Unlocking the Potential of Youth Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries
From Subsistence to Performance
Demographic pressure and the youth bulge in the developing world pose a major employment
challenge. This situation is exacerbated by insufficient job creation, scarce formal
wage employment opportunities and vulnerability in the workplace. For these reasons,
fostering youth entrepreneurship has gained importance in the global and national
development policy agenda. This report aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on
the role of youth entrepreneurship in generating employment in developing countries.
It is based on the analysis of mixed labour force and enterprise surveys conducted
in Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Peru and Viet Nam, as well as evidence on the impact
of entrepreneurship programmes. This report’s findings add to the global debate on
youth entrepreneurship in three important ways. First, it constitutes an unprecedented
effort to capture the real situations and multiple faces of young entrepreneurs in
selected developing countries. Second, it provides new empirical evidence on the determinants
of youth entrepreneurial performance. Third, it proposes a policy roadmap based on
lessons learned from recent meta-analyses of the effectiveness of entrepreneurship
programmes.
Published on June 09, 2017Also available in: French
In series:Development Centre Studiesview more titles