The French embassy in Libya, Janzour Municipality and Expertise France celebrated on Monday the official opening of the Manara Coworking Space located in the Janzour district on the western edge of Tripoli.
Expertise France reported that this co-working space opening represents a great achievement for the municipality as they move towards their goals of women’s empowerment and inclusion by focusing on supporting women entrepreneurs and offering an on-site nursery to further reduce the barrier to access the facility.
French Ambassador to Libya, Mostafa Mihraje, said “The collaboration between the French government and Janzour municipality started with the creation of the “Janzour Coding Academy”. The objective was to improve the youth digital literacy. Since the first days, lots of efforts were made to include as many women as possible in Raqam-e project activities. Today it’s a step forward and an important achievement having this coworking space for them exclusively. France is very proud to participate in maximizing women’s economic potential in Libyan society”.
Created as part of the Raqam-e project funded by the French government and implemented by Expertise France, Manara will focus on supporting and empowering women by encouraging them in their professional endeavour. It will offer to women entrepreneurs with children between 0 to 3 years old – the “mompreneurs” – a place where they can work while their children are being taken care of in an equipped nursery. The coworking space team will also organize events allowing mompreneurs to develop their skills and build a professional network, Expertise France explained.
The coworking space has been created within the municipality premises and renovated to create a welcoming and inspiring workplace for women in the community. Two municipality employees have been trained on space management and communication to successfully run the place. Their mission will be to bring the place to life by hosting various events and activities and accompany the women who wish to devote themselves fully to their professional projects.
“Manara will be a strong asset for the women of Janzour community. We hope this place will support women to launch and develop fruitful businesses projects” said Nadia Abusrewil, Head of the Women Empowerment Unit in Janzour Municipality.
“We’re very honoured and proud today to participate in the launching of Manara as its one of the symbols of the support provided in the framework of Raqam-e project. This coworking space will allow women’s economic empowerment providing a facility for their children to be cared of. Facilitating these entrepreneurs’ businesses development, but also women’s financial and digital inclusion, is fully integrated in the goals of our Libyan partners to develop their economy for a sustainable future of the country” declared Julien Schmitt, Country Representative and Programmes Director at Expertise France Libya.
As the opening of such a space to support women is essential for women’s economic empowerment and inclusion in Libya, the path to gender equality will offer further opportunities for improvement in the coming years. The involved stakeholders are looking forward to implementing more women supporting initiatives involving more regions and municipalities, Expertise France added.
