Creating jobs and boosting the green economy in North Africa

The GreenWorks Program, implemented by an alliance led by Hivos, contributes to climate change mitigation by creating sustainable business and job opportunities for more than 9000 young women and men in the green economy in North Africa.

Why climate change and economic development are connected

High unemployment and lack of financing opportunities in North Africa for small and medium enterprises prevent young people – particularly women and marginalized groups – from developing their full potential. At the same time, rising temperatures and sea levels associated with climate change are expected to set economic development in the region back many years. So we want to align local approaches to climate change with development efforts that address poverty, unemployment, sustainability and climate justice issues.

How GreenWorks will align the two

To this end, the program focuses on:

  1. supporting the creation of “innovation clusters” that enable businesses in the green and digital economies to scale
  2. enhancing the capacities of Business Development Support Organizations and Employability Hubs to create jobs and develop private sector activities beyond program support
  3. training youth in 21st-century skills to afford them economic opportunities in future-oriented green sectors
  4. enabling social enterprises operating in the green economies to scale their businesses and create new jobs

The GreenWorks Alliance is led by Hivos and consists of more than 15 members, amongst which incubators, accelerators, think tanks, vocational training institutes, and angel investment networks in Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia and the Netherlands.

Where

Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria

Activities

  • The alliance’s innovation clusters and new partnerships look for innovative, market-based solutions within the digital and green economies.
  • Capacity building activities offered by alliance partners help local intermediaries (Social Business Development organizations and Employability Hubs) increase job creation and private sector development.
  • The alliance’s six Green Accelerator programs speed up the growth and up-scaling of local and regional social enterprises.
  • Employability training and placement activities provide young people the skills needed for jobs in the green economy and tackle the mismatch between supply and demand in local labor markets.

Selection of results

  • Young people trained: 10,200
  • Young people employed: 7,800
  • Enterprises supported in Algeria, Egypt and Tunisia: 370
  • Gender breakdown in most activities: 51% women
  • Leverage in funding for social enterprises: >10M euro

Here are just a few success stories from our alliance members in Egypt and Tunisia.

Egypt

  • As the first coworking and creative space in Minia and Upper Egypt, Athar attracted a diverse community of entrepreneurs, freelancers, and NGOs and quickly became the leading local early-stage business support network.

    During our collaboration, Athar selected 30 startups, ensuring 80 percent were led by women. Its three-month acceleration program provided training in business model design, analysis, prototyping, and evaluation. Amongst many other activities, Athar organized demo days, hackathons, and a Green Cluster support network. In all, 41 startups and 161 jobs (51 percent for women) received support, and 26 new jobs were created (52 percent for women).

  • Nahdet El Mahrousa (NM) is an Egyptian NGO that helps organizations achieve greater social impact and find solutions for local social and environmental problems.

    In collaboration with GreenWorks, NM helped create over 2,900 green jobs, half of which went to women, and supported 105 green startups. Specifically, 17 startups in NM’s acceleration program created over 300 jobs. NM worked through two Businesses Support Organizations to do this:

    • SuperFny selected 12 startups, delivering nine weeks of training in business planning, marketing, sales, pitching, and technical skills.
    • Moka3ab chose seven startups for a nine-day program on customer analysis, social eco-inclusive innovation, and marketing.

  • Bayt Al Khyata specializes in sustainable fashion and sewing training to teach women skills for making eco-friendly clothing and cultivating a sustainability ethos in the fashion industry.

    Under GreenWorks, Bayt Al Khyata trained over 2,500 women in sewing techniques that minimize the environmental impact of producing clothing. They also provided eco-friendly business growth consulting to 200 women-led microbusinesses to make sustainable fashion more accessible.

  • EgyMag addresses fodder and food shortages by producing insect protein. In 2016 they developed a technique for using Black Soldier Fly (BSF) larvae as a protein source for animals, birds and fish.

    Through Greenworks, EgyMag trained young people in this technique, which helped expand production at EgyMag, creating new green jobs selling Black Soldier Flies (BSF) as a feed component. This initiative ended up creating a completely new supply chain in the animal feed sector. And they also developed a new model for recycling organic waste into high-quality protein.

    Over the course of GreenWorks, EgyMag focused on employing women, increased the production of processed organic waste from 1.5 to 5.2 tons daily, and created over 35 jobs.

  • Changelabs builds and runs some of the region’s most innovative programs for startups, scale-ups, funds, and social entrepreneurs.

    Through GreenWorks, Changelabs launched its “Scale Up To Green'' accelerator, which targeted promising Egyptian green energy and agritech startups. This led to significant funding and support. In total, 45 startups were accelerated, 87 entrepreneurs received support, 935 jobs were created or sustained, and $2.7m in funding was raised.

Tunisia

  • Green4Youth offers a support program and intensive personalized training for ecofriendly startups. Under Greenworks, Green4youth aimed to improve economic opportunities for Tunisian youth within sustainable food systems and clean technologies. Additionally, Green4youth established a cluster to support social enterprises and employability activities, and give financial and technical assistance to go-to-market companies and growth startups.

    Over 265 direct employment opportunities were created, and nine out of the 32 startups supported were led by women. Of the 79 startup founders, 18 were women, showcasing Green4youth’s commitment to gender equality.

  • GOMYCODE is a pan-African educational platform providing people with high-quality, demand-aligned digital and tech training. With support from Greenworks, GOMYCODE Tunisia’s scholarship program opened the doors to quality education for youth from low-income families. Rigorous selection processes ensured deserving candidates received full-time training.

    Talent experts in their "Job Hunter Guide Track" guided 76 graduates toward secure jobs in just two months, while the "It's A Match" job fair organized in Tunis connected over 150 students with startups, leading to interviews and job opportunities. Many other partnerships with local companies led to job prospects for graduates.

  • EFE-Tunisie is a leading CSO that equips young women and men with the skills they need in today’s job market and links them to suitable employment and entrepreneurship opportunities.

    Working with Greenworks, EFE designed and implemented a training program to place young people in partner companies: 678 learned soft skills; 430 acquired trained technical skills, and 646 young people (62 percent women) were placed in more than 45 green food companies.

    GreenWorks also supported EFE Tunisie’s Startech Women project that focused on increasing women’s technological entrepreneurship in rural southern Tunisia. Women received support to launch technological startups, boost their business skills for the digital economy, promote their startups, and explore the Tunisian startup landscape. Twelve new women-led startups were created as well as 35 indirect jobs.

  • Kumulus is an innovative water utility that tackles limited access to drinking water in Africa, the Middle East, and Southern Europe. Their compact machines use solar power and atmospheric humidity to replicate natural dew formation and produce 30 liters of clean drinking water daily. This offers a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to bottled water.

    GreenWorks’ Fund for Just Transition financially backed Kumulus in selling over 50 such machines. Currently, 35 of them provide water to students and staff at rural schools. The remaining machines are making hotels and offices more sustainable.

  • Seniatna is an agri-business working with independent producers from different regions. It offers select, hand-made natural foods like Harissa (a spicy chili paste) from one of Nabeul’s best artisanal producers and dried figs from Djebba.

    With support from the GreenWorks Fund for Just Transition, Senietna launched a new export venture, continued to grow their sales in the local market, and expanded their presence to various supermarkets in France. This has enabled the company to increase the number of artisans they work with to 143.

Period and budget

January 2020 – January 2024, € 9.3 Million

Partners

GreenWorks Alliance members include: Nahdet El Mahrousa, ElSpace, ElRehla, The Tunisian Center for Social Entrepreneurship, AUC VLab, Clean Tech Arabia, Flat6Labs Tunisia, Wasabi, Fondation Tunisie Pour Development, Sylabs, Impact Partner, ElSpace Innovation Hub, Med Angels Investment Network, Education for Employment Tunisia, and Alexandria Angels.

Donor

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.