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NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE PROFESSOR MUHAMMAD YUNUS LOOKS AT HOW THE IOC IS TAKING STEPS TO ENCOURAGE ENTREPRENEURSHIP AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ACROSS THE WORLDBEYOND THE RINGSYOUNG ENTREPRENEURS THE KEY TO SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT On 25 September 2015, world leaders adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the United Nations. They established a 15-year global to-do list and unleashed a surge of action from all sectors to improve lives around the world. Shaped through consultations with business, government, non-profit leaders, and engaged citizens, around the world, these goals will catalyse attention, energy, and resources to address global challenges, such as ending extreme poverty, achieving gender equality, ending climate threats, and providing quality education for all. The SDGs are going to reshape the world by taking ambitious steps towards solving many of the most serious problems faced by humankind.One of the goals Ð Goal 8 Ð focuses on inclusive, sustainable economic growth, and creating employment opportunities for all. I want to add a new perspective to this goal. This goal has been formulated with the traditional view of employment in mind. This view is based on the perception that all human beings are job-seekers, with few exceptions. I feel that this needs to be revisited. I think human beings are born with entrepreneurship in their DNA. In the early days of civilisation we pushed them to slavery. In the wake of the Industrial Revolution, we turned them into becoming job-seekers. Even as the world changes, we still cling to the old assumption that people have no choice except to depend on employers to put them to work; all people are on hire. We misconstrued the nature of human beings and, in the process, created the problem of unemployment.We forget that people have survived on this planet as go-getters and problem-solvers; they have survived with their unlimited creative capacity. Every child, boy or girl, should be given the opportunity to grow up with a longing to become an entrepreneur, not a job-seeker. It is unfortunate that we got accustomed to worrying about 60 million new job-seekers entering the global job market each year, whereas it should be a cause for celebration that a wave of 60 million new entrepreneurs join the global economy each year, to change the world with their creative power.We need to jump-start a new worldwide wave of youth entrepreneurship by allowing young people to discover their true, original selves. We should build a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem where young boys and girls everywhere, including from remote regions and culturally, educationally and ethnically neglected communities, get as many opportunities as anybody else in the world. In this new environment, young people will soon realise that they are not job-seekers but job-creators. They will not risk their lives by crossing oceans and borders to find jobs in unfamiliar countries.Most importantly, we need reorientation of our schools to produce young entrepreneurs who will come out of schools not with job applications but with business plans, enabling them to add new energy to the economy rather than worries to society.I applaud the role played by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) drawing worldwide attention to sports and athletics. This is the area where young peopleÕs minds are captured to overcome odds and make the impossible possible. I applaud it for another reason Ð sports and athletics open the imagination of young people and help them open the door to self-discovery Ð the essential element of entrepreneurship. They develop independence, health and the spirit of reaching new frontiers. I hope the IOC will also include in all its activities programmes for promotion of entrepreneurship, particularly the spirit of social business among young people.The focus on youth entrepreneurship that I am proposing will have important implications for state-charity based programmes for the unemployed. With the support of the global network attached to the IOC, if we can build this new orientation into Goal 8, it will give a new perspective for looking at the new generation. This will mean the global community has officially recognised that young entrepreneurs are ready to play a central role in driving human progress.With support from governments, academics, civil society, the private sector, the IOC, the growing social business sector, and citizens around the world, young entrepreneurs may lead us in the creation of a new society Ð one with no unemployment anywhere in the world. ■Professor Muhammad Yunus is a Nobel Peace laureate.26 OLYMPIC REVIEW COLUMN