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  • A young woman presents a model solar panel to a meeting room of colleagues.

    Sustainability

    Transforming communities

    We work with local partners to empower young people to learn, earn and grow through Futuremakers.

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Our community impact report

Discover how we’ve empowered young people to learn, earn and grow.

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Empowering the next generation

We believe everyone deserves the opportunity to realise their potential. Yet globally, more than 282 million young people are not in education, training or employment.

Futuremakers by Standard Chartered is our global initiative to tackle inequality by promoting greater economic inclusion in our markets. Futuremakers supports disadvantaged young people aged 35 or below, especially girls and people with visual impairments, to learn new skills and improve their chances of getting a job or starting their own business.

Over USD78 million raised for young people

We set out to fundraise and donate USD50 million for Futuremakers between 2019 and 2023 to empower the next generation to learn, earn and grow. In response to COVID-19, we committed a further USD25 million to Futuremakers to support economic recovery for young people impacted by the pandemic.

We’ve achieved the USD75 million target set for 2023 one year early, with additional donations made during the pandemic. In 2022, we fundraised USD14.7 million for Futuremakers including Group donations, bringing the total fundraised from 2019 to 2022 to USD78.7 million.

Funds raised go to the Standard Chartered Foundation, NGO and charity partners to deliver Futuremakers projects.

Listen to the podcast

Lifting participation

How to address the gender financing gap.

Listen now on YouTube

Hear from our young female entrepreneurs

  • Naom’s story

    How can we embrace equity and lift the participation of women in business? 

    Listen now on YouTube

  • Audrey’s story

    What role can technology play in lifting the participation of women in business? 

    Listen now on YouTube

About Futuremakers

In 2022, Futuremakers reached more than 335,000 young people. We are committed to promoting economic inclusion and empowering the next generation to learn, earn and grow.

Education

Unleashing the economic potential of girls

We know that investing in girls can result in increased prosperity and diversity. Giving girls the tools to shape their own future has an incredible multiplier effect on communities and societies.

Goal is our programme to equip adolescent girls with the confidence, knowledge and skills they need to be economic leaders in their families and communities. As part of Futuremakers, we are expanding Goal as our global education programme.

Since its launch in 2006, Goal has grown to become an internationally-recognised global movement operating in more than 20 markets. Through sport and activity-based learning, Goal delivers modules on financial education; communication skills; health and hygiene; and self-confidence.

We reached more than 821,000 girls and young women between 2006 and mid-2022. Our target is to reach one million girls between 2006 and 2023.

Learn more about Goal and download the curriculum.

Employability

Preparing young people to be job-ready

Many disadvantaged young people lack the skills they need to get a job or to improve their circumstances, including knowing how to manage their financial future. At the same time, employers can find it difficult to hire someone with the right balance of technical and soft skills.

We provide vocational training, mentoring, career planning, upskilling and reskilling opportunities that support young people to become job ready. Between 2019 and 2022, we reached more than 218,000 young people (51 per cent young women) through employability activities, exceeding our target 100,000 set for 2023.

What’s next?

In 2023, we continue to support employability across our markets and promote economic inclusion for young people with disabilities.

Entrepreneurship

Nurturing small business owners to succeed

More individuals and businesses have greater access to financial services than ever before. However, many micro and small business owners lack the business management skills they need to grow their business.

We offer support to develop broader business skills, build financial knowledge, and provide access to finance and networks to young people. Our projects include Women in Tech, which provides technical business training, mentoring and seed funding to female entrepreneurs. Between 2019 and 2022, we reached more than 105,000 young people (64 per cent young women), micro and small businesses through entrepreneurship activities, exceeding our target 50,000 set for 2023.

What’s next?

In 2023, we continue to support entrepreneurship across our markets, and to pilot access to finance facilities.

Meet the Futuremakers

Read about the stories of young people reaching their potential in the learn, earn, and grow journey.

The Forum

The Futuremakers Forum brings stakeholders together to build partnerships and create opportunities focused on young people. Hosted in partnership with Business Fights Poverty, this virtual event forms part of Futuremakers by Standard Chartered, a global initiative to tackle inequality by championing greater economic inclusion for young people.

The challenge

A global and collective effort is needed to accelerate progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 8 to promote decent work and economic growth. The COVID-19 pandemic; climate change; and conflict each exacerbate the problems of inequality and changes to the labour market have had a disproportionate impact on marginalised groups within our communities especially young people, women and people with disabilities.

It is now more imperative than ever for all sectors to come together, listen to young people and those most affected, and identify solutions to support the next generation to thrive.

Access to finance

The 2022 Futuremakers Forum was held virtually between 6 – 7 July ahead of the United Nations’ World Youth Skills Day on 15 July 2022. The focus for the forum was ‘Lifting participation through financial inclusion.’

This year, we put young people in the driving seat – together we will determine the financial products and services young people want and need in order to unleash their full potential.

Through thought leading research, we deepened our understanding of how to unleash the full potential of young people and micro businesses in our core markets to improve the lives of millions of people and their communities. 

Read the paper to learn more

Transforming lives

Between 2019 and 2022, Futuremakers reached more than one million young people across 43 markets, 74 per cent of them young women

  • We empower young people in Europe and the Americas to learn life skills, become job-ready, grow their businesses, and shape their own futures.

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  • We partner with Challenges Worldwide to support MSMEs and young people to achieve inclusion win-win in Ghana, Uganda and Zambia.

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  • A woman hugs a guide dog next to text saying 'Futuremakers project spotlight'

    We partner with Sightsavers to support young people with disabilities to develop skills and secure decent employment through Futuremakers.

    Read the report

  • We partner with Youth Business International to help young entrepreneurs to build resilient businesses in Indonesia and Turkey. 

    Read the report
  • A young woman holds up a football.

    We partner with Women Win to use sport, play and life skills to empower girls and young women through Futuremakers in Pakistan, Nigeria and Malaysia.

    Read the report

  • We partner with the International Rescue Committee to uplift female market-stall owners to earn and grow their businesses in Sierra Leone and in Cameroon.

    Read the report

Understanding our theory of change

The Futuremakers’ theory of change explains three interlinked ‘pathways’ that offer young people opportunities to become more economically active. This provides a framework against which to measure the success of the programmes, and the wider initiative.

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Our partnerships

We partner with non-governmental organisations to implement Futuremakers programmes across 43 markets

  • Challenges Worldwide supports small and growing businesses to grow and develop

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  • The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises

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  • Sightsavers works in more than 30 countries in Africa and Asia to address avoidable blindness

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  • Plan International works with girls and boys in some of the world’s poorest communities

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  • Women Win have impacted the lives of over 4 million adolescent girls

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  • Youth Business International is the global network for organisations supporting youth entrepreneurship

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  • Voluntary Services Overseas is an international development agency

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  • Every year SOS Children’s Villages supports over 1 million people worldwide

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Supporting communities through volunteering

Volunteering has a positive impact on our communities, employees and our broader business. That’s why we offer every employee three days paid leave to volunteer.

Our employee contribution

Volunteering provides an opportunity for our staff to share their time, skills and expertise with local partners working on issues that matter in their communities. It is also a great way to promote the mental and physical health of our employees.

In 2022, 39 per cent of our employees contributed more than 49,000 days of volunteering; over 80 per cent of these days were dedicated to Futuremakers, environment and community outreach.

What’s next?

In 2023, we’re running global employee volunteering campaigns to drive greater participation.

Through collaboration with strategic partners of Futuremakers by Standard Chartered, our global initiative to tackle inequality and promote economic inclusion, we will enrich our skills-based activities to deepen our support to the community.

We will also conduct an impact study to help shape the 2024 employee volunteering strategy.

Meet our employee volunteers