In the Social Innovation elective, students worked alongside UNDP staff in Yemen to address some seemingly unsolvable problems brought about by the on-going conflict. With economic activity brought to a standstill and people unable to meet their most basic needs, students were challenges to answer: How do you overcome constrained – or no – access to finance for (social) entrepreneurship? What role do/could corporations play in war-torn countries? How could they expand their strategies to target bottom of the pyramid citizens? What businesses could women create that would enable them to sustain their families despite the conflict? In other words, how could market-based approaches in both rural and urban areas ease the crisis?
