To help small businesses and self-employed professionals overcome the challenges of the pandemic and reactivate the economy, we launched the Lockdown Economy, a volunteer-driven socio-economic and educational movement. It is recognized as an "Accelerated Action for risk mitigation and recovery effort during the COVID-19 crisis" by the United Nations: #SDGaction36773. In September 2020, it was featured in the Information Brief to all member states by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Any self-employed professional or micro- and small- business owner can share their story. The interview is done online and can be in 15 different languages. It is posted on Youtube so you can use it to promote your business.
We do it for free because our goal is to help small businesses overcome the pandemic.
To register, simply fill in this form.
Click on the images below to watch the local interviews.
About Lockdown Economy
Small business owners and self-employed professionals learn from each other's experiences, challenges and success in dealing with the crisis.
Entrepreneurs get ideas and learn about new opportunities and product or service needs that are emerging from the pandemic.
University students have a chance to learn from real businesses and connect with professionals, to kickstart their career in the new economy.
Volunteers grow with us. They close the gap on digital skills, collaborate with a global virtual team, prepare their thesis or research to complete their studies, improve their professional profile to find a new job, or open their own business.
This initiative is grassroots: we started it with our own savings and we are all volunteers.
On 20 October 2020, the team of the Lockdown Economy received the Gold award in the 13th Annual 2020 World Women Awards® in the category "Hero of the Year | Helping Others During COVID-19".
Nominated for Grants and Prizes from
Media About us
Click on the logos to access the articles.
It’s not just an interview...
The pandemic showed us that even the best economic forecasts cannot predict the future. And even now, governments continue to use average numbers to plan how the economy will go forward. But we want to find out the real stories behind those “averages”.
Behind every small business, there is a story. A personal story of following your dreams, of continuing the family profession, of moving to a new country with no support network, of being let go of the job and still trying to make it on your own, of doing something on a small scale that would be useful for your neighbourhood, of introducing back the simple and sustainable practices. A personal story of care and passion for your family, your community and the world.
Through the Lockdown Economy, we discover and bring attention to the specific needs of micro- and small- businesses, we facilitate social dialogue to face the COVID-19 pandemic together.
For each story our team of volunteers is preparing:
Livestream or video recording on Youtube with time codes to navigate the content
Podcast on Anchor.fm and other key platforms
Article with reflections on Entrepreneur.com and The Helm
Short video-extract with the main lessons for Academy
Promotion on our social media and use on university programs
Connection to entrepreneurs and students
Follow-up interview and documented contribution to the SDGs.
Our next big step is to bring the Lockdown Economy to many more universities around the world by hosting a fully-digital competition for tertiary education students. In this Competition, students will actively address the current economic crisis and come up with sustainable, innovative and entrepreneurial ideas on how we can help small businesses around the world. It will prepare young people for their professional life, providing them with an opportunity to learn by doing.
"We need to act as a global community in order to come out of the crisis stronger, more resilient and sustainable. This means breaking down barriers, sharing best practices and inspiring big ideas.”
Kristin Schreiber, Director for SME Policy at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs
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