Futuremakers Case Study December 2022

Supporting MSMEs and young people: An inclusion win-win

<big>Futuremakers project spotlight</big>

<big><big>Supporting MSMEs and young people: an inclusion win-win</big></big>

<big>What is Futuremakers?</big>

What is Futuremakers?

Young people around the world face significant barriers to economic inclusion, with some 200 million out of work or in low-income poverty.¹ Women and girls bear a heavier burden, because of social and cultural influences that limit their economic participation, particularly in emerging markets.

Futuremakers by Standard Chartered is our global initiative to tackle inequality and promote greater economic inclusion. We pledge to help young people from low-income communities, with focus on women and girls – to learn new skills and improve their chances of gaining employment or starting their own business. To support this, we’ve made a commitment to raise USD75 million between 2019 and 2023, with an aim to empower the next generation to learn, earn, and grow.

Established in 2019, Futuremakers comprises of community projects within three interconnected pathways: education, employability, and entrepreneurship. We provide support to low-income young people at different points in their early lives, encourage social change in the environments that surround them, and work to address barriers to their economic participation.

Our non-governmental organisation (NGO) partners are at the heart of the implementation of Futuremakers projects. With their dedication and on-the-ground experience, together we’ve reached more than 849,000 young people between 2019 and mid-2022.

Meet our Futuremakers to see how the initiative is transforming lives.

¹International Labour Organization, InfoStories: Employment – What stands between youth and decent jobs?

<big>The missing link</big>

Young people and MSMEs: the missing link

Over the past 50 years, huge progress has been made in education enrolment across emerging markets. Yet, while the supply of skilled labour has risen as a result, there aren’t enough jobs to match. Young people suffer the most; globally, 17.9 per cent of young people are unemployed.² Worryingly, this trend has been steadily increasing for a decade.

Underemployment – where people don’t have enough paid work or are not doing work that makes full use of their skills and abilities – is another troubling issue. More than 29 per cent of employed young people around the world live in either extreme or moderate poverty.³

²The World Bank, Unemployment, youth total (% of total labor force ages 15-24) (modeled ILO estimate)
³International Labour Organization, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2020 (page 13)

These issues are acute in emerging markets, where micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) contribute the vast majority of GDP but typically lack the resources of larger counterparts to invest in youth employment.

This is to MSMEs detriment, as they can lose opportunities to improve and grow. They can become stuck in a cycle of inefficiency and forego the innovation that comes with hiring recently educated employees.

<big>Helping to overcome barriers</big>

Creating opportunities, changing attitudes

In Sub-Saharan Africa, youth unemployment is slightly lower than the global average (still concerning, at 14.8 per cent).⁴ However, underemployment is endemic: almost 69 per cent of working youth in this region live in extreme or moderate poverty,⁵ largely due to being unable to work enough paid hours.

Projects and activities that seek to remove both employee and employer barriers to youth employment in this region will therefore be critical to ensure young people remain in decent work – and escape poverty.

Challenges Worldwide is making important strides with a dual approach targeting employees and employers. Founded on a mission to deliver extraordinary impact within enterprises, it’s been delivering work-readiness programmes in emerging markets for more than 10 years. Challenges has been implementing this Futuremakers’ project since 2019.

The project is currently run in Ghana, Uganda, and Zambia. In these markets, young people in working-poverty (the percentage of employed people living below USD1.90 per day in purchasing power parity) stands at 10.9 per cent, 35.5 per cent, and 59 per cent, respectively.⁶

Placements are organised in these markets for young people within MSMEs, for mutual growth benefits. Various elements come together in each market to create a circular project that supports individuals, enterprises, and beyond. The diagram below highlights the different stages:

This multi-layered approach then also creates a multitude of benefits:

⁴The World Bank, Unemployment, youth total (% of total labor force ages 15-24) (modeled ILO estimate) - Sub-Saharan Africa
⁵International Labour Organization, Global Employment Trends for Youth 2020 (page 45)
⁶International Labour Organization, SDG indicator 1.1.1 - Working poverty rate (percentage of employed living below US$1.90 PPP) (%) in Ghana, Uganda and Zambia, 2019

<big>An inclusion win-win</big>

A headway overview

As per our theory of change, we know a shift in attitudes and the breaking down of other barriers to youth employment won’t happen overnight. However, the results below highlight important steps in the right direction across the three markets since 2019.

* JAs in full-time employment six months after project completion.
** Individuals receiving professional development/business-skill training via the ‘active citizen’ component.

<big>Success stories</big>

Taking steps to inclusive employment

Below are just a few examples of how this Futuremakers’ employability project is improving career prospects for young people in Ghana, Uganda, and Zambia.

Ghana - Paul’s story

At just 19, and together with friends, Paul started a mentoring programme for young people in low-income communities. They were eager to expand but lacked the skills and expertise to do so. Via his work placement in local enterprise Premium Precious Salt, Paul developed various skills including writing, project management, communication, and leadership. Most importantly, he notes, the Challenges team gave him confidence in his abilities. With his new insights, Paul now plans to expand his mentoring programme. He has also secured a full-time job.

“I am confident to have learned, experienced, and understood the essential values for growth that my academic education probably overlooked.”

Paul Asare Bekoe, Junior Associate

Uganda - Equatorial Power’s story

“[We were] always open to young and talented people, but our perception has been further confirmed by our involvement in [the project].”

Representative, Equatorial Power

As a renewable energy production enterprise, Equatorial Power is working to ensure universal access to electricity and clean water in Africa. Before engaging with this Futuremakers’ project, Equatorial Power needed someone to perform various office- and field-based tasks. They also wanted someone to conduct analysis into the company’s weaknesses and solve issues they felt blind to.

Zambia - A mentorship story

Zambia-based Standard Chartered employee Valerie mentored Chawinga for a two-month period, following his enterprise placement. COVID-19 restrictions didn’t hinder the mentorship; through virtual sessions, Valerie helped transform her mentee’s confidence.

“The [young person] JA was almost in tears. He has a terrible stammer and lacked in confidence. He constantly talked about how he has never had a mentor like Valerie before. She helped him gain more confidence. He said he owed it all to [the project].”

Kasonde Kashulwe,
Challenges coordinator, Zambia

<big>The way forward</big>

Long-term optimism for youth employment

This Futuremakers’ project is an important step on the long road to economic inclusion for young people in Ghana, Uganda, and Zambia. And beyond conventional employment, some project graduates are also finding their way into self-employment, thanks to new skills and confidence gained. The stories of Rebecca in Uganda and Patrick in Zambia are two inspiring examples of this journey.

In the coming years, we plan to add more markets and place more young people in jobs. We will continue to engage both new and existing MSMEs; by prioritising the latter, we hope to grow a strong network of invested and forward-thinking enterprise owners.

Via partnerships like this with Challenges, we can help prepare young people to ensure their skills match the needs of local businesses. And by also supporting these enterprises, we encourage them to hire and expand – boosting local economic growth with youth-led innovation and improving lives in our communities.