Youth Co:Lab directly supports young entrepreneurs in Asia-Pacific to scale their impact, while working with governments and other ecosystem partners to strengthen the enabling environment for youth entrepreneurship across the region.

From this vantage point, since the initial outbreak of COVID-19, we were in a position to see how youth-led enterprises in Asia-Pacific were being impacted by the crisis. At the same time, we were able to witness first-hand how young entrepreneurs stepped up to play a leading role in the response and recovery.

In March 2020, as the Asia-Pacific region was experiencing the cascading effects of the outbreak of the pandemic and resulting lockdowns, we conducted a rapid response survey to assess how young entrepreneurs were being impacted, and how they were responding.

The results of our rapid survey revealed a troubling picture of how the crisis was exacerbating youth-led enterprises’ pre-existing vulnerabilities, and threatening their survival.

At the same time, the survey revealed how young entrepreneurs in Asia-Pacific were already demonstrating extraordinary leadership on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis. We learnt how they were rapidly adapting their business models and deploying their capabilities, energies, and ingenuities to support their communities to respond to challenges brought on by the pandemic.

The results of the March 2020 survey guided our programming and policy work over the year that followed. Through the results, we were able to identify the types of support in highest demand. We worked with Youth Co:Lab partners to connect young entrepreneurs to funding and technical assistance, and to influence programmatic and policy responses to support youth-led enterprises.

ONE YEAR ON SURVEY One year on from the March 2020 survey, while some countries were tentatively reopen, others were entering second or third waves. Across the region, the pandemic context and the recovery continued to present pressing challenges for youth-led enterprises. We therefore determined to conduct a One Year On survey.