
YOUTH, INNOVATION& ENTREPRENEURSHIP
2017 POLICY DIALOGUE PANEL DISCUSSION
PARTICIPANTS
Lead Discussants
Yoon-Hee Lee: CEO, AfterRain
Doug Duck-Joon Lee: CEO, D3Jubilee
Seong-Jin Kim: Executive Director, Seoul Digital Foundation
Beniam Gebrezghi: Partnerships & Youth Programme Specialist, UNDP
Moderator
Jonathan Wong: Chief, Technology and Innovation Section Chief, Trade, Investment, and Innovation Division, UN ESCAP
SUMMARY
01 [On the Potential for Public-Private-Partnerships in Achieving the SDGs]
The two biggest shifts that are needed for the SDGs are to orient entrepreneurship and investment towards the environment and society, not just the economy, by moving from entrepreneurship to social entrepreneurship and from investment to impact investment.
03 [On Private Sector Involvement]
The panel agreed that a good partnership needs to exist between the public and the private sectors or they will be competitors. Changes in patent law and legislation on intellectual property rights need to be implemented to encourage a more innovator-friendly ecosystem, which would not only incentivize innovators to carry on with their work, but also encourage social venture and have more mainstream investors invest in the concept of ‘doing well’ while ‘doing good’.
05 [On International Involvement]
The government can play a central role in pushing forward entrepreneurship policies in many different aspects such as: density, talent, education, culture and assuming risk of failure of startups. It is important that the government sees where people are meeting, where ideas are being created, what and where the co-working spaces are, who is supporting them, while also ensure young startups from other countries to receive talent visas and support in a given country. They need to set up an education system to get young people ready for what it actually means to be an entrepreneur and promote work with universities, speak about social entrepreneurship, and share in the financial risk-taking of young startups, especially for the least developed countries in the region who have nowhere to turn to for funding.
02 [On Youth Entrepreneurship]
To continuously address the issues startups are attempting to solve, R&D and connecting startup work to policies are vital steps in providing the necessary momentum for other people to join their efforts. Concerns were raised with regards to contact points and funding: there is a call for (1) more networking centers to be created to connect startups and (2) more balanced funding.
04 [On Public Sector Involvemen]
Considerations are also being made to incorporate ‘next step support’ into policies to deal with the current replication of startup goods by the public sector. As such, there is a need to protect startups by (1) purchasing their products, (2) ‘paying-asyou-go’ to the business, (3) offering ‘social impact bonds’ which pay startups with added incentives when they achieve set goals.
06 [On Missing Data and Value Chains]
The greater availability of data is essential to better advise governments on the challenges startups face. The UN needs look at the whole value chain of activities and be the convener that brings stakeholders together and sets up an alliance of youth empowerment enablers. The emphasis must be on alliance-building rather than specific intervention for the whole ecosystem to come together.

ACHIEVING THE SDGs & YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP
2017 HIGH-LEVEL STAKEHOLDERS MEETING
PARTICIPANTS
Lead Discussants
Rebekah Kang: CEO, FiscalNote Korea
Chull-Young Lee: President, ARK Impact, Representative of Toniic
Chi Hyung Lee: President, Seoul Digital Foundation
Balazs Horvath: Director, UNDP Seoul Policy Center
Sangmin Nam: Deputy Director, UNESCAP-ENEA
Moderator
Beniam Gebrezghi: Partnerships & Youth Programme Specialist, UNDP
Participants
Jonathan Wong: Chief, Technology and Innovation Section, Trade, Investment, and Innovation Division, UN ESCAP
Chull-Young Lee: President, ARK Impact Asset Management
Ji-Yong Lee: Professor, Duksung Women’s University
Jungjun Ahn: Information Planning Manager, Statistics Division, Seoul Metropolitan Government
Peter Jaewon Chun: CEO, XNTree
Doug Duck-Joon Lee: CEO, D3Jubilee
Jonathan Lauer-Stumm: French Tech Coordinator, Embassy of France
Amund Grytting: Co-founder & Managing Director, Young Sustainable Impact
Bosun Kim: co-CEO, Asiance
Li Zhou: Associate Social Affairs Officer, UN ESCAP
Lea Zoric: Policy Analyst, UNDP
Joseph Lim: Partnerships Officer, WFUNA
Amine Ammor: Programs, Consultant, UNDP
SUMMARY
01 [On the Potential for Youth, Innovation and Entrepreneurship]
The meeting acknowledged that all around the world, young people are responding to challenges of the day through innovation by contributing fresh ideas, building bridges and driving the human development they want to see for themselves. Innovation and entrepreneurship offer important solutions and the 4th Industrial Revolution offers many opportunities for the future. Initiatives that bring the different sectors together, alliances that really achieve the SDGs through innovation, entrepreneurship, and the harnessing young people’s leadership are the way to go.
03 [On the Economic Potential of Youth]
Decent policies, innovation, social entrepreneurship and education can help achieve what the SDGs are looking for: to leave no one behind. The needs of marginalized communities can be addressed. It is also important to keep in mind that gender equality is not just a goal, but actually an instrument in maximizing the amount of human potential.
05 [On Impact Investing and Profit]
The Meeting Acknowledged that firms such as ARK Impact Asset Management demonstrate how social development and profit can go hand in hand, making investments into social development projects much more attractive to investors. The emphasis should be placed on how impact investment does not compromise on investment return. Although social and environmental values is important, cannot achieve sustainable development without financial value.
07 [On Public-Private Partnerships Strategies]
The Meeting agreed that, beyond the public and private sectors, more people need to be brought into PPPs. The common ground of PPPs is to boost up local economy and utilize local R&D resources to cultivate innovation sites similar to Silicon Valley. Venture capitalists can also offer opportunities to startups to solve any challenges of the cities. Nurturing startups that are doing something for the city will benefit the public, private sectors and people since it is logical to give them sound opportunities for business. It’s a sound business model for us to give them proper sound opportunities for business.
09 [On Private Sector Impact Investment]
Incubators are approaching the UN, asking to establish partnerships. Three objectives: 1. unleashing leadership of young people 2. solving social challenges 3. sustainable development. The conversation is focused on all three of these tenets.
02 [Addressing Skepticism on Resolving the SDGs on Time]
Skepticism regarding the achievability of the SDGs within its given timeframe can be countered by approaching the problem from a different angle. Rather than thinking of solving the SDGs in a linear manner, exponentially thinking about the way that development is happening right now is key to achieving the 2030 Agenda.
04 [On Social Entrepreneurship in the Political Sphere]
The Meeting agreed that IT technology is well developed and utilized for various sectors, yet remains largely untapped in politics. These ‘untouched’ industries should be commercialized and make profit while connecting people to better solutions.
06 [On the Integration of technologies for Smart Cities]
The Meeting recognizes the impact of the 4th Industrial Revolution on the public and private sectors. While the concept of a city was defined as a physical space in the past, the city has been further extended and connected through digitalization. It is important for governments to provide data infrastructure and access to data to social ventures for their success.
08 [On Youth Motivations in Driving the Impact Industry and Contributing to Sustainable Development]
The Meeting recognized that Youth want to help themselves and contribute to their own future by creating the life they want to live in. A lot of them feel that the state that we are in now is not what they want for the future, which drives them to create new solutions