The Arab world today is home to millions of young people with hopes, plans and the desire to work. With more than 100 million young people between 15 and 29, representing 30 per cent of the total population, the region is facing an unprecedented ―youth bulge.
Accordingly, two organizations—Silatech, the Arab region’s largest youth microenterprise support provider, and Kiva, the world’s largest online microlending platform—have together created Kiva Arab Youth, an online platform that offers a way for people throughout the world to help young Arab entrepreneurs start or grow their businesses through small microloans of as little as $25. An example of how this works in practice is Shawgy, a 26-year-old man who lives in Taiz, Yemen.
Sustainable giving models such as ―revolving loan funds‖(which are loaned, repaid and returned to the lender to be reinvested to help more people), or ―social investments‖(which direct investor attention towards projects which generate social, as opposed to purely financial, returns), provide an opportunity to use these technology platforms to enable more impactful giving. These can be created for the young, and potentially by the young as well.
Organizations such as Silatech – through its stakeholders, sponsors and partners in Qatar and elsewhere in the Arab region – have an opportunity to spark such a discussion and influence strategies and mind-sets about innovative uses of technology, as well as new forms of social giving.
Ramakant Vempati is Senior Advisor and Justin Sykes is Manager for Social Innovation at Silatech.
This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews), www.commongroundnews.org.