Solutions

Thematic areas: crowd-funding

Country: Egypt

Egypt has a variety of developmental causes and initiatives that everyday citizens are not aware of, and thus lack funding and support from the society.

Bassita is an Egyptian web-based start-up that focuses on social and environmental causes, and aids in their development through the use of cause-marketing.

The Clickfunding Model was born in January 2014 when the founders of Bassita recognized the lack of interaction between internet users and development causes and decided to tackle this gap by creating a short-cut for the traditional funding processes. Their aim was to provide a mechanism. The Bassita team developed the first Clickfunding model in the world, which aims to transform everyday web-users into web philanthropists through the click of a mouse.

How it works?

-Bassita’s website hosts short videos on specific and easy-to-fulfill causes, and each cause is connected to a sponsor.

-When the video reaches the targeted amount of points (calculated based on views, likes, shares, tweets and comments) the sponsor fulfills the cause.

– The Bassita Clickfunding model is unique and different from other funding models, as the internet user is not asked to fund a cause, but to watch and interact with a video on the internet.

 In order to accomplish its mission, Bassita works in collaboration with four main categories of stakeholders.

1. The cause itself; (CSO, entrepreneur, social initiatives) with specific needs.
2. The sponsor who fulfills the cause when the video reaches the targeted amount of visibility
3. Bassita’s team of community partners: they support the dissemination of the video on their platforms, internal newsletters, as well as their social media outlets.
4. The internet user, by sharing, commenting and liking he allows the cause to get fulfilled while creating visibility for the sponsor.

 

Achievements:

Bassita has carried out its first project in collaboration with Baraka Fashion to deliver eyeglasses to artisans in Khalta, a village in the governorate of Fayoum. The campaign was successful, as the video released by Bassita about the cause received 10,000 views and Baraka Fashion provided 1,000 eyeglasses to artisans in rural communities.Among many others success stories there is also for an example of : water life

A video showing the comedian Maged al-Kedawny, along with the Arabic hashtag “a click connects to water,” was viewed on Facebook more than two million times in three days after the campaign’s launch in February and he collect 1,000 Water Connections in Upper Egypt.

Bassita won the Young Innovators Award which is under the umbrella of Nahdet El Mahrousa and is an innovation program.

In January, 2015, Thinkers and Doers; an international forum at the Arab World Institute in Paris recognized Bassita as one of the most impactful projects in the Middle East. 

Replicability:

Bassita only relies on information technology, which can be easily accessed in most countries. The replication the solution is affordable.

Prizes:

• Bassita crowdfunding was selected among ‘’La France S’Engage au Sud’s’’ 10 Best Social Innovations in a developing country. And also ClickFunding has been described by the French president as a model able to contribute to better societies, in the South [of the Mediterranean] but also in Europe.
• The clickfunding has been won INJAZ Al-Arab competition in 2016.
• Bassita won a 2015 Orange Prize for African social ventures.

Thematic areas: Health care, Employment

Country: Egypt

In Egypt, number of individuals that are in need of short or long term non-hospital health care is increasing. Working family members rarely are available, have the time, or have the necessary skills to provide the required health services and care at home. All this brings the need for training home health care providers (HHCP). It is estimated that about 400,000 elderly people are in need of some kind of assisted living to be able to continue living at their homes. If only 10% of those can afford to hire a caregiver, there would be a need to train at least 40000 care providers in the near future to meet that demand.

In 2004, Care with Love, a registered organization (# 5241 / 2003), translated this need into Home Health Care Program assistance to the elderly and others who are homebound by creating a new professional niche: home healthcare. It selects smart, compassionate recruits and teaches them, motivates them, and gives them a respectable job and an important chance to contribute positively to those in their care. It creates jobs without burdening the government, provides a desperately needed service at an affordable cost, and sets a professional and compassionate tone for caregiving.

HHCPs provide services in:

• Assisted living(Personal hygiene, Eating, Assistance with mobility, and Social support);
• Home Health Care(Measuring vital signs, dispensing medications, wound care, catheter care, and tube feeding).

The program is open to young people, both men and women between ages 17-35 interested in becoming HHCP on selection basis. The selection process is based on the level of interest as well as ability. Fluency in Arabic reading and writing is a requirement, in addition to passing the entrance exam.

 

To become certified HHCP the young people, should complete a training of HHCP for four months long. The training curriculum is a well-balanced mixture of theory in the classroom, lab training where the trainees are coached to acquire and practice needed basic skills, and practical field experience at health institutions where they apply what they learned and can gain confidence and hands-on experience.

Prior to certification, Care with love arranges one-month internships with seasoned home healthcare providers who offer guidance, close and supportive supervision, and evaluation. In fact, evaluation by more senior providers and by clients is an ongoing part of Care with love’s effort, not only to ensure mastery of technique but also to monitor and provide helpful feedback on maturity, personal growth, and adjustment. Following completion of the course, students take an exam, and the 80 percent who pass don graduation robes and attend a formal ceremony recognizing their achievement.

To support and spread this new profession, Care with Love arranges partnerships with private hospitals to offer both an institutional shelter to home healthcare providers and secure employee benefits like insurance. It has arranged for health institutions where the graduates will work to cover the cost of training or offer loans to students, payable in installments following graduation. It has secured an offer from the Ministry of Health to provide an institutional shelter for home health providers, granting them full insurance and employment benefits as hospital employees.

Care with Love also provides institutional health care provider training for multiple types of facilities. Institutions that provide specialized health care services often rely on Care with Love to train their staff. This includes polyclinics, orphanages, and other care centers.

The achievements of Care with Love:

 

• To date, all graduates have been employed and are earning a good income. The first graduates received degrees in 1997; there are now 936 certified home healthcare professionals serving homebound clients primarily in the greater Cairo area, with a few working in other areas: Alexandria and the North coast.

 

Partner: The center for Geriatric Services (a non- profit organization of the synod of the Nile in partnership with the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services), an NGO and Alsalam Hospital.

Website: www.cwlegypt.org

Thematic areas: Youth Development, Education, Employment, ICT.

Country: Egypt

In 2014, according to CAPMAS, the Egyptian population has reached 87 million, growing 18% in eight years.   The male to female ratio is almost equal, with some 45 million of each sex.   With rising population levels, more jobs are needed each year. The official unemployment rate in Egypt reached unprecedented high of 13.3% in the second quarter of 2014. Some of the major causes of unemployment in Egypt are overpopulation and the lack of proper education and sufficient training upon graduation.

Masr Ta3mal, meaning “Egypt Works”, is an initiative that focuses on developing the skills of Egyptian youth to increase their chances of employment. The focus of Masr Ta3mal initiative targets the largest youth segment which is aged between 15-29.  The main aim of Masr Ta3mal initiative is to provide full employability eco-system and to empower the youth of Egypt and help them follow their goals in employment.

This is achieved firstly through the institutionalized career centers provided by the Egyptian Ministry of Youth and Sports in which the following activities take place: Career Advising, ICT Trainings, Business Development Trainings, Capacity Building, Job Placement, sessions on Entrepreneurship and Startups. The aim of these activities is to bridge the gap between the educational system and the job market needs in Egypt. These career centers commonly known as ‘youth centers’ are owned by The Egyptian Ministry of Youth and Sports. There are youth centers which cover all the governorates in Egypt and it has access to a very large number of youth. This makes it suitable and easy to reach for youth from all around the country.

Masr Ta3mal has created a full cycle for youth development that works as follows:

• Career coaching online and offline sessions to define the youth personal skills and professional interest and to create career development plan.
• Online Diplomas and courses in IT, Languages, Business and soft skills.
• Job Matching tool to connect youth with employers.
• Entrepreneurial online and offline trainings to introduce the entrepreneurial thinking to Egyptian youth and to build the capacity of Egyptian young entrepreneurs.
• Civic Engagement activities to raise the awareness about extracurricular activities for students and the importance of volunteering for fresh graduates and young professionals through Masr Ta3mal mentorship program and Masr Ta3mal Youth Program.
• Masr Ta3mal Proto-type centers (Physical centries) provide:
• IT centers to provide IT trainings for youth to help them increase their efficiency and productivity.
• Business & career centers to provide career development and to align their education with demand in the labor market.
• Entrepreneurship centers to instill problem-solving skills, entrepreneurship and management capacity and the value of self-employment.

Masr Ta3mal also has its own employability portal which is made accessible for the youth for further learning and services. The centers feed the portal with local content. It also creates a national youth network for employability the youth for further learning and services.

The key achievement of Masr Ta3mal so far as follows:

 

• 67 Masr Ta3mal Proto-type centers (physical centers) in 26 governorates
• 80 IT Centers in 27 governorates
• Reach 1,121,135 youth, got access to 133,621 and up skilled 30,976 youth
• 16,902 vacancies from December 2013 till 5th of February, 2015
• 323 Career Guides
• 850 Digital Literacy Trainers
• 230 Build Your Business Trainers
• 993 entrepreneurial beneficiaries.
• Masr Ta3mal Youth Group in 9 Universities with 350 members
• 120 potential social entrepreneurs
• 350 students trained on social entreprenship who will be able to raise the awareness of 15000 Student about Social entrepreneurship.

 

Partners: Ministry of Youth and Sports, UNDP, Silatech.

Website: www.masr.ta3mal.com

Thematic areas: ICT, Education

Country: Egypt

Until recently, there was a lack of high-quality, well-structured websites managed by companies creating digital content for Arabic-speaking users and of original, localized, high-quality content.

In order to support rural-urban integration into one knowledge society, and to empower communities through the provision of easy access to the information they need, in order to widen their horizons, and to increase their future and career opportunities. The Egyptian Ministry of Communication & Information Technology (MCIT) launched Kenanaonline jointly with the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) in 2007.

The objective is to increase useful Arabic E-content available on the internet, support citizens (in rural & urban areas) to use information technology to improve skills, career, income, health, agriculture, and knowledge, and helping communities move towards the Knowledge Society.

 

KeKenanaOnline work scope depends mainly on two major strategies:

• Networking and partnership: This is done through building a network of community partners from NGOs, experts, academia, universities, entrepreneurs and private sectors in every targeted field. In a parallel way, each partner actually participates in establishing a promising information society and implicitly encourages activities related to networking, business opportunities, and e-marketing.
• Community Mobilization: This is done through developing a series of public activities that are mainly directed towards raising awareness using Kenanaonline features and services. These series also targets mobilizing the Arabic-speaking people to actively participate in enlarging Kenanaonline knowledge networks, and enhancing the specialized free e-content.

Kenanaonline provides user-friendly online applications that allow users to build their online knowledge base to provide their communities with knowledge and consultancy in their respective fields of expertise. This service includes:

• Business directory system
• Websites and blogs creations services
• Internet marketing tools (Newsletter, classified Ads.)
• Customer Relation Management.

Since the launch, the solution contributed to establishing the knowledge society in MENA region by leading and moderating the generation and management of credible and specialized knowledge portals and developing the social mindset  for using ICT in utilizing knowledge  for sustainable community development and achieved the following:

• 1,390,000 pages published on the Internet
• 1,000 page added daily/ 30,000 per month
• 37,000 Daily visit
• 46,000 unique daily visitors.

The project can be replicated to other Arabic-speaking countries.

 

Partnerships: The Italian Cooperation, the Ministry of Agriculture, General Authority for Fish Resources Development, the Ministry of Social Solidarity, Egypt Arts Academy, the Egyptian Association for Persons with Special Need, Dreamers of Tomorrow Association.

 

Website: https://support.kenanaonline.com/

Thematic areas: ICT, Education, Equality.

Country: Egypt

In Egypt, there are many hearing impaired persons that suffer from illiteracy, low income and poor chances in education and employment. In addition, they live in isolation from the rest of the society because of the lack of communication with normal people due to their disability.

Tawasol was launched in 2015 by “Khalifa Computer Group” (KCG), an Egyptian family-owned IT company upon identifying the challenges facing those with hearing impairment in Egypt. The founder, Dr. Adel Khalifa decided to adopt a strategy to build an infrastructure that can aid those with hearing disability in their paths in education, employment, and breaking the barrier of communication with society. The Khalifa Computer Group in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Ministry of Education developed the package of software which aims to improve quality of life for people with disabilities by using ICTs to facilitate access to information and knowledge, boost interaction with the community and increase opportunities for employment. Thus, Tawasol was designed as computer software for disabled students, theirs teachers, and family members to enhance communication between each other and the society.

The KCG team faced a numbers of challenges that prevents adopting standard tools from the developed countries in Egypt such as: 1) The native language in Egypt is Arabic, 2) The Egyptian Sign language for Deaf is not unified and is definitely different from the American or European sign language, 3) A large number of the Deaf in Egypt are illiterate and 4) In spite of the governmental law that 5% of the employment in all companies and governmental offices should be from people with special needs, the law is not applied.

Thus, KCG team developed a new strategy for building an infrastructure of assistive technology tools suitable for the Egyptian environment and the Deaf people there. The research leads to achieving four components for these tools:

So far, the solution has achieved the followings:

1. The Ministry of Education in Egypt approved the project and ordered the following as a start: The Cloud version of Tawasol system to be distributed for the 200 School in Egypt for Deaf (Al-Amal Schools) and The Unified Academic Sign Language Dictionary on DVD for the same schools
2. In a collaborative agreement, both the MOE, MCIT and the Teachers academy have approved the Unified Academic Sign Language Dictionary as the main training program for training Teachers of the special needed students on sign language (5000 Teachers as a start).
3. Khalifa Computer Group was granted a project from MCIT to extend the capability of “Tawasol” in accessibility for Deaf as a part of the second phase of the strategy suggested by KCG.
4. Currently KCG is negotiating with one of the largest newspaper agency in Egypt offering full year training through its training facility for sign language of Deaf and hearing people.
5. KCG is also is negotiating one of the largest factories for food and drinks to train their staff on sign Language using “Tawasol”
6. KCG has installed and tested the Tawasol system in two different Deaf Schools one in Cairo and the second was in Al-Fayoum City. The results were positive with great interest from both teachers and students.

 

Tawasol is available on the Internet with as yearly subscription-based accounts. The retail price for one account subscription per year is 1800 EGP, which includes all of the products.

Tawasol is an ongoing project. Through the first phase; Khalifa Computer Group has developed the above mentioned four major applications, which could be considered as the infrastructure of the strategic project. In the next phase, Tawasol build applications on top of what was developed in the first phase as well as enhancing the functionality of the first phase applications.

To achieve the ultimate goal of social inclusion of the hearing impaired persons in the society Khalifa Computer Group has been working on the next following steps:

1. Developing software tools to help the deaf communicates with the listeners in the community.
2. Provide professional sign language training for the listeners to facilities their interaction and communication with the deaf people through the using of the unified Arabic Academic sign language dictionary.
3. Developing the Egyptian university education for the deaf.

Awards: Tamkeen Award by MCIT Egypt

Partners: Ministry of Education, Ministry of Communication and Information technology, khalifa computer group, deaf NOG’s 

Website: www.Deaftawasol.com

Thematic areas: IT, Social Development

Country: Egypt

In Egypt, there is limited collaboration and support between parties such as NPOs, CSOs, corporate, social entrepreneurs and citizens to solve the development problems of Egypt.

To bridge the gap between the tens of thousands of different initiatives in Egypt those are working in social development, Bright Creations, a digital creative agency launched BECAUSE. BECAUSE is an online platform that connects the for-profit and non-profit sectors in the Middle East. It was launched in December 2013,  The platform includes  BECAUSE, an online magazine which provide information on the work of social innovators, CSR programs, CSOs and charities with the aim of facilitating cross-collaborations, by writing profiles on the interesting projects done by each organization.

BECAUSE reveals what the organizations can offer as well as their needs. BECAUSE, is an online platform that aims to shed light on all the different work done by any entity working in the development field in Egypt with the aim of bringing them all together under one platform so as to find out about one another, connect, interact, join forces and cross-collaborate.

The platform is not just addressed to entities working in the field of development; the articles provide other interested parties with in-depth information on the work of those different players, as well as ways of contacting these entities. It also states how any individual can volunteer. This is topped up, by an easy-to-navigate menu that is linked to other platforms in the development field.

Furthermore, the inclusive atmosphere provided by the website ensures that no party feels left out. BECAUSE covers environmental work in and outside the country, which enriched its viewers to include readers in Saudi Arabia, the united Arab Emirates as well as other countries in the MENA region.

 

• Within four years of implementation, the followings were achieved:
• Over 200 articles written on more than 15 different causes.
• Provides information on the work of over 60 companies, 70 NPOs and 50 social businesses.
• Reached a peak of 2,000 unique visitors in a day.
• A great deal of interest from different parties including Ashoka Arab World, Ice RIBH and other NGOs and private sector companies.
• Have already built a growing BECAUSE network of NGOs, social business and companies.
• Have readers in Saudi, UAE and other countries in addition to Egypt.

 

Partners: BECAUSE platform operates under the umbrella of Bridgegypt, a CSR and communications consultancy.

 Website: www.because.bz

Eghospitals.com – community monitor of health services.

Thematic areas: Health

Country: Egypt

In Egypt, health services are delivered by a multitude of public service providers (the ministry of Health (MOH), ministries of Higher Education, Defense, the Interior, etc.), the Health Insurance Organization (HIO), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and an expanding network of private practitioners and medical facilities. Even though presence of multiple providers could imply competitive services, in reality, there is very limited or no performance assessment mechanisms or quality assurance. All proposed or attempted solutions for healthcare quality monitor were highly dependent on governments and authorities.

Solution: Eghospitals.com is a website that serves as a community monitor of health service provision in Egypt.

Goals and objectives: The aim of this project is to promote social accountability, informed decision-making and active citizenship, since all assessments are carried out by trained community members. To create sustainability community- based interventions for healthcare Shamseya for innovative community healthcare solutions, an Egyptian company established in 2012, developed Eghospitals.com.

Implementation: Included the following steps:

• A field research was conducted, resulting in the creation of a set patient-centered performance appraisal indicators and measures that were later compared to international standards and assembled in 116 standardized assessments criteria.
• Developed a smartphone assessment tool that accommodates these criteria and displays them to the assessor in a user friendly interface.
• 15 training sessions that yielded 165 active, trained community assessors.

Through this portal detailed information on service quality in Egyptian hospitals and other health facilities becomes accessible to the public. For each published score, three appraisals are carried out in parallel (by independent) community assessors. Also, website viewers are allowed to enter their personal feedback on the website or request that a specific hospital be assessed, both of which reduces the possibility of bias and encourages citizens to participate in promoting social accountability in the Egyptian context. The criteria, according to which assessments take place, were generated following extensive field research involving medical staff and patients, to ensure that important determinants of health service quality are covered. Finally, a document including the results is validated and approved by all local networks.

 

Achievements:

• 80 hospitals covered in different locations in Egypt, including Cairo, Giza, Matrouh,the Red Sea area, Aswan, Luxor, Qena, Sohag, Assiut, Minia.
• Designed and developed the online portal eghospitals.com displaying the assessment criteria and results to the public and a back-end interface for data entry.
• Designed and developed a mobile application Mostashfa Meter displaying the assessment results and providing extra services for mobile users including calling the closest hospital and ordering the closest ambulance to the user’s location
• Validated, analyzed and published 75 hospital profiles on the web portal.
• Active social media accounts with a sustained growth plan, displaying and promoting the website and the hospital assessment results.
• Partnered with 33 local NGOs in all the covered areas and governorates.
• Partnered with Consumer Protection Authority (CPA) as a national governmental partner.
• A field research was conducted, resulting in the creation of a set patient-centered performance appraisal indicators and measures that were later compared to international standards and assembled in 116 standardized assessments criteria.
• Active social media accounts with a sustained growth plan, displaying and promoting the website and the hospital assessment results.

Partners: Ashoka Arab World, the world Health Organization (WHO), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Oxfam International – Participatory Eco-Camp on Achieving Universal Health Coverage Locally.

Website: www.shamseya.com

Thematic areas: poverty reduction, women employment, economic empowerment

Country: Egypt

Governorate: Qena

According to the Survey of Young People in Egypt (2011) 6.9% of young people aged 10-29 have never been to school. While this percentage may seem small, it constitutes 2.1 million Egyptian young people aged 10-29, and every year thousands of young people, especially girls, still fail to enter school. The percentage of females aged 10 to 29 who have never attended school (11.0%) is four times more than that of males (3.0%) in the same age group.

In 2012, (ENID/El Nidaa) was a five-year initiative to develop viable and sustainable skill development and employment opportunities in South Upper Egypt, where levels of poverty and unemployment are high. It operates as a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) project under the umbrella of Egypt’s Ministry of International Cooperation.

ENID works to address these gender challenges in its integrated approach to development. Moreover, there are significant constraints face women to access to labor market such as the mismatch between skills acquired in schooling and what the labor market requires. Lack of a suitable work environment for female employees could be another constraint for female job seekers.

The project currently focuses in Upper Egypt and in Qena, in particular, where the poverty rate is 58%, one of the highest in the country, where 34.5% of the population is illiterate and where 13.5% are without jobs. The purpose for ENID programs is to provide sustainable and successful project models for replication and ownership by the local communities. Innovation in ENID’s approach rests on introducing best practice interventions.

Its methodology is based on action-oriented research that identifies sectors and products with growth opportunities and scalability, both local and nation-wide. It implements and adopts business and entrepreneurship models that have shown success elsewhere in the world, such as cluster promotion, the ‘one village one product’ skill model, and asset transfer. Creating best practice models that are scalable, with the potential for replication by local communities and supported by themselves, with private or government partnerships, is critical to the ENID mission.

ENID activities are divided into four domains which have been identified and defined based on an in-depth situation analysis of the needs of the region and villages in particular. The domains are as follows:

• Upgrading basic and public services in rural Upper Egypt: which consists of literacy training, a broadly defined life-skills curriculum, and, for the first time in rural Upper Egypt, sports activities to enhance leadership and team-building skills and prepare girls for integration into formal schooling.
• Promoting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and Entrepreneurship (One Village One Product Model): it’s a model from Japan and handicraft development experience from India, together with local solutions adapted to the specific context cooperating with local partners like universities, research institutes, and government offices to link jobs, skills training, food security and services.
• Sustainable agriculture development and off-farm incomes: through establishing and operating Integrated Fish- Agriculture-Livestock Pilot Farms in Qena, adopted Pilot Project for Clean Farming and Recycling of Agricultural Residues in Qena, developing and Operate Dairy Processing Plants in two Districts in Qena, developing and operating Milk Processing Units for the Household Level in Qena, and establishing and operating Poultry Backyard Production System in Qena.

Achievements:

• In January 2016, ENID became a Foundation to be able to ensure long term sustainability.
• Till November 2016, the project has directly benefited over 4,400 people in various manufacturing, agriculture and skills development based on the needs of the local communities. Furthermore, the project has contributed to linking the field-level best practices to local and national policies through its policy work and advocacy.
• ENID’s Sustainable Agricultural Development component had set the targets of creating at least 890 direct employability skills training opportunities (33% for women), and at least 470 direct job opportunities (68% for women). To date, ENID’s Sustainable Agricultural Development component has managed to exceed its targets, creating more than 700 employment opportunities and more than 2600 training opportunities to farmers and local staff in Upper Egypt.
• As of December 2014, ENID was implementing activities in over 35 villages throughout Qena and Upper Egypt and has trained a total of 2,135 beneficiaries in areas of services, skills and agriculture. Furthermore, it has provided some 573 jobs for people in Upper Egypt, among which 69% were for women. The total number of targeted jobs across all domains is 1316.

Partners:

United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Ministry of International Cooperation, Sawiris Foundation, The Big Heart Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Sida, Coca-Cola Foundation, The Italian Development Cooperation, UK Department for International Development (DFID), and UN Women.

 

Website: https://enid.org.eg/Program/Program2/2

Thematic areas: Innovations, Environment protection, Aquaculture.

Country: Egypt

Aquaculture is a major industry in Egypt and vulnerable to a wide range of factors, including water pollution.

In 2013, the Conative Labs (a technology start-up based in Egypt), developed Nilebot a system that measures the effects of pollution in real time and transmits that data to farmers so they can be more proactive to find solutions. The solution helps fish farms to raise the productivity, achieve higher feed conversion ratio and growth rates, facilitate management and monitoring the fish farm and ensure the quality of farmed fish for human consumption.

Nilebot measures, records and sends the parameters that affect the condition of the water to a personal account that can be used on a Smart phone, Tablet or laptop at any time and from anywhere. In case of any sudden change in water quality and exceeding the safe ranges of any parameter of the parameters such as the concentration of dissolved oxygen, Nilebot sends a warning text message (SMS) to a mobile phone to make sure that a quick response will be taken to solve this problem.

Nilebot can be used with all kinds of farms (fish – shrimp) and in different environments (salty water-fresh water).

The solution helped to reduce operating costs of the fish farm by saving 33% of the fish feed and also to decrease the rate of pumping oxygen in average for 4-6 hours. 

The solution received the following awards:

• Injaz Egypt 2015: 2nd place.
• Eitesal Best Entrepreneurial Project in ICT sector (2015)
• Orange Developer Challenge (2015): Nilebote won the first place in Egypt and the second place in worldwide.
• Cairo Maker Hackthon (2015): Nilebote won the first place.
• Sha3`al (2015): Nilebot was one of the winning projects.

Partners: GAFI, GAFRD, Ministry Of State For Environmental Affairs, Bedaya Egypt, orange, Egypt Innovate, Nahdet El Mahrousa, Academy of Scientific Research & Technology, EBNI Incubator, Aquatics.

Website: https://nilebot.com/co-website/

Thematic areas: Crowd- funding, innovations.

 Country: Egypt

There are a big number of innovators in the Arab World with creative ideas for new products but there is no mechanism of financial support and suitable marketing for their products. One of the main difficulties facing innovation in the Arab world is the absences of a platform through which innovators can identify the needs of community environmental and industrial challenges even work to resolve it and get at the same time the funding and support needed by the market.

In 2012, Istebdaa’Inc (not Profit Company) launched Yomken. Yomken is an open-innovation and crowd funding platform for the Arab World that tries to bridge the gap between the challenges faced by micro-and small entrepreneurs (the informal MSEs) working mainly in low-tech and informal manufacturing industries (designing new products and upgrading current products and production process) and the innovative ideas and skills of potential problem solvers (graduation projects, innovative solutions from recently graduated engineers, designers, researchers who are looking for a job, the Arab diaspora).

Yomken offers two main Services, which are:

1) Platform for innovation participatory, local companies and government agencies and non- government organizations and small enterprises and micro serve low-tech micro as well as NGOs, where they can put the challenges they face. These challenges range from the development products, modifying the production lines and the use of alternative raw materials.

2) Market, where innovators and creators can publish their projects and innovative patents of their own, as well as market studies because they are tied up with financial institutions for support and/or the required investments, as well as other collaborators and the people of expertise to assist in the development of their projects.

Yomken other services are:

• Innovation and Management Innovation:
• Consulting on innovation and management innovation.
• Follow- up and evaluation of projects.
• Economic analysis at the micro, medium and macro level.
• Technology foresight for business planning.
• Action “generates ideas” of the various blocs to identify the links and possible gabs workshops.
• Data analysis using social network analysis tools, econometrics and other advanced tools.
• Open Innovation Services:
• Design, management of innovation competitions in product design ideas and machining.
• Care calls for other organization to seek as a problem has been studied well and you need a certain party or organization to solve them.
• Create a call to ask for challenges revolve around the subject and that the civil societies and non-governmental organizations working in a particular industry or a specific place or with a certain age group, where Yomken is providing a solution challenges by various sponsors. 

The key achievement of Yomken as far as now:

• 78 Projects and inventions have been funded to solve specific challenges in the society. For example, The Egyptian cotton machine and the foldable bike.
• Five different training modules have been established by Yomken for students, innovators, potential entrepreneurs, NGOs, and Civil servants.

Partners:                                                                                                   

• In 2014, Yomken established with governmental bodies such as the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology and the Women Business Development Center.
• In 2015, established a partnership with Assuit University, and signed an MOU with PWC.
• Nahdet El Mahrousa.
• Misr El Khier/ GESR.
• Sadko, Redec, INJAZ Egypt, Catalysis, ARC, Al Maqarr, V-vvorx, Egycom, Schaduf, NEP, GIZ, Violet, Acacias For All and Federation of Economic Development.

Website: www.yomken.com

Thematic areas: Environment, sustainable development

SDG: 11, 13

 Country: Egypt

In rural areas in Egypt, there has been a marked shift from the use of agriculture residues and dung cakes for cooking, baking and water heating to the use of kerosene and LPG cylinders (butane gas). About 55% of households use LPG cylinder; about 69% use kerosene and about 17% use agricultural residues.

The recent surveys carried out in 1700 households in rural areas of Assuit Governorate and 1500 households in Fayoum have indicated that in average 2-3 LPG cylinders and 20-25 liters of kerosene is used per month for cooking and water heating in each household.  The amount of agricultural residues used is about 50 bundles (about 150 kg) per household each month for cooking and baking.

Solution: Densification (briquetting) is one of the means of combating the environmental problems related to the uncontrolled burning of crop residues. Densification is a physical process whereby materials such as biomass are compacted under high pressure into a uniform shape (i.e. briquettes or pellets). The density of the material increases enormously; from bulk densities of 100-200 kg per m3 to massive densities of around 1.2 kg/l. Densification introduces large benefits for logistics (transport and storage), use of the biomass (e.g. in hearths or fixed bed gasifiers), and hygienisation (seeds and insects are killed in the process). Due to the somewhat lower moisture content in comparison to the raw material, the calorific value may be somewhat higher (16-17 MJ/kg). The main drawback is the energy use of the process (around 100 kWhe/tonne).

Hence, the use of anaerobic digestion, which is the process of microbiological decomposition of (wet) biomass into methane and carbon dioxide (biogas). It takes place in strict absence of oxygen, and usually requires a (very) watery environment. Although anaerobic digestion can be used for a range of applications (e.g. wastewater treatment, processing of municipal organic wastes), the most relevant for rural areas is digestion of animal dung. Such digester systems are available for use in households (upward from several heads of livestock), but also for larger communities (dozens of heads of livestock) and farms (hundreds to thousands of heads). The digested effluent is a very suitable (and valuable) fertilizer for agriculture.  The gas produced can either be used directly for cooking or water heating or, in larger plants, for electricity generation.

The briquettes can be stored and distributed as a household fuel. Based on order-of magnitude estimates of investments and operational costs, the production costs per tons of briquettes are estimated at 140-160 LE/t.

Goals and objectives: In 2012, the Bioenergy for Sustainable Rural Development Project has been established through the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency – EEAA/ Ministry of Environment, in coordination with the Ministry of Petroleum, the Ministry of Electricity and Energy, the Ministry of International Cooperation and the Ministry of Local Development, with the objective of i) promoting sustainable rural development in Egypt and environmentally sound management of agricultural and solid waste, ii) removing technical, institutional, media, financial and other market barriers of increasing the use of biomass energy, iii) reducing the negative environmental impacts associated with the use of fossil and waste.

Implementation: The project received partial funding from the GEF, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program and the Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs.

The project supports poor villages at the two levels; individual – for each family and community level – through cooperation with NGOs. Geographically, the project has focused on the villages of Al-Mazaty in Fayoum Governorate and Awlad Elias in Assiut Governorate. As Assuit and Fayoum have the lowest human development index in Egypt and the highest unemployment.

In the first phase, the project built 100 units in Assuit and Fayoum. All units of 1st stage are fully financed by the project to disseminate the idea and make real and concrete project/ units for the eyes of the farmers to believe and see benefits. They are distributed widely in the two selected villages in the targeted governorates. They fully attracted the beneficiaries and their neighbors as potential beneficiaries. During the installation of the units, a group of engineers and masons are trained in the field are capable to provide the same service to find one of the main factors of the market, namely, the service providers.

In the second phase, the project built 1300 units in all Egyptian governorates. The units are partially financed by the beneficiaries themselves as a second step towards the maturity of market. The beneficiaries are requested to provide his animal waste as well as digging a pit and providing a list of material; bricks, sand and two helpers in unskilled workers. During this phase more than 20 start-up companies were registered after training their engineers and masons to be real entrepreneurs capable to provide the service professionally and meet the market requirements.

Achievements:

• The Bioenergy Development Fund (BDF) successfully established and launched.
• Developed and adopted product standards and quality control mechanisms with other initiatives coordinating financial and fiscal incentive mechanisms to facilitate sustainable development of bioenergy technologies.
• Developed an adequate legal and regulatory framework for technical standards, quality control and business relations between the commercial or semi-commercial bioenergy service providers and their customers.
• Enhanced capacity of the local supply chain to market and deliver sustainable rural bioenergy products and services.
• Provided an alternative cost-effective energy source to rural population compared to competing energy sources.
• The local environment is improved (parasites are sterilized during the biomass fermentation process, so health conditions are improved particularly poor farmers and their families).
• The project enhanced awareness of the general public through programs and articles in public media and workshops.

Partners: The Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Egyptian Government, UNDP, the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, in coordination with the Ministry of Petroleum, the Ministry of Electricity and Energy, the Ministry of International Cooperation and the Ministry of Local Development.

Website: www.egyptbiomass.com

Thematic areas: Environmental and unemployment Sector.

 Country: Egypt

In Egypt, economically disadvantage urban and rural dwellers suffer from a severe lack of employment opportunities both in urban and rural areas. While the negative impacts of unemployment weigh heavy on Egyptian society, the country also faces significant environmental problems, some of which are attributable to the disposal of plant waste. Farmers, unable to rid themselves of plant refuse such as rice straw, banana stalks and river flowers, resort to burning these goods, which contributes to the overwhelming problem of pollution. Overall, there has been little effort to reform this practice because village communities lack environmental awareness and knowledge of alternative uses for agricultural refuse. Therefore, the projects of developing papermaking centers are to address, in creative and integrated way, the issue of unemployment and environmental pollution from agricultural waste.

In 2005, El Nafeza (Window) center revived the traditional of making paper using plants refuses, sun and natural colors. Its innovative approach at the same time engage people in the development of their communities, introducing creative ways of dealing with the environment and unemployment.

The Cellulose and paper industry uses around one third of total production of industry wood and this proportion is increasing. Two third of the fiber used to make paper comes from virgin fiber and the rest comes from waste fibers. Between 5% and 10% of the derivatives of the cellulose are produced based on fibers that do not come from wood.

Argo-industrial fibers come from the waste of processing common agricultural industrial products. Eco papers, specifically come with waste from bananas, mango, coffee, rice straw and wheat straw. Research is currently involved into studying new fibers from pineapple, orange and palm hearts.

Eco-paper Advantages:

1. It is an original product.
2. It is an attractive product: its beautiful design shows hours of dedication.
3. It is an environmentally friend product.
4. It is of very good quality and elegant.
5. It is a new concept.

El Nafeza is an Egyptian non-profit foundation legally registered as a charity since 2005, working in the field of craftsmanship and social development. It was identified as a leading social entrepreneur for its innovative solution to social problems and the potential to change patterns across society. El Nafeza foundation, finds its inspiration in both traditional techniques used by an ancient Egyptian and modern paper techniques from India and Japan.  By working to expand the traditional profession of papermaking, El Nafeza is helping people in struggling rural communities in Egypt improve their living conditions. Through the center, (El Nafeza), there is a trainer of trainer’s program in which communities suffering from high rates of unemployment are endowed with the knowledge and skills necessary to successfully embark on professions in papermaking. Using low cost equipment and trained craftsperson to aid with the training, which is helping a new generation of people start their own business. El Nafeza also aims to reduce pollution associated with the disposal agricultural waste by using it to produce saleable, environmentally friendly products.

 

The programme Achievements:

• El Nafeza Success in adjust products prices, so that they can cover their costs and also meet the demand. This happened through El Nafeza’s participation in more training workshops (Example: for schools, corporate team building outings, Embassies community days…etc)which are another important sources of income for El Nafeza.
• El Nafeza has trained hundreds of people since its beginning who wished to learn about the technique of paper making and trained them in silk screen printing on paper to produce beautiful and very fine stationery items.
• Today, there are about 15 workers working in the workshop, 80% of which are deaf and mute.
• To be able to expand and grow, El Nafeza is working on a large scale, which including its presence in shops, hotels locally and also its presence in a lot of different workshops allover Egypt.
• El Nafeza is currently export its products to Germany (Boesner Company) and Canada (Saltmatters.com).

Website: www.elnafeza.com

Thematic areas: ICT, Education, Employment

Country: Egypt

The Egyptian national initiative for human capacity building; “Education Development for Universities in Egypt (EDUEgypt)” is a training initiative implemented in 16 Egyptian universities spanning 57 faculties as a result of a cooperation protocol between the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) on the 30th of December in 2007. The program is implemented by the Egyptian Information Technology Institute (ITI); one of the leading Human Capacity Development and Building establishments regionally and internationally.

EDUEgypt aims at bridging the gap between the university students’ skills and the required competencies by the ICT job market and targets senior students in Egyptian universities as an optional training program that is not part of students’ academic studies, promising them numerous job opportunities in the outsourcing industry on the successful completion of the Program.

EDUEgypt Program is carried out once a year in the 16 Egyptian universities.

The solution offers the following services:

After seven years of implementation, the following accomplishments were achieved:

– Influencing the lives of 43,500 trainees through availing training opportunities across Egypt and qualifying them to have a job opportunity that would increase their income by providing up to 11,000 lucrative job opportunities (through 6 employment fairs) per year for graduates.

– The average of employment rate of EDUEgypt graduates is 65%.

– Trainees’ attendance exceeded 82% during the academic year.

– Cooperating with 16 Egyptian universities spanning 55 faculties to implement a training initiative.

– Through EDUEgypt’s orientation sessions, more than 100,000 university students, academia and students’ parents are now aware of the outsourcing industry and its impact on the national economy.

– More than 100,000 Egyptian students were assessed as a part of EDUEgypt admission exam.

– Qualifying 500 Egyptian certified trainers (who delivered 10,875,000 training hours inside the Egyptian universities) and   equipping them with latest training techniques and methodologies.

– EDUEgypt is a tool to brand Egypt as the potential destination for the O&O industry all overall the world.

Partners: The MCIT, ITIDA, ITI, Training Industry, MoHE, The Egyptian Universities, ICT Industry.

Thematic areas: Waste management, environmental protection, innovation, energy efficiency

Country: Egypt

An estimate of 500,000 tons of cooking oil waste is produced annually in Egypt from various sources. This waste that is produced by food factories, restaurants, and hotels is not managed efficiently by these entities to be reused to their benefit. Conventionally, it is sold to waste collectors, who normally filter it and sell it back into the food industry, to soap companies, or export it to be used in the Biofuels industry abroad. Around 90 percent of households drop their used cooking oil in the drain. The draining systems of the houses get contaminated and the polluted water cannot be treated to use again.

Tagaddod (Arabic for ‘renewal’), a renewable Energy and Waste Management start-up established in 2013, introduced a new idea of turning used cooking oil to Biodiesel (a green fuel that is used in conventional diesel engines, which can directly substitute for or extend supplies of traditional petroleum diesel). It is a process of filtering the oil and adding chemical additives until getting the final product, which is biodiesel. The conversion process takes around three hours and produces two products, which are biodiesel and glycerin.

In December 2014, the team started engineering, procurement, and construction of the current production facility and was able successfully complete its first Biodiesel and Glycerol order in April 2015. In October 2015, Tagaddod’s production facility was granted the International Sustainability and Carbon Certificate (ISCC).

The current production line was designed, manufactured, and assembled, locally by Tagaddod’s engineers and experts, and is capable of producing up to 300 tons per month from any type of waste vegetable oil, and it can be modified to receive any grade of feedstock quality.

Biodiesel from the Tagaddod production facility is sold in the market. Travco Group, one of the leading tourism firms in Egypt uses Tagaddod’s biodiesel in its hotels’ vehicles, machinery and generators.

Tagaddod aspires to be the leading supplier of green energy, made from renewable resources – the wind, the sun, natural underground heat and clean fuels – to all businesses and households. Tagaddod’s current and medium term focus are exporting biodiesel to the European market. By 2020, the company aims to produce 5,000 tons per month, and operate another Green Diesel factory with the same capacity.

Prizes: Tagaddod has received an award from the Egyptian government’s General Authority for Investment (GAFI), for the company most likely to go international and has successfully completed a seed round led by Flat6Labs and has also received angel investment by Cairo Angels.

Partners: Sawari Ventures, Cairo Angels

Website: https://www.tagaddod.com/

Thematic areas: ITC, employment,

Country: Egypt

Egypt ICT Trust Fund (ICT-TF) in cooperation with the Japanese Government initiated the “Youth Employment Generation Program in Egypt” started in April 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013. The program addressed the mismatch between the skills demanded by the private sector and youth skills to provide youth with the necessary vocational, IT and soft skills to increase their employment prospects.

The solution consists of the following two main components:

• The MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) component aims to increase the effectiveness and improve the profitability of 1500 MSMEs owners and entrepreneurs through the integration of ICT in their business operation, through two main techniques:
• Direct MSMEs: here the program conducts awareness sessions, train of trainers and builds the capacities of MSMEs;
• Indirect MSMEs: here the program builds the capacities of MSMEs through SMEs self-learning toolkits.

This component is based on holding a competition on the best social entrepreneurship ideas to successfully implement their projects… And, it includes networking and mentorship services, providing TOTs to ICT-TF trainers to provide this training later.

• The vocational Training and the Internship component helps young people by setting up a mechanism to connect private sector companies with young men and women to increase their chances to access internship opportunities and join the job market. The program starts with a labor market survey in each governorate to determine the targeted jobs and train both partners; a study of “Marketing Demand Analysis” was conducted at the national level.

The project implementation cycle went through the following phases:

1. Needs assessment- 1st quarter: Identify the needs of the rural communities and the important role of the local active NGOs, grassroots leaders in lives of common people synthesizing and aggregating positive and negative learning
2. Initiation and Building PPP Partnership – 2nd quarter: Update action and communication plans, acquire needed resources and establish a Public Private Partnership and organize of all partners to design solutions considering challenges and potentials that facing turn the results into a real project with applicable implementation plan.
3. Implementation- 2nd – 4th quarter: Develop the implementation plan.
4. M & E –1st – 5th quarter: Keep monitoring and evaluation of the progress, and documentation of the project.
5. Sustainability and dissemination- last quarter: Disseminate the program findings and recommendations among stakeholders and sustaining the project by scaling it up.

At the outcome level, 60% of MSMEs trainees, who were trained face-to-face, applied the acquired ICT skills while 38 % of MSMEs trained virtually through Kayanak developed their own web-page to market their projects.  On the other hand, 80% of trained entrepreneurs applied the acquired ICT and social entrepreneurship skills or used the networking and mentorship services, while 90% of vocational trainees have got employment opportunities that require ICT skills. The outcome of the program is reflected in the trainees’ application of the acquired skills; developing websites, applying e-marketing and developing electronic accounting system.

Partners: Egypt ICT-Trust Fund (Egyptian Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, and UNDP Egypt), Japan Government, Egyptian Ministry of Youth, Egyptian Ministry of Investment (Bedaya), Social Fund for Development (SFD), Education for Employment (EFE), Local NGOs.

Website: https://www.ysep.org.eg/default.aspx

Problem: The excessive waste created from Plastic bags is hazardous, since they take from 500-1000 years to biodegrade. Even though there are alternative solutions, but plastic bags are the hardest to recycle, plus the core of the problem comes from the consumer who needs to be aware of the harmful effects.

Solution: To produce fashionable bags and other accessory products from upcycled plastic bags and sustainably sourced materials.

Implementation: In 2013, the idea started as a final semester university project for Rania Rafie and Yara Yassien, the solution’s founders. Initially, they used to do the upcycling process themselves and arrange with workshops to sew the bags and finalize them. Afterword’s, they partnered with “Roh El Shabab”, which is a community development NGO, training youth women from the Zabaleen community (garbage collectors) in the upcycling process. In 2015, the founder established the Up-Fuse a social enterprise.

The process:

• Women from Roh El Shabab buy the used plastic bags from the Garbage city, Manshyet Naser.
• The plastic bags go through a cleaning and sanitizing process.
• Then, they are compressed and turned into a new material – Sabi” – which is taken from Roh El Shabab.
• After that the bags are taken to Up-Fuse’s workshop to cut and sew.
• The bags do not dye to avoid dyes’ harmful environmental impact, that is why each bag produced is only made one of a kind.

Each Up-Fuse tote bag is made using 30 plastic bags. Up-Fuse also creates wallets, laptop cases and camera straps using the trash.

The solution provides income to 5 underprivileged families and encouraging local artisans and designers to work with eco-friendly materials. All materials used is either environmentally friendly, organically made, or locally produced. Up-fuse is also keen to spread awareness through its products about plastic bags overconsumption, providing consumers with alternative solutions of eco-friendly products.

Achievements: Up until now, the solution has recycled 50000 plastic bags. In 2017, won the WeMena Competition. It is a business competition that is designed to engage female entrepreneurs in the MENA region and encourage their participation in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Partners: “Roh El Shabab” a community development NGO in Manshyet Naser.