United Nations Development Programme and Citi Foundation Jointly Host The 2nd Asia Pacific Youth Co: Lab Summit

To Accelerate The Largest Youth Social Entrepreneurship Movement In The Region

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Youth Co:Lab, the project co-led by UNDP and Citi Foundation, is the largest youth-led social entrepreneurship movement driving the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

HONG KONG, CHINA - Media OutReach - 4 April 2019 - The United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) and Citi Foundation, with the collaboration and support from the
Ministry of Science and Technology and the Viet Nam Volunteer Center, opened
the second Asia Pacific Youth Co:Lab Summit, in Hanoi today. The flagship event
brings together over 500 delegates, including hundreds of youth, partners and government
officials from 20 countries, to exchange ideas, knowledge and
experiences, to influence policy initiatives on youth entrepreneurship and
social innovation.

 

According to the Asia Pacific Human
Development Report 2016, more than half the young people in the world today
live in Asia Pacific and 1.7 billion are under 25. The report further states
that close to 71 million young people, aged 15 to 24, are unemployed worldwide,
of which 33 million are in Asia Pacific alone. Nearly 220 million young people
are neither at school, nor at work, presenting a daunting crisis that calls for
an urgent response.

 

Co-created in 2017 by UNDP and the Citi Foundation,
Youth Co:Lab aims to empower and invest in youth, so that they can accelerate
the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through
leadership, social innovation and entrepreneurship.

 

Over the last two years, Youth Co:Lab projects have
been implemented in 20 countries and territories across the region, with
national dialogues, regional summits and social innovation challenges reaching
over 48,000 participants. The initiative has benefitted over 2,500 young social
entrepreneurs and helped launch or improve nearly 500 social enterprises.

 

Youth Co:Lab has also established partnerships with
more than 100 key ecosystem players to strengthen the Youth Empowerment
Alliance to support young entrepreneurs, particularly young women and
marginalized youth, by connecting them with businesses, incubators,
accelerators, and financing mechanisms to develop their ideas into viable
business models for sustainable social impact.

 

Speaking this morning at the opening of the summit
in National Economics University, Hanoi were : Valerie Cliff, UNDP Deputy
Regional Director for Asia & the Pacific; Brandee McHale, President of the
Citi Foundation and Head of Corporate Citizenship at Citi; Caitlin Wiesen, Resident
Representative, UNDP Viet Nam; Tran Van Tung, Vice Minister, Ministry of
Science and Technology, Viet Nam; Ph?m H?ng Ch??ng, Vice Rector, National
Economics University of Viet Nam.

 

“As I see the first generation of Youth Co:Lab social entrepreneurs
flourish and carry their own initiatives forward, I am reminded of the reason
why this work is so important: young people really do hold the key to social
change,” said Valerie Cliff, UNDP Deputy
Regional Director for Asia & the Pacific. “This is how we can align the grit and
determination of young change makers to meet the ambition of the SDGs. Our
mandate at Youth Co:Lab is to play the role of an integrator and strengthen the
ecosystem connecting young people with governments and businesses to scale
impact.”

 

“Youth Co:Lab’s approach of listening to
the perspectives and ideas of young people, and empowering them to drive
business solutions that address our world’s most pressing issues is how real
change happens,” added Brandee McHale, President of the Citi Foundation. “Only
by joining forces with multiple actors from the public and private sector,
social partners, civil society and beyond can we work towards fulfilling the
Sustainable Development Goals.”

 

“In the
current context of global integration and development, startups and innovation
play an important role in economic development, addressing global difficulties
and challenges as well as achieving sustainable development in each
country and all over the world,” Vice Minister of Science and Technology, Tran
Van Tung, said in his opening remarks. “The Youth Co:Lab Summit 2019, jointly
organized by UNDP and Citi Foundation, in collaboration with the Ministry of
Science and Technology, is a significant event for the innovative startup
community and the social impact enterprises, in particular. The summit will
enable an exchange of ideas and help further developing the start-ups, through
incubation, innovation, expanding connections and international cooperation.”

 

The two-day summit brings together several keynote
speakers, prominent social entrepreneurs, youth change makers, principal
government officials and leading ecosystem players, including: Reyhan
Jamalova, Founder of Rainergy, Azerbaijan; Jack Sim, Founder of the World Toilet
Organization; H.E. Mohamed
Azmeel, Dept. Minister of Youth, Maldives; Mr. D.C. Dissanayake, Secretary to
the Ministry of Digital Infrastructure and Information Technology, Sri Lanka
and Mr. Jame Ceasar Alejandro Ventura, Commissioner at large of National Youth
Commission of the Philippines.

 

The summit will conclude with the Youth Co:Lab
Regional Social Innovation Challenge, where 30 teams, pre-selected during the
national social innovation challenges held across 16 countries respectively,
will pitch and showcase their social enterprises and ideas to a panel of
esteemed judges.

 

About the 2019 Youth Co:Lab Summit

 

The second Asia Pacific Youth Co:Lab
Summit, being held in Hanoi, Viet Nam from 2nd -5th April, will bring together
key stakeholders – youth, government officials, the private sector,
representatives from the UN and other international organizations to
collectively work towards building an ecosystem conducive to driving social
change through innovation and entrepreneurship. Specially designed thematic
discussions on focus areas will facilitate an exchange of ideas, knowledge and
experiences to influence policy.

 

Any interest
to speak with the participants can be conveyed to the media contacts included
in this press release.

APPENDIX

About Youth Co:Lab

YOUTH LEADERSHIP, SOCIAL INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

BRIEF CONTEXT

 

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
recognizes the important role of youth in achieving the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs), and calls for action against the challenges faced by young people
that limits 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 today
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. 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 processes, which further
contributes to their marginalization and exclusion.

 

PROJECT
OBJECTIVE

 

Co-created
in 2017 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Citi
Foundation, Youth Co:Lab aims to establish a common agenda for Asia-Pacific
countries to invest in and empower youth to accel­erate implementation of the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through leadership,  social innovation and entre­preneurship. By
developing 21^st century skills, catalyzing and sustaining youth-led
startups and social enterprises across the region, Youth Co:Lab is positioning
young people front and center in order to solve the region’s most pressing
challenges. In addition to supporting youth entrepreneurship, Youth Co:Lab also
works closely with multiple stakeholders across the region, including
governments, civil society and the private sector, to strengthen the
entrepreneurship ecosystem and policy support to better enable young people to
take the lead on new solutions that will help meet the SDGs.

 

PROJECT OUTPUTS

 

• Hosting
  national and regional dialogues, social innovation challenges, and other events
  across the region to develop 21^st century skills of young people,
  foster youth-led entrepreneurship, provide leadership training opportunities
  for young people and raise awareness about the SDGs in order to accelerate
  their implementation. 
• Creating a
  Youth Empowerment Alliance to support young entrepreneurs — particularly young
  women and marginalized youth — by connecting them with businesses, incubators,
  accelerators, and financing mechanisms to develop their ideas into
  viable business models for sustainable social impact.
• Convening
  network and policy dialogues to help create, through the development of
  partnerships and the adoption of policy, an environment whereby young
  change-mak­ers can have access to the space and resources needed to drive
  social change in their commu­nities and societies.
• Producing
  action-oriented research on 21^st century skills, youth
  entrepreneurship and innovation.
• Building a
  sustainable platform for long-term, multi-stakeholder national and regional
  engagement.

 

PROJECT
RESULTS & WHAT’S AHEAD

 

Over the
last two years, Youth Co:Lab has been implemented in 20 countries and
territories across the region. The national dialogues, regional summits and
social innovation challenges, reached over 48,000 participants. The initiative
has benefitted over 2,500 young social entrepreneurs and helped launch or
improve nearly 500 social enterprises. Youth Co:Lab has also established
partnerships with over 100 key ecosystem players to strengthen the Youth
Empowerment Alliance.

 

In 2019,
Youth Co:Lab aims to expand to at least 25 countries and territories, deepen
mentorship capacity for youth entrepreneurs through the Springboard programme,
and engage ecosystem partners in the development of young people’s 21^st
Century skills.

 

THE 20 COUNTRIES AND TERRITORIES FOR 2018/2019

1.   
Bangladesh

2.   
Bhutan

3.   
China

4.   
Fiji

5.   
India

6.   
Indonesia

7.   
Hong Kong

8.   
Malaysia

9.   
Maldives

10. 
Myanmar

11. 
Nepal

12. 
Philippines

13. 
Singapore

14. 
Samoa

15. 
Solomon Islands

16. 
Sri Lanka

17. 
Thailand

18. 
Timor Leste

19. 
Vanuatu

20. 
Vietnam

 

About Citi

Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately
200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and
jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and
institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including
consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities
brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.

 

Additional information may be found at
www.citigroup.com | Twitter: @Citi | YouTube: www.youtube.com/citi | Blog: http://blog.citigroup.com | Facebook: www.facebook.com/citi | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi

About Citi Foundation

The Citi Foundation works to promote economic
progress and improve the lives of people in low-income communities around the
world. We invest in efforts that increase financial inclusion, catalyze job
opportunities for youth, and reimagine approaches to building economically
vibrant cities. The Citi Foundation’s “More than Philanthropy”
approach leverages the enormous expertise of Citi and its people to fulfill our
mission and drive thought leadership and innovation. For more information,
visit www.citifoundation.com.

About UNDP

UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build
nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth
that improves the quality of life for everyone. On the ground in nearly 170
countries and territories, we offer global perspective and local insight to
help empower lives and build resilient nations. www.undp.org