The abstract for my World Bank Presentation:

Business as usual is not the solution to development challenges. Rather, I propose an unusual business-nonprofit mix of capabilities as an answer. In Section 1, I argue that the nonprofit and private sectors frequently possess overlapping aims and complementary core capabilities. These allow them to provide integrated solutions that move beyond the philanthropic or transactional stage of cross-sector interactions. However, the different incentives and approaches driving each sector create a culture clash between them. This roadblock to cooperation must be overcome with a ‘bridge’ - a neutral external agent.

In Section 2 and 3, I draw from my experience in setting up ArtIntern, a project dedicated to helping youths become arts entrepreneurs, to advocate the suitability of social entrepreneurs to the role of ‘bridges’. To create extraordinary value, the social entrepreneur must restrict his or her functions to his or her core competency in three regions of innovation: identifying new needs, crafting new solutions and implementing them with new combinations of resources. The first two regions of innovation tap into the localized knowledge that social entrepreneurs possess. The third is achieved through a capability sourcing strategy that taps the core competencies of the private and nonprofit sectors. Thus, the sectors are bridged as part of a strategy adding high value to development outcomes.

In Section 4, I emphasize how this framework is particularly relevant to youths, as it taps their primary strengths and compensates for their core weaknesses. I explain how youth activists are likely to possess an embarrassment of localized knowledge that gives them an innovative edge. I also elaborate how the capability sourcing strategy helps them overcome their lack of experience-derived skills, which gives me optimism towards the role which youths can play in the future of development.