Enterprise Development in the Arab States

The Arab region faces the highest youth unemployment levels in the world; and the recent wave of uprisings witnessed across the region has created a renewed sense of urgency for action. In the coming decades, some 70 million youth (aged 15 to 24) in the region will require an economic future that provides a base for human development and social cohesion as well as a vibrant and inclusive political life.

One way to overcome this challenge and reach an inclusive job-rich growth will be to foster an entrepreneurship culture that allows young entrepreneurs to establish socially responsible sustainable enterprises which will provide them and other young men and women with decent work opportunities. In addition, the development of more robust Arab economies is fundamental to realising these goals. Policies and reforms related to the development of a transparent regulatory framework whose administration is consistent with improved access to finance and ease of entry for new companies will further revitalise the private sector and enable it to play its vital role in providing decent employment opportunities for the region’s fast-growing labour force.

The ILO Response

The ILO Regional Office for the Arab States (ROAS) works closely with governments, employers’ and workers’ organisations across the Arab States to support reforms aimed at producing an enabling environment for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to flourish.

Through the development of sustainable enterprises, productive and decent employment is created and poverty is reduced. Hence, the ILO ROAS draws support from its global Sustainable Enterprise Development Programme and works with Social Partners across the region to create more and better jobs through enterprise development. The ROAS also connects business growth and competitiveness with the needs of people in order to enable them to achieve a decent living in a healthy, safe and peaceful environment. Anchored in the ILO’s mission to create decent work for all women and men, this programme is centred on three pillars:

• Create an enabling environment for enterprises: The ILO works to assist member countries to assess, and where necessary, to adapt policies, laws and regulations in order to encourage investment and entrepreneurship that balances the needs and interests of the enterprise — including both workers and employers — with the broader aspirations of society.
   
• Promote entrepreneurship and business development: Helping entrepreneurs — including special target groups like youth and women — to start and build successful enterprises is core to the ILO’s enterprise development interventions. The programme supports efforts to stimulate enterprise development and foster an enterprise culture through entrepreneurship education, the provision of business development services, as well as connecting enterprises to local value chains and facilitating access to information, technology and finance.
   
• Support the implementation of sustainable and responsible workplace practices: In order to realise their full potential, enterprises must be able to link productivity improvements to better working conditions, good industrial relations and good environmental practices. This includes promoting social dialogue and collective bargaining as well as human resource development in order to raise productivity. It also includes minimising the use of energy and materials and reducing environmental impacts. In turn, these activities increase wages and shared benefits as well as promote good corporate governance and responsible business practices.

Focus Areas in the Arab States

Through advisory services and technical cooperation projects, the ROAS combines support for evidence-based policy reform and development with capacity building and enterprise support services. The ROAS also initiates its own programmes and projects in partnership with governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations, in addition to working in partnership with other UN agencies, donors, development agencies as well as financial and academic institutions.

The office’s interventions aim to produce sustainable jobs for men and women and realise social justice by strengthening the capacity of governments and social partners to:

• Reform the business environment: The ILO offers advisory services and capacity building for policymakers on how to better assess the environment in which businesses operate, identify priority areas requiring intervention, and formulate reform proposals. Standardised methods such as the ILO Enabling Environment for Sustainable Enterprises (EESE) assessment tool allow governments and social partners to analyse the political, economic, social and environmental aspects of doing business. See more...
   
• Foster future entrepreneurs: Creating an entrepreneurial culture is fundamental for an enabling business environment. The ILO starts the process of fostering an entrepreneurial mindset through the integration of entrepreneurship education in secondary and higher general and vocational education. To this end, “Know About Business” (KAB), an entrepreneurship education programme targeting secondary students, and more recently “Mubadara”, a business start-up programme targeting higher education students, were developed. See more...
   
• Promote cooperatives: The ILO promotes the cooperative business model and its specific regulatory and institutional requirements to help cooperatives create and sustain employment as well as contribute to promoting decent work and social justice. See more...
   
• Enhance women’s entrepreneurship: The ILO Women’s Entrepreneurship Development (WED) programme works with countries in the Arab States to increase economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs by supporting them in starting, strengthening and expanding their enterprises. The WED programme builds on gender equality policies that are integrated across all the ILO’s work in enterprise development. See more...
   
• Promote responsible workplace practices: The ILO seeks to counter the myth that better working conditions are too costly for business. Through promoting the use of cost-effective improvements, the ILO helps small and medium enterprises improve their productivity and competitiveness while ensuring a decent and safe working environment for their current and future employees. See more...
   
• Provide entrepreneurship and enterprise management training: The ILO assists governments, employers’ and workers’ organisations, as well as others in scaling up management training and establishing support systems to address the needs of potential entrepreneurs and existing small and medium enterprises. Over the years, the ILO has developed considerable expertise, credibility, networks, tools and experience, notably with its Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) programme. See more...
   
• Improve value-chain development: The ILO approach focuses on improving value chains that offer opportunities to generate wealth, create jobs, and enhance job quality. For each specific market, the ILO looks at how products get to the final consumer, the market dynamics, and relationships between the different actors in the chain. The aim is to strengthen whole market systems — enterprises, business relationships, market structures, and the business environment — in a way that ensures greater benefits for the poor from economic growth and development. See more...