By PROFESSOR AHMED SHAIKH<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MD REGENT BUSINESS SCHOOL
GLOBALLY the perennial battle to alleviate poverty is an enduring one and in this respect South Africa is no exception. According to Statistics SA almost half of the adult popula\u00action in our country is living below the upper-bound poverty line. While the battle against poverty has been a difficult one, the recent Covid-19 pan\u00acdemic has exacerbated the situation, especially in terms of poverty rates, the economy, health, education and employment prospects.
In addition to the pandemic, the country is also in its worst economic recession in 100 years. South Africa\u2019s unemployment rate rose to 32.6 per\u00accent in the first quarter of 2021 from 32.5 percent in the previous period (Trading Economics -2021). Stats SA also confirms the official unemploy\u00acment rate among youth (15-34 years) was 46.3% in Quarter 1 2021. Millions are at risk of losing their livelihoods.
The combined effects of the pan\u00acdemic and economic recession may not only present a temporary shock, but have lasting implications for pov\u00acerty rates in South Africa through its effects on people\u2019s health, edu\u00accation, and employment prospects. Actions being taken to combat South African poverty and Covid-19 have proven that, with new options and renewed commitments, there is still much that can be done to alleviate poverty.
Indeed, poverty reduction has become a critical issue for almost all sectors of society. Guided by this new reality, entrepreneurship and innova\u00action, especially through small business development has been touted as a sig\u00acnificant part of the solution to poverty reduction. It is now an established fact that entrepreneurship and innovation generate the majority of decent and sustainable jobs and contribute sig\u00acnificantly to economic growth, thus enabling a large portion of the popu\u00aclation to move out of poverty.
Sadly though, until recently, busi\u00acness education has adopted a theoret\u00acical and laissez-faire approach to this proposition and has been lackadaisical in its attitude toward making entrepre\u00acneurship and innovation a catalyst for action. In essence business education has paid lip service to the creation of an empowering and inclusive entre\u00acpreneurial and innovation ecosystem that can genuinely contribute to job creation, economic growth and pov\u00acerty alleviation.
To be truly authentic and relevant in a world that is riddled with myr\u00aciad problems and challenges such as poverty and inequality, the purveyors of business education have to forge inclusive strategic partnerships with all stakeholders, especially local com\u00acmunities that host them.
For example, Regent Business School (RBS) besides forging close ties with all its stakeholder commu-nities through its business education, research and outreach programmes has held steadfast to its mission and made considerable investments to create an entrepreneurial and innovation eco\u00acsystem to support the many facets of small business development for pov\u00acerty and unemployment alleviation.
As part of this initiative, RBS has established Regent Enterprise Devel\u00acopment Hub (redHUB), an accelerator which has leveraged the institution\u2019s iLeadLABs or national technology hubs and harnessed its academic, research and outreach intellectual property to champion entrepreneurial devel\u00acopment. The redHUB\u2019s mission is to provide impactful education, training and mentorship for aspirant and cre\u00acative entrepreneurs by nurturing their disruptive and innovative skills using resilient and anti-fragile strategies.
Professor Shaikh is an academic and researcher and managing director of Regent Business School. He writes in his personal capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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