Promotion of green entrepreneurship for youth

The Green Entrepreneurship, as the building block of the Green Economy, has a high growth potential, aiming at optimizing the human’s dependency on natural resources in a systematic, dynamic and innovative approach. Today, Climate Change has become a global concern, as it causes unaccountable impacts to the world, states, institutions and individuals. Greening of economies can enhance the ability to manage natural resources sustainably, increase energy efficiency and reduce waste, while also promoting social justice and addressing poverty and inequality.

Green Entrepreneurship can be a solution for both youth unemployment and climate change, whereas young entrepreneurs can find technologically advanced, innovative solutions and models to address the present and future issues. Despite such growing opportunities, the full potential of youth entrepreneurship is still not being utilized in Sri Lanka.

The ILO launched the South Asia Leadership in Entrepreneurship (SALE) Program, with the financial assistance of the United States Department of State, aiming at promoting youth entrepreneurship, by creating a favourable ecosystem and encouraging youth transition into the entrepreneurship. A series of policy dialogues were organised as a core intervention of the SALE project, in association with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.

The third policy dialogue, held in Colombo in December 2022, under the theme of “Promotion of Green Entrepreneurship for Youth”, highlighted several key issues such as gaps in understanding the green concepts; difficulties in changing mindsets; lack of awareness on career paths in green space; issues in inclusivity and scalability; access to technology, finance and support systems; regulatory barriers.