Istanbul – [6-7 May 2024] – UNDP’s International Centre for Private Sector in Development (ICPSD) and HP Foundation co-hosted the Entrepreneurial Skills Development Initiative for Sustainable Development Goals (E-SDG) Community Get Together in Istanbul.

The E-SDG Community Get Together event brought together stakeholders leveraging the HP LIFE platform. This first gathering aimed to deepen participants’ comprehension of the entrepreneurial skills development ecosystem. 

The event enabled stakeholders to share perspectives and experiences, allowing them to build mutual understanding and connections. Discussions focused on key challenges in the entrepreneurial skills development ecosystem and explored opportunities for collaboration and mutual benefit. Facilitators guided participants in uncovering the relationships, needs and expectations of existing organizations and individuals within the entrepreneurial skills development ecosystem. Participants engaged in group discussions to identify different business concepts to cater to these needs. Additionally, several participants presented success stories of HP LIFE implementations in various contexts as a source of inspiration.

By the end of the workshop, participants devised two concepts. The first concept focused on establishing a community of stakeholders focused on entrepreneurial skills development. It introduced an informal collaboratory model to manage multi-stakeholder collaborations at both central and local levels. This concept was developed to share expertise, avoid program duplication, and ensure continuous communication and awareness of each other's activities.

The second concept centered on creating a new project to inclusively reach more entrepreneurs from vulnerable and underserved communities, with a particular emphasis on women in rural areas. Planned activities include deploying mobile information providers to rural communities, utilizing child-friendly learning spaces, and offering job matching services.

The Community Get Together Event is facilitated by Atolye. It featured E-SDG Global Training of Trainers Initative’s Master Trainers and representatives from HP Inc, and HP Türkiye, IOM Cape Verde, UNDP Egypt, UNESCO-UNEVOC, UNIDO, the Young African Leaders Initiative, Welthungerhilfe Turkiye.

About E-SDG Initiative 

Since 2017, the UNDP ICPSD and HP Foundation have been collaborating on E-SDG, with the commitment to advancing entrepreneurial and 21st century skills development worldwide. E-SDG seeks to foster entrepreneurial learning, IT and core business skills. The initiative also facilitates access to educational resources on entrepreneurship to empower individuals and communities to thrive in the entrepreneurial landscape.