Nabil Habayeb writing in Weforum:
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has a demographic youth dividend of 200 million bright minds. Any development narrative that does not take into account their aspirations will invariably fail to achieve its desired goals.
image via Weforum
But how close are we, in reality, to empowering these young people? The responsibility for helping them fulfil their aspirations on the whole continues to rest with governments. Increasingly, they are looking to create job opportunities by pumping investment into the social sector or infrastructure development. The private sector is seen as a silent, compliant, less proactive partner.
But creating job opportunities solely through governmental intervention will not address the region’s growing unemployment problem.
To bring about a transformational change, we must create a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem that offers young people in the region the opportunity to be active partners in nation-building. To achieve this, we need to cultivate a talent pipeline equipped to meet today’s requirements...[continue reading]
