We look back at an inspiring 4th edition of the IGNITE Conference which took place on November 16. It was heart-warming to look around at the guests, speakers and participants congregating beneath the impressive arches of the Beurs van Berlage. The incredible diversity in cultures, ideas and stories shared was evident throughout the day.

“IGNITE brought together a fascinating group of people, all interested in how entrepreneurs and job creation can help build peace and stability. The presentations were inspiring, the discussions stimulating and the exchanges outside the meeting rooms very helpful.” – Tilman Brück, The Hague Institute of Global Justice

 

The day focused on the challenges facing entrepreneurs, refugees and students in starting and maintaining their businesses or in accessing higher education. The positive voices of Syrian students and entrepreneurs, interviewed on stage about their experiences, touched everyone that heard them. Afterwards, when listeners were asked to describe IGNITE in one word, “resilience” was the resounding response.

“What is the key to entrepreneurship? Resilience. Those that fail have come back and been successful.” – Michel Botzung, IFC

Renowned economist and professor at the University of Oxford, Paul Collier, delivered his solutions to the Syrian refugee crisis. He reflected on the need to reboot the donor-centric response to humanitarian disasters by turning them into economic problems. He said: “My approach is to start shifting objectives; we are stuck in humanitarian mode. Money and housing and food for free, for years, is not what they [Syrian refugees] want or need.”

The keynote speech given by counter-radicalisation expert, David Kenning, also captured imaginations and sparked a flurry of discussions. He said: “If you want to understand extreme states of mind, you have to understand emotions, not ideology” and alluded to the new suggestion that radicalised youth of Islamic State are driven more by a shared identity of victimisation, than by religious or ideological views.

Various workshops during the day also addressed many of the issues posed by radicalisation today, for example, how to rebuild Syria through education and jobs, how Iraqi universities of Mosul and Tikrit can recover from the take-over of IS.

“The only way to eliminate this darkness is through education” – Dr Faiz Ali Bash, Raqqa University

In addition, many of the workshops focused on the importance of entrepreneurship and job creation in fragile states, which has always been the core of SPARK’s work. The Diaspora Entrepreneurship workshop discussed the difficulties in starting business and how to better support innovators. Similarly, a workshop organised by WO=MEN discussed the impact of women and social enterprise, and partners from online casino the Hague Institute and UN-ESCWA explored the peace building effects of employment in the MENA region. Finally, Mahmud Johnson, 25 year old Liberian entrepreneur who survived conflict and crisis, delivered his keynote on how to support sustainable growth in Liberia.

On behalf of the entire SPARK team, we’d like to say thank you to everyone that made IGNITE2016 such an inspiration! We hope to see you next year.

Watch a short video about IGNITE 2016.