NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Arab Spring, Start-Up Summer?

Like so many other young people in Cairo, Yasmine el-Mehairy saw no future in Egypt . What she saw was a dead end. Then came Tahrir Square. Six months after an uprising led by people like her ousted Hosni Mubarak and overturned the established order of the Arab world, Ms. Mehairy has joined the ranks of Egypt’...

Source

The New York Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

North Africa & Near East

Going Mobile: Egypt Gears Up for Cellphone Banking

Hani swears his wages were under the satellite box. They were just 400 Egyptian pounds (US$67) -- payment for a month of piecemeal work rigging TV dishes in the northern Cairo district of Shubra El-Kheima - but now they’d gone. Sitting in his dank single room, located up a muddy alley a half-hour’s walk from any major commercial enterprise, Hani toys with the broken padlock from his door and vows to find a safer place for his money. At 36 years old Hani has never had...

Source

Ahram Online (link opens in a new window)

Region

North Africa & Near East

Electrifying Entrepreneur: The Founder of Afriq-Power is Upgrading Mali

Daniel Dembélé wants to electrify Africa . Trouble is, so do foreign multinationals. For the past five years, the 31-year-old Malian social entrepreneur has been trying to keep one step ahead. In 2006, he installed locally produced solar panels in a school in Banko, Mali. With children able to study after dark for the first tim...

Source

Wired.co.uk (link opens in a new window)

Region

North Africa & Near East

Google Exec. Wael Ghonim Takes Sabbatical to Fight Poverty

Wael Ghonim never sought to become the public face of the Egyptian revolution. But the Google executive who helped organize the political uprising on social media was thrust into the spotlight in February after he was arrested and beaten by government forces during the protests that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak. Since then, Ghonim has been traveling the globe to spread word of Revolution 2.0, tapping the power of the Internet and social media to foment revolution. He has...

Source

Los Angeles Times (link opens in a new window)

Region

North Africa & Near East

Sa?d Business School: US Marines Call on Social Entrepreneur in Afghanistan

When Connie Duckworth received a call from the office of Commanding General of the Marines First Expeditionary Force operating in Afghanistan, she was surprised to say the least. Ms Duckworth is a social entrepreneur working in poor rural communities in Afghanistan well beyond the theatre of war. The Marines, however, had heard about her approach to developing sustainable economic growth within these communities and wanted to learn more. Ms Duckworth’s social venture ARZU has been w...

Source

The Financial (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Education

Region

North Africa & Near East

USAID, IYF To Promote Entrepreneurship Among Palestinian Youth

A $15 million initiative to improve entrepreneurship , civic engagement and employment opportunities for young people in the Palestinian territories has been launched in Ramallah in the West Bank. The four-year program is a partnership between the U.S. Agency for International Development and the International Youth Foundation. Dubbed the "Youth Entrepreneurship Development" program, it aims to help young people between 1...

Source

Devex (link opens in a new window)

Region

North Africa & Near East

PPAF Sets Up Wind Turbines, Solar Panels for Power Generation

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF), in partnership with Aga Khan Planing and Building Services- Pakistan (AKPBS-P), has set up wind turbines and solar panels to provide environmentally friendly electricity to approximately 6,500 people in 29 villages of district Thatta in Sindh province. According to PPAF sources, the AKPBS-P, with the support from PPAF, the World Bank and the contribution by the village residents in the form of unskilled labour, installed 29 wind t...

Source

Business Recorder (link opens in a new window)

Region

North Africa & Near East

Why We Need Social Entrepreneurship in the Middle East

The tremors shaking the Middle East have not fully subsided, but the ominous question already looms: What comes next? Much of the media focus has been on political reform, as tyrants are toppled and drama unfolds with the suspense of a Hollywood movie, but the demands of protestors have been clear: They want political and economic reform. Very little attention, as yet, has been paid to the...

Source

Inc. (link opens in a new window)

Region

North Africa & Near East