - Sharikat Karm li-l-Taqa al-Shamsiya

Most MENA region countries and Pakistan lack adequate electricity.  As Iraq and other countries lacking electricity move to devel large solar farms, the time is ripe for providing solar panels to poorer communities and large numbers of farmers .  Youth social entrepreneurs can use the Karm Solar model to apply to their own national contexts.

Karam Solar, Cairo, Egypt

For those interested in more information on the Youth Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development Project, or would like to join our youth social entrepreneurs as a Phase 2 participant, mentor, or potential investor, please contact me at: davis@polisci.rutgers.edu, or Mr. Berat Kjamili, CEO, migport.com at: beratmigport@gmail.com