Cultivating green entrepreneurs: addressing youth unemployment and environmental sustainability in Ethiopia

June 27, 2024

Over the past decade, Ethiopia has been among the fastest-growing economies globally. While the government has made significant commitments to ensure this growth doesn't harm the environment, sustainable practices are rarely integrated into emerging green enterprises. Ethiopia faces a major challenge in youth unemployment, driven by rapid population growth, reduced public sector employment, and an outdated higher education system. Promoting entrepreneurship, especially in waste management and circular economy, offers a dual solution—fostering human development while safeguarding the environment.

The Green Innovation Lab was a pilot initiative funded by the Ikea Foundation, as part of the project ‘Catalyzing Green Businesses in Ethiopia’, with 60 participants in total between July 2022 - July 2023.

Through our Green Innovation Lab program, we supported students to start their own green businesses.

We provided them with:

funding and expert coaching within the areas of developing and testing an MVP
business model fundamentals,
business registration,
securing financing
fundamentals of running a start-up
1-1 mentorship during their initial 6-month start-up period.

The results achieved

Business concepts developed during the Green Innovation Lab included:

creating quality livestock feeds from agricultural byproducts
solar-powered chicken egg incubators that reduce waste
digitalized irrigation systems
cultivation of oyster mushrooms as a green source of protein
production of reusable sanitary pads using recycled fabric.

The results of the participants of the Green Innovation Lab 2023

We evaluate these results as a resounding success, especially considering that among the applicants not selected for the program, none went on to develop a product or register their business.

At the program's conclusion in 2023, 11 participants had not only become successful green entrepreneurs but had also collectively created 154 jobs. According to the first follow-up survey, conducted in 2024, 83% of them were able to successfully develop their minimum valuable product (MVP) and 59% of the participants have now registered or started the process to register their business. 93% of participants said that they had gained new knowledge and skills that can be applied to develop their green solutions, and start and run their businesses.