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Exploring inclusive programming and financial health for young entrepreneurs with Futuremakers by Standard Chartered 

Through our Futuremakers programme, supported by Standard Chartered Foundation, we work with 10 YBI members across Africa, Asia and Europe to deliver inclusive support programmes for young entrepreneurs and empower them to achieve financial health. We recently spent three days with our Futuremakers members in Kampala, Uganda, to explore these topics in more depth and exchange challenges, best practices and insights at our Collective Action Community of Practice 2023. 

Read what we’ve been up to:

Building truly inclusive programmes and mentoring for inclusion

We kicked off our Collective Action Community of Practice with our World Café during which our members Cordaid Uganda, YCAB Foundation (Indonesia), FATE Foundation (Nigeria) and KIZ GmbH (Germany) shared how they build truly inclusive programmes in their countries as part of Futuremakers: 

• YCAB Foundation have developed an innovative chatbot on Whatsapp that provides accessible training resources to young entrepreneurs with visual or hearing impairments 
• Cordaid Uganda invest in capacity building for the sustainability of programmes
• FATE Foundation shared how they build internal momentum in their programmes
• KIZ GmbH run initiatives to create awareness of inclusivity in others 

We dedicated the afternoon of day 1 to exploring mentoring for inclusion. Working in groups, our members discussed needs and challenges facing mentors and mentees and we offered practical techniques that can help make mentoring programmes more inclusive. 

Financial health and well-being for young entrepreneurs 

Day 2 of our Collective Action Community of Practice was all about financial health and well-being for young entrepreneurs, a key area of support provided through our Futuremakers programme. In groups, our members defined what financial health and well-being for young entrepreneurs means to them, what outcomes they would like to achieve through their programmes, and what activities and resources are needed to achieve these. Based on these insights, we have started to develop a Theory of Change to deliver better outcomes on financial health for young entrepreneurs which will inform a guide of best practices. 

On the day, we also heard presentations from our members Mebala Youth Studios (Botswana) and Somo (Kenya) on their initiatives to support the financial health of young entrepreneurs. 

• Mebala Youth Studios are launching ‘Friends with Money’, a series of educational videos and resources young entrepreneurs can use as a guide towards achieving financial health
• Somo have developed an online platform called ‘Somo Invest’ on which potential investors can find short pitches of young entrepreneurs and their businesses and get in touch with them directly. They also support young entrepreneurs to get on top of their business record keeping, which is vital for securing investments, through their digital tool ‘DigiKua’ 

Celebrating Success 

We finished our Collective Action Community of Practice on a high note with another World Café during which our members ETIC. (Japan), Habitat (Turkey), Startup Vietnam Foundation and Youth Business Poland shared some of the successful initiatives they have implemented as part of the Futuremakers programme. 

• ETIC shared how they are creating thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems in rural communities that have been affected by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami
• Habitat presented how young entrepreneurs from the Futuremakers programme support communities affected by the recent earthquakes in Turkey
• Startup Vietnam Foundation joined us virtually to share how they support young female entrepreneurs in rural Vietnam through initiatives aimed at changing restrictive mindsets towards women in business
• Youth Business Poland presented how they are supporting displaced Ukrainians in Poland to start or re-start businesses or enter the job market through the BEST (Business Employability Skills Training) by Futuremakers project, supported by Standard Chartered Bank 

Our Collective Action Community of Practice is an annual multi-day workshop and networking event for the members of our Futuremakers programme, supported by Standard Chartered Foundation. The programme supports the growth of youth-led, women-led and inclusive micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Find out more here.