Mashrou3i (Phase 2)

2016 - 2021 | United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) | $12.5 million

Mashrou3i (“My Project” in Arabic) generates employment opportunities for young men and women in fourteen disadvantaged governorates of Tunisia by providing direct support to entrepreneurs through technical assistance, training, and business coaching, and by enhancing the capacity of local business support institutions.

Implementing Partner: United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
Duration: 2016-2021
USAID Investment (Life of Project): $12.5 million; in partnership with the Italian Cooperation Agency, and the HP Foundation

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

Mashrou3i aims to reach 25,000 young entrepreneurs and to create 6,000 jobs in 14 governorates targeted by the project, through two objectives:

Empower young people to create and develop their businesses or find employment.
Strengthen business support and higher educational institutions to deliver more adequate services to young entrepreneurs and students.

KEY ACTIVITIES

Empowering entrepreneurs with practical business and IT skills to facilitate the creation, growth and efficiency of their enterprises. During face-to-face workshops, small business owners learn how to apply the innovative concepts of HP LIFE to their own projects and gain real-life business and technology skills to meet the daily business challenges they face.
Selecting enterprises with high employment potential and provide them with technical assistance from experts in areas such as marketing, market access, technology upgrades, access to finance and investment promotion, to support their growth phase.
Improving the curricula of higher education institutions by integrating HP LIFE e-Learning into entrepreneurship courses and strengthen the capacity of business support institutions to provide more marketable services for entrepreneurs.