Scaling Social Entrepreneurship Training Across Liberia
Summary
In 2024, YOCEL committed to double the geographic footprint of their Jon Freeman School of Social Entrepreneurship to support ongoing efforts to foster sustainable economic growth and social development across Liberia. By working in new counties and leveraging technology to enhance curriculum delivery, YOCEL will train 180 entrepreneurs through their Livelihood Accelerator program by July 2026, guaranteeing that nearly 95% will have secured job placements or started their own social enterprises by the conclusion of the program. Simultaneously, their Impact Fellowship will support an additional 30 developing entrepreneurs to launch and scale their social enterprises. Through their work to scale this holistic initiative, YOCEL has committed to help address the root causes of Liberia’s issues such as poverty, livelihood, and unemployment by economically empowering individuals, particularly women and youth, through education, entrepreneurship training, mentorship, and access to financing and networking opportunities.
Approach
YOCEL is committing to scale their programs to create a sustainable impact that fosters economic growth and social development in Liberia. Over the next two years, YOCEL will leverage technology to enhance curriculum delivery and train 210 entrepreneurs, running two different programs: one supporting micro-entrepreneurs to launch and another focused on helping impact entrepreneurs scale.
YOCEL’s proven model of entrepreneurship support they have piloted through JFSSE involves four key components: acceleration, an entrepreneur bootcamp that concludes with a pitch competition, the school’s Wologizi Fund providing seed grants to graduates ($500 – $5,000) , and ongoing networking opportunities. Early-stage social entrepreneurs and micro-entrepreneurs can participate in JFSSE’s Impact Fellowship or Livelihood Accelerator program. Through this commitment, YOCEL is increasing each annual Impact Fellowship cohort by 50% (from 10 to 15 participants) and recruiting young people from seven Liberian counties. The Livelihood Accelerator program will also recruit participants from an additional county, expanding the reach of this program to three counties, and run a total of three cohorts of 30 individuals per year. The Livelihood Accelerator targets high school students, out of school youth, and other vulnerable young people to help develop micro and small enterprises to improve their livelihoods.
JFSSE’s acceleration and fellowship programs focus on serving women, youth, and people with disabilities, emphasizing their individual needs and empowering participants to manage their learning journeys through customized mentorship and coaching sessions. Bootcamps equip entrepreneurs with skills to further refine business plans, understand the investment landscape, and develop winning pitches. Following the bootcamp, a pitching competition awards non-interest loans to help the participating entrepreneurs launch or scale businesses. Throughout the programs, YOCEL facilitates networking events and an annual entrepreneurship conference.
To support these scaling efforts, they have developed a new partnership with their partner Ora Kinderhilfe to adapt YOCEL’s entrepreneurship curriculum into a hybrid model allowing their participants to benefit from both in-person and online course activities.
Action Plan
This Commitment to Action spans two years and YOCEL’s quarterly approach to delivery and evaluation will be the same across both years since each cohort participates in entrepreneurial training programs for one year.
To improve the quality of the programs in Q3 of 2024, YOCEL will run an analysis of the entire existing program. This will involve evaluating impact in the current operating locations and leveraging lessons learned through that evaluation to adjust future implementation approaches when they officially launch their new scaled up program in Q4 of 2024 (beginning in October 2024) . Before focusing on reaching scale, YOCEL will also work with their implementing partner, Ora Kinderhilfe, to integrate YOCEL’s curriculum, including any annual adaptations, into the learning management tech platform. This will ensure efficient and cost-effective delivery of the program. Finally, in Q3, YOCEL will also create the key deliverables implementation guide for the entire program.
In Q4 (for both 2024 and 2025) , a core priority will be to recruit trainers and mentors for the next cohort of the program. YOCEL will conduct information sessions as part of the recruitment process, and then recruit program participants (30 for the Livelihood Accelerator and 15 for the Impact Fellowship) . Once both trainers and participants have been recruited, YOCEL will host a launch call to assess the different needs of participants.
In Q1 of 2025, YOCEL will implement its capacity building phase followed by the launch of the mentorship program in Q2. During the implementation and delivery of the capacity building and mentorship programs, there will be regular monitoring and evaluation. An impact assessment will also be conducted during Q2 of each year and those participating in the programs will be inducted into the school’s alumni network. YOCEL will also launch a report detailing progress and updates from the cohort in June 2025 and June 2026.
Background
Despite Liberia’s rich natural resources, a significant portion of the population grapples with poverty, struggling to find stable work and secure a sufficient income. According to the World Bank, as of May 2024, over half the country (around 50.9%) lives below the national poverty line. This harsh reality disproportionately affects women, especially those leading households in rural areas, who face a double burden due to limited access to education and a lack of recognition for their unpaid labor. These women frequently fall deeper into poverty as their crucial unpaid household labor often goes unrecognized and their limited access to education hinders their entrance into the job market.
Yet the formal job market offers scant relief, employing only 18.1% of Liberians. The vast majority (85%) depend on the informal sector, which while providing some income, is notoriously unstable and low paying. Limited access to education, the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the growing threat of climate change all continue to exacerbate the situation.
In 2024, the Liberian Government unveiled the ARREST agenda – an acronym representing Agriculture, Roads, Rule of Law, Education, Sanitation, and Tourism – calling for unity among Liberians, and plans to leverage these key sectors to promote comprehensive and sustainable economic development across the country.
YOCEL, an NGO based in Liberia recognized the alignment of their pilot program, Jon Freeman School of Social Entrepreneurship (JFSSE) , with this new national agenda. JFSSE is a holistic initiative that seeks to address the root causes of Liberia’s issues such as poverty, livelihood, and unemployment by economically empowering individuals, particularly women and youth, through education, entrepreneurship training, mentorship, and access to financing and networking opportunities. JFSSE, aligned with Liberia’s ARREST agenda, empowers women and youth by fostering job creation, leadership development, and thriving communities, ultimately creating an enabling environment for social entrepreneurship.
Progress Update
Partnership Opportunities
Understanding that collaboration is the key to improvement and growth, YOCEL recognizes the need to partner with like-minded organizations with bigger platforms and experience to scale. Through partnerships, they hope to gain more financial resources to increase their impact and strengthen programs in Liberia. Beyond funding partners, they are also looking to develop relationships with other similar entrepreneurship-focused schools in different countries to learn more about their best practice and expert approaches to scaling in different regions and contexts. YOCEL is committed to collaborating with existing, and cultivating new, implementing partners to drive exponential growth of the initiative and believes that these additional partnerships will lead to greater media awareness as other organizations can amplify JFSSE’s work and programs on their own social channels and through their individual media contacts., JFSSE provides comprehensive training and support to aspiring social entrepreneurs, equipping them with the skills, knowledge, and resources needed to launch and grow successful social enterprises. Through mentorship, training, and access to funding, the school seeks to create a supportive environment where social entrepreneurs can thrive and develop their ideas into sustainable businesses that have a positive impact on society. Those who partner with YOCEL to support JFSSE are provided with access to the curriculum and are able to engage with the YOCEL team to learn best practices and benefit from their topic expertise around implementing entrepreneurship and job training curriculum. YOCEL highlights all partners across their social media platforms and through newspaper publications and radio talk shows to boost publicity for partners. They are also equipped to implement and deliver any related curriculum for interested collaborators interested in leveraging YOCEL’s network.