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

Planned activities

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

Impact examples 2021

  • The GreenWorks Alliance successfully reached 27% of its job target (2400 youth employed of the overall target of 9000 jobs before the conclusion of the program).
  • Almost 50% of those employed are women.
  • In Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia, 97 social enterprises have been supported so far by the alliance.
  • The alliance successfully helped its social enterprise entrepreneurs to leverage more than € 5 million.

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.