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INSPIRING ENTREPRENEURSHIP ACROSS THE WORLD

Interview with Fiorina Mugione, Chief, Entrepreneurship Section,
Enterprise Development Branch, Division on Investment and
Enterprise United Nations Conference on Trade and Development,
(UNCTAD)

their businesses, hired MBA. I try to bring together what the private sector should
others and dragged all of these elements. be doing to provide entrepre-
themselves out of pover- neurship education and skills
ty. Q: The Division on development.
Investment
and
We wanted to know more Enterprise of UNCTAD First of all, the fundamental
about what UNCTAD every year organizes change in education today is
does in this field, so we huge meetings here in the move towards a lifelong
Geneva regarding entre-
on
Ms
knocked learning cycle. With the fast
Mugione's door. Despite preneurship. Why? changing environment, today
her busy schedule, she there is a higher need to stay
In these times of We all know that the financial competitive and up to date. In
took the time to receive
turmoil,
economic
us and to talk about crisis has hit and it brings pro- earlier times, you may have
governments and other found change. Change also spent fifteen or twenty years
agencies are reflecting something that she is generates opportunities for in school and at the end you
on ways to develop the really committed to: crea-
ting entrepreneurs, hel- aspiring new entrepreneurs- could obtain a Ph.D. as the
economy and put it back
ping people to become hips. We are trying to be cons- highest level-- and that was it!
on track. Statistics show
confident and self-suffi- tructive and positive in this Now you have to be flexible,
that it is not principally
cient. So now we now time of crisis and to bring up learning new skills throughout
through big companies
leave the floor to Ms optimism, because entrepre- your whole life. What we fmd
that jobs are created, but
Mugione. neurship can generate the increasingly is that, alongside
rather through small and
change that the economy the formal education system,
medium-sized compa- needs. It brings innovative there are other forms of edu-
nies. However, before Q: Could you tell us
something about your products to the market and cation and capacity-building
reaching that point, we
background? inspires new policies. taking place throughout life.
tend to forget that behind
each company there is a
My name is Fiorina Mugione Entrepreneurship can be fos- For the education sector, what
man or a woman who has
and I have been working with tered by the government. The we are recommending is that
spent time developing a
the United Nations since 1987 relationship between the you start to teach kids to beco-
business idea, pursuing public and private sector is me entrepreneurs at the prima-
a dream, creating some- in different positions, in diffe- changing. With the Multi-year ry level. We say that an entre-
thing rent duty-stations. I have wor-
ked for the UN in Bangkok Expert Meeting on Enterprise preneur is not only a person
and New York, OECD in Paris Development Policies and that starts his/her own busi-
More than twenty years
and now I have been in Capacity-building in Science, ness; he or she is a person who
ago UNCTAD set up a
Geneva for a number of years. Technology and Innovation will launch a project and will
programme, Empretec,
For the past four years, I have we are building up awareness also behave in a different way
on how to support and
been given the assignment of about the policy issues to in a working environment. In
entrepre-
encourage encourage entrepreneurship any structure, even in a
neurship. Ifs one of the developing entrepreneurship and what they should be like. bureaucracy or a government,
UN success stories in UNCTAD. We aim to
improve entrepreneurship In fact, we have identified six you can become entrepreneu-
which should be better
policy and also to deliver areas and we are building a rial and make things happen.
known. Thanks to this
technical assistance to develo- policy tool-kit that shows
successful policy-makers how they can By starting to teach entrepre-
program
more than 200'000 ping countries to foster or
inspire entrepreneurship. inspire entrepreneurship. The neurship to children at the pri-
persons have been trai-
last meeting dealt with educa- mary level, you can build an
ned to become entrepre-
I'm an economist and I have tion and what you
neurs all over the world
experience of international need to do at the
since 1988.
investment. I worked for policy level to
many years on investment bring change to the
Through the ongoing
policies and now on entrepre- education sector.
efforts of the UNCTAD We were looking
team, networking activi- neurship. To me they are lin- not only at the for-
ties and conferences, ked -- you cannot have one
without the other. I also bring mal education sys-
many people have set up
some experience from my tem, but also at
16 1 2011 Diva

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