Strong support at Cairo’s Female Entrepreneurs Conference for UfM project Young Women as Job Creators: more than 2,000 beneficiaries in the region
Young Women as Job Creators, which is promoted by the Association of Organisations of Mediterranean Businesswomen (AFAEMME), supports women’s entrepreneurship by providing young female university students with the skills and tools they need to set up their own businesses. More than 2,000 women have benefitted from the project in Albania, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan by attending “Women Entrepreneurship Days (WEDs)” seminars organised at local universities. Additionally, 200 women have participated in dedicated training courses on management, marketing and finance offered by the National Businesswomen Associations implementing the project. At least 70 of these young women are expected to successfully start their business projects in the coming months. Several businesses have already been created by young beneficiaries of the project in Morocco, Palestine, Albania and Egypt, and they are now receiving dedicated mentoring to help their projects to succeed.
During her visit to Cairo, Deputy Secretary General Borione was received by Ambassador Hossam Zaki, Assistant Foreign Minister for European Affairs of Egypt, and Ambassador Maged Refaat, UfM Senior Official. The Egyptian representatives expressed their full support for the UfM and its activities and encouraged the Secretariat to continue contributing to human development, stability and integration in the region through its initiatives and projects. Ambassador Borione also discussed ways of strengthening cooperation with the Chair of International Relations for the National Council for Women, Ambassador Mona Omar, and held talks with various Egyptian and international policymakers, entrepreneurs and leaders of women’s business associations.
Ambassador Borione praised Egypt’s support for UfM activities, including those related to women’s economic empowerment: “Thanks to the support of the UfM member countries the Secretariat is currently promoting the regional gender equality agenda as a public policy priority by supporting concrete projects targeting 58,000 female beneficiaries and by acting as a regional platform to foster greater impact and synergies among all the stakeholders in the region.”
UfM projects promoting women’s entrepreneurship in the region
The UfM Secretariat is currently promoting 8 regional cooperation projects specifically contributing to women’s socio-economic empowerment and targeting 58,000 beneficiaries in 20 countries in the Mediterranean region. The following projects aim to foster women’s entrepreneurship by tackling the main challenges women face in becoming entrepreneurs and job creators:
CEED GROW: Growing and Scaling Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
