Silatech, Audi announce conference on Arab Youth and Entrepreneurship

Held under the patronage of HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the conference is expected to draw over 300 delegates from throughout the Arab world, leading local Arab government officials, corporate executives, researchers, NGO representatives, youth leaders and the media to share experiences and insights into how to better promote and support entrepreneurship initiatives for young people.

Silatech and AUDI are co-organizing the event in partnership with the Global Partnership for Youth Employment, the World Bank, and others. Qatar Shell is Gold Sponsor for the conference. The event will take place February 16-18 at the Doha Hilton.

At 25 percent, the Arab region has the highest rate of youth unemployment in the world. Over the past decade, a large number of initiatives have been introduced to improve employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for young people; however, most have not made a tangible impact nationally.

According to Silatech Director of Research and Policy, Dr. Nader Kabbani, "There have been many successful examples of entrepreneurship interventions throughout our region. However, their impact has been limited because the approaches frequently have been one-off initiatives without significant cross-sectoral collaboration. We hope, through this conference, to spur policy makers and local government officials, civil society and the private sector to combine their individual efforts in order to achieve meaningful and sustainable impact, and make a tangible difference in the lives the region's youth."

According to Dr. Abdulsalam Al-Sulaiman, the Director of the Child and Youth Program at AUDI "This conference exemplifies AUDI's commitment to developing the capacity of local governments and municipalities. The need to improve the environment for youth entrepreneurship is a pressing challenge for our region, and this conference allows us the opportunity to exchange experiences and learn from each other how to achieve lasting results."

Sessions at "Arab Youth and Entrepreneurship" will focus on examples of various youth entrepreneurship interventions from throughout the region, current regional trends and challenges facing young entrepreneurs, strategies for achieving maximum impact, and innovative public, private, civil society alliances for youth employability and entrepreneurship. Qatar Shell is sponsoring a session on "Leading Social Change through Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation."

On February 18, a workshop will convene participants from a variety of organizations engaged in entrepreneurship development within Qatar, aiming to facilitate knowledge exchange and platforms for initiative coordination.

Another Silatech initiative, the SILA Angel Investment Network, will be hosting "Kickstarting Entrepreneurship through Angel Investment: Regional Experiences and Approaches," an invitation-only roundtable session featuring leading local and regional angel investors.

In addition to the partners and organizers, a few of the organizations participating in the conference include the Youth Employment Network (international), Qatar Foundation, Glowork (Saudi Arabia), Al Amal Bank (Yemen), the American University of Beirut (Lebanon), the Zikra Initiative (Jordan), the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (Egypt), the Fayhaa Union of Municipalities (Lebanon), Save the Children (Jordan), Souktel (Palestine), the Roudha Center (Qatar), the Sudanese Development Organization, BMCE Bank Foundation (Morocco), the Tunisian Entrepreneurship and Spin-off Association, and Wamda (regional).