Silatech seeks to empower women, youth in 3 nations

Qatar-based NGO Silatech signed yesterday three strategic agreements with international and national partners to economically empower youth in Sudan, Morocco and Somalia, and create job opportunities in their communities.
The first is with United Nations Women (UN Women) to build the capacity of women in the Red Sea State and Khartoum State of Sudan.
The second agreement is with Al Amana Microfinance in Morocco to expand its outreach to young people and facilitate access to funding opportunities.
The third is with a group of aspiring youth — founders of Horn Progress Initiative — to train young men and women in Somalia on sustainable agricultural practices.
The project in Sudan will economically empower more than 1,000 beneficiaries of urban, peri-urban and rural women and girls in the most vulnerable situations including with disabilities, survivors of gender-based violence, living in refugee and IDP camps in the Red Sea State and Khartoum State of Sudan.
Darren Peters, Operations Manager at UN Women – Sudan Country Office said: “The partnership between Silatech and UN Women will create project interventions where the capacity of women enhanced to create co-operatives and unions along identified value chains. It will improve access to and the use of new technology and services by women to gain acceptance by the communities, and also improve women’s access to markets and financial services.”
“The project will contribute to sustainable development, economic transformation, women’s economic empowerment and improved livelihoods in Sudan through women’s effective contribution to employment, job creation and income generation.”
Silatech’s agreement with Al Amana Microfinance will create 684,000 jobs for Moroccan youth.
Al Amana chairman Ahmed al-Ghazali said his organisation seeks to be an active player in economic and social development through its financial integration tools that help young people enter the microfinance market.
Silatech’s partnership in Somalia aims to train as many as 7,500 youth on sustainable agricultural practices and technologies in order to reduce reliance on rain-fed agriculture.
The initiative is expected to create 15,000 jobs for youth in the agriculture including returnees from refugee camps in the neighbouring countries.
Silatech CEO Sabah al-Haidoos said: “In 2017, Silatech has sought to activate the youth agenda at a global level through international memberships, co-operation with governments and non-governmental organisations and the expansion of its regional and international network of partners. Silatech has also designed its 2018 operational plan towards the sustainability of the organisation and its youth-oriented programmes.
“The organisation will continue to launch innovative initiatives that empower youth to advance their communities in line with sustainable development goals, and the strategies of their respective governments. All this will play a vital role in achieving our founder’s vision of “an Arab world in which young people are able to work, and are engaged in the economic development of their societies”.
Established in 2008, Silatech works on connecting Arab youth wherever they are to jobs, and enable resources for them to establish and sustain successful income-generating enterprises.
By 2017, Silatech has succeeded in creating or sustaining more than 650,522 job opportunities for Arab youth, and has signed commitments to create 2mn jobs by 2020.
Silatech currently has programmes in 17 Arab and non-Arab countries.