19-21 January session to feature speech by Ugandan winner of 2010 Empretec Women in Business Award; aim is to develop government "policy toolkit"
Geneva, 19 January 2011 - Experts in boosting entrepreneurship in developing countries will meet for three days this week to consider how educational programmes in such countries - especially in the fields of science and technology - can encourage people and youth in particular to establish their own businesses.
The session comes at a time when unemployment, especially among the young, remains high in the wake of the global recession, in some cases leading to protests and civil disturbances. It also takes place as economists cite worries about a "jobless recovery" from the recession. Entrepreneurship - especially the creation and growth of small- and medium-sized enterprises, known as SMEs - can be a major source of innovation and economic growth. In countries with advanced economies, such businesses account for a high proportion of employment and a high proportion of new jobs. But in developing nations, SMEs often are in short supply, a situation economists call "the missing middle." Helping governments to establish conditions where such businesses can be founded and can prosper may help to ease current high rates of joblessness and may contribute to stable, long-term economic progress.
A second part of the meeting will consider the role of educational and research institutions in encouraging science, technology and innovation (STI) in developing countries, and how improving the capacities of such learning centres can spur economic progress in developing nations. (See UNCTAD/PRESS/IN/2011/002)
This year´s expert meeting is the third in a series on "enterprise development polices and capacity-building in science, technology and innovation." The theme is "how to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship through education at all levels: the role of educational and research institutions in preparing innovative and entrepreneurial leaders - preparing the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs."
The outcome will be used to design a "policy toolkit" governments may use to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in domestic firms.
Among the featured speakers will be Beatrice Ayuru of Uganda, winner of UNCTAD´s 2010 Empretec Women in Business Award. Ms. Ayuru founded and expanded Lira Integrated School in a war-ravaged area of northern Uganda, a school which now has 1,500 students. Uganda is one of the world´s 49 least developed countries. A graduate UNCTAD´s Empretec training course for entrepreneurs, Ms. Ayuru will discuss the role education can play in encouraging those who want to found their own businesses. She also will review the results of a US$6,000 study tour funded by the First Lady of the Dominican Republic, Margarita Cedeño de Fernandez for the 2010 edition of the Women in Business Award.
Using the grant, Ms. Ayuru visited universities in Arkansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Texas, and Washington during a tour of the United States, and finished at the World Entrepreneurship Forum in Lyon, France. She now has plans to develop a university in northern Uganda modeled on the concept of advanced entrepreneurship education such that at Babson College in the United States and EMLyon Business School in France.
UNCTAD Empretec Centres now operate in 32 countries around the world. Empretec training programmes teach existing and aspiring entrepreneurs how to establish small- and medium-sized enterprises and how to make them profitable. Since 1988, the programme has trained more than 200,000 people in developing countries who have created thousands of businesses and many thousands of jobs. Numerous graduates are women. The Empretec Women in Business Award was created in 2008, and the inaugural prize was presented at the UNCTAD XII quadrennial conference, held that year in Accra, Ghana. Ms. Ayuru is the second winner. The third award will be given during the UNCTAD XIII conference in 2012 in Qatar.
The programme for the meeting is available at: http://www.unctad.org/system/files/official-document/ciimem1_3rd_prog_en.pdf .
