Tomorrow Today

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Entrepreneurship as the

fishing rod in place of the fish

Young-Gil Kim, PhD and George Gihong Kim, PhD, Handong Global University, Pohang, Korea

he world community has been spending a great deal of

effort on tackling world hunger and poverty, especially

since the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs), but now that we are rapidly approaching 2015 and

many of the resources have been spent, the result is much less

than hoped for originally. There may be many reasons for the

limited result, but one basic common problem seems to be the

lack of sustainability of the initiatives undertaken.

Changing mindsets

Establishment of the will to act generally requires a change of

mindset among the people involved. This change should bring

motivation and hope to the community. It requires more than

simply learning what needs to change. A profound experience,

rather than a transfer of knowledge, can often trigger the more

profound change in learners needed to address sustainable devel-

opment. This can best be brought about through Education for

Sustainable Development (ESD), which not only conveys informa-

tion but also gives learners a more holistic experience.

It is often said that ‘what is needed is a fishing rod instead of

a fish’ and that education should equip learners in this regard.

However, the metaphor alone is not helpful without knowing

exactly what the fishing rod means in real life. Essentially, it

is what modern education should offer to learners through the

change of mindset it can offer them. This change brings people

encouragement and confidence and breeds hope for a more

sustainable future.

The motivation to do something to improve living

conditions is often called the entrepreneurial spirit. In

a broad sense, this spirit refers to ‘creating something

from nothing’, compared with its narrow sense, which

is ‘starting a new business’. Most understand only the

latter meaning of entrepreneurship, since people with

an entrepreneurial mindset in the wider sense tend to

start new enterprises.

For decades, there has been debate as to the role of

entrepreneurship in development, and it seems that

there is a convergence of opinions regarding what

entrepreneurship contributes to the development

of a country.

2,3,4,5,6

The traditional model for assist-

ing low-income countries has mainly been based on

unconditional cash grants. It usually relies on the

governments of the recipient countries for dissemi-

nation of the aid funds. However, this approach has

turned out to be unsustainable and has shown only

limited long-term impacts. Moreover, it often has

detrimental side-effects for the recipient countries.

Most of all, the short-term perspective of this kind of

project cannot offer robust long-term sustainability.

The vital role of education

A more effective way to assist low-income countries

might be to equip them with education in entrepre-

neurship, to give people the means to create their

Image: GET’10 in East Africa

Classroom consultation. communication is an important part of HGU’s

training programmes