Joventude Di’ak: Opportunities to Succeed

We propose to partner with social media and digital tool/information and communication technology experts to bring together technology, training, and an entrepreneurial mindset to economically empower youth to find and build opportunities for themselves in small, remote developing countries.

Empreza Di’ak is a leader in social enterprise and entrepreneurship in Timor-Leste, to date supporting over 5000 Timorese to build opportunities to live better lives. Imagine the power of combining this entrepreneurial mindset with the digital tools that can connect youth and equip young Timorese with the skills and support they need to succeed in one of the youngest and poorest nations! 400,000 Timorese use social media, with 40% of users logging in on a daily basis. Empreza Di’ak proposes to leverage the burgeoning social media trend by adapting and digitizing its successful small business and entrepreneurship trainings to target young people living in Dili.  

Our pilot will entail 3 components:  

• Weekly hotspot groups – facilitate gatherings at free public Wifi hotspots in Dili to cultivate an entrepreneurial community and conduct short workshops on topics including:
  • Entrepreneurship and small business opportunities
  • Using the Internet for job-seeking
  • Issues facing youth
• Monthly workshops – facilitate longer workshops for committed youth on topics including:
  • Setting up a small business
  • English for finance, small business, and marketing
  • Work readiness
  • Harnessing social media and technology for entrepreneurship
• Engaging youth online – developing materials to engage an online community of youth, building a space for youth to share ideas and support each other

Based on the pilot, our second stage is an incubation program. We will select a small group of highly motivated youth, and with our partners mentor them to develop their own ideas around creating opportunities for youth – maximizing the use of digital tools.

Timor-Leste, independent since 2002, is still one of the poorest nations in the world. 60% of the population is aged under 25, and many young people migrate to Dili in search of work. There are not enough jobs, economic growth is slow, and 41% of youth believe that the country is going in the wrong direction. The national youth unemployment rate stands at 22%, and 13,000 young people in Dili are not in education, employment, or training. Youth are unprepared for the reality of the job market and economic climate, and they face many obstacles in undertaking entrepreneurial activities.

Technology is underused as a development tool in Timor-Leste,yet more and more youth use social media and computers. Technology can transform the training/employment-seeking sector. Currently there are no effective scalable solutions for reducing youth unemployment in Timor-Leste, and we believe that an innovative, youth-driven approach with context appropriate technology is needed. Technology and principles of human-centered design will enable us to better understand the dynamics of youth unemployment and young people’s aspirations. Empreza Di’ak’s ethos of “Susesu deit!” (in the local language: “Let’s succeed!”) strongly resonates with youth, who are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the limited opportunities available to them.

Ultimately, we want to reduce youth unemployment and underemployment by promoting an entrepreneurial approach to issues faced by young people – starting in Dili.

We envision the creation of a community of youth working together to find and create opportunities for themselves and other young people, rather than being spoon-fed solutions that do not match their needs and the economic context.

Our solution will be deployed through open weekly gatherings/trainings and more selective monthly workshops. A Facebook page will keep youth engaged on a continuous basis.

Track page likes and post engagement - Engage 5,000 youth in Dili in Facebook page within 6 months

Track attendance (new, repeat) and satisfaction with trainings - An average of 25 youth attend weekly hotspot gatherings over a period of 6 months

Quality and quantity of resource materials, number of downloads, online engagement with materials - Work with youth to produce and share youth-friendly training materials and resources (e.g. short videos, tutorials, and infographics – about topics such as CVs, issues that matter to youth, and scholarship application advice) online every month

Because Timor-Leste is perceived as a place where ICT is difficult to use, it is rarely integrated well into solutions to social problems. We believe we can innovatively use technology to empower and support youth to develop their own context-appropriate and youth-centric solutions to youth unemployment and dissatisfaction. While there are many organizations and institutions providing education for youth, the quality is often low, and results are on a small scale. The physical and online community we will foster will promote an entrepreneurial mindset and allow youth to work together in new ways.

Empreza Di’ak has already begun to use value proposition and human-centered design principles to connect with youth in Dili. We are committed to working closely with young people and youth groups, and we will keep youth at the center by preparing selected, committed young people to develop solutions going forward. Our organization has existing links and a good reputation with young people and youth groups. We will work closely with social media and digital partners to ensure that technology always matches the needs and aspirations of young people.

We are conscious that not all youth have reliable access to ICT and many youth have no/limited income. Our solution will take advantage of existing public free Wifi hotspots and utilize Facebook in a mobile-friendly way, as 95% of Facebook users gain access through smartphones (which are used by almost one third of the population). We will not rely only upon Facebook and Internet, and hence will have open trainings/gathering at public hotspots that even youth without their own Internet access can participate in.

Some Empreza Di’ak staff will participate part-time and are financially sustained by their monthly salaries. The organization also has Australian and other short- and long-term volunteers who work part- and full-time; these volunteers receive stipends from their home governments or other agencies to support them for the duration of their assignments. In addition, Empreza Di’ak’s social businesses generate income that is used for Research and Development such as this.

Timor-Leste has a challenging ICT environment: there are power outages, and Internet and mobile reception can be unreliable, as the national ICT infrastructure is young. Internet access is costly, so people often activate short data packages (e.g. 1 hour) on an irregular basis to carry out online activities.

Many young people are involved in several youth groups and trainings at the same time; they are hungry for opportunities and can stretch themselves too thin between their various undertakings. Other youth are less responsive to initiatives and training opportunities.

The country has limited economic growth and low job creation rates.

https://www.facebook.com/Empreza.Diak/

https://www.facebook.com/Futuru.Diak/

https://soundcloud.com/user-134048529/building-an-award-winning-ngo-the-challenges-and-reality-behind-the-dream-to-make-a-difference

Empreza Di’ak is applying to Solve because the organization is incorporating principles of human-centered design into its programming and needs the to do so most effectively. Furthermore, for the past year Empreza Di’ak has been looking for opportunities to use its strengths in training facilitation, small business knowledge, and social enterprise experience to confront the urgent issue of youth unemployment and dissatisfaction. We hope we can share our strengths and experiences through Solve partnerships and networks. And, we hope to be a national and regional pioneer in working with youth to integrate technology into youth programming in resource-limited contexts.

On this project we are working with Catalpa International (https://catalpa.io/) and EDC (https://www.edc.org/).

We have strong relationships with youth and youth groups, including university students, English Conversation Course, and Rotary Youth Leadership Awards.

In our other work (improving livelihoods in rural areas) we partner with international and local NGOs.

We are an NGO - not really applicable.