10 – 28 August 2021 – Centre International de Formation des Autorites et Leaders Jeju (CIFAL Jeju) organised an Online Youth Workshop on “Impact of Social Entrepreneurship on Sustainable Development”. The workshop invited 46 participants from 33 countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladeshi, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Greece, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, U.S.A., Uzbekistan, Vietnam.

The 17th Youth Workshop aimed to promote knowledge sharing and young leaders’ engagement in the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) to build back better from the COVID-19 pandemic. The workshop was composed of four sessions, and participants were assigned to 11 groups to develop the proposals for social enterprises in specific areas based on their majors, such as education for children at early ages, agriculture, gender equality, mental health, oceans, inclusivity for refugees, and technology for safe travel. 

The workshop session featured six invited experts from different types of organisations to bring diverse expertise to the table, Mr Dong Ryul Kang, Professor and Coordinator of Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Ms Julie Tumasz, Director of National Communication and Marketing of BUILD, Ms Marisol Adriana Burgueño, Senior Manager of Digital Strategies & Innovation of BUILD. Mr Fernando Armendaris, Consultant of World Bank's Water Global Practice, Ms Katherine Brehm, Consultant of Bain & Company, and Ms Natasha Goel, Manager of Plaksha(NGO). 

In the partnership with BUILD, an NGO of youth education, special lecturers taught a new design-thinking framework to guide participants in developing their social enterprises’ plans in phases from vision, mission and theory of change, landscape scan including critical opportunities for intervention, audience(s) analysis, a 12-month implementation roadmap, including staff, tech and infrastructure requirements, a 12-month funding plan, a 12-month evaluation and measurement plan, potential partners, to potential risks and contingency plans.

While additionally taking the UNITAR course ‘Policymaking: Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development, participants were given an opportunity to improve communication skills through 1pager proposal, Pitch presentations and mentoring sessions with invited experts. As a result, the outcomes produced by a total of 11 groups of youth were evaluated as an in-depth, immersive engagement in an innovative way to make our society more sustainable and inclusive.