Pacific consultations

About the meeting

UN ESCAP in collaboration with UNDP held multiple consultations with youth and policymakers from six Pacific island countries both before and during the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF). On 26 September 2017, ESCAP took part in UNDP’s Youth CoLab, which focused on understanding the unique challenges youth in the Pacific face as well as solutions from government and youth led organizations. From 27 to 29 September 2017 the participants from the Youth CoLab along with ESCAP and UNDP joined SEWF to learn more about how entrepreneurship and social enterprises can help achieve the SDGs, including addressing youth unemployment. Each evening youth specific consultations were held, where many interesting plenary and break-out sessions took place, and also gave youth from the Pacific opportunities to interact with youth participants from other countries, especially Australia and New Zealand. The events proved to be an effective way of increasing the capacity of participants from the Pacific islands and drawing greater attention to the benefits of investing in youth, especially with regard to social enterprises.

Detailed information

Brief context: Youth and the Global Goals in Asia and the Pacific

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes the important role of youth in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs or Global Goals), and calls for action against the challenges faced by young people that limit their economic, social and political inclusion. 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. But at the same time, approximately 300 million young people are either unemployed or underemployed.^[1] In other words, nearly half of the 700 million young people in the region face economic insecurity. In addition, many young people are left out of decision-making process, which further contributes to their marginalization and exclusion.

The Regional Youth Project on Leadership, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Youth CoLab) is UNDP’s multi-dimensional and multi-level response, supported by ESCAP, to tackle the challenges young people, including the most marginalized, face today in the Asia-Pacific region. Its main objective is to “establish a common agenda for Asia-Pacific countries to invest and empower youth to accelerate implementation of the Global Goals through social innovation and entrepreneurship”. Specifically, the project focuses on establishing a network to foster youth-led social entrepreneurship, supporting youth leadership initiatives, and providing grants for incubation financial mechanisms to fund youth-led programmes aimed at achieving the SDGs. It also supports research and knowledge exchange activities to inform current and new youth initiatives. The efforts of UNDP, ESCAP and identified partners is directed at supporting young people with an emphasis on the following overarching priorities: catalyzing youth innovation; creating better access to data and participatory research; empowering young people through technology; fostering youth inclusion; and promoting youth leadership.

UNDP and ESCAP participation at the Social Enterprise World Forum 2017

The Social Enterprise World Forum (Christchurch, New Zealand, 26-29 September 2017)

The Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) is an annual international event for social enterprises from all over the world to come together, share wisdom, build networks and discuss how to create a more sustainable future. The event attracts social enterprise practitioners, social entrepreneurs, policymakers, community leaders, investors, activists, academics and more from across the globe.

This year’s event took place in Christchurch, New Zealand (26-29 September 2017) on the theme “Ka korokì te manu – creating our tomorrow”. The Forum was one of the largest conferences in Christchurch since the earthquake, with over 1,200 delegates from around the world, in order to foster collaboration and growth of the social enterprise sector.

The forum in Christchurch was hosted by Akina Foundation, an organization which fosters the social enterprise ecosystem in New Zealand and the Pacific with the support from organizations such as SAP, Pacific Business Trust, Inspiring stories, Kiwi Bank, Christchurch local council and many other partners.

Planned engagement from the UNDP and ESCAP

UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub (BRH) Youth Unit together with UNDP Pacific Office, ESCAP and the Akina Foundation, developed a Pacific youth segment focusing on supporting youth social entrepreneurs from the Pacific region to learn, network and engage during the SEWF 2017.

Young Leaders: Empowering the Future (Pre-Forum side event, 26 September 2017)

UNDP and ESCAP i) convened a dialogue among the participants on the role of youth-led social innovation and entrepreneurship to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, and ii) introduced the Regional Youth Project (Youth CoLab) and the Youth Policy Toolbox, and take a deep dive into specific components of the project and Toolbox, embedding a dedicated feedback session to collect recommendations directly from the participants.

Schedule of the session

• 9:00-10:00: Getting to know each other and setting the agenda for youth participation in the SEWF
• 10:00-11:00: Social entrepreneurship 101 (a session catered to improve the awareness of participants)
• 11:00-12:00: Deep dive into the Regional Youth Project (short presentation and discussion on how the regional youth project – Youth CoLAB can address the needs of Pacific youth)
• 12:00– 13:00: Lunch
• 13:00– 14:30: Exploration of the Youth Policy Toolbox (interactive session on how to use and improve the Toolbox)
• 14:30– 15:00: Wrap up
• 15:00 – 17:00: Networking and knowledge sharing activities
• 17:00 – Dinner

Learning Journey Recaps (27 to 29 September 2017)

SEWF consisted of six streams and many parallel sessions catering to the needs of various target audiences. In order to ensure that youth delegates had an opportunity revisit their learnings, UNDP, ESCAP and other partners convened learning journey sessions during the evening sections of the main Forum. Through these informal discussions, participants were able to clarify their concerns and make action plans for follow up.

Parallel Session – Journey beyond SEWF (28 September 2017)

This session allowed the participants to engage in further conversations that will assist them in their social entrepreneurship journey beyond SEWF, which also included a component to plan their next steps after the Forum.

^[1] United Nations “Asia-Pacific Regional Coordination Mechanism, Thematic Working Group on Youth” (2015). Switched On: Youth at the Heart of Sustainable Development in Asia and the Pacific, p.51. Available from: http://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/Switched%20On.pdf.