helping small businesses grow into the employers young people are waiting for ↓
← our flag, our brief: build for South Sudan
Empowering youthSustainable jobsJuba → the worldThink Tank Area 51Empowering youthSustainable jobsJuba → the worldThink Tank Area 51
the people
Meet the crew
Six students from the African Leadership University who picked the hardest brief on the board — youth unemployment in South Sudan — and refused to put it back.
Mico Dan
Team lead & chief question-asker. Kept every meeting honest with one line: “but would this create a job?”
Nelly Isaro
Research engine. Turned messy PESTLE rabbit-holes into the numbers that anchor this whole notebook.
Akuol Juach
Our compass on the ground. Grew up closest to the problem and made sure the solution stayed South Sudanese.
Belinda Princess
Empathy-mapper & interview wrangler. Collected the voices from the field you'll read below.
Sage Sophie
Storyteller. Built the pitch that made a room full of strangers care about SMEs in Juba.
Vainqueur Ishimwe
Numbers & digital. Modelled the budget, and stitched this very website together. Hi 👋
why we exist
our mission, in one breath —
To assist South Sudanese youth with the
skills, tools & opportunities
they need to create sustainable jobs for themselves and their communities.
the problem
The fatal gap
We wrote the numbers on stickers so we'd never stop seeing them. They are still hard to look at.
0%+youth unemploymentUNDP, 2025
0%of youth lack formal jobs — despite holding diplomas
0%of government revenue depends on oil alone
0.1%GDP contraction in 2024 when oil exports faltered
problem statement S.M.A.R.T.
Youth unemployment remains a fatal issue in South Sudan. Youth unemployment sits above 50%, and government reports suggest up to 95% of youth lack formal employment despite holding secondary or university qualifications.
The private sector is barely integrated into the economy — South Sudan leans on oil for 90% of government revenue — so outside of government work there are few chances to get a job. The more youth stay unemployed, the deeper they fall into poverty and the more the state spends on safety nets, weakening the economy further.
Empowering small business owners to establish and grow ventures — through acceleration, funding and hands-on support — creates easily accessible employment, lowers unemployment and diversifies the economy away from oil.
research
Notes from the field
A PESTLE sweep, empathy maps, stakeholder charts, and real conversations. This is where the desk research met the dust.
P
Political
Elections rescheduled again to December 2026. A fragile government structure scares off the foreign investment that could power private-sector jobs.
E
Economic
Oil-dependent GDP whiplash: −26.1% in 2024, then a ~46% rebound in 2025. Official unemployment ~13% masks 75% of youth stuck in subsistence work.
S
Social
Roughly 4 in 10 girls marry before 18, cutting education short. Returnees from Sudan's crisis are overwhelming an already thin labour market.
T
Technological
e-Tax becomes mandatory by March 2026 — yet only 13% of citizens have internet access. Basic connectivity cuts joblessness odds by ~14%.
L
Legal
No dedicated commercial courts, no specialised arbitration. Business disputes have nowhere reliable to go — a silent tax on every venture.
E
Environmental
Routine extreme flooding threatens small businesses — but the EU-funded GREBI incubator is actively backing climate-resilient, youth-led SMEs.
small businesses like these are the real job engines · photo: Mercy Corps
Voices from the field — 5 interviews, June 2026
“Infrastructure is our #1 barrier to growth — before anything else.”
every single business owner we asked
“Finance for SMEs? Extremely limited. Banks don't see us.”
SME owner, Juba
“Applicants have degrees but no practical experience — so we can't hire them.”
employer, on the skills gap
“Too often the job goes to a cousin, not a candidate.”
graduate, on nepotism in hiring
the big idea
The Growth Lab
A growth accelerator that pairs existing small businesses with university student teams — so businesses scale, and students graduate with real experience and real job offers.
Students give
Hands-on support in bookkeeping, marketing and business planning — supervised, structured, and free for the SME.
the win-win
Businesses give back
High-quality consulting received — and a commitment to hire youth interns and employees as they grow.
the 12-week accelerator journey →
1
Pairing
Match SMEs with multidisciplinary student teams based on what each business actually needs.
2
Training
An intensive kickoff workshop for both the students and the business owners.
3
Support
A 12-week consulting sprint focused on marketing, bookkeeping and digital tools like e-Tax.
4
Impact
The business scales up — and opens full-time roles for the youth who helped it grow.
why we win #1
We focus on employers
We don't just train job-seekers into a market with no jobs. We grow existing businesses' capacity to hire — creating the demand side, not just supply.
why we win #2
Everyone leaves richer
SMEs get free, supervised consulting. Students get the practical experience that removes the single biggest barrier employers named: “no experience.”
who benefits?
🛠
SME owners
Local businesses in agriculture, manufacturing and tech, professionalising and scaling up.
🎓
Students
University youth bridging the gap between classroom theory and industry reality.
🌍
Community
A society gaining a diversified local economy — and jobs that don't depend on oil.
if we get this right…
0+
jobs within 2 years
Each supported SME is expected to hire 2–5 young people during the pilot alone. Growing employers multiplies jobs — and our focus on climate-resilient, tech-integrated businesses means those jobs last.
Funding the vision $10,000 pilot
Investment area
Amount
What it unlocks
Pilot operations — space & internet
$2,000
Seamless connectivity for e-Tax & digital tools
Student team stipends (5 teams)
$4,000
Commitment & transport for every team
Mentorship & training resources
$1,500
Curriculum & expert facilitators
Marketing & outreach
$1,000
Attracting top-tier SMEs to the pilot
M&E & contingency
$1,500
Measuring success, absorbing surprises
the road here
Six challenges, one notebook
E-Lab handed us six challenges. Here's what each one asked of us — and what we made.
01
Assemble the think tank
Six strangers became AREA 51. We named ourselves after the place where impossible things are rumoured to be built — then wrote the mission statement that has anchored every page since.
the crew, day one
02
Define the problem
A SMART problem statement, a five-whys root cause dig, and a full PESTLE analysis. This is where “unemployment is bad” became “the private sector is underdeveloped — fix that.”
95%the number that changed our direction — youth without formal jobs, despite education
03
Go into the field
Empathy maps, stakeholder analysis, and five interviews — one in person, four by questionnaire. The field told us what no report did: experience and nepotism block youth more than any policy.
listening where the culture lives · photo: UNESCO
04
Design the solution
Ideation, a lean canvas, and an MVP blueprint. The South Sudan Growth Lab was born: students consult, businesses grow, and both sides walk away with what they were missing.
problemsolutionunique valuechannelsrevenuemetrics
our lean canvas, in miniature
05
Launch your mission
We pitched the Growth Lab — the fatal gap, the accelerator journey, the $10,000 ask — to a live audience. A few pages from that deck, straight into this notebook:
tap a slide to zoom
06
Digital print
Challenge six asked us to put the whole journey on the web. You're looking at it — hand-built, themed in the colours of the South Sudanese flag, every scribble intentional.
you are here ★this very website — challenge complete
