The Environment for Women's Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa

This report is about how women
entrepreneurs can contribute more to the quality and
direction of economic and social development in the Middle
East and North Africa (MENA) region. Economic growth in the
Middle East has been remarkable since 2004, mainly because
of higher oil prices. Rapid job growth has followed, driven
mainly by the private sector. Yet the region still faces two
important challenges: the first is to create better jobs for
an increasingly educated young workforce; and the second is
to diversify its economies away from the traditional sectors
of agriculture, natural resources, construction, and public
works and into sectors that can provide more and better jobs
for young people (sectors that are more export oriented,
labor intensive, and knowledge driven). These goals can be
achieved only by more innovative and diverse investors. In
this, the private sector must play an even bigger role than
in the past.