The US$6.4 million Mobile Internet Ecosystem Project (MIEP) approved by the World Bank Board of Executive Directors today will strengthen innovation and entrepreneurship in the Lebanese mobile Internet ecosystem. Beneficiaries include software developers, university students and graduates, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) firms, industries where new software applications can improve productivity, and mobile users at large.

The project will increase entrepreneurial skills and practical training of the Lebanese talent pool to enhance competitiveness in the industry. It will help create instruments to interact and develop innovation networks to increase global competitiveness. Moreover, areas of improvement will be identified to help the government implement needed reforms.

Creating a mobile Internet ecosystem in Lebanon will have a positive impact on the country’s labor market including greater geographic diversification, improved growth and increased retention of skilled workers. With mobile technology well distributed across Lebanon, new economic opportunities will be possible in economically marginalized areas.

“Fostering investment and capital accumulation in new and innovative sectors that use existing domestic human resources and skills can help unleash Lebanon’s potential for growth and over the long-term shift the economy towards a more sustainable growth path,” said Ferid Belhaj, World Bank Country Director for the Mashreq. “Lebanon is recognized for its strong education system and its multilingual and educated entrepreneurial population. It is important to build on this human capital when addressing economic growth and job creation.”

With literacy rates above 90 percent and gross tertiary education enrollment at 54 percent, the country’s young graduates represent a competitive talent pool. However, Lebanon’s unemployment rate, particularly among young people and women, is high. While the national unemployment rate is 11 percent, 34 percent of all young people and 18 percent of women are actively looking for work.

“The mobile Internet segment can create jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities for the talented, technology savvy Lebanese youth,” said Carlo Maria Rossotto, World Bank Regional Coordinator of the ICT sector. “This project aims to strengthen digital skills and create new enterprises in the mobile Internet space which is a driver of economic growth and job creation”.

The project will be implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Telecommunications who will finance 50 percent of the total cost. The project has strong support within the Government of Lebanon and is aligned with the government’s latest Economic and Social Reform Action Plan.

Over a decade of civil war in Liberia forced some 750,000 people to flee to neighbouring countries, the agency noted in a news release. After the civil war ended in 2003, many refugees have returned to their home country, with most of them settling in and around the capital, Monrovia.

“Many of the young returnees have never seen their home country. This is a big challenge we must address. The lack of livelihood opportunities can hinder their reintegration process,” said Chakib Jenane, Chief of UNIDO’s Agro-Industries Technology Unit.

Two projects, each with a budget of $1.5 million and funded by the Government of Japan, will provide Liberians who have already returned, or intend to return to their home country, with vocational skills training, entrepreneurship training and other related services to help them find jobs or start up livelihoods or businesses.

They will be carried out in partnership with the Liberian Government’s Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission.

A significant number of those who fled Liberia have yet to return home, and one of the biggest concentrations of Liberian refugees is in the Buduburam camp, west of Accra in Ghana, where some 6,000 Liberian refugees still reside.

Another UNIDO project, to be implemented in partnership with the Ghana Refugee Board, will assist the Government of Ghana in the continuing and long-term process of the economic reintegration of Liberian refugees and their families still residing in the Buduburam camp.

UNIDO said that the project will address one of the main reasons given by Liberians still residing in the camp for not returning to Liberia – a lack of any marketable livelihood skills and/or financial capital with which to embark on new enterprises.

Those Liberians who are willing to return to their home country will be provided with multi-skills training. UNIDO will share its expertise of working with small mechanics, metal and wood workshops and other basic industries, such as food processing and garment production, with a special focus on technical skills upgrading and entrepreneurship development.

In 2002, a Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) grant was provided to respond to the unprecedented changes in the demography of Jordan. Sixty percent of the population is under 18 years of age and there has been rapid urbanization (80 percent urban up from 20 percent) over the past 30 years, leading to a dramatic increase in child poverty and vulnerability. In 2006, the Middle East and North Africa Region (MNA) reported the highest rate of youth unemployment (around 25 percent) as well as the largest gender gap in unemployment. Many unemployed youth wait for two to three years for their first position and young women often face the greatest difficulties securing a job. Single sector policies offered only partial solutions and a multi-sector youth-focused approach was needed to develop a sizable critical impact at the community level to produce tangible results.

According to World Bank, a critical element in the success of this project was tripartite collaboration at the local and national levels among government, non-government and private sector to promote a healthy family atmosphere for each child, especially for those children at risk between 10-18 years of age. Jordan recognized education as a first line of defense against child labor, delinquency, child abuse and substance addiction. Education was a guaranteed right for each child. The project aimed to increase the percentage of those completing primary education and reduce the dropout rate. Two innovative approaches were implemented:

Mentoring. Provide a strong means of advocacy for children and create a supportive and effective social linkage for children outside of the government structure, a key feature for rehabilitation into mainstream society by age 18 ;

Locality development and bottom-up approach. This approach, by focusing on the community and local authority levels, changed the institutional-social environment of “at risk” children.

This project accomplished the following:

Through the mentoring program, this grant helped build one-on-one relationships between the “at risk” child and the mentor, who was able to get to know the child/youth and steer him/her towards appropriate educational choices. The six participating Centers of the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) Juvenile Division all adopted the mentoring approach and were able to benefit over 12,000 children. In addition, this approach was incorporated into the working strategy of the MSD, and three key committees (referral, volunteer and implementation) were included in the official structure of the Juvenile Division. This structure has greatly contributed to the sustainability of the program.

Through the “Street Education” programme, this project assisted school dropouts to study towards their 10th grade equivalency certification. An estimated 80,000 to 100,000 school dropouts have benefitted from the training and employment opportunities. So far, 98 percent of those who have taken the 10th grade proficiency test have passed and the cost for each child is around US$350 per year.

Through the bottom-up approach, Jordan was the first country in the MNA Region to launch a bottom-up mainstreaming process for child protection that focused on building institutional capacity and establishing working collaborations between government and nongovernmental organizations.

In addition: (i) 100,000 school dropouts benefitted from the 3 alternative courses for obtaining 10th grade equivalent certification; (ii) 12,000 at risk youth received mentoring as part of the mentoring program; (iii) 2500 volunteers trained and 100 staff trained across 25 government and non-government organizations, and academic institutions.