Job Creation in MENA

The first in a series from the Development Marketplace on:
Innovative Approaches to Job Creation in MENA

Multi-stakeholder Approaches to Employment in Egypt
Lessons learned and the way forward based on the
Nahdet El Mahrousa – International Youth Foundation partnership

Wednesday November 16^th 12:00 – 1:30pm
I Building Room I2-220
RSVP required for external attendees to: dminfo@worldbank.org 

Opening remarks:
Dahlia Khalifa
Manager, Education for Employment e4e Initiative for Arab Youth, IFC
Andrew Stone
Lead Private Sector Development Specialist, Finance & Private Sector Unit, MENA

Speakers:
Rannia El Sayed
Director, Egypt@Work program, Nahdet El Mahrousa NGO Egypt

Mara Kronenfeld
Manager, Business Development & Middle East Programs,International Youth Foundation

Moderated by: Ehaab Abdou, World Bank Institute

The ambitious new Egypt@Work program aims to prepare 10,000 disadvantaged Egyptian youth for the job market by providing them with the skills needed to find employment or start their own enterprises. Launched in 2011 by the Egyptian Nahdet El Mahrousa NGO and the US-based International Youth Foundation with The MasterCard Foundation, the four-year program is building alliances between the private, public, and civil society sectors to foster employment training programs and services that are highly responsive to private sector needs and are coordinated with Egyptian government policy and services.

Nahdet El Mahrousa and IYF Egypt have worked in partnership since 2006 through the Egyptian Education and Employment Alliance (EEA), a USAID-funded program that provided financial and technical support to several innovative social enterprises, including the pioneering Career & Entrepreneurship Development Offices in Egyptian public universities. Both implementing organizations will share their experiences and lessons learned on employment and job creation interventions, and the way forward in the new Arab world.

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The BBL series on Innovative Approaches to Job Creation in MENA is organized by the Development Marketplace to inform its program design, identify potential partners, and foster a wide multi-sectoral dialogue on job creation and employment in Egypt and the MENA region. The Egypt Development Marketplace, planned for launch in early 2012, will provide financial and technical support to social enterprises that aim to create jobs for marginalized youth.

The Development Marketplace (DM) is a competitive grant program that identifies and provides technical and financial support to development projects with high potential for development impact that are scalable and/or replicable. Since its inception in 1998, the DM has awarded more than $60 million in grants to more than 1200 innovative projects identified through country, regional and global DM competitions. Using DM funding as a launching pad, many projects have gone on to secure additional funding support from other donors, foundations, impact and CSR investors. The DM program is housed in the World Bank and administered by the World Bank Institute with funding from various partners.