The contribution of Enactus global sustainability initiative to youth empowerment

What is it about?

Youth empowerment initiatives are increasingly gaining momentum globally, and this movement has the potential to raise a new generation of leaders who drive social progress and economic transformation. The Enactus Global Network inspires youth to tackle the world's most pressing issues through entrepreneurship and innovation. However, despite the crucial contribution of Enactus projects to nation-building worldwide, literature on this phenomenon in the context of South Africa is limited. Hence, this study explored the contribution of Enactus sustainability initiatives to youth empowerment and community development, thus analysing how South African higher education institutions can increase student involvement in Enactus projects across all faculties. Using a systematic literature review approach, the authors searched Web of Science (WoS) database for 47 relevant studies, which were found and sieved using the search parameters, and then 33 articles that are strictly relevant to the main topic were chosen as the final corpus. The authors found that Enactus facilitates community progress through transformative innovations and students gain valuable skills that increase their employability regardless of their field of studies. Moreover, the study suggests that Enactus' success is partly related to its collaborations and networks, which create synergies. These findings highlight several merits of Enactus skill-based training such as learning by doing, learning from failures, and learning from entrepreneurs. The study findings offer compelling evidence that student transformational innovations could facilitate sustainable development within communities.

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Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Why is it important?

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