A Global Youth Education and Technology Incubator

1. A Global Youth Education and Technology Incubator Pursuing our Planetary Interest by Promoting Informal Education, Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development among Young People in Less Developed Countries Fredrick LEE-OHLSSON College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium Bernt Chr. BJAANES Bocconi University, Milan, Italy Photo by James Nachtwey

2. Some facts … • Every hour 1,000 children starve to death in the world … • 100 million child deaths are predicted in the world over this decade … • Of that astounding number, 60 million are avoidable if the countries of the world embark on serious health education and health delivery programmes … As long as such injustice exists are you as an individual of the XXIst century truly free?

3. What are the MDGs? At the Millennium Summit in September 2000, the United Nations (UN) adopted eight goals to be achieved by 2015 • Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger • Achieve universal primary education • Promote gender equality and empower women • Reduce child mortality • Improve maternal health • Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases • Ensure environmental sustainability • Develop a global partnership for development

4. MDGs: Opportunity and Challenge Some progress has been made but … • Still more than 1 billion people are living on less than a dollar a day • Still half of the developing world lack access to sanitation • Still every week in the developing world 200,000 children under five die of disease and 10,000 women die giving birth The MDGs provide us with a unique opportunity, a unique responsibility and a unique challenge

5. Unleashing Entreprenurship for Reaching the MDGs • New, creative and sustainable solutions needed • How can the potential of the private sector and entrepreneurship be unleashed to in developing countries? • The role of the private sector in poverty alleviation effort, especially in developing countries, is crucial: • strong expansion in the sustainable private sector investment is the main driver of accelerated economic growth, essential for reducing poverty and making rapid progress towards the MDGs • domestic private initiative and entrepreneurship particularly SMEs have enormous potential • the private sector, driven by market-based incentives, also have the demonstrated ability to contribute to important development goals

6. ’Youth is the Wealth of the Nation’

7. The Stumbling Blocks for Youth in Less Developed Countries • Youth unemployment • Brain drain • The effort-result gap • Lack of horizontal integration

8. What do these three men have in common with us? Werner Heisenberg Albert Einstein Niels Bohr

9. The theories of Einstein, Bohr and Heisenberg, were some of the most creative science ever … … and they were all created when they were young (age 22–27)!

10. Moving from Brain Drain and Youth Unemployment to Business Project Generation • How to promote sustainable development through high-growth business? • How to take into account the MDGs when generating high-growth businesses? • And what role for young people? Is it possible to set up high-growth businesses by young entrepreneurs that promote sustainable development and support the implementation of the MDGs in LDCs?

11. MDGs as a Platform for Creating Business Growth We dare to argue that this is not only possible, but that the best business start-ups in the future will bethose that have this as an aim

12. Time for a Different Solution… … and a New Approach

13. The Advantages of an Incubator New Technologies Informal Education Innovation and Creativity

14. We want to create the most dynamic generator of high-growth businesses, by bringing together young minds and people within and across less developed countries, to an environment, where the individual, including the individual idea, is second in importance, to the benefits of pooling resources, ideas and knowledge

15. Objectives of the Incubator to create new high-growth businesses inspired by the MDGs at any level (local, regional and national) that young people from less developed countries can carry out in their countries to draw young peoples’ attention to the MDGs and promote their implementation to give entrepreneurship a youth dimension and to make young people in less developed countries the entrepreneurs of tomorrow to promote research in areas such as entrepreneurship and promote the host country as a country of opportunity, while supporting the formation of a national entrepreneurship culture to promote less developed countries as a model of entrepreneurial economy and a location of opportunity

16. Contents of the Incubator • 100 young people aged 18 to 30 on an annual basis to reside in the Incubator • A number of MDG themes will be identified by a panel of experts which will pick forward-looking themes with the potential to generate sustainable high-growth businesses in less developed countries • The themes will be the foundation for various Business Action Groups (BAGs)

17. Functioning of the Incubator Different disciplines Different ideas KNOWLEDGE POOL Researchers Venture Capitalists Incubator Residents International Foundations Philanthropists Business strategists Founders Different backgrounds Different theoretical conditions

18. WithVision Northern European Youth Forum • Held in 2003 in Sweden • 150 young people and professionals from the region met to develop strategies on the MDGs • Endorsed by the UN Secretary-General and the Swedish prime minister who sent representatives Northern European Youth Forum • Held in 2004 in Norway • 150 young people and professionals from the region met to develop projects and social entrepreneurial activities on the MDGs • Supported by the Norwegian government, the UN, the World Bank, the European Commission Europe-Asia Youth Forum on the MDGs

19. A New Methodology TEAMBUILDING to form a tight group IMPLEMENTATION & ACTION to get knowledge how to implement business ideas CREATIVITY to form a creative spirit BUSINESS ACTION GROUP 10 incubator participants with complementary background PARTNERSHIP & CO-OPERATION to get tools to and understanding how to involve partners in collaboration and financing BRAINSTORMING to generate ideas PROJECT MANAGEMENT to get knowledge on how to develop a manage a business project FACTS to get the maximum of knowledge and information GROUPING to create a structure

20. The Triangle of Success Dynamic Motivating Living

21. Every generation has a central concern, whether to end war, erase racial injustice, or improve the conditions for the poor. The possibilities are too great, the stakes too high, to bequeath to the coming generation only the prophetic lament of Tennyson: ‘Ah, what shall I be at fifty ... if I find the world so bitter at twenty-five’. Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968)

22. Thank you for your attention! Fredrick LEE-OHLSSON Student of M.A. in EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium M.Sc. in European Studies and Political Science Göteborg University, Gothenburg, Sweden E-mail: fredrickleeohlsson@gmail.com Bernt C. BJAANES Student of M.Sc. in General Management & CEMS Master in International Management Bocconi University, Milan, Italy B.A. in Economics Queen’s University, Canada E-mail: berntcbjaanes@gmail.com