Entrepreneurship Education in the Middle East and North Africa – Soraya Salti

Soraya Salti is guest blogging for the Forum. She is Senior Vice-President, Middle East and North Africa of INJAZ Al Arab – JA Worldwide, a Forum Young Global Leader and the Regional Chair of the newly formed MENA Entrepreneurship Education Action Group (MENA AG) focussed on advancing the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region.

Operating in 14 countries across the Middle East and North Africa region, INJAZ al Arab harnesses the mentorship of Arab business leaders to help inspire a culture of entrepreneurship and business innovation among Arab youth.

I would like to share with you a quote from our INJAZ Egypt team from the evening of Friday Feb 11^th.  
 
“On the cusp of this unprecedented time in history where we witnessed Egypt’s youth stage a revolution and overthrow a 30 year old regime, it is high time for Egyptians to collectively take a stand in order to raise awareness of the importance of revolutionizing the education system of this country.
 
We are needed more than any other time to help capture the momentum of change that has caught the country by storm.  We can do this by immediately heightening the importance of entrepreneurship, and to take it to the forefront of reform efforts to offer young people the opportunities for self-employment.”
-Dina El Mofty, Executive Director of INJAZ Egypt.
 
The youth of the Arab world are radically altering the political and social landscape of the Middle East as they clamber for a bigger voice, jobs, and productive futures.  This is the moment to mobilize individually and collectively to make big strides in entrepreneurship education to create a difference for this generation.

Building on the MENA Entrepreneurship Education Roundtable that brought together a multi-stakeholder group from the Steering Board of the Forum’s Global Education Initiative and regional thought leaders on this topic on the occasion of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa in late 2010 in Marrakech, we are taking advantage of the momentum and topicality of the events that are unfolding in Egypt and across the Middle East to formally launch our MENA Entrepreneurship Education Action Group (MENA AG).

Having already identified and documented what the group sees as key areas for development (as summarised in the MENA Entrepreneurship Education Manifesto and Report) we’re now moving into 5^th gear to prioritise, act on and help shape the most pressing requirements of the MENA Entrepreneurship Ecosystem to meet the new realities of the Arab world.