Youth Entrepreneurship Has the Capacity to Contribute to Economic Growth

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One of the most pressing and challenging issues facing the global community is youth unemployment, particularly in the developing world.

Rates of youth unemployment are the highest across the Middle East and North Africa region, around 30 percent, and close to 17 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the micro and macro consequences loom: stunted economic growth, poverty, migration, crime, and poor health, among many others.

Young people in the developing world are some of the most entrepreneurial, a key booster to economic growth through the introduction of innovative technologies, products, and services.

"With access to money, mentors, and markets youth entrepreneurship has the capacity to contribute to economic growth, catalyze new industries, and  support individuals, families, and communities," says Nicole Goldin, a nonresident senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Global Business and Economics Program and director and lead economist, Economic Participation at FHI 360.

Learn more about what youth entrepreneurs need to succeed.

Looking for Disruptive Ideas? Try the Developing World

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Where will the next game changing idea take place?

We Americans may think of poorer nations as hotbeds of war and disease, a place to send our charity checks. But emerging economies are actually an invaluable breeding ground for innovations that could change lives in the U.S.

Think along the lines of what is called "reverse innovation" or a Lab For the World.

Discover more here.

Mobile Phone Subscribers Earn Money In the Developing World

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There are over 2 billion literate, mobile phone subscribers in the developing world, many living on less than $5 a day.

Corporations pay people to accomplish billions of image, audio and text-based tasks.

Guess who enables these tasks to be completed via the mobile phone by people around the globe?

Find out here.

In case you are pressed for time:

txteagle is a service that enables mobile phone subscribers to earn money and accumulate savings by completing simple micro-tasks for large corporate clients. Originally conceived as a mechanism to compensate rural Kenyan nurses, txteagle is now on track to becoming one of Africa's largest employers.

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The Great Global Divide

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The global recession is opening up a big gap in output performance between the chemical industries of the developed and developing worlds, which will continue to widen over the next few years.

Chemical producers in the emerging economies of countries such as China, India and Brazil are using expanding domestic demand to grab a larger share of the global chemicals market.

China is already accounting for 17 per cent of the world's chemical output,' says Thomas. 'The high growth in chemical production will continue in 2010 because of the large number of new chemical plants due to come on stream in the country during the year. Their output will slow down the big inflow of imports into China.'

Read more about this topic here at Chemistry World.

It Ain't Easy Operating in the Developing World

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And the first thing you must remember to do is to throw out your traditional global business strategies because they won't work in the developing world.

Let's take a look at why and capture some answers along the way on how to find success in these important new environments where hundreds of millions of potential customers live.

Lessons From the Developing World

Additional resource:

Can world economy count on developing countries?