News - Leaders International

LI fosters job creation and business growth in North Africa

In North Africa, economies are characterised by high levels of unemployment, and more prominently, youth unemployment. According to the Atlantic Council, in 2019, unemployment among those aged 15-24 was 35.8% in Tunisia, 22.3% in Morocco, 49.5% in Libya, and 29.7% in Algeria. The figures now are actually much higher given the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and the devastating economic crisis that ensued. In terms of economic structure, MSMEs are North Africa’s engines of growth. They contribute to job creation, which combats poverty and inequality and integrates youth and women through entrepreneurship and employment. However, despite MSMEs’ pivotal role in economic development, they still face many challenges that impede their growth such as access to finance, markets, supply chain...

Over 800 participants in our training program on freelance digiwork

Leaders International for economic development announced today that more than 800 Jordanian students and entrepreneurs have so far joined the training program on digital freelance work as part of its ‘Digital Avenue’ Project. The project, funded by the U.S. Embassy Amman, aims to stimulate innovation and engage Jordanian talent in global digiwork opportunities by building their freelancing skills, connecting participants to form teams, and guiding participants on competing for global opportunities on online digital work platforms such as Upwork and Freelancer. The training program was specifically designed to prepare young Jordanian entrepreneurs by equipping them with the needed digital work skills to jumpstart their online freelancing careers. As of October, 890 participants had regi...

LI launches Dutch-funded CERA project to strengthen Jordan’s supply chains

The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Jordan and Leaders International for Economic Development (LI) launched their Corporate Entrepreneurship Responsibility Alliance (CERA) project. The four-year project aims to integrate local micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in underserved governorates across Jordan into local and international supply chains.CERA will encourage larger Jordanian enterprises to replace their imported sources of intermediate inputs to local vendors instead. To do this, the project will promote the concept of ‘Corporate Entrepreneurship Responsibility’ to prompt larger corporates to work with local Jordanian suppliers across the value chain.At the same time, CERA will boost the technical, human, and financial capacities of local MSMEs so they can ...

LI conducts focus groups to diversify travel experiences in Jordan

Leaders International for Economic Development (LI) conducted a series of focus groups discussing the curation of innovative tourism experiences in Jordan as part of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherland’s Shiraka fund.The discussions tackled the current state of tourism worldwide in general and that of the kingdom more specifically. Ultimately, participants came up with innovative offerings to be developed and marketed for the purposes of diversifying the sector and attracting more inbound and domestic tourists. The proposed experiences were presented to a group of representatives from both the private and public sectors across the tourism value chain in Jordan. Together, actors discussed their feasibility, gaps, and opportunities, while taking into consideration prevailing trave...

LI concludes a virtual hackathon in Jordan with 3 innovative solutions

The virtual hackathon, from 19–21 August, brought together Jordanian young entrepreneurs and representatives from three ministries to connect and collaborate on finding innovative solutions for three different challenges faced by the Jordanian government. As part of our Idea Bank project, funded by the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), the hackathon aimed at advancing the country’s digital transformation agenda and fostering partnership between governmental institutions and young, budding entrepreneurs in Jordan. During the hackathon, each ministry introduced and explained its predefined major challenge. Thereafter, entrepreneurs were guided on how to develop, validate, and pitch their proposed ideas to better match the needs of the ministries. Entrepreneurs were also ass...