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Steve Mariotti Founder of Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) Author of An Entrepreneur’s Manifesto ... A New Weapon in the War on Terror: Owner-Entrepreneurship Education Original article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-mariotti/female-suicide-bombers-ho_b_10169070.html Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess | ||
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THE BLOG
A New Weapon in the War on Terror: Owner-Entrepreneurship Education
05/09/2016 01:14 pm ET | Updated May 09, 2016 Part 1 of a three-part series on using owner-entrepreneurship education to win the war on terror. Look for Part II next Monday. At NFTE France’s annual business plan competition, an 18-year-old entrepreneur told me he was “creating a clothing business in order to hire people and help with the unemployment problem in Europe.” A Muslim immigrant from Egypt, he lived in a poor suburb of Paris. “Are you optimistic about the future?” I asked. “Yes, I am!” he said with a bright smile, showing me his business logo. He proceeded to explain his economics of one unit in great detail. His pride in being a small business owner was obvious. Extreme poverty and sky-high unemployment rates make low-income Muslim youth around the world vulnerable to recruitment by Islamic terrorists. Yet, I’ve met many low-income Muslim youth who have told me that they went from feeling hopeless and alienated to being excited about their futures after completing owner-entrepreneurship education programs offered by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). 
Owner-entrepreneurship education stresses the power of ownership as a means to create wealth. Disadvantaged youth are seldom let in on this secret to wealth creation. I once asked a leading venture capitalist who has donated millions toward helping low-income children attend private schools, “What about teaching low-income students the ownership skills that made your fortune, so they can become financially independent?” He responded, only half-jokingly, “But then who would do the work?” His comment illuminates a core global issue: If only the wealthiest people understand ownership, how can we expect the wealth gap to narrow, or violent extremist groups to lose their appeal? In NFTE programs, students learn not only entrepreneurial skills like record keeping, sales, negotiation, and marketing, but also the power of ownership. NFTE students learn how to value and sell a business, and how to build wealth by using franchising, licensing and other advantages of ownership. To fight terrorism effectively, the United States must work with our allies to develop a new foreign policy initiative with owner-entrepreneurship education and small-business incubation at its core. This initiative should also support entrepreneurial eco-systems that connect entrepreneurs to markets and to each other across tribal, religious and national boundaries. This will motivate entrepreneurs to reduce conflict as not in their own best business interests. To win the war on terrorism, we must win hearts and minds. Owner-entrepreneurship education is an effective weapon in this fight. Mistakes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq After Operation Desert Storm, Iraq’s economic redevelopment efforts were led by American military officers and bureaucrats with little understanding of, or respect for, Iraqi small business owners. Without warning, they cut off access for Iraqi farmers to the subsidized seeds, fuel and fertilizer on which they relied, for example, fueling the rapid development of tension and resentment. Under American leadership, Iraq tilted toward exchange and price controls and the distribution of monopolies to relatives and political cronies of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. As a result, the United States failed to become a true political and economic liberator of the Iraqi people. Carlos A. Bell warned in his 2004 Cato Institute commentary “Pushing Iraq to Socialism or Capitalism?” that U.S. military officials were making terrible economic decisions with serious long-term consequences. “This would be a disaster and a missed opportunity.” Bell wrote, adding that “There is a golden opportunity to make every Iraq citizen shareholders in a private Iraqi oil company or companies.” I made a similar suggestion at the 2002 World Economic Forum meeting, where I advocated for using employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) to turn Iraq’s rich state-owned companies over to the Iraqi people. It is not a stretch to envision a more stable and cohesive Iraq today, had such recommendations for empowering the Iraqi people through ownership not fallen on deaf ears. Today, the U.S. military is taking some intelligent steps to help Iraqi farmers and other small business owners. The military sponsors a micro-grant program that enables military leaders in the field to submit small businesses for grants under $5,000 to help them improve their operations. These have been provided to farmers who need help repairing pumps to get water to their fields, and buying seed and fertilizer. 2016-05-09-1462812402-175416-iraqfarmerwsoldier.jpg Iraqi farmer with U.S. military micro-grant leader Lt. John Burt (North Carolina Field and Family) Train U.S. Military to Support Capitalism, Not Central Planning It is estimated that only twenty thousand American high school students annually take formal entrepreneurship courses. How can United States soldiers effectively encourage small businesses to flourish in occupied states or in disaster zones, if they are not business-literate? United States war colleges must train military officers in basic economics so they understand how to encourage markets in countries we assist or occupy, and do not resort to, and inadvertently establish, central planning as an economic model. We must train military personnel and government bureaucrats in owner-entrepreneurship, and revise our military operating manuals to reflect an entrepreneurial mindset. These efforts must include educating our counter-intelligence and national security personnel in the entrepreneurial mindset, as well, and encouraging them to look for and support pockets of entrepreneurial activity in every country where we seek to make a difference. Our military and security personnel should also learn the fundamentals of public choice theory, which uses economic theory to predict and analyze political behavior. Public choice theory argues that economic self-interest is the driving force of politics. With a grounding in public choice theory, our personnel will be equipped with a framework for analyzing who benefits and who loses from changes in taxation and government spending in any country where they are stationed. A Light Bulb Moment In 1982, I was a failing special-education teacher in the New York City public school system, unable to reach or teach my out-of-control students at the worst high school in America: Boys and Girls High in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. One day, on the verge of tears, I stepped out of the classroom to compose myself. In a final desperate move, I took off my watch and marched back in with an impromptu sales pitch for it. To my astonishment, my students were riveted and stayed with me as we calculated wholesale cost, retail price and return on investment. I had stumbled onto the truth: these kids were far more frustrated than I was. They felt so disconnected from our economic system that they saw no futures for themselves. They had no valid reason to pay attention in class. When I began connecting their classroom lessons to real-world business examples, and helped them start little businesses, the light came on. They became hugely motivated to learn to read, write, use math, and improve their behavior so that they could run their businesses effectively and earn money. In 1987, I founded NFTE, which has brought owner-entrepreneurship education to more than six hundred thousand low-income youth from Chicago to China. Academics from Brandeis and Harvard who have studied NFTE programs have verified that angry, disenfranchised youth from impoverished neighborhoods around the world can become inspiring, empowered leaders once they’ve been taught the power of ownership, and have personally benefited from voluntary trade. 2016-05-09-1462812485-6874617-nfteobama.jpg President Obama with NFTE National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge winners Scott Paiva, Zoe Damacela, Kalief Rollins (l-r) Entrepreneurship Can Be Taught — to Anyone There is no entrepreneurship gene possessed only by a few rare talents. Entrepreneurship can be taught to anyone, even to the most disruptive kids in the worst schools in the world. Especially to them. They know how to hustle, they understand the value of a dollar, and they long to participate in the economy — but they have no idea how. That is the source of their frustration and acting out, and a critical reason why they are vulnerable to the deadly siren call of drug-dealing gangs or terrorists. In too many low-income neighborhoods around the world, the primary influences on the minds of young people are criminal gangs or paramilitary terrorist organizations that offer training, discipline and opportunities to earn money. Pablo Guzman, executive director of Foundacion, NFTE’s partner in Mexico City, told me there is no shortage of entrepreneurial energy among Mexico’s young people, but that it is channeled down the wrong path. He views owner-entrepreneurship education as a way to break the next generation of young Mexicans away from the lure of quick profits offered by the drug cartels, an attraction that is not dimmed by the rampant violence and high mortality rate of the drug trade. “They prefer five years of being rich to thirty to forty years of being poor,” Guzman explains. “That’s the mentality we’re trying to break.” Owner-entrepreneurship education programs are a legitimate alternative. They meet the same needs for low-income young people, yet nurture a far more constructive entrepreneurial mindset. Ownership Can Close the Wealth Gap The wealth gap is also fueling the flames of extremism. Income disparity is a huge problem not only in the U.S. but around the world. In Saudi Arabia, for example, millions of citizens struggle to make ends meet on the fringes of one of the world’s richest economies. The Saudi government releases virtually no official data about its poorest citizens. It is estimated, however, that in a nation whose king is worth around $18 billion, between two to four million Saudi citizens are trying to support their families on $500 per month or less. Wealth per capita has fallen by about half within a generation, stoking rage and radicalism among both the poor and the middle class. 2016-05-09-1462812567-2311314-diamondmerc_ex.jpg Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s $4.8 million diamond-encrusted Mercedes If we use entrepreneurship initiatives to cut the rate of new business failure by even one to two percent per year, though, we put the world on a glide path to eliminate extreme poverty. The World Bank has reported that “the number of people living in extreme poverty around the world is likely to fall to under 10 percent of the global population in 2015, giving fresh evidence that a quarter-century-long sustained reduction in poverty is moving the world closer to the historic goal of ending poverty by 2030.” Let’s help that process along, for a more stable world. Follow Steve Mariotti on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SteveJMariotti http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-mariotti/a-root-cause-of-terrorism_b_10063938.html THE BLOG A Root Cause of Terrorism Is Not Religion 05/23/2016 11:03 am ET | Updated May 23, 2016 160 Steve Mariotti Founder of Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) Author of An Entrepreneur’s Manifesto After jihadists slaughtered 132 people in a Paris nightclub, French ambassador Gérard Araud declared on CNN, “It is not because you are unemployed that you blow yourself up in a theater...the problem is radical Islam.” Yet, unemployment among Muslim youth is estimated by Eurostat to be 40 percent in France and 50 percent in Germany. Can there be any doubt that financial desperation—not religion—is handing terrorist recruiters a huge pool of potential foot soldiers? To cut recruiters off at the knees, the United States must encourage its allies to commit to new strategies to integrate Muslim youth into their economies. According to Brandeis professor Andrew Hahn, “Studies demonstrate that entrepreneurship education programs are among the few strategies that work during periods of massive youth joblessness,” We blame religion and ignore the economic underpinnings of terrorism at our peril. We can fight back with entrepreneurship education, and initiatives that will encourage a worldwide entrepreneurial eco-system to take root, instead of poisonous ideologies. An Historic Pattern: Youth Unemployment Leads to War Viewed historically, it is no surprise that high rates of youth unemployment could lead to shocking acts of violence. In “The Bachelor Bomb: This Lost Generation of Young Men is Threatening Global Stability”, Quartz editor Gwynn Guilford explores the close relationship between surging populations of underemployed young men and revolutions or wars. Clear examples she cites include the English Revolution (1642-51), the French Revolution of 1789, and the emergence of the Nazi Party in the 1930s. 2016-05-23-1464013806-3611130-MuslimYouthRiots_SarcellesFrance.jpg Youth Riots in Sarcelles, France Since 2005, France has suffered through a series of youth riots ignited by rage over unemployment and discrimination. In her 2007 paper for the Institute For Social Policy And Understanding, “Muslims in France: French or Muslim, What Is the Choice?” Moushumi Khan argued that the riots exploded out of French Muslim frustration at “not getting rights of equal citizenship—including employment.” Khan added: “The degree of misinformation and prejudice about Muslims in Europe clouds any examination of the underlying reasons for social unrest.” Studies Prove Entrepreneurship Education Changes Minds When I began teaching in New York City’s public high schools in 1982, I was only able to reach my angry, disenfranchised low-income students when I started teaching them about business. Once I started using business lessons to get their attention, I discovered that they coped exceptionally well with the stress of business risk. They were eager to learn how to make money, and worked hard with great enthusiasm once they were shown how to create and run their own small businesses. They became interested in improving their math, reading and writing skills because these helped them run their businesses, and were less likely to drop out. But I couldn’t prove it. Luckily, starting in 1997, Brandeis and Harvard University partnered with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) for two decades to conduct the first-ever double-blind studies on the effect of entrepreneurship education on low-income youth. The studies showed that students exposed to entrepreneurship education developed:
France Begins Entrepreneurship Education Initiative Education is a priority in France, with 21 percent of the annual national budget earmarked for it, yet according to the French Council of Economic Analysis, roughly 150,000 young people drop out of school annually. In 2014, France recognized entrepreneurship education as a “cross-curricular objective at all levels of school education,” according to School Education Gateways’ report “Entrepreneurship Education in France.” France has begun to add entrepreneurship objectives into the national curriculum and target Junior Achievement (Entreprenedre pour Apprendre) programs to low-income youth. These initiatives are small, yet encouraging. Sub-Sahara’s Entrepreneurship Boom Meanwhile, the 2014 and 2016 GEM Global Reports—the world’s largest entrepreneurship study—found burgeoning entrepreneurial activity in the world’s poorest economies.Ten sub-Saharan economies—Angola, Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia—are “in the midst of an entrepreneurial revolution that is invigorating the region with new opportunities, increased employment, and a robust rise in gross domestic product,” according to GEM. American foreign policymakers need to be aware of this activity. We and our allies can help encourage entrepreneurial eco-systems to take root in Nigeria, for example, to help low-income youth resist the lure of Boko Haram and other violent extremist groups The GEM Report found “an incredible ability for people here to create their own jobs, and in many cases, jobs for others,” adding, “entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa can contribute substantially toward providing income for families and lifting communities out of poverty.” 2016-05-23-1464014284-8355767-140507135110teaafricanstartupchartstorytop.jpg Total Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA), from CNN “African Start-Ups” 5 Initiatives to Connect Entrepreneurs Globally I propose that the United States take the lead in establishing five international initiatives to connect entrepreneurs to markets and financing, and promote entrepreneurship as a viable path out of poverty for low-income youth. The estimated total annual cost of these initiatives is around $100 million, which pales in comparison to the billions spent on the War on Terror. Potential sponsors include not only national governments, but also the World Economic Forum and major corporations. 1. International business plan competition The top ten young entrepreneurs under age forty from 250 countries worldwide would be honored at an award ceremony and networking event in a different city annually. Estimated annual cost: $15 million 2. Worldwide venture capital fund for young entrepreneurs If 200 countries each choose 250 entrepreneurs to receive $1,000 grants to start their businesses, the total capital required per year would be $50 million globally. That is a small amount to invest compared to the social benefits of building a new generation of entrepreneurs. 3. Global expansion of Ernst & Young U.S. Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Estimated cost $5 million. 4. Free apps to connect entrepreneurs to markets globally These would enable a small farmer in Syria, for example, to find importers in Europe for his dates. Estimated annual cost $10 million. 5. International Internet/television series profiling young entrepreneurs This would promote award winners and tell their stories. Estimated cost $20 million Part 2 of a four-part series on winning the war on terror with owner-entrepreneurship education and support for entrepreneurs. Read Part 1 here. Follow Steve Mariotti on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SteveJMariotti http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-mariotti/female-suicide-bombers-ho_b_10169070.html THE BLOG Female Suicide Bombers: How to Fight This Dangerous Trend 06/03/2016 12:05 pm ET | Updated Jun 07, 2016 Steve Mariotti Founder of Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) Author of An Entrepreneur’s Manifesto Suicide bombings by women are escalating. Researchers estimate more than 200 female suicide bombers have blown themselves up since 2014, according to IRIN, a non-profit news org that covers humanitarian crises. These attacks—at markets, schools and even refugee camps—have killed over 1,000 people in Nigeria and neighboring Cameroon alone. Tragically, some recent female suicide bombers are believed to have been Boko Haram captives forced to carry out attacks. The number of willing female suicide bombers is growing, however, according to The University of Chicago’s Project On Security and Terrorism. Use of female suicide bombers is increasing not only among Boko Haram, but also Al Shabaab, the Taliban and ISIL. Terrorist recruiters are not ignoring women’s deadly potential as suicide bombers. Neither should governments that wish to fight terrorism effectively. To do so, we must explore the economic and political underpinnings of this dangerous trend. 2016-06-03-1464965258-8606618-13yearoldsuicidebomberBokoHaram640x6501.jpg Boko Haram captive, age 13 Financial Desperation May Be a Factor In Coerced or Committed? Boko Haram’s Female Suicide Bombers, (April 19, 2016), IRIN editor Obi Anyadike writes:”The same mix of factors that has motivated male recruits—revenge for security forces excesses, money for the family, and promise of a spiritual reward in exchange for a grim, disadvantaged present—can influence women to play a more direct role.” In Femme Fatale: The Rise of Female Suicide Bombers, Kathleen Turner, Army War College Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace, adds that “education and better opportunities for these young women must prevail over oppression, abuse or any other reason why they might join one of these groups. Women need to know there are other options besides joining a terrorist organization.” (War on the Rocks, Dec. 14, 2015) If financial desperation is a factor, we can fight back by empowering low-income Muslim women to find pathways out of poverty and subjugation. American foreign policy must also uphold women’s political and economic rights globally to prevent them from being forced into terrorist activity. Female Entrepreneurs Rise in Nigeria and Kenya Entrepreneurship education—plus support for young female entrepreneurs that includes mentoring and capital—is one viable way to tackle financial need. The good news is that female entrepreneurship is on the rise in the region most plagued by female suicide bombers. The 2015/16 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor reports that in sub-Saharan Africa “women are participating [in entrepreneurship] at equal or nearly equal rates in most of the countries we studied in this region.” This is an encouraging indicator that American foreign policy should support organizations striving to bring women into this area’s economy. She Leads Africa, for example, is an exciting Nigerian-based social enterprise that provides female startup entrepreneurs the education and financing to build and scale strong businesses. The organization is bringing SheHive New York to New York City June 2-5. This professional bootcamp will help young female entrepreneurs from Africa develop their business skills, and network with mentors and investors. 2016-06-03-1464917018-4906242-SheLeadsAfrica_foundersYasminBeloOsagieandAfuaOsei.jpg SheLeadsAfrica founders Yasmin Belo Osagie and Afua Osei There is a flurry of female-led tech entrepreneurship in Kenya, as well, which has a large Muslim population. AkiraChix, for example, is an all-female collective of self-proclaimed “geeks” that encourages young Kenyan women to enter the burgeoning African tech industry by providing entrepreneurship, coding and programming classes. AkiraChix founders Marie Githinji, Judith Owigar, Linda Kamau and Agenal Odur have developed and marketed numerous products, including iMatch, a tool that helps NGOs connect charitable goods to local needs. 2016-06-03-1464967089-4872241-AkiraChixGeekGirl.jpg AkiraChix “Geek Girl” Class Muhammad’s First Wife Was Successful Entrepreneur Muslim female entrepreneurs have a proud Islamic history. The Prophet Muhammad’s first wife, Khadija bint Khuwaylid was a very successful entrepreneur. Khadija’s father was a successful merchant in their Quraysh tribe. Upon his death, Khadija took over the business, trading goods from Mecca to Yemen. She proved to be a gifted businesswoman, developing a larger trading business than all other Quraysh traders combined. “Islam did not rise except through Ali’s sword and Khadija’s wealth,” a saying goes. In a 2010, Turkey’s Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges chairman, Rıfat Hisarcıklıoğlu proposed Khadija bint Khuwaylid as a role model for Turkish women. “As Muslims,” Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “we are trying to adhere to the Prophet’s tradition. If you imitate the Prophet, motivate your daughters for entrepreneurship.” Helping Muslim Women Access Capital Female Muslim entrepreneurs can face crippling discrimination, however. In Turkey, women own 40 percent of small-to-medium businesses, yet only 15 percent have access to finance, according to the 2016 IFC report A Helping Hand for Turkey’s Women Entrepreneurs. Banks in Turkey have ignored this market segment, even though the World Bank estimates that female entrepreneurs represent an untapped market of $4 billion. To help solve this problem, IFC has partnered with Turkish banks Abank, Fiba Banka, and Sekerbank to provide $60 million in capital to women-owned businesses in Turkey. Another organization helping female entrepreneurs access capital is Women’s Microfinance Initiative, which establishes village-level “loan hubs,” administered by local women in East Africa. The hubs provide capital, training and support services to poor rural women so they can develop income-producing businesses. The pioneer in providing finance so “the poorest of the poor” can start businesses is Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Grameen (which means “village bank”) was founded by economist Muhammad Yunus in 1983 as a micro-credit lender. Yunus reasoned that if financial resources could be made available to poor people on reasonable terms, “these millions of small people with their millions of small pursuits can add up to create the biggest development wonder.” In 2006, Grameen Bank and Yunus shared the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for their work. Today, Grameen has 8.81 million borrowers, of whom 97 percent are women running small businesses and farms. I Create: Turning Destitute Widows Into Entrepreneurs American officials made a huge policy blunder when they cut off benefits to the widows of Iraqi soldiers after Operation Desert Storm. This plunged Iraq’s war widows into extreme poverty, fueling the kind of rage and resentment that has fed recruits into ISIS and enabled it to take key Iraqi cities. In India, in contrast, I Create runs a practical grassroots entrepreneurship program focused on widows, abandoned women, and tribal women in impoverished rural areas. So far, I Create has helped more than 1400 women become entrepreneurs, chronicling just some of their stories in 101 Success Stories of I-Create Entrepreneurs. These women, in turn, have become role models for other disadvantaged women. The United States should help bring these types of programs to troubled regions to fight the development of terrorist sympathies and actions among low-income women and their relatives. UN Resolutions Should Include Economic Development for Women The United States should also back U.N. Security Council Resolution 1325, which affirms the critical role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts. This resolution calls on all parties to conflict to take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse. As a follow up to 1325, the Security Council has adopted Resolution 1889, which calls for strengthening women’s participation in peace processes. The Security Council should also add a resolution that women must be involved in economic development decisions. To fight the dangerous rise in female terrorism, we must include women in efforts to bring entrepreneurship education to low-income people, and help build entrepreneurial eco-systems that provide the capital, networking and mentoring female entrepreneurs need to succeed. Part 3 of a four-part series on fighting terror with owner-entrepreneurship education and support for entrepreneurs. Click to read Part 1 and Part 2.
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