- Company leadership can help combat Middle East youth crisis
- Youth Career Initiative students complete first graduation in Australia
- more IBLF news
- Business and Youth in the Arab World
- Shared Goals: Sport and business in partnerships for development
- more IBLF publications
- Zablon Karingi Muthaka helps clean up Nairobi
- Citigroup, Save the Children and MobiNil in Egypt
- more IBLF case studies
MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
Business can play a key role in the development and stability of Middle East and North Africa region.
Business can act by promoting youth employment and engagement, and through building bridges between business and education and between different cultures.
With a youthful population and a critical challenge of youth employment, youth and education is the main focus for IBLF - in particular through its Business and Youth in the Arab World project and its Youth Business International programmes in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Israel.
IBLF has been active in the Middle East and North Africa since 1995, working with business and public leaders.
Fertile Ground
Fertile Ground is a project set up in 2006, under the auspices of IBLF, which aims to support co-existence projects across the Israeli-Palestinian divide. Fertile Ground is using the arts, sports, education, small business and culture to break down barriers and make a practical difference on a non-partisan basis. Read more
Business and Youth in the Arab World
Read the press release issued on May 21 2007.
The project has been supported by the United Nations Development Programme, Young Arab Leaders, Emirates Environmental Group and Young Entrepreneurs Association.
Partnerships for Youth Employment and Enterprise - Cairo Business Round Table 21 March 2006
As part of IBLF's Business and Youth in the Arab World initiative, Egyptian and international business leaders met at an IBLF roundtable in Cairo. The meeting was convened by the British Ambassador, attended by HRH The Prince of Wales and The Egyptian Minister of Trade and Investment, and moderated by IBLF's chief executive Robert Davies. Read more
For more information on the Business and Youth initiative, contact Imelda Dunlop, IBLF Associate for the Middle East, email firstname.surname@iblf.org
Building Links between Business and Education
In February 2006 IBLF brought together Lebanese education leaders to create a series of partnerships which will improve employment prospects of Lebanese school and university graduates. The meetings were part of Lebanon's Education Week and were designed to help build a more relevant education system that is geared to the needs of the regional economy.
Lebanon has emerged from periods of conflict and political uncertainty and has experienced a recent flourishing of civil society engagement in democratic change - and as a result there is a fresh opportunity to develop new approaches within the education sector. IBLF's meetings were part of its aim of creating a Leadership Academy for Lebanon to promote leadership vision and culture and support the growth of leadership development, mentoring, public/private partnerships for education and greater recognition or good practice. Read more
IBLF has also provided advice and support for building better education and business links with the Higher Colleges of Technology in the United Arab Emirates.
Youth and Mentoring
Business can act by promoting youth employment and engagement, and through building bridges between business and education and between different cultures.
With a youthful population and a critical challenge of youth employment, youth and education is the main focus for IBLF - in particular through its Business and Youth in the Arab World project and its Youth Business International programmes in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Israel.
IBLF has been active in the Middle East and North Africa since 1995, working with business and public leaders.
Fertile Ground
Fertile Ground is a project set up in 2006, under the auspices of IBLF, which aims to support co-existence projects across the Israeli-Palestinian divide. Fertile Ground is using the arts, sports, education, small business and culture to break down barriers and make a practical difference on a non-partisan basis. Read more
Business and Youth in the Arab World
In May 2007 IBLF launched a resource guide that demonstrates how business – in partnership with other organisations - can tackle youth unemployment and stimulate enterprise development. The book includes case studies from Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, and Palestine.
The highlighted initiatives include:- A microfinance programme in Palestine, supported by the Bank of Palestine;
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- Technology access and training in Morocco through a partnership with Microsoft, United Nations and the government; and
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- Training nurses in Egypt as a result of work by the Sawiris Foundation.
Read the press release issued on May 21 2007.
The project has been supported by the United Nations Development Programme, Young Arab Leaders, Emirates Environmental Group and Young Entrepreneurs Association.
Partnerships for Youth Employment and Enterprise - Cairo Business Round Table 21 March 2006
As part of IBLF's Business and Youth in the Arab World initiative, Egyptian and international business leaders met at an IBLF roundtable in Cairo. The meeting was convened by the British Ambassador, attended by HRH The Prince of Wales and The Egyptian Minister of Trade and Investment, and moderated by IBLF's chief executive Robert Davies. Read more
For more information on the Business and Youth initiative, contact Imelda Dunlop, IBLF Associate for the Middle East, email firstname.surname@iblf.org
Building Links between Business and Education
In February 2006 IBLF brought together Lebanese education leaders to create a series of partnerships which will improve employment prospects of Lebanese school and university graduates. The meetings were part of Lebanon's Education Week and were designed to help build a more relevant education system that is geared to the needs of the regional economy.
Lebanon has emerged from periods of conflict and political uncertainty and has experienced a recent flourishing of civil society engagement in democratic change - and as a result there is a fresh opportunity to develop new approaches within the education sector. IBLF's meetings were part of its aim of creating a Leadership Academy for Lebanon to promote leadership vision and culture and support the growth of leadership development, mentoring, public/private partnerships for education and greater recognition or good practice. Read more
IBLF has also provided advice and support for building better education and business links with the Higher Colleges of Technology in the United Arab Emirates.
Youth and Mentoring
- Youth Business International is a programme of IBLF that supports young entrepreneurs across the world. It is currently operating pilot programmes in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Israel and is examining development elsewhere in the region, including Morocco and Jordan.
- Mentoring Support - following a visit by HRH The Prince of Wales to Jordan in 2004, IBLF is providing support for the development of a business mentoring programme with the Young Entrepreneurs Association to strengthen a range of voluntary organisations working with young people, supported by the European Union.
- In 2005 IBLF organised a visit to Unistream, a business led youth leadership and life skills project in Israel, for business executives, youth employment programmes and organisations engaged in Israeli-Arab development. Other partners included the Center For Jewish-Arab Economic Development and El-Zahrawy Society.