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Category: Start-up promotion
Start-ups and Innovation: Labour Market Opportunities and Prospects for Young People
How can municipalities help young people successfully start businesses while also driving local development? This question was at the heart of the international Connective Cities dialogue event “Start-ups and Innovation: Labour Market Opportunities and Prospects for Young People”, held in Bremen from 30 June to 2 July 2026. Around 35 experts from 11 municipalities and seven countries came together to exchange experiences, learn from one another, and jointly develop new solutions.
The event focused on the opportunities that start-ups and entrepreneurship create for employment, economic development, and social participation among young people. A key finding was that, despite differing local conditions, municipalities around the world face many similar challenges. Young entrepreneurs need access to advisory services, networks, financing, suitable infrastructure, and practical education. Municipalities play a crucial role as facilitators, supporters, and enablers of thriving local entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Participants gained insights into successful municipal approaches from Germany, Namibia, North Macedonia, Rwanda, Serbia, South Africa, and Zambia. Examples included business incubators, one-stop shops for advisory services, digital platforms, mentoring programmes, and initiatives supporting women, migrants, and young people in rural areas. Particularly impressive was the diversity of solutions tailored to local challenges.
“We use storytelling and share the stories of start-ups so that others can see: this could be my story as well.”
Oliver Götz, Gründungswerft e.V., Germany
One example from the Global South came from Windhoek, Namibia. The Bokamoso Entrepreneurial Centre supports young businesses with affordable infrastructure and training opportunities to help them enter national and international markets. The centre has successfully assisted companies in sectors such as crafts, the creative industries, and food production. It also specifically promotes business concepts focused on resource efficiency and recycling, thereby strengthening the circular economy in Windhoek.
From Germany, Bremen presented its closely connected start-up ecosystem, which brings together stakeholders from business, academia, and public administration. Through Starthaus Bremen & Bremerhaven, the city offers a central point of contact supporting aspiring entrepreneurs with advice, networking, financing, and funding opportunities. Bremen also promotes entrepreneurship awareness among young people through partnerships with schools and universities.
The connection between education and entrepreneurship was a central theme throughout the event. Professor Dr. Jörg Freiling of the University of Bremen emphasized that young people today need skills such as creativity, initiative, problem-solving abilities, and entrepreneurial thinking to succeed in an increasingly complex world. Universities, schools, and companies must therefore work more closely together and expose young people to real-world challenges and innovation processes at an early stage.
“I often tell my students: you are the innovators in our society.”
Professor Dr. Jörg Freiling, University of Bremen
During the working groups and peer-to-peer consultations, participants developed numerous practical solutions. Topics included strengthening the links between education and business, creating new training and mentoring formats, introducing mobile advisory services for remote regions, and reducing bureaucratic barriers for entrepreneurs.
Representatives from Munich contributed ideas on how to better support entrepreneurs with migration backgrounds. Proposed measures included multilingual information services, mentoring programmes to help navigate administrative procedures, and closer cooperation with Welcome Centres and other advisory institutions.
Another widely discussed solution came from eThekwini, South Africa, addressing the challenges faced by remote and rural communities. Participants explored the concept of mobile hubs—vehicles that regularly deliver advisory services, training, digital infrastructure, and information on funding opportunities directly to hard-to-reach communities. This approach would allow young people outside major urban centres to access essential support services.
We need to encourage young people to not just work for self-sustenance, but to create jobs to the local communities as well.“
Dumisani Nhlengethwa, eThekwini Municipality, South Africa
The dialogue programme was complemented by study visits to Bremen and Bremerhaven’s start-up ecosystem. Visits to Starthaus Bremen & Bremerhaven, the hoi startup factory, and other local initiatives demonstrated how a well-connected innovation ecosystem can support entrepreneurs throughout their journey.
The event marked the beginning of a new Connective Cities learning process. Additional online formats, expert exchange visits, and a closing online event will continue the collaboration among municipalities in the coming months. The strong interest and vibrant discussions highlighted that supporting youth entrepreneurship is increasingly seen worldwide as a key driver of sustainable economic and social development.
“This event gave me a bird’s-eye view. It is often difficult to see what is truly important when you are deeply involved in projects.”
Era Bektashi, Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, Germany
Further Impressions:
Photos: Connective Cities
Author: Katrin Riß, text+welt
Startups and Innovation: Labour Market Opportunities and Prospects for Young People
Connective Cities invites two experts from your municipality to participate in the international exchange of expertise in Bremen and the subsequent learning process
Do you support the startup scene in your municipality? What opportunities do you offer young people in the job market? What challenges do you face in your work? The City of Bremen is already well-connected on this topic—including internationally. Now, in cooperation with Connective Cities, the city invites you to join five other German and six international municipalities in Bremen to exchange expertise on startup initiatives and incubators, as well as municipal incentives and support programs for startups and new businesses.
Opening new perspectives and promoting skills development are equally important for young people in Germany and the Global South; the opportunity to enter the labour market is essential. In Bremen and Bremerhaven, the number of startups is high by national standards. The startup scene is vibrant, innovative, and well-connected. The Bremen Senate Chancellery also already has valuable international contacts: its partner cities Windhoek (Namibia) and Durban (South Africa) contribute experience with their own startup centres and instruments for startup support.
The goals of this dialogue event are to learn together by sharing good practices at the local level, to discuss challenges through peer consultations, to develop solutions to the challenges identified, and to foster networking among participants.
We look forward to the participation of two experts from your municipality, particularly from the fields of economic development, labour and social affairs, or youth work.
Further information: Call for Participation [PDF, 2 pages]
Application deadline: 26 April 2026
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us:
Marcella Sobisch, Project Coordinator, Connective Cities, marcella.sobisch@engagement-global.de,
+49 (0)228 20717 2658 and connective-cities@engagement-global.de .
NEWSLETTER – ISSUE NO. 93, April 2026
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Local Economic Development through Skilled Immigration and Migrant Entrepreneurship
How can local governments take an active role in shaping skilled labour immigration and support migrant entrepreneurship in their municipalities?
This interactive online session by Connective Cities, on 25 March 2026, from 10:00 to 12:30 CET , will bring together German and international municipal practitioners to exchange experiences, learn from practical examples, and discuss innovative approaches to promoting local economic development through skilled labour immigration and migrant entrepreneurship.
Participants will benefit from good practice presentations and discussions, which will:
- showcase effective municipal strategies for fostering successful and fair skilled labour immigration and migrant entrepreneurship
- raise awareness of local governance challenges and opportunities
- highlight transferable solutions for different local context
- Strengthen local governments’ capacity to leverage their scope of action to support skilled worker immigration and migrant entrepreneurship as drivers of local economic development.
Event language is English.
Free of charge. Registration is necessary:
Contact:
Nikola Krause
+49 228 20 717-2922
nikola.krause@engagement-global.de
Kampala, Karlsruhe and Strasbourg join forces to strengthen social entrepreneurship
All across the world, there are more and more social entrepreneurs combining their business activities with a commitment to the common good – be it climate or environmental protection, social participation or reducing poverty.
For local authorities, this relatively new target group for local economic development agencies has great potential to contribute to sustainable development. But many cities, municipalities and districts are still in the early stages of promoting social entrepreneurship. Kampala in Uganda, Karlsruhe in south-west Germany and Strasbourg in France have joined forces to promote social entrepreneurship in their cities and help entrepreneurs form networks.
The Kampala – Karlsruhe – Strasbourg triangle of cooperation
‘I see a great deal of potential for collaboration,’ says Khasalamwa Lucia from the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA). Representatives from the three cities have identified that the challenges facing social entrepreneurship are very similar in Kampala, Karlsruhe and Strasbourg – despite their social and economic differences. They each have a lack of needs-based training, mentoring programs, opportunities for exchanging expertise, and start-up financing for (potential) entrepreneurs. Political frameworks such as tax reliefs and suitable legal forms for businesses are also not yet fully developed.
Municipal Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic – MENA region
In the wake of the Pandemic, municipalities in the MENA region in both urban and rural areas need to rethink their modes of operation and accelerate their shift towards building resilience during the recovery process. In an effort to support municipalities that are members of the Connective Cities network in the MENA region, four thematic working groups were established as part of Connective Cities program ‘Municipal Recovery from the Pandemic.’ Objectives of this working group include promoting practice–oriented knowledge exchange between municipal and urban practitioners, facilitating peer learning on sustainable and innovative approaches to build resilience in cities through biodiversity and environmental protection, digitalisation of municipal services, and promoting social entrepreneurship for circularity. The program has resulted in the development of concrete urban solutions. Another outcome was the creation of partnerships between municipalities as well as with private sector actors to articulate the proposed solutions and scale up the impact. This report summarizes the main achievements until February 2022.
Turning social business ideas into reality with yooweedoo
Founders of social start-ups – so-called social entrepreneurs – have a one-stop contact point in Schleswig-Holstein: the yooweedoo programme. Based at Kiel University, yooweedoo facilitates social entrepreneurship with workshops, project advice, an ideas competition and an active network for sharing lessons learned.
Social entrepreneurship enriches municipalities
At the virtual dialogue event held on 20, 21 and 23 September 2021, over 45 participants from 10 countries took a look at social entrepreneurship from a range of municipal perspectives. They found that this rather new target group for local business development has a great deal of potential for municipalities. Innovative examples from Kiel, the municipality hosting the virtual event, as well as from the UK and Uganda, showcased the wide range of funding opportunities and the great benefits that can arise when municipalities and social entrepreneurs work together.
So far, many municipalities have given barely any thought to social entrepreneurship. The dialogue event provided them with a good first impression. The international dialogue and examples from around the world also inspired many participants to take concrete action to promote social entrepreneurship.
Kiel – the true champion of social entrepreneurship
The German City of Kiel is committed to the Agenda 2030 with its 17 SDGs. The sustainibility price in 2021 helped pave the way. Kiel is a true champion of social entrepreneurship promotion. Many sustainability projects evolved with the support of the city and its people. The video presents four outstanding examples from the local entrepreneur scene.
Watch the video at YouTube: