The World Youth Report, prepared biennially, is the flagship publication on youth issues of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat. The World Youth Report: Youth Social Entrepreneurship and the 2030 Agenda is a product of the efforts, contributions and support of many people and organizations. The Report was prepared by the Division for Inclusive Social Development, led by Director Daniela Bas.
The Report represents a collaborative effort and reflects the input and contributions of experts in the field of youth social entrepreneurship and development.

The World Youth Report: Youth Social Entrepreneurship and the 2030 Agenda seeks to contribute to the understanding of how youth social entrepreneurship can both support youth development and help accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Towards this end, the Report first synthesizes the current discussion on social entrepreneurship and anchors it in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Chapter 2 of the Report examines the situation of young people and whether youth social entrepreneurship can offer employment opportunities and support youth participation and other elements of youth development. In the third chapter, the Report assesses the potential of youth social entrepreneurship as a source of support for the 2030 Agenda and youth development in its broadest sense — and examines relevant challenges within this context. Chapter 4 explores how new technologies can be leveraged to address some of the challenges faced by young social entrepreneurs and to further support youth social entrepreneurship in its efforts to advance sustainable development. The final chapter offers policy guidance to facilitate the development of
enabling, responsive and sustainable national ecosystems for young social entrepreneurs.

According to recent statistics, “the rate of population growth remains especially high in the group of 47 countries designated by the United Nations as least developed, including 32 countries in sub-Saharan Africa [that also have the youngest age distribution in global terms]. With an average growth of 2.3 per cent annually from
2015 to 2020, the total population of the least developed countries … is growing 2.5 times faster than the total population of the rest of the world” (United Nations, 2019b, p. 10). For these countries as a group, the number of youth aged 15 to 24 is expected to rise from 207 million in 2019 to 336 million in 2050 (ibid., p. 37).

Unemployment, particularly among youth, represents one of the greatest global challenges. Recent estimates suggest that 600 million jobs would have to be created over the next 15 years to meet youth employment needs (ILO, 2020). The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 96.8 per cent of all young workers in developing countries are in the informal economy.
Unleashing the potential of youth as an engine of job creation is a key element of the 2030 Agenda. Youth entrepreneurship has the capacity to generate a multiplier effect, as young entrepreneurs are more likely to hire
their peers and can lift other youth out of informality and working poverty.