The 6th IGNITE conference “rebuilding futures” brings together refugees, entrepreneurs, education experts, private sector, governments, academia and NGOs to improve higher education, promote sustainable economic empowerment and strengthen leadership amongst young people in fragile states.

SPARK develops higher education and entrepreneurship so that young ambitious people are empowered to lead their post-conflict societies into prosperity.

During the 6th IGNITE conference, there are three workshops:

• What Businesses Can Do to Support Refugees – Business around the world are becoming more interested in contributing to solutions for the global refugee crisis. However, the question remains: what can businesses really do and how? Train talent? Employ refugees? Encourage entrepreneurship? Create private-public partnerships? Expect new approaches and a concrete action plan for businesses worldwide.
• Halmachu! How to Prevent Violent Extremism – In recent years many Kurdish youth have joined violent extremist groups in the region. How can we prevent this from happening again? Two recent pilot programmes focusing on Kurdish youth have been run on the ground in Iraq. The session will provide some insight into these civil society interventions and the successes and challenges these programmes face. Most notably, what happens when donors stop funding? In this interactive session, the audience will be challenged to workshop ideas about how civil society can take on the threat of violent extremism and youth radicalisation and keep the lights on.
• No Internet: Mobile Solutions for Entrepreneurship – Rural entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa have long faced challenges in getting products to markets at the best possible prices. In an age with ever-developing smart technology, how do those without regular access to the internet keep up? New, (simple) mobile solutions – that negate the need for an internet connection – are now allowing entrepreneurs and farmers to dictate their own futures. The workshop focuses on cases from Somalia and Rwanda, and how (simple) mobile tech can boost entrepreneurship.