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The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Tatweer Research agreed a new business start-up accelerator initiative in Tripoli, Benghazi and Sebha last Thursday.
The initiative is to create new businesses and generate jobs for hundreds of youths as a critical component of building peace in Libya.
As part of its Local Peacebuilding and Resilience Programme, UNDP partnered with Tatweer Research to launch a business start-Up accelerator to support innovative businesses ideas, to build new market linkages, identify market niches, build relationship with partners and investors, and increase access to capital across the country. The initiative also contributes to UNDP’s efforts to upscale institutional capacities with the Ministry of Local Government and its resolution to create Business Incubators and Accelerators.
This comes on the back of the fact that half of Libya’s population are young people. Expanding opportunities and support for young people to have meaningful jobs and be themselves engines of job creation represents a significant economic potential, which remains un-tapped.
During the signing event, the CEO of Tatweer Reasearch Khaled Elmufti stated, “entrepreneurship in Libya is a critical component in creating stability and economic prosperity in the country by diversifying the economy and creating job opportunities. Building on the work with UNDP, we are very excited to work with promising Libyan entrepreneurs and start-ups and help them in their growth phase. This partnership with UNDP will be a critical component in this new chapter for start-ups and we are very honoured to work with the dedicated UNDP Libya team to continue building the Libyan entrepreneurs’ ecosystem.”
UNDP Resident Representative, Marc-André Franche underlined, “job creation for youth remains at the heart of UNDP’s local peacebuilding efforts. We are encouraged by this new partnership with Tatweer Research enabling entrepreneurs to grow and create pathways for sustainable employment. We are particularly grateful to the European Union for the continuous support to foster job creation and entrepreneurship in Libya.”
The signing ceremony was also an opportunity for start-ups already benefiting from the Tatweer-UNDP partnership to showcase progress and results of their growing businesses in innovative sectors. These include:
- Wild Plant Company for Natural Oils Extraction, specialising in extracting oils from herbal, medicinal and aromatic plants.
- Engraveha, producing custom-made engraved products.
- Mawja, providing technology and media services.
