Disclaimer:
Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed. It consists of personal reflections, insights, and learnings of the contributor(s). It may not be exhaustive, nor does it aim to be authoritative knowledge.
Title
Please provide a name for your action learning plan.
SDG Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub (SIEH)
Challenge statement
Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge.
Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.
BIG BET
Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)
Our challenge is lack of continuity of services provided to social entrepreneurs who complete incubation/springboard programmes (both UNDP and non UNDP)
Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?
UNDP India's flagship programs on innovation have been developing capacities, to promote employment and entrepreneurship. All Aligned with SDGs on : Decent Work, Sustainable Livelihoods, Economic Growth and Reducing Inequalities. Our programmes have been supporting aspiring and existing nano and micro-entrepreneurs and creating an enabling ecosystem for youth-led social innovation and entrepreneurship.
For example, UNDP’s DISHA project in the past has impacted 1 million women and girls. Provided counselling, skills and access to employment and livelihood opportunities
In another program, we have been conducting Capacity building programs on Innovation and prototyping concepts to develop solutions focusing on multiple SDG themes (Makers Asylum with UNESCO and UNDP has been running this SDG School program). Which has 2000+alumni and 200+ social innovations
We have entered into a Strategic Partnership to build an enabling environment for Women Climate Entrepreneurs. For this we have partnered with the private sector (Renew Power) through an impact accelerator programme which provides tailored hand-holding support for women entrepreneurs.
In addition to this we have also established regional and global capacity through The Accelerator Lab network (present in 115 country offices) and the Youth Co:Lab network co-created by UNDP Asia and the Pacific and Citi Foundation (running in 28 countries)
Besides this external to UNDP, India has number of Entrepreneur support Organisations (ESOs) all of whom have been running some very impressive incubation programs for promoting entrepreneurship for SDGs. We have Invest India, Nexus, Climate collective, Ashoka, T-Hub Foundation , NASSCOMM, Social Alpha etc.
With all this rich body of work and growing innovation ecosystem, it is also important to reflect, take a stock to analyse the impact and to review the challenges. Over the past 1 year we have been on an R&D journey - with series of consultations conducted – with entrepreneurs; with ESOs, VCs
What we have been learning through all these programs: is that while there is no doubt that there is a rise in incubation infrastructure for early stage entrepreneurs ; great enablers in terms of govt policies. The roadblocks seem to appear after an incubation program, there is lack of continuity in support services provided to early-stage entrepreneurs outside
structured accelerator/incubation programmes that all of us have been running.
Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.
IBM’s business survey report of 2016 asked Venture capitalists identify major reasons for
startup failures:
77% of venture capitalists report that many Indian startups lack pioneering innovation based on new technologies or unique business models. Consequently, despite the country’s large market size and robust startup activity, Indian
startups comprise only 4 percent of globally recognized unicorns (startup businesses valued at USD 1 billion or more).
65% of venture capitalists say that Indian startups are unable to source necessary funding. 997 Indian startups reported to have failed in 2014 and 2015, 97 percent were unable to obtain any external funding.
When it comes to mentoring:
64% of VCs, believe that India’s startups struggle to succeed because their executives do not receive adequate mentoring from experienced leaders of established companies, incubators, investors and the like
70% of the VCs say startups fail due to lack of the right skills
All these challenges are enhanced further for marginalised communities- women and youth
Bain’s 2019 report on Women entrepreneurship in India sais: only 20% of enterprises are women-owned
In India, less than 1% of active angel investors are women and In 2021-22, less than 1% of all institutional investments in India went to women-run businesses.
Qualitative evidence: What weak signals have you recently spotted that characterizes its urgency? Please provide qualitative information that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge. You can add text, a link, or a picture.
We conducted an independent scoping study which involved number of stakeholder interviews- with ESOs, Entrepreneurs, VCs. To understand the current landscape and the key challenges.
Value proposition: What added value or unique value proposition is your Accelerator Lab bringing to solving this challenge? Why is it your Lab that needs to work on this challenge and not other actors within UNDP, other stakeholders in the country respectively? Why is it worth investing resources to this challenge?
We are working towards building a multistakeholder strategic alliance to provide continuous and holistic support services for social entrepreneurs. Where ESOs come together to plug their entrepreneur pipeline (post incubation stage) And proposed service areas/sections of the hub could look like:
Advisory linked to Business devt services; thematic mentoring to address sectoral challenges
Information and resources- as a repository from multiple partners and sources;
Opportunities in terms of linkages- whether they are financial linkages – connecting to capital, marketplaces or also providing that space for experimentation – so post prototyping and before go to market entrepreneurs expressed that need to access opportunities for experimentation
Active peer learning communities by leveraging Regional and global networks to unearth networking opportunities through pooling the respective rosters of multiple organisations
On Nov 2 we convened 20-25 stakeholders for a physical consultation and received great response, suggestions as well as validation for the hub.
Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?
https://twitter.com/UNDP_India/status/1721779440316039257?t=AgeIBIoRXHfXiBv4aqG_QQ&s=08
Partners
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the partner:
Atal Innovation Mission, Niti Aayog
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
It is envisioned that the hub secretariat should be jointly led by UNDP and the Atal Innovation Mission, Niti Aayog since its the key agency for innovation promotion nationally.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the partner:
Range of partners - ESOs like Makers Asylum, School of Social Entrepreneurs, Climate Collective etc.
What sector does our partner belong to?
Civil Society
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
Since the hub is envisioned to be a multi stakeholder alliance, we see that a number of partners will join this larger collective
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
Yes
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
We need to prioritise and strengthen the key offerings of the hub. Advisory, mentoring, financing, information and other services. Which ones are more important and what should form the offering of the v1 version of this hub.
Who should be the partners, how do we choose from the very wide and thriving ecosystem in India.
How do we get a pooled funding mechanism for operationalising this hub?
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Grow
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Truly an example of collective intelligence. How can we be better together?
How can we already learn from the existing and not repeat the mistakes made by other organisations on this entrepreneurship support journey.
We want to learn from the shared experiences and therefore we created this space by convening a physical consultation in World Cafe style (with 5 thematic tables) to learn from what worked , what has not. What
are the challenges we all are facing but more importantly how can we connect our respective programming and work together to address it.
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
For us deep listening, deep interviews, individual
as well as focused group discussions were really helpful. In total, we have
conducted over 30-40 interviews. And additionally, we had a face to face
consultation with 25 key stakeholders each representing a different
organisation.
Closing
Early leads to grow: Think about the possible grow phase for this challenge - who might benefit from your work on this challenge or who might be the champions in your country that you should inform or collaborate with early on to help you grow this challenge?
All the entrepreneur support organisations who run
incubation programs for scouting SDG solutions will benefit as a member of this
hub.
END OF ACTION LEARNING PLAN: Thank you! The form saves automatically and your submission has been recorded. You may now exit this window.
5Gender equality
8Decent work and economic growth
9Industry, innovation and infrastructure
10Reduced innequalities
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