Youth Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa Program Announcement

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The Office of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (NEA/PI) announces an open competition for projects that support youth entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa. The Administration has underscored the need to engage youth, support their economic opportunities, and develop new partnerships. As President Obama stated in Cairo on June 4, 2009, “all of us must recognize that education and innovation will be the currency of the 21st century.” On September 22, 2009 the President underscored the need for “…partnerships between businesses [and] entrepreneurs to advance prosperity and opportunity for people everywhere.” Consistent with this vision, NEA/PI seeks applications for a new funding initiative that will inspire youth to become the next generation of entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa.Sustainable progress requires opening spaces for innovation and creativity. Expanding opportunities for entrepreneurs is critical to helping address unemployment, supporting economic development, and furthering civic engagement in the Middle East and North Africa. We are asking applicants to develop projects to foster a culture of entrepreneurship in youth. Illustrative, but not necessarily comprehensive, aspects might include entrepreneurial skill-building, idea generation, business incubation, competition, access to capital, access to employment, and development of entrepreneurship networks (including possibly virtual networks) to connect entrepreneurs with each other as well as with a broader range of stake-holders. NEA/PI’s desired outcomes are, inter alia, improved opportunities for business development, accelerated sustainable job creation, expanded economic opportunities, and entrepreneurship stakeholders connected in partnerships and networks across the region. Projects should encourage innovation and creativity – in both new and traditional sectors. Projects may also support the development of social entrepreneurship, applying business-like efficiency, innovation, and sustainability to tackling pressing social problems. NEA/PI seeks applications that would address the varying status of entrepreneurship in the economies of the region: those that have significant economic resources or are well developed in some respects but are still building a local culture of entrepreneurship, those without significant economic resources that must use entrepreneurship to tap into comparative advantages and create niche markets, and those that fall somewhere in between these two poles. Most responsive projects will address the needs of economies and populations that lack strong traditions of entrepreneurship and will specify how and where they will have the greatest impact, particularly with respect to youth (defined for purposes of this RFA as males and females from 16 to 35 years of age).Applicants must demonstrate: familiarity with the economic and demographic challenges facing the region (including the increasing number of youth who will seek employment); capacity and expertise in fostering entrepreneurial development; and the ability to help translate innovation into economic activity. Applicants must also describe how they will measure positive outcomes in the areas of job creation, business startup, and income generation. Applicants should propose measurable results in the short, medium, and long-term, with the understanding that these efforts should continue beyond any funding under the program announcement.Applicants are encouraged to explore existing efforts that support youth entrepreneurship, and how to complement ongoing efforts in the region, tying several strands together or scaling up an existing initiative. Projects may link initiatives within and across national boundaries, creating regional networks to assist entrepreneurs facing similar start-up and operational challenges. Those pre-applicants invited to submit full applications are encouraged to partner with organizations in the region to support their capacity and sustainability. Applicants may propose methods of cost-sharing to support the project’s continuation once all U.S. Government funds have been expended. Applications that involve cost-sharing from sources within the MENA region are strongly encouraged.The following MENA countries may be considered: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, UAE, and Yemen.

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