Discover Safir, an ambitious initiative, supported by the European Union, striving to empower and uplift young individuals in nine countries in Northern Africa and the Middle East.

The aims of the project is to foster a nurturing environment that actively encourages the active participation of youth.

The final goal to promote the initiation and growth of entrepreneurial projects that contribute positively to social, cultural, and environmental aspects.

Read on to find out more about this project!

About the project

Safir empowers 1,000 young individuals to contribute to sustainable development goals and be active change-makers.

It encourages their involvement in community life, helps integrate them socially and economically, and supports the development of their projects.

Safir also provides training and support sessions for entrepreneurial, media, or community projects at different stages of development, collaborating with local incubators known for their expertise.

The initiative started during 2022, with the implementation of the reinforced Youth Guarantee.

Member States started implementing measures under their recovery and resilience plans targeting young people and youth employment related measures.

What has been achieved so far?

Safir wants to support sustainable and successful projects by creating a favourable environment.

It also equips higher education institutions, local incubators, and civil society organisations to help young individuals excel in the Safir project.

The final goal of the project is to build an ecosystem that nurtures projects with social, cultural, or environmental impact, showcasing regional talent and initiatives on a global scale.

The Safir project is:

• 21 civil society organisations supported to strengthen their advocacy training methodologies

• 18 innovative spaces in higher education and research institutions
• 7 local networked incubators, which contribute to the creation of a regional guide to innovative and social entrepreneurship
• 1000 young project leaders supported from 9 countries across North Africa and the Middle East

Discover more about the initiative

If you are interested in finding out more about this project, the results achieved and future initiatives visit the official website!

Read also

Reinforced Youth Guarantee | Youth Employment and Education

Capacity-Building in the field of Youth

L'articolo The Safir Project | Socio-Economic Inclusion across Africa proviene da Youth Networks.

During his state of the Union address in 2018, Commission’s president Jean-Claude Juncker launched the new Africa-Europe Alliance for Sustainable Investment and Jobs. It stated the necessity to “build a true partnership among equals and deepen the EU’s economic and trade relationship with Africa, through strategic investment and job creation”. The goal within the end of the seven-year period 2014-20 is to reach 35.000 mobilities.

Which programmes?

Mobilities for teachers and learners are the most popular initiatives. Students, researchers and staff traveled through short-term Erasmus+ University exchanges between Africa and Europe.

There have been also many projects under capacity buildings in the field of youth. Between 2014 and 2018, 206 projects in Africa have been approved, covering 39 African countries from Benin to Zimbabwe. 8.500 young people and youth workers from European and African countries are involved. Projects cover topics from human rights to inter-cultural dialogue, migration, rural entrepreneurship, digital empowerment and innovative learning platforms.

Capacity Buildings in Higher Education are very important instruments too. Since 2015, 146 projects have focused on Africa. The 35 projects involving African institutions selected in 2019 are helping to foster innovative learning and new methodologies, supporting entrepreneurship, laboratories of Innovation and Business for Young
Actors of Start-ups, new study programmes on climate change.

Almost 1.200 have also benefited from Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees scholarships, in order to spend a period of studies abroad in the above mentioned countries.

A new project for mobility in vocational education and training (VET) has been launched, covering a three-year period. it is a pilot project, the selection of the institutions is still ongoing. It aims to develop technical skills and revitalise vocational education.

This pilot project will offer an Erasmus-type cooperation between VET providers in the EU Member States and all regions of Africa, combining capacity building and learner and staff exchange programmes in the priority fields of engineering, manufacturing and construction, agriculture and tourism/catering.

The magnitude

“Empowering young people in Africa is key in building a better future. This means promoting education, and this year, we have focused in particular on boosting cooperation with businesses to ensure that young people in Africa acquire all the skills they need for their professional life” said Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport.

“Our Africa-Europe Alliance is first and foremost about people. We want to invest in quality education in Africa. We want to strengthen the connections between European and African students and higher education institutions. Giving them the chance to exchange know-how and inspire one another will boost inclusive socio-economic growth, and reduce poverty and inequality. On top of this, it will equip African students with the skills they need to find decent jobs” also commented Neven Mimica, Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development.

L'articolo Africa-EU alliance boosted with over 17 million proviene da Youth Networks.