The Next Economy

The Next Economy program, financed by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is a three-year (2016-2018) pilot programme which aims to create employment for young men and women (14-25 years old) in Nigeria, Mali and Somalia. In collaboration with the private sector, adopting an innovative approach, vulnerable youth will be inspired, schooled, coached and financially facilitated to start a private enterprise and promising startups (impact driven companies) will be scaled up thus creating employment. Youth looking to be employed versus becoming an entrepreneur, will be prepared and coached towards a decent job. Next to creating sustainable income generation through direct jobs and ‘decent work’ for vulnerable youth, extra jobs will emerge in supply sectors by increased purchasing power. Herewith the program has a multiple social value: sustainable income generation for a large group of vulnerable youth, a stimulus to the local economy and bottom-up innovative solutions for social problems through impact driven companies. The Next Economy programme aims to provide highly motivated, but disadvantaged youth with the opportunity to develop skills which will help them to find employment, or start their own business. Through an innovative approach 4200 youth will be inspired, schooled, coached and facilitated to: • Start their own business, • Prepare them, in cooperation with the private sector, for a ‘decent job’, or • Upscale a promising start-up. Supporting the overall objective of 1700 youth getting into decent employment, a healthy and stimulating climate for entrepreneurship is crucial. In addition to the training of youth, the program creates prerequisites for this by construction of infrastructure for hotbeds, strengthening networks and via campaigns to raise awareness on local economic possibilities.