Timorese Youth Discussed Well-being, social entrepreneurship and the SDGs

Timor-Leste is blessed with a large portion of young people where 73% of the total population is under the age of 35. The youth are the future decision makers, leaders, and important actors in the socio-economic and political life. If they are educated, skilled and employed within an environment where they fulfil their potentials and aspirations, they can transform this small nation economically.

The role of youth in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Timor-Leste is highly important. Within this context, UNDP together with the Government of Timor-Leste has organized a series of events targeting the youth to talk about social entrepreneurship, well-being and Sustainable Development Goals where the role of media and ICT is explored.

The Social Good Summit kicked off the series as a Panel Discussion with the Prime Minister and youth entrepreneurs on the 16th of September, having a live discussion with youth from all over the country connecting via a video link.

The debate was broadcasted live on TV and Youth had an opportunity to interact with their PM, business CEO and other young entrepreneurs.

The event was followed by a two-day Youth Forum on 13th - 14th of October on Wellbeing, Social Entrepreneurship, and Sustainable Development Goals which was launched with an Inspirational Speech by the Novel Peace Laurate Professor Muhammad Yunus on the 8th of October.  

Professor Yunus inspired Timorese youth to use technology to make changes in the world. He said that anyone with internet access and a smart phone is instantly connected and has unlimited resources at their fingertips.

His main message is that “Youth are not jobs seekers. They are jobs creators.” He emphasized that youth should not wait for the government to create jobs instead they should create jobs for themselves and for others. What they need are innovative ideas and actions to make them come true.

“You have the power to change the whole world. It all starts in the mind. If you can imagine it, you can make it real. Imagination doesn’t cost anything. Everything you need in this world is a wish list. Start with a piece of paper and make a list. Dream as big as possible and act as small as possible. The things in your wish list will sooner or later will come true. That is the greatest invention of life.” Said Professor Muhammed Yunus

The two-day Youth Forum on “Wellbeing, Social Entrepreneurship and the Sustainable Development Goals’’ on the 13th and 14th of October was participated by around 300 youth coming from all municipalities of Timor-Leste.

They were provided with a platform where they could hear from Government, civil society, and the private sector representatives about the existing policies and programmes for youth to access skills development, employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities.  

One of the main emphasis of the first panel discussion was the importance of good policy making for young people and channeling their energy into good social initiatives. The role of people who gain skills and assets while working or training overseas was discussed. They were encouraged to invest back in the country and transfer their knowledge and experience.

During the second panel discussion, the young participants agreed that technology and social media particularly TV, radio, and Facebook should be harnessed to educate young people on their critical role in advancing the societies in which they live in. Technology and social media would also help communicate the opportunities available to young people and be the means to make their voices heard.

“Facebook is a powerful tool. We should use it to advocate for social change, and exchange of knowledge and experiences.” said Mateus Lemos Soares, Vice Coordinator for Youth Council of Ermera Municipality “We would like to see educational and creative radio and TV programmes on youth and for youth to know what other youth do in their own communities. This can inspire youth to take actions for sustainable development.”

Furthermore, youth were also encouraged to use the Social Audit programme of the Prime Minister to raise their voices on development issues by writing a letter to the Prime Minister or posting on Social Audit Facebook page.

During the third session of Day 1, the participants had the opportunity to hear about Timor-Leste’s 4th National Human Development Report (NHDR) with its focus on Youth and Well-being. They were informed about the 2016 Youth Well-being Survey and were engaged in group discussions on what it means to be well A series of focus group discussions were conducted to explore the preliminary findings of the Youth Well-being survey.

Taking on board Muhammed Yunus’s suggestion, the youth drafted a bunch of wish lists in several areas related to their well-being. They also brainstormed about innovative ideas to make them a reality.

The FGDs and the outcomes of the 2 Day Youth Forum will inform the NHDR and guide policies aimed at promoting social entrepreneurship, skills development, vocational education for young people and transmission of their skills through different means of communication.

At the end of Day 1, the youth were also informed about two initiatives through which they can be more involved in advocating the Sustainable Development Goals and Youth Well-being in Timor-Leste. The first one is ‘A call for Nominations for Timor-Leste’s first Youth Ambassadors for SDGs’. The prospective Youth Ambassadors will volunteer for the advocacy of one of Timor-Leste’s priority goals for a period of one year. The youth were also invited to join a photo competition on SDGs where the winner photo will be featured at the NHDR. Both initiatives were welcomed by the youth with excitement. Applications for both the initiatives are still open and can be accessed on UNDP website.

On second day, youth were able to connect with the local entrepreneurs who have been successful in their social good initiatives and be inspired to create their own creative solutions to complex problems.

One of the major challenges that youth faces is the limited job opportunities. However, in the concept of social business, this challenge can be transformed into an opportunity. The young people were inspired by how young Timorese social entrepreneurs in different fields transformed problems into business opportunities.

  Waste management is one of the major challenges in Timor-Leste. A lot of rubbish are dumped in the landfill and in the sea. Two of the young entrepreneurs turned this problem into an opportunity and established their recycling business.

“I collect metal rubbish and sell it, but when I started I didn’t know how to count the money I got. I decided to go to school. Now I have a metal recycling business called “Besi Tua’’. When I started this business a lot of people didn’t want to collect the rubbish. Now a lot of people do collect rubbish and sell them to us because they realize that rubbish can bring them cash.” said Juliao, owner of the Besi Tua metal recycling business and an Adviser to the Prime Minister of Timor-Leste.

Another young entrepreneur, Antonio Soares also saw rubbish as an opportunity and established a water bottle recycling business. He encouraged youth to identify issues in their community and come up with an innovative business solution so that they can earn income while solving a social issue.

  Making trash into cash in the waste management sector demonstrated that there are business opportunities in the most unlikely places. A vision of a circular economy where plastic and scrap metal are recycled and reused emerged and inspired the youth to think outside the box for solutions - solutions that simultaneously address pressing development challenges such as pollution and environmental degradation, health hazards due to burning of waste and rising unemployment. 

Another potential area for Timor-Leste economic growth is agriculture as most of the population are farmers. However, most of the farmers are adults and they grow for family consumption only. Most of the young people expect to get jobs in an office after graduating.

One of our speakers, Eugenio “Ego” Lemos, a famous song-writer, singer, and perma-culturist inspired youth to work in the farm. “Agriculture sector has great potential for economic growth as most of our people are farmers. But we need young people in the farm, and we need new ideas to create industry in the agriculture sector. Don’t wait for tomorrow, start now.” said Ego Lemos.

 Our other speaker, a young entrepreneur also inspired youth with his food processing business. “We import a lot of food from other countries which are not nutritious. They are chemically contaminated. Our food is organic and nutritious. That is why I started my food processing company.” said Carlito Nunes, Food Processing company. “We need to produce and consume local food in order to reduce import of food.”

The afternoon session of Day 2 inspired youth to identify challenges for social entrepreneurship in Timor-Leste and come up with ideas for a nurturing environment for local entrepreneurs to flourish.

 A recurring message of the 2-day Youth Forum was the importance of skills building and decent work opportunities for young people’s well-being and the nation building of Timor-Leste and the need for a new way of thinking to be applied to local problems in order to create a better future for the nation.

The importance of innovative ideas and thinking outside of the box was re-emphasized at the closing ceremony by the H.E Prime Minister Rui Maria de Araujo. As a distinct outcome of the Youth Forum, Prime Minister also announced an Annual National Youth Entrepreneurship Award to encourage youth to come up with social business ideas and translate these ideas into a reality to create jobs for themselves and for others while benefiting the society, the environment and the nation.

The importance of innovative ideas and thinking outside of the box was re-emphasized at the closing ceremony by the H.E Prime Minister Rui Maria de Araujo. As a distinct outcome of the Youth Forum, Prime Minister also announced an Annual National Youth Entrepreneurship Award to encourage youth to come up with social business ideas and translate these ideas into a reality to create jobs for themselves and for others while benefiting the society, the environment and the nation.

UNDP is committed to understand the youth aspirations and promote avenues for young people to express their voices where they have an opportunity to link with decision makers. The NHDR will provide insight on the state of youth development better, thus youth programs can be tailored specifically to their needs, interests and aspirations. Furthermore, UNDP is also committed to encourage youth to become social entrepreneurs finding solutions to their own problems, creating jobs for themselves and others and advancing social development goals in Timor-Leste.

At the closing ceremony, Mr. Knut Ostby, the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative announced that UNDP will launch a business incubator and innovation lab for young people to promote social business initiatives in the coming months.

 Mr. Ostby also thank young participants, distinguished speakers and panelists and our young volunteers who made this event come true. 98% of the participants who evaluated the forum said that they would to attend another similar youth event in the future.