Espen Berg (born 6 July 1981) is a Norwegian

humanitarian Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotiona ...

. Espen is the

founder Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

of the

United Youth Development Organization UYDO (United Youth Development Organization) was a youth-led charity which focuses on empowering young people in the developing world to take themselves out of unemployment and poverty through entrepreneurship. History UYDO was founded by Espe ...

. Espen completed a BA (Hons) in

International Business International business refers to the trade of goods, services, technology, capital and/or knowledge across national borders and at a global or transnational scale. It involves cross-border transactions of goods and services between two or mor ...

Bournemouth University Bournemouth University is a public university in Bournemouth, England, with its main campus situated in neighbouring Poole. The university was founded in 1992; however, the origins of its predecessor date back to the early 1900s. The universi ...

and an Msc in

Development Management Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development * Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting * Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped * Photogra ...

at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 mill ...

. Espen is quickly becoming an authority on issues such as youth in development, youth focused microfinance, and youth empowerment, and is a frequent speaker at events and conferences across the UK.

UYDO

In 2008, Espen founded the

, a charity that focuses on utilizing the skills and talents of young people globally to raise funds and capacity to invest in

micro loans :''This article is specific to small loans, often provided in a pooled manner. For direct payments to individuals for specific projects, see Micropatronage. For financial services to the poor, see Microfinance. For small payments, see Micropayme ...

to disadvantaged

youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Y ...

entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

. In 2010 UYDO was discontinued due to funding challenges.

Espen's view on youth and microfinance

Espen argues that it is a

market failure In neoclassical economics, market failure is a situation in which the allocation of goods and services by a free market is not Pareto efficient, often leading to a net loss of economic value. Market failures can be viewed as scenarios where ...

that young people have more difficulties in accessing microfinance services than their ‘adult’ counterparts. He argues that young people are just as capable of maintaining and successfully repaying a loan as adults. Furthermore, he argues that the development return of investing in young people is very high, and that young people have important characteristics and attributes that can add value to the development process. He argues that as a consequence, the development community needs to ensure that young people and their needs are being included in any development programs in order to alleviate the

and thus optimize the positive impact that young people can have on

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with t ...

and

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

development.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berg, Espen 1981 births Living people Alumni of the London School of Economics Alumni of Bournemouth University