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As part of the main events of the third day of the World Youth Forum, a panel discussion entitled “Entrepreneurship and the future of the workforce in a Post-Covid world” was held, with the participation of a large group of young people and entrepreneurs from around the world. A group of speakers participated in the session, namely Amir Sharif, Co-Founder and Chairman of NAJ
The session began by welcoming the presence of Ayman Bin Tawfiq Al-Moayyed, Bahraini Minister of Youth and Sports Affairs, and Eng. Amr Mahfouz, CEO of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA). The session discussed the opportunities and challenges faced by startups in light of the coronavirus pandemic, the future of work after the pandemic for women and youth, as well as the importance of the international community to change labour policies globally and push the economy, especially in developing countries.
Huda Mansour, Director of SAP’s Digital Transformation in Southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, explained that countries that had ready infrastructure were the fastest to remedy the negative effects of the pandemic, unlike other less fortunate countries that suffered total or partial closure and were greatly affected.
Mansour pointed out that the environment of poor countries with great challenges is the best for entrepreneurship, because with challenges, the need for ideas and solutions arises, and these countries must provide price support for services such as Internet service, especially in villages and hamlets, in addition to integrating the private sector with governments.
Amir Sharif, co-founder and chairman of Wazab and Our Opportunities Company, stressed that the establishment of startups accelerated significantly after the pandemic, because as young people lose their jobs, they tend to accept risks and establish new companies. He stressed that for any entrepreneurial community to succeed, there must be an integrated ecosystem, or what is known as the Ecosystem, which governments must adopt by
Sharif also agreed with Mansour that entrepreneurship is entirely based on challenges and problems, and the journey is full of problems and obstacles, starting with the availability of funding for the idea and incubators and the search for those with the skills required to fill jobs.
Adnan Adawi, an entrepreneur and colleague of Ashoka Organisation in the Arab World, presented several tips to entrepreneurial communities from his experience. In order to have an influential idea, there must be a problem looking for a solution, stressing the importance of patience to succeed, in addition to farsightedness and a long-term strategic vision.
Aadawi stressed that the family, media, and education systems play a great role in cultivating the thought of entrepreneurship in young people at a young age so that they can be flexible and accept changes, pointing out that digitisation without thinking and planning can become a crisis.
José Manuel Medina, Enterprise Development and Job Creation Specialist at Amnesty International, noted the importance of local and international cooperation and cooperation between civil society, governments and the private sector to accelerate the growth of the entrepreneurship sector, where there are many jobs that will disappear in the future to account for new jobs.
The end of the session opened the way for questions from the attendees, which allowed them to interact with the speakers and participate constructively, and come up with several recommendations, including strengthening the efforts of the United Nations Communications and Information Technology Task Force, establishing an institution in entrepreneurship to be a unified body that ensures the provision of facilities for startups, in addition to urging small, medium and micro companies to develop the disaster management system. The session also recommended the need to work to support the business environment to become more attractive to the groups most affected by the pandemic, especially women and youth, in addition to working to consolidate the culture of correct entrepreneurship practises and information technology and include them in educational curricula, and finally raising awareness and awareness of dealing with the management. Technology, especially security and protection
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