Feature storyJanuary 5, 2024By CERC

From research to their own businesses: how 45 young people in Kinshasa became entrepreneurs

A year after researching why young people in Kinshasa are left out of education and work, nine youth organisations helped 45 of them back into work – in five businesses they now run themselves.

ICON members at work during the Youth Represent DRC Data Summit, Kinshasa, August 2022. Photo: CERC

Kinshasa, 5 January 2024 – At the start of 2023, 45 young people in Kinshasa were out of school and out of work. Some needed psycho-social care before anything else; some needed detoxification. By the end of the year, they were running five small businesses of their own – and training other young people in turn. This is how they got there.

It started with young people asking questions

In 2021, under Youth Excel, funded by USAID through IREX, CERC trained and mentored ten youth-led and youth-serving organisations in Kinshasa. They formed an issue-based collaborative network, the ICON – among them an LGBTQI-led organisation and two organisations led by people living with disabilities.

Their question was simple: why are so many young people in Kinshasa left out of education and work, and what would bring them back in? Twenty young researchers went looking for answers, and in August 2022 they presented their findings to decision-makers at a Data Summit in Kinshasa.

From findings to a plan of their own

The researchers did not stop at a report. Nine of the organisations – CINA, Congo pour tous, Jeunes Chefs d’État, Jeunialissime, Kin Car Wash, the Parlement des jeunes de Kinshasa, ASFG, SJUD and Ujuzi Sustainable Services – formed a consortium and wrote a joint action plan: the “Socio-economic reintegration of 45 young people with limited access to education, employment and other opportunities in the city of Kinshasa”.

They could have run ten small projects, one each. They chose to work together instead, and to pool their resources into five shared businesses: collaboration was the heart of the project.

Four steps back into work

Finding the young people.

The organisations identified 45 young people excluded from work and from community life.

Care first.

They received psycho-social support and, where needed, help with detoxification.

Learning a trade.

Vocational and entrepreneurship training, mentoring and group activities helped them build skills and a network of support.

Starting up.

The young people formed five economic interest groups. CERC helped each group write its business plan, and each received equipment and a microgrant.

Five businesses run by young people

Two micro-enterprises making dairy products, bread and cosmetics – and training other young people.
Two computer centres, at Camp Nkokolo and Camp Malula, teaching computing, design, printing and photocopying.
A tailoring workshop in Ngaba, training young women and men in sewing.

After IREX funding ended in February 2023, CERC stayed alongside the five groups through 10 months of online mentoring funded by the project, to December 2023, and helped them look for local partners to grow.

What changed

Before and after: what changed for young people in Kinshasa
Before (2022)	After (December 2023)
45 young people out of school and out of work, some needing psycho-social care or detoxification.	The 45 young people work in five businesses they run themselves.
No trade, no equipment, no capital to start an activity.	Trained in a trade and in entrepreneurship; each group has its equipment, a business plan and a microgrant.
Youth organisations working separately, each on its own projects.	Nine organisations ran one joint plan and five shared businesses.
Young people of different backgrounds, genders and sexual orientations rarely working side by side.	They worked together, and their mutual acceptance grew, as their testimonies show.
Young people as recipients of programmes.	Young people as researchers, trainers and entrepreneurs: ICON members led leadership and entrepreneurship training, and one organisation lent its office for computer classes.
Evidence on youth exclusion missing from decisions.	Young researchers presented their evidence to decision-makers at the Data Summit, and then acted on it.

What comes next

The business plans were ambitious for the funds available, and coordinating nine organisations took regular meetings at CERC’s office. CERC now mentors the ICON members so that the five businesses can raise funds from local businesses, international organisations and United Nations agencies – and the young people say they want to carry on.

About CERC

The Centre de Recherche sur l’Anti-Corruption (CERC) is a Congolese non-governmental organisation founded in April 2017 in South Kivu. With young people at its heart, CERC works with schools, communities, public institutions and partners to promote transparency, accountability and integrity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has held special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2021. Learn more: Who we are.

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