Taqeem

Taqeem is a new initiative that will undertake and promote impact evaluation across the Middle East in the critical areas of employment and entrepreneurship. MEYI, Silatech, and the Issam Fares Institute at American University of Beirut launched Taqeem at the 2009 Doha Summit on Young People, Enterprise and Employment in June 2009. Taqeem will focus on impact evaluation to generate new solutions to youth challenges by linking effective policy, sound knowledge and smart investment.

The initiative will employ a holistic and integrated approach working with public and private stakeholders on regional, national, and local levels to achieve the following goals:

Measure the impact of interventions to influence the next generation of policies and programs targeting youth.

Drive smarter investments, shape more effective policies and scale up successful projects through new knowledge generated from impact evaluations.

Discover and document flourishing innovations on the ground with the goal of integrating them into national policy and aligning investments for their scale up.

Promote learning across borders by sharing best practices on a local, regional and global level.

Social Entrepreneurship

To support the goals of Taqeem, the Middle East Youth Initiative and its partners will focus on the role of social entrepreneurship and social innovations in the Middle East.

Despite increasing global interest in social entrepreneurship and its applications to the Middle East, there remains a large gap in basic knowledge as well as action and policy-oriented research focused on social entrepreneurship. Thus far, there has been no serious effort to help synergize the various players, identify gaps and opportunities, and build the necessary linkages for scaling-up and expanding their reach and impact. There is a strong need for better understanding of this nascent field in the region, its prospects for growth, and the institutions, regulations, and policies needed for it to play an effective role in solving regional development challenges such as youth employment. By working closely with grass roots organizations, policy makers, and investors, the joint partnership seeks to fill this knowledge gap and harness the potential of social enterprises in countries across the Middle East.

In April 2010, the Middle East Youth Initiative and Silatech released a report: Social Entrepreneurship in the Middle East: Toward Sustainable Development for the Next Generation.

MEYI News on Social Entrepreneurship

AmCham-Middle East Youth Initiative Meeting in Cairo Explores Partnerships for Social Innovation (11 June 2010)

Samantha Constant Attends Arab World Social Innovation Forum in Cairo (17 May 2010)

Third Commentary in Social Entrepreneurship Series Looks at Next Steps in U.S. Engagement (10 May 2010)

Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship: From Words to Action in the Middle East and Muslim World (4 May 2010)

Presidential Summit Wrap-Up: Middle East Youth Initiative Research Featured at Summit and Brookings Launch Event (28 April 2010)

New Study on Social Entrepreneurship Offers Recommendations to Support and Scale Social Innovations (28 April 2010)

Ehaab Abdou Speaks at 3rd World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists in Doha (22 March 2010)

Experts Convene to Discuss Social Entrepreneurship and Social Investment in the Middle East (25 February 2010)

Ehaab Abdou Speaks at Harvard on His Experience as a Social Entrepreneur (2 December 2009)

Social Entrepreneurship Roundtables in the Middle East (18 November 2009)

MEYI Advisor Ehaab Abdou Speaks at USAID-Georgetown Social Entrepreneurship Event (25 September 2009)

Taqeem: Evaluating Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship Initiatives for Impact (23 July 2009)