Millennials empowerment: youth entrepreneurship for sustainable development
World Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development
ISSN: 2042-5961
Article publication date: 3 December 2018
Issue publication date: 16 October 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to knowledge and theory building in youth empowerment and entrepreneurship development.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper critically examines the Youth Enterprise with Innovation in Nigeria (YouWiN) programme and its relevance as a youth economic empowerment programme through the lens of the UNDP Youth Strategy entry points for promoting economic empowerment of youth and extant literature on critical youth empowerment using participatory development theories.
Findings
While YouWiN is a significant intervention towards entrepreneurship development, it presents some flaws and limitations in the design and implementation process, which may challenge sustainable economic development. Hence, there is a need to explore the millennials empowerment paradigm in light of three key complementary action-oriented approaches to youth entrepreneurship development.
Originality/value
This paper proposes three key complementary action-oriented approaches to youth entrepreneurship policy/programme design, implementation and evaluation for the multilateral agencies, private and voluntary sectors. These are in the form of facilitating participatory engagement and diversity, managing drivers (push/pull factors) of entrepreneurship, and ensuring access to enablers/support. There is the need for further debate and critical inputs to improve theory building towards a normative framework in youth empowerment and entrepreneurship. This contributes to ending poverty, and promoting intergenerational equity and sustainable development.
Keywords
Citation
Ogamba, I.K. (2019), "Millennials empowerment: youth entrepreneurship for sustainable development", World Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 267-278. https://doi.org/10.1108/WJEMSD-05-2018-0048
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited