Youth Employment in North Africa (1/2) - my latest interview with the Fair Observer magazine

Disclaimer: Please note that the views expressed in this and all my blog entries are my own personal views and not representative of Ashoka, ADEW or any organisation with which I am affiliated.

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Here is my latest interview with Manuel Langendorf and Abul-Hasanat Siddique from the Fair Observer magazine on Youth Employment in North Africa - Part One of a two-part series. http://www.fairobserver.com/region/middle_east_north_africa/iman-bibars-youth-employment-in-north-africa-01784/

The dire economic situation in North Africa moved into the spotlight when Mohammed Bouazizi, a young Tunisian fruit vendor, set himself alight on December 17, 2010, sparking revolts that shook dictators from Algeria to Yemen. While causes behind the uprisings were complex, encompassing decades of authoritarianism, corruption and human rights abuses, economic factors were and still remain a crucial element in North African society and politics.

In 2012, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) saw the highest youth unemployment rate in the world, with approximately 25% of 15-24 year olds out of work. High population growth rates plague the region, with half of its citizens under 25. The MENA region has the second youngest population after sub-Saharan Africa. As noted by Abul-Hasanat Siddique and Casper Wuite: “The youth population, aged 15 to 24, is growing explosively — it increased by nearly 44 million between 1980 and 2010.” Given these demographics, fostering youth employment strategies has to be a top priority for North African policymakers, civil society and business leaders.

Egypt, the most populous country in North Africa, had an unemployment rate of 13.4% in December 2013, with 69% of those unemployed aged between 15-29. Notably, university graduates have particularly suffered from a shortage of jobs. Egypt also illustrates the gender dimension of this employment issue: 10% of men and 25% percent of women were unemployed in 2013.

There are a variety of factors that shape the economic situation in North Africa. First, with the aforementioned youth bulge and unemployment, finding a suitable place to live and starting a family has become problematic. Such conditions led to the Arab Uprisings in 2010-11. Second, outdated education systems are in dire need of reform. As noted by International Monetary Fund (IMF) experts: “Unusually, education in this region is not a guarantee against unemployment.” This is not only related to the inability of economies to create highly skilled work, but also outdated education systems that fail to keep up with modern industries. Consequently, graduates often do not possess the necessary skills in demand, a fact cited by employers as a crucial restraint to hiring. Third, due to bureaucratic hurdles and deteriorating security, foreign direct investment in the region is on the decline. Further, entrepreneurship is restricted due the “heavy hand of the state,” resulting in disincentives for youth to start their own businesses. The end result is unemployment and underemployment.

To talk more about youth employment in North Africa, the challenges ahead and the role of social entrepreneurship, Fair Observer’s Manuel Langendorf and Abul-Hasanat Siddique speak to Iman Bibars, the regional director for Ashoka Arab World. Ashoka is the largest network of social entrepreneurs worldwide, with nearly 3,000 fellows in 70 countries.

Abul-Hasanat Siddique: Like sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa sees a large youth bulge of people between 15-30 years old. Many of them have lost faith in their governments’ economic policies — 26% of Arab youth want to leave their country of origin to seek opportunities elsewhere, according to Silatech. What has led to unemployment and underemployment in North Africa?

Iman Bibars: The countries of North Africa, like many other nations on the African continent and some in the Levant and the Gulf, face enormous challenges in terms of the levels of unemployment and underemployment they experience. There are several, linked, reasons for this.

To begin with, the education systems in many North African countries are in urgent need of reform. Not only does there need to be more emphasis on skills acquisition as opposed to rote learning, but education must respond to the needs of the market. Currently, this does not happen, so what we end up with are a huge number of young university graduates who have spent their lives in full-time education, but who are completely out of sync with the job market. The disillusionment experienced by these graduates is often due to the sheer amount of time and effort they have invested in their education, only to find upon graduating that there are very few jobs available that match their aspirations and belief in what they deserve.

Another linked problem is that the emphasis our education systems place on rote learning breeds generation after generation of young people who expect to be spoon-fed. They are not taught to think analytically and they are not taught to innovate. They are not taught that if one approach to solving a problem does not succeed, they should try another. They are not brought up to be tenacious and persistent, or to seek creative ways of obtaining educational opportunities or professional experience.

The youth bulge that our countries are experiencing is part of a surge in population in North African countries; between 1950 and 2000, the population of the MENA region increased 3.7 times, more than any other world region. This is due to a number of factors, many of which are exacerbated by poverty and poor health and reproductive education. There is no concurrent increase in job opportunities for young people. In fact, the provision that nation states frequently attempt to make for the increase in jobseekers often leads to a bloating of the civil sector, which slows down the effectiveness of the state to support its citizens effectively.

Closely linked to this is the fact that our economies are not expanding. Again, this is often linked to government economic policy, and decisions that have been made by governments to try generate funds, which actually end up limiting the growth of particular sectors within countries in the region.

Once again, bloated civil sectors can negatively affect economic growth; poor educational systems mean that even our best and brightest do not necessarily match the needs of the job markets they seek to enter; and all of these problems are continually exacerbated by an ever-growing population, and increasing demands on the state to support its citizens. High — and increasing — levels of poverty mean that our poorest citizens are ill-equipped to contribute positively to their countries, and instead a lack of education and poor health means they are often utterly dependent on their governments for support, even to subsist.

Manuel Langendorf: In the long-run, what role can the public and private sectors play in job creation?

Bibars: Both the private sector and the public sector have important roles to play, and the roles of each must complement the other.

The public sector must make it an absolute priority to improve the education system and really reform it comprehensively. Teachers must be well-trained, so they acquire skills, knowledge and a passion for nurturing students and teaching them to think analytically and creatively. Schools should be equipped with the resources to enable academic learning to be more interactive and creative. Class sizes should be smaller and all students should have access to reading material and, if possible, the Internet. The ecosystem should be altered so that demand is created for interactive learning — so that students are encouraged to ask questions, read and think about the world around them, acquire technical and effective communication skills, and cultivate essential personal qualities such as flexibility, persistence and a desire to continuously learn new professional skills. The learning culture needs to move away from valuing university qualifications because of their prestige, and toward facilitating the acquisition of practical skills — whether these are academic, vocational, technical or the “soft skills” of communication — in a way that is carefully tailored to the job market.

In 2012, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) saw the highest youth unemployment rate in the world, with approximately 25% of 15-24 year olds out of work. High population growth rates plague the region, with half of its citizens under 25. The MENA region has the second youngest population after sub-Saharan Africa.

— Manuel Langendorf & Abul-Hasanat Siddique

In Egypt, unemployment tends to be highest among young, middle-class graduates, who often cannot find jobs that match their aspirations, but who have families that can support them financially. In poor and rural areas, different factors are at work. The level of education tends to be much lower and young people are likely to leave school earlier to engage in unskilled labor to contribute to their families’ income. In these more conservative areas, girls’ education is often not regarded as a priority — for both economic and cultural reasons. Where possible, the government should offer incentives for young people from such communities to continue their education, and offer training programs for them to learn trades to obtain vocational employment, increasing their economic prospects.

The private sector, meanwhile, must create more jobs. It is that simple. We need more jobs. There should be partnerships between the public and private sectors focused on job creation, and linking private sector organizations with educational institutions to bridge the gaps that I have spoken about in such detail. Private sector organizations should be encouraged to strengthen their links with communities in a way that links commercial success with knowledge transfer and professional training. This will entail building partnerships between companies and civil society organizations operating on the ground — especially those working with young people.

Siddique: What role does social entrepreneurship have in empowering youth in the region?

Bibars: Social entrepreneurship is by its very nature extremely empowering because it is naturally democratic and highly creative. Social entrepreneurs identify the root causes of problems within their communities and use innovative approaches to solve them. They see what is not working and they develop initiatives that solve the problems through systemic change. Their ideas and models are replicable — that is to say, rather than starting a nice project to treat the symptom of a social problem, social entrepreneurs focus on changing the underlying systemic cause of the problem.

As an idea and as a discipline, social entrepreneurship has the ability to transform lives and to effect meaningful social change as no charitable or philanthropic work can. It involves adopting a highly practical approach to social development, by supporting the people who have the tools to really address the root causes of endemic problems, so they are able to do so. It entails investing in the people who can identify the underlying issues that lead to social problems, and who use innovation to implement systemic change, in order to address those issues effectively and to eventually eradicate them.

Social entrepreneurs, such as Raghda and Mohammed, identify gaps and missing links at various stages of the value chain. Without them, these problems would go unsolved and the cumulative economic and social benefits associated with improved education and skills development of young people would be lost.

— Iman Bibars

This means investing in local solutions to local problems, but it also involves creating an enabling environment — an ecosystem — that spans countries, that crosses barriers of language, cultural difference, political affiliation, religion and class. All entrepreneurs — whether they are focused on the business sector or the social sector — share certain essential qualities. A true entrepreneur seeks to expand their market. An entrepreneur thinks outside of the box and is an innate problem solver. They are passionate about their initiative — a passion that might be termed obsessive — and will not rest until they have turned it from an innovative idea into a reality that is transforming people’s lives. Look at the historical figures who have seen opportunities where others have only seen challenges, who have seized the opportunity to expand their market and drive their idea — Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Naguib Sawiris. These are entrepreneurs.

To invest in and support social entrepreneurs constitutes a long-term investment in addressing and solving the root causes and underlying phenomena of social and economic issues, which will eventually create thriving, solution-focused communities. This leads to valuable long-term social and economic returns. This is why Ashoka, the platform for social entrepreneurship, is utterly committed to finding and supporting the world’s leading social entrepreneurs — the most excellent, the most innovative, the most inspiring and the most hardworking.

Raghda El Ebrashi, an Ashoka Arab World Fellow, is creating employment opportunities for marginalized youth in Egypt by bridging the gap between the social sector and the business sector. She trains and matches prospective employees from communities that are without access to the labor market with corporations. Her organization, Alashanek Ya Balady (AYB), focuses on skills provision to potential employees, based on the needs of the business sector, as well as creating income generation opportunities in the informal sector. As such, she is helping to create a cadre of prospective employees trained in the skills they need to find work — which is more practical, more viable and more cost effective than attempting to reform the entire education sector.

Another Ashoka Fellow, Mohammed Abbad Andaloussi, is likewise helping to bridge the gap between the education system and the business sector in Morocco, facilitating collaborations between the two to provide students with higher quality, market-relevant education to maximize their professional success. By ensuring that business organizations partner with schools, providing their expertise and tools to enhance the education and services provided to students, Mohammed is creating a market in which business leaders see the value of a true investment in the education system, undertaken for practical rather than charitable or philanthropic purposes. At the same time, he is catalyzing a change within educational bodies, so they focus on equipping students with the skills they need to be professional leaders in an increasingly globalized world.

Social entrepreneurs, such as Raghda and Mohammed, identify gaps and missing links at various stages of the value chain. Without them, these problems would go unsolved and the cumulative economic and social benefits associated with improved education and skills development of young people would be lost.

What is happening in Egypt now: Part 1 - The 2014 Presidential Elections

Disclaimer: Please note that the views expressed in this and all my blog entries are my own personal views and not representative of Ashoka, ADEW or any organisation with which I am affiliated.

Introduction

This is the first of what will be a series of blogs and posts on my thoughts and opinions of what is happening in Egypt now and what has happened during the last year. You might not agree with my reading and analysis but at least be open to a different point of view. Also, give me the benefit of the doubt; I might be saying something useful.

There have been several incidents and topics that have taken place in Egypt that have been either ignored by Western media, negatively reported on or completely misunderstood. As I believe we live in one global village, we owe it to each other to open our minds, respect each other’s contexts and try to co-exist.

I was educated and have many close friends in the West, and although I might disagree with how Western media broadly represents us, I trust in the goodness of people everywhere and trust the core ethical fiber of my friends and their families, and those good people who actually constitute the Western nations.

Therefore - and in spite of the rising tide of voices in Egypt and the MENA region – who urge us to ignore the West, which has misread our situation, I beg to differ. I care, and I know my Western friends care as well. Therefore, these posts are designed for those who seek the truth from the perspective of a person who listens to a variety of opinions and viewpoints; and not for those who live according to preconceptions and urban legends.

I repeat - you do not have to agree with me, but give me the benefit of the doubt and rest assured that I never lie or state facts that I do not fully believe to be true. The upcoming series of blogs and posts are my reading and take on what has happened and is still happening in my beloved country, Egypt.

One: The 2014 Presidential Elections

During the month of May 2014, the Egyptian Presidential elections took place for Egyptians living abroad in 124 countries - including the US, Europe and Australia, among others. The elections took four days and the results revealed a landslide victory for Sissi - even in places like New York and Sydney. Egyptians throughout the Diaspora voted for Sissi of their own free will. In Egypt, the elections took three days, and likewise ended in victory for Sissi, who received 92% of the votes. In total, of all the valid votes, Sissi won 96% of the vote.

This high percentage raised many eyebrows in the West for several reasons:

1. Generally, the West is not used to such high rates of approval for a single candidate. In the most recent US Presidential elections for example, Obama is reported to have obtained 51% from a total number of voters who constituted 20% of all those who could legally vote. In the case of Egypt, 47% of the eligible voting population voted for Sissi and he won 92% (out of the voters resident in Egypt) and in total 96% (including the Egyptian Diaspora) of all valid votes. Such a high result in the minds of many Western people – and certainly within popular opinion - is associated with rigged elections that often take place in developing countries at the behest of dictators. Western media and populations are socialized to follow and believe in one system that works for them, and one way of doing things, and are not ready or willing in some cases to think and consider alternative approaches may be possible.

2. The Muslim Brotherhood organization, which is considered not only by several Arab governments to be a terrorist organization closely related to al Qaeda, but is now also seen by the Egyptian people as a terrorist organization, managed with great success - through a very professional PR campaign and sympathetic media channels such as al Jazeera - to depict a negative image of the situation in Egypt; an image which was simply not true for the majority of Egyptians. Painting Sissi as a dictator and claiming his election marks the return of Mubarak’s police state is a work of fiction, but sadly easily accepted by Western media without verification.

3. Stories by US-supported groups, such as the activists of the 6^th April group, tell of transgressions against human rights and the return of torture and other methods of coercion. Such stories spread quickly and were welcomed by Western media outlets, while stories explaining and demonstrating how the majority of Egyptians feel towards the situation and detailing the violence of the MB, and the unacceptable behavior of some of the young activists themselves, were ignored and not reported. The track record of exaggeration, and even on occasion blatantly false stories, by many of these young activists was ignored. It is amazing how negative stories are easily and readily accepted and adopted.

I cannot claim that there have been no human rights transgressions but I do claim that there has been a grave exaggeration of the number and the harshness of those transgressions. I of course believe that human rights transgressions should not occur but I also believe that citizens should not promote verbal or physical violence against the state and its institutions. I believe that the 25^th January revolution which was instigated by youth but supported by older Egyptians, succeeded because it was peaceful. Unarmed youth faced police brutality but neither instigated nor responded to it using violence.

The infamous, so-called law “that prohibits demonstrations “is a completely unfair misrepresentation of the truth. It is a law that was passed to organize the right to demonstrate and in a comparison between it and US and French laws, they were identical in terms of their content and application. I will later write a separate blog post on this law but it is important to highlight that not one of the young activists arrested since this law was passed had applied or asked for a license to demonstrate. Each and every person arrested had violated the law that was requested by the rest of the Egyptian population in response to the street violence and fires started by MB members, beginning in September 2013, under the guise of exercising their right to protest. It took the cabinet months to issue this law, which in protecting and organizing the right to demonstrate is similar to other laws that apply in the West.

One reason why we wanted this law passed is that people believed they were citizens equal in value to the demonstrators and that it was their right that their safety and property should not be threatened or put in danger. They did not want to feel unsafe or threatened in their own county. They did not want to be prevented from going to work, or to worry about their children at school. They wanted to respect the right of the protestors to demonstrate but wanted their own right not to demonstrate – and not to be disturbed by demonstrations - to be respected as well.  The law, as in all countries in the world, asks demonstrators to identify the location, time period and objective of their protest. It also specifies that protests take place in neutral locations, to respect the rights of the rest of the citizens. The law also decrees that no ”inflammatory” or “hate” speech, no words or signs that will instigate violence, be used in these protests. Very similar to the law in Germany that prohibits the use of Nazi signs.

Again, I will not go into the details of the law here, but l want to state for a fact that no one who asked for the license to demonstrate and followed the legal procedures for demonstrations was detained or arrested. And I would ask my Western friends how their police and state deal with those who do not abide by the law or who violate it. We have seen videos of how the US police dealt with Occupy Wall Street demonstrators and we even heard of the case of the demonstrator who faced a sentence because she elbowed a policeman - not as in our case, where youth fight arrest with physical force sometimes. Mind you, l am not condoning or promoting police brutality anywhere - l am only trying to find relevant comparisons to explain what is happening in Egypt and to ask that it be put into perspective.

Of course, there are stories that activists have been arrested in their homes and tortured at police stations. Please forgive me - I have witnessed enough lies and exaggeration during the last three years and false accusations that I can no longer believe any story. I would advise all these storytellers to ask themselves why they are no longer believed by the majority of Egyptians and why they lost their credibility. I think these are brave and useful questions.

The claim by many activists is that the media was behind the change of heart towards the revolutionaries. Please don’t repeat stories that it is the Egyptian media that turned people against the young protestors. Please use your skills of deduction and remember that under Mubarak and during the 18 days of the 25^th January revolution, the state media was worse than it could possibly be now and it accused the protestors of committing worse crimes. Please take a minute for soul searching and in total honesty ask why did they lose credibility. Of course, some media representatives did start a campaign to discredit the stars among the activists, and it might have influenced some people’s minds, but the real change of heart was the result of the behavior of several famous “stars” of the January revolution, which were against the mood on the street and did not show much sensitivity to Egyptian culture.

Again, I cannot claim that there are no transgressions but I feel comfortable saying that reports have been hugely exaggerated and I do not think they are part of a mastermind operation. If they have happened, in my opinion, it is on an individual basis - separate incidents that we need to investigate further and for which the perpetrators should be punished.

Returning to the Presidential elections, it surprises me that no one went down to villages and urban squatter areas to see old and poor women and men going out in the heat to vote for Sissi, without the MB bribes of oil and rice, or the other bribes of Mubarak’s NDP. Why no one took pictures of the queues of voters forming early in the morning - at 8:00 am before the heat of the day waiting for the polls to open, or late at night voting and dancing in the streets.

No one within the Western media reported on old and handicapped men and women insisting on going to vote. The only comments made publically were by some young activists; the sad thing was that their comments were very derogatory, insulting and ran contrary to our culture of respect towards the elderly and empathy for the handicapped.

It is surprising that no one made a comparison between the pictures of the MB party (Freedom and Justice party) with sacks of rice and other grains distributed in front of poll stations, to entice voters to choose them, or of when they brought voters in bulk with their own buses, to guarantee their votes, or when they distributed flyers telling people that Islam is the solution and that only infidels would not vote for Morsi.

These grave violations of the law and blatant disrespect to the rules of democratic elections were not seen as reasons to nullify the elections of 2012, where the MB’s representative Morsi allegedly won.

Yet the absence of religious threats, absence of collective transportation of voters, absence of any directive for poor voters during the 2014 elections were neither recognized, reported on by Western media, nor celebrated.

If you could not feel the hope and admiration, and in many cases the love of the masses towards Sissi, then you intentionally chose not to see it.

If you compare the way Sissi‘s campaign was conducted to that of Hamdeen Sabbahi, the other presidential candidate, you will see that it is only the former who followed the law to the letter. Hamdeen and his campaign supporters consistently and regularly attacked Sissi and his supporters, accused them of corruption and labeled them as members of the old regime. Sissi himself never once mentioned Hamdeen, except to thank him at the end of the elections, after the results had been revealed. Sissi’s campaign rarely referred to Hamdeen’s campaign, except in response to attacks. The claim that the “Deep State” supported Sissi was never verified. In fact it was Hamdeen who failed to collect the authorizations - 25 thousand signatures - needed to make him eligible to run for office, and it was for Hamdeen that the authorities, the state, kept its doors open on a Friday after the deadline had passed. It was Hamdeen who announced his electoral program two days prior to the legal campaign commencement date. It was Hamdeen and his team who appeared on many TV channels before the legal date and not Sissi. Sissi did not speak at all until he was legally allowed to. It was Hamdeen who spoke to the public on the day that he himself was voting, during the Days of Silence (see Dalia Zayeda’s account, Ibn Khaldon).

I cannot deny that privately owned TV satellite channels promoted Sissi, but labeling them as “Deep State” is unacceptable and shows prejudice, similar to accusations that all state opponents are spies or agents of America. Both are false accusations and both must be rejected. However, Western media and reporters ridicule accusations of betrayal, yet accept whatever makes Sissi and the state look bad, and frankly this surprises me. Sissi’s supporters did promote him everywhere, but they were not part of his official campaign. Supporters from both sides used terrible terms to describe the other but this is due to lack of experience, and I guess we tend to mimic American politics without discrimination.

It is also true that Sissi had more billboards and banners in the streets than Hamdeen. Yet, they were all paid for by his supporters and it was clearly stated on each banner that this was not part of his official campaign. I was flabbergasted and shocked when a Western colleague claimed that these banners were done by the state. I was too shocked to even respond. Accusations are easy to make and I would challenge anyone to bring evidence that this claim is true. I believe that many businessmen saw Sissi as the candidate to achieve stability, as during the last three years the widespread violence and absence of security affected private money very negatively. There is no doubt that many businessmen would support him and the names behind the different unofficial campaigns are well known; they wanted him to know that they supported him. Many businesspeople saw that he would bring stability and recognized that this is good for business. Hamdeen’s speeches and declarations were not popular with businesspeople. His campaign promises included the nationalization or confiscation of factories and all companies that had been privatized. His declarations included promises that all fired workers be reinstated in their jobs and he also promised that all detainees would be pardoned. These declarations did not sit well with the businesspeople, or the upper middle class and the “couch party”.

So are the election results doubtful, as Western media implied? No; the majority of the Egyptian people, and especially the poor masses, went to vote of their own free will. They were neither bribed, threatened nor driven to the polls. The people see Sissi as their savior, as the hero who stood by them when they asked him to defeat the MB gang, who are seen by most Egyptians as traitors. They see him as the hope for a strong Egypt, which will regain its leadership position within the Arab World, restore order and bring the economy back to speed and improve it. Regardless if he can achieve this or not: this is how he is perceived.

The violence, disorder and increase in crime of the last three years are seen by the majority of Egyptians as unbearable. People want stability and to regain their lives. No one understood why some revolutionary leaders chose to make fun of and undermine people’s desire for stability. It is the right of Egyptians to request and vote for stability, for order. Why do people vote and choose governments except to ensure stability and prosperity? Why deny the Egyptians this right?

Were the electrons rigged or forged? Were there bribes or voters transported in bulk to poll stations?

To answer this question, I need to share with you a little of our history. During the time of Mubarak, less than 5% of our electorate voted. Personally, I never voted before March 2011. Those who refused to vote consisted of the opposition (disenfranchised youth, Islamists and leftists) on one hand and the group that became known as the “couch party“ – aka the silent majority – on the other. This consisted of a large number of Egyptians – even more than other groups – who were apathetic and never involved in politics. They never participated in public life, until many of them went down to support the youth in January 2011 when this group of youth faced police brutality peacefully. Then many members of this group, the Couch Party, went down on the 30^th June 2013 to reject the MB, who wanted to change our identity.

So under Mubarak very few went down to elect him in the only multi-candidate Presidential elections we had before the Arab Awakening – in 2005. Yet the NDP, national security and police filled cards and openly rigged the elections. During the 2012 Presidential elections, the MB Freedom and Justice party and the Salafi El Nour party openly distributed food and grains to the poorer voters and transported voters in bulk. They also scared Christians in Upper Egypt into not voting and used religious threats that people would go to hell to convince people to vote for the MB and Morsi. All this was recorded and reported not only in Egypt but across the world. Yet the results of such a sham were accepted as a triumph of democracy. In the 2014 Presidential elections, none of the above took place. There are very rare cases of Sissi supporters carrying his picture, dancing and singing. Maybe one case of transporting a number of voters. But I have not seen or heard of organized or even large-scale activity of that nature. Millions of people went to vote in the heat of their own accord. Even the external observers, despite their irrelevant comments and their effort to cast a shadow over the electoral results, could not but admit that the voting process itself was valid and there was no rigging or illegal activity. There is not even one case reported of cards being filled. Incidentally, all violations in the past were known and reported on - whether under Mubarak and his police state or the MB. Not a single such case was reported in the 2014 Presidential elections.

Many Egyptians are upset with me for writing this blog. And for trying to explain what has happened. They accuse me of being defensive and apologetic and feel that this demeans us. They told me that we owe no one an explanation and that the Western media had opted intentionally to misrepresent us since June 2013.

I understand that the way the Western media has ignored how the man in the street, the regular Egyptian, feels, and how some Western governments have treated the people’s revolution of 30^th June with disrespect and disdain, has hurt the majority of Egyptian people. I myself was hurt and for some time angry. But Sissi, our president, has himself explained it very elegantly. He said in one of his TV interviews that he believes the U.S. government and the American people need time to understand our context and to see what happened. He has repeated many times that we share core human values and that the U.S. government and the American people need only time to reflect on what happened in Egypt and to listen to the real voice of the Egyptians to reach the right conclusion.

I agree with him and I feel that it is my duty to voice to my friends in the West my reading and understanding of our situation. I too believe that we share the same core values but that our context, history and cultures are different.

More importantly, the historical moment of our people and our country is very different from theirs. They only need to apply empathy and to reengage with and respect our historical and contextual differences to realize that what they perceive as the only truth is not entirely accurate.

For these reasons I will continue to voice our concerns and l will continue to reach out to my wonderful and dear friends in the West because I believe in world harmony and mutual respect. I believe that unless we get rid of the blinkers that obscure our vision, we cannot work together. And I believe that we can and want to work together. I believe that anger on one side and negatively perceived ideas on the other will prevent progress and impede humanity. So please read all the above and again use a different lens. The Presidential elections in Egypt in 2014 reflect what the majority of Egyptians wanted and worked for. Respect our voice. Sissi is the leader that 23 million Egyptians wanted - wrong or right, he is our choice.

Women social entrepreneurs - why we need to invest in scaling

My latest article for Virgin media, on the pressing need to support women social entrepreneurs and enable them to scale their initiatives:


http://www.virgin.com/unite/entrepreneurship/arab-uprising-boosts-female-social-entrepreneurship-but-scaling-lags-behind

Arab uprising boosts female social entrepreneurship, but scaling lags behind

There is no doubt that the Arab awakening that has been taking place since 2011 has thrown into sharp relief, the status of women in the region and the magnitude of the problems facing them. 

While social entrepreneurship is an ideal vehicle for re-shaping our region according to more egalitarian and socially responsive principles, myriad challenges still face women wanting to make significant strides in this arena. 

The wave of social and religious conservatism that has swept Egypt and neighbouring Libya and Tunisia in the last three years has curtailed women’s freedom in several important respects.

Unemployment, dwindling economic prospects and prolonged social unrest all pose a very real threat to establishing an enabling environment for social entrepreneurship to flourish, especially for women. 

Female social entrepreneurs in the region crucially lack a support system that would offer mentorship, opportunities for networking, skill extension and capacity building, as well as seed funding.

While it is important to establish legal systems to implement policies and practices that support the rights of women, meaningful change must also take place at the grassroots level. Women social entrepreneurs, who identify ways of creating systemic change to solve problems within their own communities, must receive the support they need to scale up their initiatives. 

Just 39% of our Ashoka Arab World social entrepreneurs are women. While they are creating meaningful change through their different social initiatives, the rate of this change is nowhere near what it would be if more of them had the opportunity to scale up; very few do.

Ironically, this is in the midst of the general trend towards entrepreneurial culture which has been sweeping the region, with more start-ups and innovation being seen here than ever before. An entrepreneurship ecosystem is growing, with incubators, accelerators, venture capital firms and NGOs dedicated to supporting entrepreneurs appearing in Cairo and throughout the Arab world. 

However, these initiatives are often focused on a niche market: generally young, highly-educated male members of the urban elite, whose programs are either profit-making or at least financially sustainable. 

In Egypt, with a mere 30% of women having access to a quality education, owning only 17% of the country’s SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and with only 15% of the female workforce employed by the private sector, where training and skills development is higher than in the public or the social sector, the disproportionate advantages accorded to men are in clear evidence. 

Ashoka is establishing a Global Women’s Endowment Fund, the aim of which is to elect ten new Fellows annually whose work creates substantial benefits for women and help five existing female Fellows scale up their work every year.

The newly-elected Fellows could be men working on issues that target women, such as our Saudi Arabian Fellow Khalid al Khudair, who specifically integrates women into the Saudi workforce through his organisation Glowork. Or they could be women working in any field – from health to education and media technology to child counselling.

It is particularly important to support women engaged in fighting the root causes of sexual violence, of whom we are starting to see a flood emerge in Egypt.

Like Amani El Tunsi, who has established radio station “Banat wa Bas” (Girls Only); the first online –and taboo-shattering- media outlet in Egypt operated exclusively by and for women. 

And Laila Risgallah, who focuses on the devastating problem of sexual abuse. She works with children and victims and their parents and other members of the community to criminalise all forms of sexual abuse in Egyptian society and implement preventative measures for children. 

It is time to help women like Amani and Laila at the grassroots level across the Arab world to scale up their ventures, build their skills and extend the scope of their impact. In doing so, we are putting the future of women’s empowerment firmly into the hands of the social entrepreneurs who are most able to make it a reality.