In Tunisia this week I launched a new initiative of the UKs presidency of the G8 Deauville Partnership called ‘Forsa.’ Forsa, which means ‘opportunity’ in Arabic, is an SME mentoring initiative which will create mentoring realationships for at least 250 entrepreneurs. The initiative will focus on young and women leaders of small and medium size enterprises in Tunisia, Morocco. Libya, Egypt, Jordan and Yemen. Forsa will match these entrepreneurs with mentors from leading companies from across the G8 and Middle East and North Africa to help entrepreneurs expand their businesses and create new jobs.The momentum for change in the transition countries has been driven both by unfulfilled economic promises, rising inequality and joblessness and the desire for greater participation and accountability in political decision making. I remain optimistic that the changes brought about by the Arab Spring will, in the long-term, provide the best chance for a secure and prosperous Middle East and North Africa. In the short-term, however, the economic climate remains as challenging, if not more so, than it was in 2011.
Urgent
At the World Economic Forum in Jordan in May, leaders called for urgent action in the Arab World to improve job prospects. Queen Rania of Jordan in her capacity on the WEF foundation board, spoke about “A New Vision for Arab Employment.” In her concluding remarks Queen Rania painted a picture of the sought-for Arab World “where entrepreneurs teach and our teachers innovate, where students learn in the playground, and dream in the classroom. Where our young people start-up companies, fail, get inspired by their failure, and create bigger and better ones …”
We hope that Forsa can play a small part in contributing to this vision. Forsa will provide support and guidance from established private sector business leaders from across G8 countries and the Middle East and North Africa.
This will not only support economic growth and job creation, but in the long-term also change attitudes to entrepreneurship. Mentoring will encourage and sustain creative thinking and problem solving, and help build self-reliance and confidence.
The mentoring support provided by Forsa will start with an intensive 3-day workshop to explain to both entrepreneurs and mentors how the relationship will work, what they can expect from each other, and introduce entrepreneurs to others facing similar challenges.
Entrepreneurs and mentors will then be matched based on their experience and aspirations and will work together for 12 months, providing sustained support to entrepreneurs to meet their business goals.
Monitoring
Forsa will be based on the established mentoring methodology of the Mowgli Foundation which already operates in Jordan, Algeria, Lebanon and the UK. At the launch of Forsa this week in Tunisia, I met Nadine Asmar who shared her first hand experience of mentoring and explained to me how mentoring had supported her and her business.
Nadine was one of the first Mowgli mentees, and is now one of the founding partners of the management consultancy “Beyond Reform and Development” Having been inspired by her experience Nadine is now a mentor for Mowgli and a lead facilitator of Mowgli’s mentoring programmes.
Nadine explained that “many people are not always used to sharing information about the state of our businesses, but having someone to talk to and work with to plan your business and review your strategy can be really valuable.”
There are many more people like Nadine who can benefit from this kind of support. I encourage all experienced business men and women working in Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Jordan and Yemen to find out more about Forsa and how you can get involved and support young and female entrepreneurs to make a real difference and build their own futures.
