TUNIS
-- A new collaboration announced today at the International Conference
on Productive Work for Youth in Tunisia and the Middle East and North
Africa region will invest some USD 3.3 million in fostering sustainable
employment opportunities for young people in Tunisia.
The
collaboration between the United Nations Industrial Development
Organization (UNIDO), the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID), the Government of Italy, and Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) will
leverage small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as an effective avenue to
facilitate economic development and foster entrepreneurship in order to
drive new business creation within four vulnerable, underserved regions
of Tunisia: El Kef, Kairouan, Kasserine, and Sidi Bouzid.
The
collaboration will focus on two key activities: improved access and
quality of services provided to predominantly young entrepreneurs by
local institutions, and direct capacity-building for enterprises with
high employment potential.
“Unemployment
among educated youths emerges as a major challenge in Tunisia and
collaborations like ours that put a strong emphasis on creating
employment opportunities for young people entering the workforce will
help empower and equip them well into the future,” said UNIDO
Director-General, Kandeh K. Yumkella.
Mara
Rudman, Assistant Administrator of USAID, added: “This initiative will
help enhance the knowledge and capacity of regional and local business
while at the same time provide support and training for organizations
that are already on the ground. Our collaboration will also provide much
needed technical assistance to targeted companies, particularly those
in the agribusiness, environmental and other critical sectors of
Tunisia’s varied economy.”
The
USAID contribution is an integral part of USAID’s USD150 million
portfolio of assistance for Tunisia that prioritizes job and business
creation, export promotion, and private investment in support of
Tunisia’s political transition to democracy in the wake of the Arab
Spring uprisings.
The
project is structured as a public and private collaboration to address
jointly defined business and development objectives. Such cooperations
are co-designed, co-funded, and co-managed by partners so that the
risks, responsibilities, and rewards of the collaboration are equally
shared.
The
project will be implemented by UNIDO which draws on extensive
experience in the region in assisting the creation and development of
new businesses, in particular for young men and women, as well as clean
production and resource efficiency.
The
project will also include HP’s Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs
(HP LIFE), an entrepreneurship and IT training programme that was
recently expanded to be wholly available online. Since 2008, UNIDO and
HP have worked together to set up 122 LIFE training Centres, certify
more than 270 trainers, train more than 50,000 students and create more
than 20,000 jobs in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
Pietro
Benassi, the Ambassador of Italy in Tunisia, said: “Our partnership
will reach approximately 10,000 aspiring and existing entrepreneurs,
including many of Tunisia’s young people who are struggling to find
employment. From that, we expect that 2,000 additional jobs will be
created through this work and then ripple out to their families, friends
and others over the following months and years. Our Country attaches
great importance to this programme. The Italian Development Cooperation
has thus decided to further increase in 2013 its contribution to this
initiative in order to extend project activities to two other priority
Governorates, or rather Gafsa and Jendouba. This programme will be a way
for Tunisia to facilitate local economic development and integrate into
business partnership”.
Gabi
Zedlmayer, HP Vice-President of sustainability and social innovation,
said: “We are pooling our collective expertise and available resources
to equip young people in Tunisia with relevant entrepreneurship skills
to help create much needed new jobs. Our collaboration will promote
innovative uses of IT that foster entrepreneurship and help create new
business opportunities.”
