Egypt Competitiveness Project

JAA led the entrepreneurship task of this project, which is part of the Obama Administration’s new Global Entrepreneurship Program (GEP). GEP/Egypt was a multi-faceted, interagency approach to facilitate partnerships and create links between entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship organizations, mentoring, skills development, access to finance, and other entrepreneurship resources.

JAA worked with schools, science and technology institutes, business and industrial associations, and other organizations to identify, mentor, and support promising entrepreneurs. JAA also worked to improve entrepreneurship and business skills, including increasing access to finance, improving public awareness of business development services, promoting the long-term viability of the broader initiative to foster entrepreneurship in Egypt, working with universities partners and programs to commercialize innovation and R&D, identifying opportunities and helping to facilitate linkages between larger established firms and entrepreneurs, and coordinating with USAID/Egypt’s broader entrepreneurship program. In addition to increasing access to finance, JAA supported the development of venture capital and potential funding sources for entrepreneurship activities in Egypt.

JAA designed and implemented the NexGen IT Boot Camp, a collaborative effort between ECP, the Government of Denmark, the U.S. State Department’s Global Entrepreneurship Program, and the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centre (TIEC). The Boot Camp held classes on business plan preparation, marketing, knowledge management, finance, innovation, and project management. Two enterprises won an internship to the US with iContact and two others won entrance into an accelerator program in Denmark called StartUp BootCamp. There was major media coverage including five international press organizations including Christian Science Monitor and Portfolio.com, seven local newspaper articles that included three inserts, 17 articles in MENA online media, two showings on Egypt TV1, and three broadcasts on Egyptian radio stations. Other articles in both international and local press are expected.

JAA also supported the StartUp Weekend in Cairo (SWC), the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Days (IE) at Alexandria University, and organized entrepreneurship media training and advertising.

JAA designed an approach that was highly leveraged in terms of women’s and youth empowerment. By selecting the ICT sector– JAA has targeted a sector that primarily youth led and gender diverse. JAA’s interventions have proven to be excellent opportunities for women to succeed among their peers.

JAA has also been in the forefront of adapting high-growth economic strategies to in ways that maximize inclusion of youth.  Most recently, JAA played a major role in the development of the national economic growth strategy proposed by the Egyptian National Competitiveness Council (ENCC).  The strategy combines sustainability with competitiveness and social inclusion as major pillars of policy going forward.  The strategy had implications for the entire MENA region and influenced similar strategies globally.