In order to achieve impact on the Sustainable Development Goals in an environment of mounting complexity and uncertainty, the public sector must increasingly take on an entrepreneurial and co-creative role with partners across sectors. Through the immersive learning journey of the Public Entrepreneurship Academy, the participants gain key knowledge in general management, entrepreneurship, agile co-creation, innovation and systems thinking. Simultaneously, the programme encourages participants to engage and leverage curiosity, creativity and experimentation. They learn while doing, integrating new ideas directly into their own work with the support of peers and individual coaching. They become part of a community of public entrepreneurs, collectively defining what public entrepreneurship means across diverse roles and organisations, and exploring how to take action for impact.
Developed in a collaboration between the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Competence Center for Social Innovation at the University of St.Gallen, the Public Entrepreneurship Academy empowers participants with the mindset and skills to accelerate progress on the SDGs through impact-driven private sector engagement, collaboration and entrepreneurial action. It supports them in collaborating and forming partnerships across sectors, taking entrepreneurial action in their roles, innovating and scaling for impact.
I found the Public Entrepreneurship Academy course to be a very practical learning experience. The course provided a good blend of theory and its application in our daily work as development practioners. Despite attending the course virtually, I felt the structure provided sufficient scope for engagement and interaction with the facilitators and fellow participants. The experience sharing amongst the group really added value to the overall learning environment. Going forward, the peer network will remain a valuable asset for all the participants to tap into. The course reiterated that engaging with the private sector differs from the usual development interventions. The course content and group discussions provided pragmatic suggestions on how to tackle innovation versus risks. The session on changing social practices to enable sustainable change was also very insightful. Both these aspects are relevant to my routine work and has helped me to think outside of the box, by putting my newly acquired knowledge to practice. Through this course, I was also able to connect with a colleague and am currently in discussions to pilot an intervention in Bangladesh that worked well in China, drawing upon SDC’s regional experience. This was a much appreciated ‘unintended outcome’ of this learning experience.
Ameena Chowdhury
Programme Manager, SDC, Bangladesh