US-AFRICA: Partnership to boost knowledge economies

The United States and the five members of the Arab Maghreb union - Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia - have launched the North African Partnership for Economic Opportunities, NAPEO, to promote cooperation between business, universities and scientific institutions in order to develop knowledge-based economies.

The new partnership was announced at the US-Maghreb Entrepreneurship Conference held in Algiers, Algeria, from 29 November to 3 December.

NAPEO is a follow-up to US President Barack Obama's June 2009 Cairo speech "A New Beginning" at the University of Cairo in 2009 and his April 2010 Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship.

According to the Bureau of International Information Programmes at the US Department of State, NAPEO includes five core cross-border business initiatives, namely, the North Africa Leadership and Training Academy or NALTA, the North Africa Innovation and Technology Incubator or NAITI, the North Africa Creative Industries Incubator or NACII, the North Africa Young Business Leaders and Associations Network or NAYBLAN, and the North Africa Center for Excellence on Entrepreneurship or NACEE.

The State Department's website explains that NACEE will promote cooperation in regional research and data collection among experts and academics from Maghreb countries and the Maghreb diaspora and create a regional business school network to link with business schools in the US.

NALTA will organise entrepreneurship training, and education-to-employment programmes, while NAITI will promote science and mathematics training, as well as start-ups and new cross-border business ventures in innovative and new technology sectors.

NAYBLAN aims to increase cross-border links among young and emerging entrepreneurs in the Maghreb and investors in America through a comprehensive social networking platform; and NACII is designed to support cultural entrepreneurs with the potential to contribute to job creation and local development but who require additional business training.

NAPEO is to be managed and financed jointly by the US and North African countries.

Hilmi Salem, an international consultant on higher education, welcomed the new US-North Africa initiatives, telling University World News: "It is the first step in a very hard road for establishing an entrepreneurship education system as a tool for developing a dynamic knowledge-based economy in Africa".

Salem explained that, besides these networking initiatives, there was still a significant amount of work to be done on several fronts to provide breeding grounds for high technology and high growth companies.

"These include the establishment of entrepreneurship and innovation centres (EICs) associated with African universities, to teach students how to start and grow enterprises, and provide faculty training and development, and outreach to and engagement with business leaders and entrepreneurs, as well as developing curriculum and innovative and interactive teaching materials," Salem explained.

"These university-based EICs must then be linked together to form an African entrepreneurship and innovation university to develop a cross-border understanding relevant for the current and future needs of entrepreneurship; bring together the latest information on best practices in entrepreneurship education; support the development of African entrepreneurship cases and course materials; and conduct and support entrepreneurship training programmes for African faculty," Salem concluded.

Related story
MAGHREB: New regional and US science partnerships