Lessons on entrepreneurship and innovation from Brazil

Yesterday’s Sunday Standard had an article written by Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o, Minister for Medical Services on why Kenya needs a science and technology driven economy to thrive. Coming at the back drop of Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s visit to Kenya, the article raises several points for why Brazil is a major emerging economy,  and which Prof. Nyong’o posits is due to the Brazilian government prioritising innovation as a major development concern. In turn he states that policies regarding technology as well as scientific societies need to be mainstreamed into Kenya’s national development.

However probably as a result of column space, a reader could maybe assume that making the public sector friendlier to technology change is all that is required. That ensuring adequate public resources are directed into science and technology will firmly put Kenya on the trajectory to become the middle income economy envisaged in Vision 2030. But that ignores the human aspect.

Brazil has placed emphasis on it's SME sector which accounts, just like Kenya for the majority of jobs and businesses in the economy. Indeed, according to an article on the Kaufman Institute for Entrepreneurship’s website titled Brazil’s Entrepreneurship Boom, the increase in new companies in Brazil has been linked with the country’s developing entrepreneurial culture and mindset. Each year this has been demonstrated by the number of participants in Global Entrepreneurship Week which increased from 1.5 million entrepreneurs in 2008 to 5.3 million in 2009.

And even though the country’s listing on the ease of doing business index has recorded similar challenges as Kenya in terms of high tax rates; as well as having structural impediments such as an education system that does not engender financial literacy, Brazil’s entrepreneurship development policy is strikingly different in that it focuses on promoting high-growth ventures as opposed to Kenya’s policy of just creating enterprises with the hopes that they will one day be able to create jobs.

This has meant that Brazil’s high impact intervention has brought about more immediate impacts on the economy, than the more laid back approach of just creating ventures with little regard for growth.

Similar to Kenya where according to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, there are 2.5 million unemployed youth and barely 125,000 are absorbed into the formal sector annually; young people in Brazil aged between 18 and 24 years account for 36% of the country’s unemployed. Nevertheless, lessons learned on Brazil’s focus on innovation as well as the promotion of an entrepreneurial spirit does give hope that indeed Kenya could just be on a positive path to Vision 2030, come the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

United Nations calls for urgent action to tackle rising youth unemployment

14 July 2010 – The United Nations labour agency is calling for urgent action to tackle the crisis of youth unemployment, which has increased significantly in the wake of the global economic slowdown and has repercussions for the economy as well as social cohesion.

Young people – those aged 15 to 24 – account for over 22 per cent of the increase in the number of unemployed since the beginning of 2007 and is now nearly three times the average level among adults aged 25 and over, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).

“In nearly all countries, the increase in youth unemployment has outpaced that of adults,” the agency says in a new report entitled “Youth employment in crisis.”

Since the start of the crisis, the youth unemployment rate has risen over 7 percentage points – the sharpest two year increase on record – and now exceeds 21 per cent on average in the countries for which data are available, say Steven Tobin, ILO economist, and Raymond Torres, Director of the International Institute for Labour Studies, who are co-authors of the report.

The report points out that young people are entering the labour market at a time of limited job creation. Employed young people are also often engaged in precarious jobs, and are therefore more vulnerable to job losses than their adult counterparts.

Young people who lack general or vocational education are especially vulnerable to the crisis, it notes, adding that as job prospects remain weak, many young people might see little benefit of furthering education or training which would have negative socio-economic consequences.

In addition, the lack of decent work opportunities in developing countries had led to significant emigration by many skilled young people.

The authors stress that it is crucial to promote more and better jobs for youth and urges immediate action, noting that impact of long-term unemployment on youth can be “devastating and long-lasting.”

The longer young persons remain out of touch with the labour market, the more difficult – and costly – it is to return to productive employment, they state.

“There are also a number of important social implications related to exclusion, including susceptibility to anti-social behaviour, including juvenile delinquency, and social unrest,” they add.

According to the report, it will not be possible to improve youth employment prospects significantly in the absence of a global economic and labour market recovery. Therefore, it is crucial to carry out the Global Jobs Pact, adopted by ILO members in June 2009 in an effort to guide national and international policies to stimulate economic recovery, create jobs and protect working people and their families.

Source: UN News Service

Call For Papers: 2010 National Youth Conversation Conference on Peace, Reforms and Youth Economic Empowerment, 12th-16th Oct 2010

Kenya Youth Parliament, the organizers of the 2010 National Youth Conversation; Conference on Peace, Reforms & Youth Economic Empowerment in Nairobi, Kenya from Oct 12th to 16th, 2010 invites you to participate in the oncoming largest gathering that brings together social activists, peace builders and  youth leaders in the pursuit and defining of a Better Kenya.

This conference brings together only four (4) participants from every constituency as a ‘Call to Action’ to assist young people ‘learn’ and ‘understand’ their roles in Building a Peaceful Kenya and provide them with tools, information and ideas of participating and influencing the Reforms Agenda at the grassroots levels.

This will be achieved through the design of Individual Action Plans (IAP’s) to be implemented at grassroots level and coordinated Constituency Actions Plans (CCAP’s) to be coordinated by Kenya Youth Parliament and its partners.

This conference is a follow-up of activities being ran under the aegis of the Youth Platform for Change “YP4C” namely the National Youth Conversation Café’s in the grassroots areas, the Koffi Annan Justice and Peace National Tournament Coordinated by  Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) and Sports Connect Academy (SCA) , and a play which has been specifically scripted to capture the issues in the proposed constitution as well as the events during and after the post-election, radio drama and stage play to be staged at different venues of the country by Artists Forum International (AFI).

To learn much more about Youth Platform for Change (YP4C) and its partners, write to info@kenyayouthparliament.org, copa@copafrica.org and safer. Nairobi@gmail.com