Entrepreneurs Are The Current And Future Solution For Sustainable Global Economic Development

When drawing up plans to help stimulate the economic development of new and emerging economies, the United Nations previously looked to multinational operations that could open new plants and offices in specific countries. However, with the ongoing changes in the business environment, the realization is that these large corporations are no longer the source for job creation and have recently been focused on lean operations and downsizing staff.

However, a new and more viable solution has appeared on the world business stage in the form of entrepreneurs and startups that are popping up all over the world, including India and China, various countries across Africa and Latin America, and other more developed economies.

When the United Nations meets in late September to further define the current 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the next 15 years as the pathway for ending absolute poverty by 2030, this is the time for entrepreneurs and those that support them to step up and make a case for more focus on these small businesses that have the potential for making a dent in the 600 million jobs that are necessary to support the global workforce of the near future.

Dell Founder and CEO Michael Dell noted, “Entrepreneurs, startups, and fast-growing, new businesses create 70 percent of the net new jobs in the world (up to 90 percent in some emerging economies).” In an article published on LinkedIn last year, Dell furthered his case for entrepreneurs as the leading solution for job generation and the end to poverty:

“From 1985 to 2005 – the exact period of time that the PC/server model for technology spread worldwide—the number of people living in poverty was cut in half.”
“Startups that use technology more effectively create on average twice as many jobs and are more productive and profitable than companies that don’t.”
“The Internet alone accounts for about 20 percent of the GDP in developed countries. That’s amazing when you consider e-commerce began in earnest only about 15 years ago.”

With this as the foundational logic for advocating entrepreneurship as a critical solution, Dell took on the role of the United Nation Foundation’s first Global Advocate for Entrepreneurship and has set the goal of uniting entrepreneurs and those that support them so that they can lead the goal of creating the next billion global jobs. At the 2014 Social Good Summit last year, Dell provided the strategy for achieving this through a program known as Goal 8, which has been suggested as a goal for the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) created by the United Nations.

Goal 8 is focused on achieving specific agenda items that will work toward ending poverty by increasing lending for small businesses, offering access to more technology, eliminating child and slave labor, enabling equal opportunity employment and pay, fostering green initiatives and improving working conditions. According to an article in Small Business Trends, there are four core pillars, which are access to markets, capital, technology and talent, to drive the success of this initiative.

Since the SDGs will be decided in the coming weeks by the UN General Assembly in September 2015, this is the time to rally around the effort to get Goal 8 written in as a key goal that will create these new jobs and standardize access to technology, funding, talent and target audiences that want to buy the products and services developed by these entrepreneurs and their startups. To help ensure that Goal 8 makes the final cut, Dell formed a community to champion it. The ‪#‎EntrepreneursUNite‬ campaign includes a global petition that is being used to get support from entrepreneurs, private sector leaders, and concerned citizens.

The goal is to get over 100,000 signatures. With over 32,000 signatures currently collected, there is a long way to go so it’s time to share this campaign with others to get the word out and increase the petition signatures. This petition is being delivered during the UN General Assembly, the week of September 28th. I’ve signed it already and so should you as Goal 8 has the realistic potential as a game changer for ending absolute poverty and putting the power to be economically independent in the hands of small business owners and entrepreneurs around the world.