Youth Co:Lab Viet Nam

ABOUT US

Co-created in 2017 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Citi Foundation, Youth Co:Lab aims to establish a common agenda for Asia-Pacific countries to invest in and empower youth to accelerate implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through leadership, social innovation and entrepreneurship
Despite the recent economic growth, Vietnam is facing many challenges which threaten the country’s continued development, including income inequality, climate change and rapid urbanization. To address these challenges, based on the potential of the emerging start-up environment in Vietnam with a pool of innovative and ambitious young people, Youth Co:Lab Vietnam is created.
Youth Co:Lab Viet Nam is a joint initiative of UNDP Vietnam, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and Citi Foundation. Working at both national and sub-national levels, Youth Co:Lab leverages public, private, academic and youth organization partners to strengthen Viet Nam’s ecosystem for youth social entrepreneurship and innovation.

MORE ABOUT YOUTH CO:LAB

WHAT WE DO

OBJECTIVES

By putting young people front and center to drive solutions to the world’s toughest problems, Youth Co:Lab aims to establish a common agenda for countries in Asia-Pacific to empower and invest in youth to accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

EXPECTED RESULTS

Young entrepreneurs in Viet Nam are supported to design and implement ideas and business models for sustainable social impact in their communities
The implementation of the SDGs in Vietnam is accelerated through the cross-sectors collaboration for social innovation and in building a thriving impact start-up ecosystem
Young people are engaged in national development and accelerated to achieve the SDGs 2030

KEY FEATURES OF APPROACH

PROJECT SUMMARY

Duration: 4 years (2018 – 2021)
Total Budget: USD 449,000
Location: Hanoi
Implementing Partners: National Start-Up Support Center (NSSC) - Ministry of Science and Technology
Other related stakeholders: Center for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CSIE) - National Economics University; Viet Nam Youth Union; Saigon Innovation Hub; Da Nang Incubator; UP Co-working Space; Song Han Incubator; HATCH Ventures; Vietnam Airlines; Grab; 2030 Youth Force; AIESEC; Vietnam Green Startup Foundation; KissStartup Foundation

MAIN ACTIVITIES

June 2018: 2 National Dialogues to support social impact business research
Oct 2018: SDG Innovation Incubator 2018
November 2018: Youth Co:Lab under TechFest 2018
Apr 2019: Youth Co:Lab Asia Pacific Summit in Hanoi
Oct 2019: Training for the youth entrepreneurs in 4 provinces of Vietnam
Nov 2019: SDG Innovation Incubator 2019
Dec 2019: National Dialogue under TechFest 2019
Sept 2020: Conducted a “Research onto Assessment and Projection of resilience and Adaption of youth for Entrepreneurship and Impact business development”
Oct 2020: SDG Innovation Incubator
Nov 2020: National Dialogue under TechFest 2020
Dec 2020: Entrepreneurship Training Kit for Young Entrepreneurs

OUR ACHIEVEMENTS

500 delegates from 20 countries including youth representatives, government officials engaged in the 2nd Youth Co:Lab Asia Pacific Summit in Viet Nam to exchange ideas, knowledge and experiences to influence policy initiatives on youth entrepreneurship and social innovation
Trainings on SDG Entrepreneurship with participation of 200 young entrepreneurs which 35% from marginalized background
29 startups received financial and technical support through the SDG Innovation Incubation Program to further innovation with AI and other 4.0 technologies
420 youths joined sub-national & national policy dialogues at local and central level to advocate for social impact business and youth innovations and entrepreneurship
A “Research onto Assessment and Projection of resilience and Adaption of youth for Entrepreneurship and Impact business development” was conducted during the 2^nd wave of COVID-19 in Vietnam
An online “Impact Entrepreneurship Training Kit for Young Entrepreneurs" was created for the master trainers to use in their entrepreneurship courses