Rowad 2030 project
The Egyptian Ministry of Planning and Economic Development
(
Government
)
#SDGAction33824
Description
Rowad 2030 was established under the umbrella of the Ministry of Planning & Economic development since 2017. It serves the grand goal of transforming the Egyptian society’s approach by 2030, to be creative and science-technology oriented. Rowad 2030 aims to build an integrated and inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem that enables youth to establish their own businesses and projects. This will in turn help to consolidate the role of entrepreneurship in the development of the national economy through the implementation of the Project’s four pillars. These are Education & Training, Entrepreneurship Awareness Campaigns, Business Incubators and Capacity Building for Government Officials.
Rowad 2030 launched its Master program of Entrepreneurship in collaboration with the University of Cambridge. It provided a fully funded professional certificate in Mastering Business Skills for Entrepreneurs in collaboration with the American University in Cairo (AUC). It also provided a fully funded professional certificate in collaboration with the German University in Cairo (GUC). Rowad 2030 project supervised the implementation of Fellowships and Masters’ programs in collaboration with King’s College London for Public Officials and Governmental Employees. These scholarships enriched the first and fourth pillar and enhanced the abilities of governmental employees through emphasizing knowledge and exchanging of expertise. Rowad 2030 developed four main incubators that serve different sectors like the tourism incubator in collaboration with the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport, the Micro factory, the first artificial intelligence incubators at Alexandria & Ain-Shams Universities, the first Egyptian-African online incubator. Also, it established 5 generic incubators in different universities to support startups and projects that serve and develop the industrial sector. Rowad 2030 launched “Rowad Meter” which acts as an entrepreneurship observatory that display a continuous updated national database and quarterly reports for the latest work of all incubators in Egypt. Rowad 2030 also launched multiple awareness campaigns in entrepreneurship which “Ebdaa Mustakbalak” is on top of them in coordination with different entities and ministries. Rowad 2030 is funded by the National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr. There is a monitoring & reporting committee for each activity across each pillar that is supervised by relevant corresponding field experts.
•Impact of Awareness campaigns: 1. Rowad 2030 covered through its campaign of “Ebdaa Mustakbalak” to 27 governorates, 301440 school students, established 35 model classes,18 universities and trained around 1250 teachers and public mentors 2. Rowad 2030 awareness sessions reached out to 4.5 million youths. •Impact of Business Incubators: Rowad 2030 established 9 business incubators and created around 665 incubation opportunities •Impact of educational programs: 1. Rowad 2030 created around 330 job opportunities and saved around (330 x 700,000) = EGP 231 million. 2. Selected around 400 students and generated 55 innovative entrepreneurial project ideas. Rowad's pillars could foster the national economic growth and to reduce inequality through raising additional financial resources from multiple source (SDG 17), achieving higher levels of economic productivity through employment, technological upgrading and innovation (SDG 8&12), and ensured quality education (SDG4).
There were many supporting factors like the immense motivation to learn about entrepreneurship and establishing new start-ups. Also the willingness of different entities to collaborate in such field. However, there were several challenges, Education & Training Pillar: The discrepancy between different majors and backgrounds of applicants, Expectations and the levels of establishment of various applicants varied & the Complex coordination between various & discrepant institutions to reach an inclusive ecosystem. Business Incubators: No clear system that manages the incubators in Egypt under one network.
Rowad 2030 maintains regular coordination and communication with its team members, beneficiaries or stakeholders. It sought a direct feedback from them on the project’s services and their suggestions for better practice. The Ministry of Planning and economic development shows its support and willingness to replicate the project and is currently looking for promoting the sources of fund. And, there are other ministries seeking Rowad 2030’s services and practices. Rowad 2030 is planning to address the poorest villages within Egypt. Also, because Rowad 2030’s reports showed the high interest of women in entrepreneurship field, it aims to support women in different governorates through carrying out online training sessions in entrepreneurship, Discussion sessions and developing craft workshops. Rowad 2030 plans to format a comprehensive “Entrepreneurship Strategy”. It also seeks to initiate Rowad Growth Program, which aims to provide support and legal registration to startups.
- https://rowad2030.com/en/ (The Official Website for Rowad 2030) - https://www.facebook.com/RowadEgypt2030/ (The Official Facebook Page for Rowad 2030) - https://youtu.be/Zjb0TbVMJ-8 (Rowad 2030 Animated Series) - https://youtu.be/NVaPqIR0YXc (Rowad 2030 Capsules)
Rowad 2030 smoothly coped with COVID-19, because it developed online practices way before COVID-19. Thus, Rowad 2030 could hold the sessions, the workshops and even the educational programs online. It developed on the spot entrepreneurship capsule that was provided for 4.5 million people. It developed “Rowad Meter” way before the pandemic, which assisted in conducting the third pillar practices online in no time. Rowad 2030 in its first pillar designed an electronic assessment that acts as an alternative to personal interviews and could in cooperation with the Nile University, manufactured 35,000 face masks and artificial respirators. It has released Rowad 2030 application, which aims to continuously communicate with entrepreneurs and issued an animated series consisting of 30 episodes.
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Rowad 2030 empowers innovative and entrepreneurial mindsets for youths and governmental employees. The key stakeholders are Donors, NGOs, Business Incubators, Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Supporters and Universities. It established partnerships with Cambridge University, Kings College London, AUC, GUC, different governmental Universities, academies, Banks, Ministries of Education, Higher Education, investment and Trade and industry.
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The Sustainable Development Unit