Silatech espouses Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser’s vision to create a future where youth are active agents of change and transformation in their communities.
It was this firm belief in the potential of young people to foster and precipitate change in the world that Silatech passionately embarked on the journey of global youth empowerment.
The commitment to achieving the dream of a brighter future for the youth has seen Silatech rapidly transform to become a global pioneer in the field of affirmative action for youth and women.
Reflecting the creative energy of the youth, Silatech has implemented innovative technology-based solutions and facilitated access to funding and financing for young entrepreneurs.
This approach has been effective in placing youth into employment and self-employment opportunities and stimulating establishment of excellent curricula of skill training, professional guidance, and focused education.
With its commitment to provide five million jobs for youth worldwide announced by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser in 2019 at the Empowering Youth, Transforming Societies Conference in Geneva, Silatech plans to maintain its forward momentum irrespective of the complications presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Silatech’s proficient team and its vast network of more than 300 local, regional, and global partners will continue to place youth empowerment at the forefront of their plans for social and economic development.
Silatech is an international, non-profit, non-governmental, socio-economic development organization that connects youth all around the world with employment and sustainable economic opportunities.
Silatech, along with its diverse pool of partners, including MFIs, international NGO’s, and UN agencies, implements a comprehensive approach and utilizes holistic methodologies that support the creation of ecosystems that are conducive to youth socioeconomic empowerment and renews our collective efforts towards bridging the gap between education and employment.
Silatech does not only seek to help young people find work, it also empowers them socially, so that they can become actively engaged in discussions about multiple key issues such as climate change, gender equality, and youth advocacy. Our organization fosters young leaders who serve as catalysts for change in the world. We design global online platforms that facilitate liaising between job seekers and their employers, generate economic products that fund entrepreneurs, train and educate young people through programs that allow them to acquire marketable and valuable skills, and generally encourage youth empowerment through various discussions, activities and urgent interventions.
Representing nearly a quarter of the global population, youth have the potential to exert tremendous influence on the world, yet, when seeking to establish their own businesses and to pursue their own visions and ambitions, they’re met with nothing short of overwhelming odds. Difficulties in acquiring loans, lack of adequate work experience and training, limited access to employment information, ever-increasing demand for highly technical and specialized skills, escalating rates of depression and social alienation, poor access to proper career guidance and countless other factors make it very challenging for youth to properly own productive careers.
Thus, in 2006, having acknowledged the gravity of the situation faced by youth, and carrying a firm desire to help them overcome some of the hurdles that they are facing, Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser invited the members of the Alliance of Civilizations (AoC) in New York to discuss the subject of youth empowerment.
Following this meeting, a team of regional and international specialists was formed. This team collaborated with international organizations to conduct research and to identify priority sectors for youth empowerment, which led to launching the initiative.
Indeed, in 2008, Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser launched Silatech at the Alliance of Civilizations Forum, held in Madrid, Spain. With youth at the center of her vision, HH founded Silatech as an organization with the sole mission of empowering youth so that they can become active agents of change and productivity in their communities, ultimately contributing to the development of a better future for all.
Her Highness chose the name “Silatech” which derives from the Arabic word “Sila” meaning connection. Silatech remains true to its name as it continues to connect youth with meaningful jobs and economic opportunities all across the globe
By working with our organization you should expect nothing less than the most effective and tangible of changes and interventions. We remain true to this immense level of work ethic in all of our programs and hold ourselves accountable for any effort that falls short of the highest professional standards.
Our passion is a direct reflection of our belief in the importance of our cause. We believe that our interventions are contributing to changing the entire world through our interactions and our investments in the powerful social force that is “youth”. Thus, giving their best at every step of any program’s implementation is something that comes naturally and effortlessly to our team members, who know that they are playing a vital part in an enterprise that has a phenomenal level of impact on global society as a whole. Every job we provide helps us shape the future.
We strive to be fully transparent in everything we do in order to foster relationships built on trust. Our main objective is very clear, we aim to empower youth worldwide.
We carry out our business with utmost respect for the norms and customs of the stakeholders we work with and the societies in which we operate. We remain open-minded, believing that every point of view is valuable and deserves to be heard. Operating with youth, we always bear in mind that some of the most innovative and world-changing theories that have completely altered our way of life came from individuals whose ideas were regarded as absurd by their contemporaries, and so, at Silatech, we encourage sharing opinions and out-of-the-box styles of thinking.
At Silatech, we focus, first and foremost, on empowering youth through economic opportunities focused on employment. Silatech focuses more on listening to its young beneficiaries and providing them with the tools they need to help them fully realize their ambitions. We facilitate access to necessary resources including loans, financing, education, technological and environmentally friendly solutions, and social immersion and inclusion.
Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser
• Founder and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees
His Excellency Sheikh Saoud Ben Nasser Al-Thani
• Vice-President of the Board of Trustees
• Group Chief Executive Officer – Ooredoo
His Excellency Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani
• Board Member
• President of Board of Directors of Al Duhail SC
Mr. Abdullah Moubarak Al-Khalifa
• Board Member
• QNB Group Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Saoud Ben Omar Hamad Almana
• Board Member
• Vice Chairman of Almana Group
Ms. Amal Bahwan
• Board Member
• Vice President, Executive Committee of Suhail Bahwan Group
At Silatech we work with our partners on placing young people into jobs by adequately preparing them for the labour market. We achieve this by equipping them with the right skills to gain a competitive edge and links to prospective employers. Silatech assists employers to adopt new business ecosystems that increase youth employment rates, design various online and technology-based platforms that facilitate the process of employment and offer career guidance services to those who require it.
Silatech with its partners helps young entrepreneurs to establish, expand and sustain their income generating projects and businesses through training, guidance, liaising and facilitating access to financial services. We work with financing and micro-financing institutions to offer financial services to young people through various financial products and initiatives designed with youth needs in mind. These services include monetary services such as debt, equity finance, and credit guarantee to support growth and employment creation in the micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) sector.
Since its inception in 2008, Silatech through its partners, has worked closely to connect more than two million young men and women to employment and entrepreneurship opportunities globally, including marginalized youth in refugee settlements, remote rural communities, and underserved urban contexts. Silatech is committed to reach over five million young people. Three million more young people does not mean three million lives, it means the lives of the young people and their families!
There is a clear distinction to be made between proclaiming success and actually embodying it. Silatech works to ensure that every young person that enlists in any of its programs gains a palpably empowering story to share with their peers and the members of their multifarious social circles. Youth are not just numbers, they are individuals with goals, objectives, ambitions and visions, and sharing their success stories is one of the best methods to celebrate their uniqueness.
Hasan Al-Daoudi, a 24 year old Palestinian young man was immediately met with the grim realization that he is likely to be unemployed after earning his Information Technology degree, since the unemployment rate in Gaza stands at 70%. In spite of this, he used his English skills to work as a translator online, to earn the required amount of money needed to complete his college education.
Hasan managed a massive translation project for an Indian company, supervising 30 translators. After the success of this project, he became a manager overseeing the company’s affairs in the Middle East.
Upon completion of his contract, Hasan endeavoured to use his network of global professional translators to form his own company. Hence, he contacted Palestine for Credit and Development – FATEN, an organization that assists youth with their career goals through its “Start With Us Youth” program, facilitated in partnership with Silatech.
Having received the required funds, Hasan formed a company of dozens of translators from all around the world and intends to establish a corporate presence to further enhance his outreach and influence.
Fartun is a young Somali woman who struggled as a refugee in the Kakuma camp in Kenya. Yet, through the support of Silatech and its partners, Fartun managed to become a successful business owner.
“I always dreamt of opening my own beauty salon but being an entrepreneur as a refugee in a foreign country was impossible. Like many other refugees, I returned to Somalia through the UNHCR Repatriation Program. I thought it would help me make a fresh start. However, I experienced hurdles that I had not anticipated. For starters, building a business from scratch requires a lot of start-up capital, which I did not have. Somalia is still recovering from a decades-long civil-war, and it lacks the resources to support people like me. There are no banks that offer loans to young entrepreneurs and, as a newcomer, I lacked the social networks I needed to raise money. But it so happened that I met like-minded women who wanted to start their own businesses on my way from Kakuma to Kismayo. After hearing of a partnership between Silatech and the American Refugee Committee to help young entrepreneurs build their own businesses, we decided to form an 11-women cooperative, and we sent them a business proposal”.
The selection committee was eager to fund this all women collective. With the money she received, Fartun was able to fulfil her dream of opening a salon.
“I am enthusiastic about helping people, and I love our cultural beauty. I brought those together to start Fartun Beauty Salon.”
The salon offers an array of services including henna, which is popular in Kismayo. It caters for weddings, birthdays, Eid celebrations and other events. The salon is large. It can serve up to ten customers at a time, and the eleven women work in shifts to maximize their hours of operation.
25-year-old Hassan Baka Bile is the only person living with albinism in the job market in all Kismayo. Because of his appearance, community members stigmatize and discriminate against him, worsening his already challenging situation. He is a father of two and the sole breadwinner of the family.
His elderly parents and siblings also rely heavily on him for financial support. To make matters worse, Hassan also belongs to an ethnic minority in Somalia, rendering him limited social capital as well. “It was tough as I had no source of income. My family expected me to support them, but I had nothing”, said Hassan. Young men in Hassan’s situation many at times resort to joining violent rebel groups as a means of survival, while others take the treacherous trek towards Europe in search for asylum. Without employment, his options were limited. Hassan dreamt of opening a full valet car wash in Kismayo and when he heard about the call for business proposals from ARC and Silatech, he thought this was the opportunity to gain the startup capital to open his business. Recognizing that there was a growing demand in the market, Hassan formed a group with other young men facing similar struggles and together they proposed a small-scale car wash.
Today, Hassan’s business is doing well. In less than a month, his earnings have tripled. “I used to wash three to five cars on a good day, but since purchasing this new equipment we can wash cars faster and better. We wash up to fifteen cars a day.” He leads a group of six people, with hopes of expanding. Hassan believes this is just the start of a carwash industry that will employ many young people like himself.
An inspirational story of a young entrepreneur from Yemen. Mona has been taking care of her 10 siblings since her mother passed away. Surrounded by war, with no source of income, the only thing that she had was her passion and skills in sewing. To survive, she took over her mother’s sewing business where she would work long hours to provide a meal for her family. However, her mother’s old machine was slowing her down, it would often breakdown making it difficult to deliver her services on time. Mona needed new equipment, but she could not afford one as they were very expensive. Her situation was worsened by the on-going conflict, economic crisis as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid this darkness, Mona saw a glimpse of light when she heard about the Support for Young Entrepreneurs project spearheaded by Silatech and the European Union in Yemen. She took the leap of faith and applied for funding.
Mona was extremely happy when she got the approval for a financial grant from the initiative executed through Al Amal Bank. Through this grant, she bought six new machines to keep up with the growing demand from her customers. She was also capacitated and enrolled into a training course on how to manage businesses. Today, Mona has expanded her sewing business and employed more than eight workers.
Life has not been easy for youth in Ethiopia. Twenty-three-year-old Nesru lost his father when he was still in secondary school, unable to complete his education or find a job in his native Ethiopia, Nesru joined the trek to neighbouring Sudan. He was hopeful that the grass was greener there, however he found out the hard way that it wasn’t. After moving from one menial job to the next, Nesru gave up and decided to return home in despair. Back home, Nesru was jobless and hopeless. However, his fortunes took a brighter turn when he learnt about the Rural Youth Enterprise Graduate Program in Ethiopia. The project is being implemented by Silatech, Qatar Fund for Development and Oromia Finance Institution to support young entrepreneurs. He decided to start his own business. Being in a rural community, Nesru collaborated with five friends to establish a business to lease agricultural equipment to farmers. They were provided with professional training in the agriculture field, and entrepreneurial skills before getting the finance to buy agricultural equipment.
The entrepreneurial business would not only provide a steady income for the youth but also increase productivity for the farmers. With the success he made, Nesru and his company are now well known in their local community.
The UN’s sustainable development goals are one of the cornerstones of Silatech’s global impact strategy. Silatech firmly believes that working towards the actualization of these goals will play a vital role in making the world a better place in the upcoming decade. Silatech welcomes all partnerships and joint efforts that coincide with its objective of meeting some of these goals by 2030. Currently, Silatech, through many of its programs, has showed prominent steps towards the realization of the following goals:
In alignment with the UN’s first global SDG, Silatech designs innovative programs aimed at eradicating poverty and strives to provide the required resources to develop the capabilities of youth and mitigate the negative risks attributed to poverty, including lack of productivity, aggression, violence and depression. Thus, it is imperative to develop empowering initiatives to combat poverty among youth, globally.
The cost of inaction on human capital development is going up and will not abate unless we end gender inequality. Investing in girls and women is essential to increase the changing wealth of nations and will enable countries to develop in sustainable ways. Silatech places a great deal of focus on working with women to help them become productive and independent in cooperation with entities such as UN WOMEN to increase their incomes, facilitate their access to funding and training, and assist women to successfully join the job market.
There is a certain complimentary synergy between economic growth and quality work, as without one, it is impossible to guarantee the other. At Silatech, we focus on designing programs that tackle both aspects simultaneously to ensure that our interventions leave a tangible and long-lasting effect.
Youth and women empowerment are a global, humanitarian, as well as a transformative cause. As such, Silatech believes that a collective and unified effort is not only preferable, but also necessary, to expand outreach, and to ensure swiftness and agility in implementation. Silatech encourages sharing knowledge, resources and expertise with other like-minded regional and global entities, to cover the largest number of these targeted demographics in the shortest amount of time possible.
Silatech announced a partnership agreement with the Gates Foundation at the Inaugural Youth Dialogue Series on the Side-lines of 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
This strategic agreement will further create socio- economic opportunities for unemployed youth in MENA. The agreement supports the Education for Employment Foundation (EFE) in Morocco and aims to connect youth with decent employment through re-skilling and capacity building opportunities. Within the framework of this agreement Silatech and BMGF will continue to explore interventions to advance employment opportunities within the region.
Silatech partnered with EFE-Morocco and launched the “A Chance to RESET: Reskilling and Empowerment towards Sustainable Employment to Thrive” program. The project aims to improve the livelihoods of young Moroccans by connecting them to the world of work through reskilling programs, and job training and Placement programmes.
Silatech, Education Above All and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights are collaborating on an 18-month project to develop and implement knowledge and skills empowerment opportunities for youth affected by conflict, violence, and insecurity on human rights, advocacy skills, peacebuilding, and conflict prevention. The goal of this project is to build capacities of young people in conflict societies for long-term employment and social entrepreneurship through advocacy, skills training, and assistance in setting up businesses. To ensure recovery, economic growth, social justice, and lasting peace, Silatech is promoting entrepreneurship, supporting business skills development, starting and expanding business support services.
Silatech signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) to cooperate in training youth for employment. This cooperation came as part of Silatech’s desire to realize the priorities of the UN Youth Strategy 2030, made specifically to empower youth worldwide, transforming them into active agents of change in their societies. The activities of UNITAR are primarily focused on the most vulnerable and in-need localities, such as areas subjected to constant conflicts and wars.
Silatech and Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) signed a collaboration agreement to enhance access to job opportunities for its student and alumni community. Under the two-year agreement, HBKU Student Affairs will introduce Silatech support services across campus, giving the academic community access to the Ta3mal portal for training and employment. Silatech will also strive to enhance the employability skills of HBKU students and alumni through a series of career development workshops.
As a premiere international, socio-economic development, non-profit organization that connects youth to jobs and actively contributes to the sustainable economic and social development of societies; Silatech continues to expand globally and offers impactful programs that work towards direct job placement and enterprise development to enhance the quality of life of young men and women in marginalized countries around the world.
Silatech recognizes that its mission of global youth empowerment can only be realized with strong international partnerships and collaboration. We aim to attract further strategic partners who share our mandate of providing socio-economic developmental opportunities as a means of youth empowerment. Strong international cooperation is needed now more than ever to ensure that young men and women have the resources, capabilities, and the capacity to recover from the pandemic and reimagine a brighter future. Silatech works with its partners to design purposeful programs to facilitate access to vital financial services and enable youth to acquire the necessary skills to gain employment in an increasingly competitive, global job market.
1- AHD Summit:
Silatech partnered with Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU) at Ahd Summit to empower youth socially. Young men and women from different countries had the chance to hear, speak, connect, and deliver. Through Ahd, they worked on designing, ideating, and implementing solutions to some of the potential challengeshumanity.
In this two-day summit, they worked on the 17 SDGs and they produced actionable, multi-partnered & measurable pledges. As a result, Ahd Committee was created and will be responsible for the monitoring and reporting of the Global Youth every 3 months.
2- Arab Artificial Intelligence Summit:
Silatech in partnership with Phi Science Institute, in Jordan, organized a panel discussion, which touched upon how Artificial Intelligence can become a force for good in our societies, and particularly in empowering young men and women, and contributing to accelerating the achievements of Sustainable Development Goals – SDGs, of the United Nations, in addition to identifying potential outcomes and consequences of AI on the future of business and societies, globally.
3- High-Level Panel Discussion: Responding to new and evolving challenges in the next decade: Lessons from rehabilitation and reintegration in Somalia:
Silatech CEO, Mr. Hassan Ali AlMulla participated in this High-level panel organized by the The Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), State of Qatar and the Federal Republic of Somalia, in the Counter-Terrorism Week.
In his remarks, AlMulla said “Our methodology supports the creation of ecosystems that are conducive to youth empowerment and enable them to become active agents of socio-economic change. Silatech targets projects which are aimed at supporting the financial inclusion of unbankable young men and women, and their engagement in economic activities within their communities and beyond. Through these projects, we support the financial institutions to design products and focused htraining programs, to implement best practices and build institutional capacity to ultimately benefit the youth”.
4- One Young World Summit:
The annual One Young World Summit convenes the brightest young talent from every country and sector, working to accelerate social impact. Delegates from 190+ countries are counselled by influential political, business, and humanitarian leaders. The Summit took place from 22 - 25 July 2021. Silatech Youth Advocates participated at the global youth Summit and attracted hundreds of delegates to network and foster discussions on important topics related to youth including youth unemployment, social impact and climate change, to name a few.
5- The Inaugural Youth Dialogue Series on the Side-lines of 76th Session of The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA):
Silatech has launched a powerful youth dialogue series at the side-lines of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly that will help youth turn challenges into opportunities within an economic development context and through employment creation in the Middle East, North Africa region and beyond.
The inaugural Silatech Youth Dialogue Series, UNGA Edition held with the participation of Generation Unlimited, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Permanent Mission of Qatar to the UN, was themed “The Role of Youth Socio-Economic Empowerment in Achieving Global Resilience in the Covid-19 Era.”
The Youth Dialogue Series featured remarks by young men and women advocates representing several countries and advocacy groups from around the world to explore innovative ideas and solutions that address the challenges young people endure worldwide in alignment with the UN Youth Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals 2030.
6- Partnership and Financing: Innovative Investment Models for SDG4.1 And OOSC High-Level event:
At this UNGA side event, organized by Education Above all Foundation, Silatech CEO, Mr. Hassan Ali AlMulla affirms that “addressing unemployment requires a unified effort at the local and global level, at the same time it is more impactful when it combines the involvement of both the private and the public sectors. He added “by continuing to invest in youth today through quality education and employment, we make sure the future generation will have the dignity they deserve”.
7- Bridging the Gap Between Education and Meaningful Employment:
Empowering marginalised youth across the MENA region – Resilience in a post pandemic world
This Keynote panel was organized by Silatech and EAA program Al Fakhoora at the World Innovation Summit for Education (Wise).
The panel reiterated the importance of bridging the gap between higher education and employment, that are essential to provide youth with the transferrable 21st century skills needed to maximise their full potential, and allow young men and women to build prosperous and peaceful communities, while focusing particularly on economic empowerment and equality, to accelerate innovative capacity building and advanced upskilling technology.
8- A New Generation: Reclaiming our Future in a Post-Pandemic World:
This panel was organized by Silatech and the EAA program Al Fakhoora, at the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE).
The interactive session was led by EAA and Silatech youth beneficiaries from across the MENA region and highlighted their respective organizations unique mandates. The session featured examples of youth acquired transformational skills and focused on their collective impact within their communities.
