15 Organizations Short-listed for Taqeem Fund

Online, September 26, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Over 75 applications from various local and regional organizations focusing on youth employment and enterprise issues have submitted their applications to the new initiative Taqeem Fund. Today, the Fund has shortlisted the fifteen most competitive organizations to receive support in monitoring and evaluating their programs.

As new opportunities emerge to measure innovative job creation solutions in the region, Silatech, through its partnership with the Youth Employment Network, the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) and the Jacobs Foundation, has launched Taqeem Fund for impact evaluation in August 2011. Taqeem Fund will help the short-listed group of small-medium sized organizations to better monitor and measure, and effectively report on their programs' impact to a broader community of policymakers, practitioners and funders through the use of cost-effective, mass-market technology-based tools.

Silatech's chief executive, Dr. Tarik Yousef, said in a statement: "Based on the premise that no single organization by itself can address the daunting youth employment challenge, Silatech supports the creation of Taqeem Fund to help smaller organizations in the region effectively contribute to the region's understanding of 'what works' in youth employment and enterprise creation."

Dr. Yousef added: "Through this initiative, Silatech and members of Taqeem Fund will help local organizations increase the impact and visibility of their youth employment interventions."
The shortlisted organizations that represent local and regional NGOs as well as national chapters of regional and international NGOs are:

Egypt
1. Better World Foundation
2. Ebtessama Foundation
3. Egypt ICT Trust Fund

Jordan
4. International Youth Foundation
5. INJAZ Jordan
6. Jordan River Foundation

Kuwait
7. LOYAC for Private Training and Consulting Company

Lebanon
8. Safadi Foundation

Morocco
9. Education for Employment Foundation Morocco
10. MEDA Maroc

Palestine
11. SPARK

Saudi Arabia
12. The Centennial Fund

Somalia
13. Help Leads to Hope

Yemen
14. Youth Leadership Development Foundation
15. Al-Amal Microfinance Bank

Through a further competitive process, the Fund will run a workshop in Geneva for the fifteen shortlisted organizations and select only ten organizations to support in designing and testing appropriate, efficient and innovative monitoring and evaluation solutions for their initiatives.

 
Justin Sykes, social innovation manager at Silatech, said about the project: "The ten organizations who will be selected to participate in this initiative will receive up to $40,000 of in-kind and grant-based technical assistance to design and test appropriate, efficient and innovative monitoring and evaluation solutions for their youth employment programming. Selected organizations will also benefit from participation in two capacity building workshops this year, and have opportunities to interact with a broad range of policymakers, practitioners and donors, as they develop their plans and start effectively proving their impact."

Ms. Susana Puerto-Gonzalez, manager at YEN, said in a statement: "YEN relishes the opportunity to contribute to building the evidence base for effective youth employment programming and policy making in the Middle East and North Africa through the Taqeem initiative. Building the skills and experience of local organizations to measure the impact of their programs represents an important step towards building a society based on the principles of transparency and participation."

Dr. Bernd Ebersold, chief executive of the Jacobs Foundation, said: "At Jacobs Foundation, we are looking back on many years of experience in funding programs in the field of youth development and we are especially interested in evidence-based findings. Therefore, we are delighted to be partners with YEN, Silatech and 3ie on the Taqeem initiative."

He added: "We hope this initiative will help organizations working for youth employment to better monitor their programs, establish best practice standards and successfully communicate them to partners such as donors or beneficiaries."

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Media Contacts:
Tarek Kassar,
Manager of Communications and Outreach, Silatech
Tel: +974.4499.4827
Mobile: +974.3367.1239
Email: tkassar@ silatech.com