In 2016, Silatech was active in 16 countries, running projects with partners in the areas of microfinance, career advice and employability,
small and medium enterprises (SME) development, civic engagement and research and policy advocacy.
Employability One of Silatech’s first partnerships was with Cisco to create a technology platform for ICT education and youth interaction with prospective employers. Meanwhile, another initiative, Tamheed, in collaboration with Mindmill, has created an online career guidance platform with psychometric testing, which has been used by young people in Qatar, Morocco,
Palestine, Syria, Egypt, and the
United Arab Emirates (UAE). Partnering with
Tunisiana, the main private telecommunications operator in Tunisia, Silatech launched e-mobile employment platform MobiWorks in 2013, reaching 300,000 Tunisians in less than a month, and offering mobile learning for entrepreneurship, career guidance and
financial literacy. Offline, Silatech has supported career counseling, for instance, partnering with the International Youth Foundation in 2012 to provide four days of career guidance training in the
West Bank for participants from nine NGOs, universities and colleges in Palestine. Collaborating with
Pearson Education’s Edexcel brand, Silatech developed an accredited course and new qualification (Silaqual) for construction industry training in Yemen. The project started in 2009 and at least 1,024 construction workers were trained in 2010. In June 2013, Silatech launched a youth savings initiative in Morocco with
Al Barid Bank and GIZ called "Tawfir al-Ghad" (Saving for Tomorrow), with the aim of providing saving accounts and financial literacy training to 30,000 young people. This project was the expansion of a youth micro-savings pilot with Al Amal Microfinance Bank in Yemen, where 11,000 young people opened savings accounts for the first time between 2010 and 2013. The micro-savings project has also expanded to Egypt.
Microfinance In August 2011, Silatech signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create a fund to support small and medium-sized enterprises, investing $10 million in the fund, with the General Authority for Investment in Egypt. Silatech and
UNWRA announced ‘Mubaderati’ (Initiatives) in February 2012, providing a select group of entrepreneurs with financing to help begin their businesses. Silatech guarantees part of the loan, which reduces the risk for UNWRA and young Palestinian borrowers, thereby freeing up millions of dollars' worth of additional loans from UNWRA. A partnership with Attawfiq Microfinance in 2012 introduced "
Boudour" (Seed), the first loan product specifically for youths in Morocco, which over 7,000 entrepreneurs had received by June 2013. Silatech matches loans made by the community - initially, this was up to $175,000, but has since been raised to $375,000. Through the Kiva Arab Youth project, $3 million was raised for 2,500 young people by April 2013. In June 2013, Silatech announced it would collaborate with the international payments firm Dahabshiil and the
American Red Cross to promote crowdfunding in
Somalia using remittance payments. In September 2013, Grameen-Jameel (a joint venture with the
Grameen Foundation) joined with Silatech to enable new access to microfinance for young people in countries such as
Libya. By 2012, Silatech had raised $35 million of co-funding for microfinance initiatives, had 12 financial institution partners in five countries, and had helped to start or grow 15,000 youth-run businesses, making it the largest supporter of youth microfinance services in the Arab region.
SME investment Silatech launched SILA, a network of
angel investors to invest in early-stage businesses in Qatar, in partnership with
Qatar Development Bank, Wamda,
Oasis500 and the MIT Enterprise Forum in October 2012.
Competitions The winners of the third annual Al Fikra Business Plan Competition were announced in April 2013, with winners receiving unspecified cash prizes, incubation, professional development and managerial and technical advice from Enterprise Qatar. The Al Fikra Business Plan Competition is managed by Enterprise Qatar, with Silatech and the SILA early-stage investment network as co-organizers. In 2014, Silatech held the first Arab Mobile App Challenge in partnership with the Applied Innovation Institute and
Ooredoo. Workshops were held in Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the UAE in late 2013, followed by competitions in these countries in January 2014, with the top three entries from each country sent to the finals in Doha. The winners, who were announced on 2 February 2014, earned prizes of $50,000, $30,000 and $20,000, and one team from each country was selected to compete at the
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. On 16–18 February 2013, Silatech organized the Arab Youth and Entrepreneurship Conference in Qatar with The Arab Urban Development Institute and in partnership with the World Bank. The conference brought 300 people together to discuss the challenges facing young entrepreneurs and the ways in which local governments, NGOs and the private sector could come together to support young entrepreneurs. Silatech has also supported Global Entrepreneurship Week; in Qatar in November 2013, and the first ever such event in Libya also held in November 2013.
Research In 2008, a collaboration between Silatech,
FTSE Group and the Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA) created a new index project, supporting individual exchanges across the Arab World to launch small and medium enterprises markets. Joining with the Wolfensohn Center for Development at the
Brookings Institution, the
Dubai School of Government and the
Issam Fares Institute at the
American University of Beirut, Silatech launched "Taqeem" in June 2009, a project to assess the impact of current policy and investment in the areas of employment and entrepreneurship, and to identify, scale and promote best practices. Silatech collaborates with Gallup to investigate youth attitudes to employment and entrepreneurship across the region in the ‘Silatech Index.’ Since 2008, twice-yearly reports have sought to measure and quantify youth opinions in three areas: job creation and availability, access to resources required to find jobs, and policies blocking their success. In 2012, Silatech collaborated with the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor and Sanabel to survey regional microfinance institutions, identifying gaps in youth financial inclusion and seeking to use the information to improve policy.
Civic engagement In January 2014, Silatech and Innovations in Civic Partnership launched a program allowing universities in Egypt, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia and Yemen to apply for grants assisting institutional change and improving civic engagement. In February 2014, Silatech and Innovations in Civic Partnership convened a forum in Amman, Jordan, for more than 40 university presidents and senior administrators to discuss integrating civic engagement into higher education. == Organizational governance ==