On November 7, CLDP hosted a delegation of young entrepreneurs from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as part of a Department of State sponsored program on “Inspiring and Accelerating Entrepreneurship in MENA Youth.” The program, led by the University of Michigan-Dearborn, was designed to expose entrepreneurs and private sector development specialists to U.S. best practices in innovation and small business growth. The delegation was composed of 14 participants from Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, Palestinian Territories and Tunisia.

CLDP organized an afternoon session of presentations and interactive discussions in order to provide the delegation with insight on a number of Department of Commerce initiatives to support and promote entrepreneurship and small businesses in the United States. CLDP also called on Dr. Barrett Haga and Dr. Gautam Prakash of the Economic Development Administration (EDA), and George Mui and Devta Ohri of the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) to make presentations on entrepreneurship. The participants were provided with relevant material, including CLDP’s book “Entrepreneurship and Innovation in the Maghreb.”

This program supports the US government’s Middle East Partnership Initiative, which aims to support the development of small-to-medium sized enterprises, networks of social entrepreneurs, and aspiring young business leaders in the MENA region.