From innovation to social impact

Below are two of the thousands of success stories from the Futuremakers entrepreneurship pathway.

Training with technology in Indonesia

Local implementing partner: YCAB Foundation

MSMEs provide employment for 97 per cent of Indonesia’s total workforce.⁴ Yet with a rural population approaching 120 million,⁵ many struggle to access training and education related to running a business.

Female entrepreneurs own 50 per cent of MSMEs in Indonesia.⁶ Many face the added challenge of concurrently managing a family: women in Indonesia have their first child at the age of 22, on average.⁷

For many young women, such challenges came to a head with the arrival of COVID-19. For existing entrepreneurs, lockdown restrictions and a stalled economy caused incomes to decline (by an average of 70 per cent, according to a 2020 Asian Development Bank⁸ survey). For others, starting a business became a critical alternative source of income.

The project

Despite the resulting hardships, the pandemic also became a catalyst for positive change. For YBI partner YCAB Foundation, the sudden increased reliance on technology helped spurn an idea to support young female entrepreneurs: the wider use of a new chatbot training platform.

⁴World Economic Forum, DAVOS 2022: How digitalization is accelerating the growth of MSMEs in Indonesia
⁵The World Bank, Rural population – Indonesia
⁶The World Bank, Indonesia Country Gender Assessment: Investing in Opportunities for Women, Page 21

⁷The World Factbook, Indonesia: Mother's mean age at first birth
⁸UNDP and LPEM FEB UI , Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on MSMEs in Indonesia, Page 5

With support from YBI under the Futuremakers initiative, the YCAB Foundation piloted the use of its new Ibu Harta chatbot to an audience of more than 11,000 MSMEs. This online platform uses WhatsApp to deliver financial literacy and digital marketing training. With interactive videos that use simple, inclusive language, the bot brings much-needed flexibility to young female entrepreneurs in rural areas.

As of April 2022, 11,027 female MSME owners in Indonesia were trained via this project, 7,574 of whom were under 35. And within this group of young business owners, 300 received additional mentoring. More than 90 per cent of participants completed the online training, and 92 per cent reported improved ability and confidence to manage risk and uncertainty. Following this success, the partnership between YBI, YCAB and Futuremakers continues; in the next phase, we aim to reach more than 10,000 female entrepreneurs under 35 with the same chatbot training.

A YCAB success story

Larida’s once successful fast-food business was forced to close after COVID-19 hit Indonesia’s economy. Via the chatbot training, she learnt marketing skills and knowledge, and soon after launched a new profitable business, with a more recession-proof business model. She now sells non-perishable food on and offline.

"The chatbot method was very suitable for me as an extremely busy entrepreneur. I’m satisfied with the fact that I was able to learn independently."

Larida, Indonesia

Supporting conscious business owners in Turkey

Local implementing partner: Habitat

Entrepreneurship in Turkey is paramount; more than 99 per cent of enterprises in the country are MSMEs, accounting for more than 72 per cent of employment.⁹

Yet gender inequality persists. Women in Turkey make up less than 33 per cent of the labour force.¹⁰ And the country ranks 140^th among 156 countries in terms of gender equality.¹¹

Plus, like other emerging economies, Turkey faces a multitude of environmental challenges. Among the issues, increasing water-security stress is threatening the economic security of the country’s youth.¹²

⁹TÜRKONFED and SPARK, Resilient SMEs Strong Tomorrows Needs Analysis Report, Page 19
¹⁰The World Bank, Labour force, female (% of total labour force) – Turkiye

¹¹World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report 2021, Page 18
¹²United Nations Development Programme, Enhancing the Capacity of Türkiye to Adapt to Climate Change

The project

In its partnership with Futuremakers and YBI, Turkish NGO Habitat conducts entrepreneurship projects that help Turkish business owners prepare for the changing world. Habitat designed a project to support and empower young entrepreneurs as they develop businesses that seek to make a positive social and environmental impact.

A recent aspect of this project also included COVID-19 recovery training. This helped participants understand how to protect the economic value of their businesses, and build resilience via digital education.

With intensive methods such as bootcamps and accelerator sessions, 780 entrepreneurs have been trained – 531 of whom were women. And via online trainings such as podcasts, nearly 8,000 further young people were reached by April 2022.

The next stage of our collaboration with YBI and Habitat will aim to reach more than 1,200 entrepreneurs over a two-year period.

A Habitat success story

With support from Habitat, Tüba launched her environmentally friendly business during the pandemic. As well as using sustainable resources, Tüba seeks to bring employment opportunities to under-compensated young women in Turkey. Via the Futuremakers project, she learnt digital, marketing, and networking skills that helped her build business resilience during the COVID-19 economic recovery.

Read more of Tüba’s story here.

“Habitat was very helpful and supportive in digitalisation, marketing and networking. It was essential to know that I was not alone. I improved, learned and developed new ideas for the brand. Since joining the programme, my business has improved its digitalisation and marketing, especially via our social media channels.”

Tüba, Turkey