Alfanar Celebrates Graduation of First Batch of Enterprises from SEMD Project

Alfanar, the Arab region’s first venture philanthropy organization, celebrated the graduation of the first cohort of the “Social Entrepreneurship for Migration and Development (SEMD)” project.

The regional project “SEMD” implemented in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, was initiated and funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in January 2021and applied by Alfanar organization in Egypt, in cooperation with GFA Consulting Group GmbH.

Through its strategy, Alfanar differs from traditional NGOs in the support it provides to ambitious social enterprises to develop sustainable revenue streams, thereby breaking the cycle of donor dependency. Through a combination of tailored financing, management support, bespoke training, and impact measurement, Alfanar supported 8 social enterprises in Egypt under the “SEMD” project with the intellectual and capital investment they need to scale their impact sustainably.

The graduation ceremony was attended by a group of officials from Alfanar Egypt, headed by Shenouda Bissada, Egypt Country Director, Alfanar, and Asmaa Kamel, Coordinator of the National SEMD program in Egypt, to celebrate the 8 social enterprises graduating from the project. The event also attracted a number of notable members of the press and media.

In this context, Shenouda Bissada Country Representative of Alfanar in Egypt congratulated the graduates of the first batch of the “Social Entrepreneurship for Migration and Development (SEMD)” project, as well as the success partners involved in providing solutions to migration and development issues in Egypt.

GCC survey: Consumers willing to pay more for sustainability-minded companies

Drawing on the findings of more than 2,000 respondents across the three GCC states, the survey revealed that the majority (76%) agree that sustainability efforts of a company are likely to positively impact  their choice in buying their products

Dubai, United Arab Emirates:— A new survey conducted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Kuwait has spotlighted the influence a company’s sustainability efforts can have on consumers’ behaviour and choice of brands.

The survey, conducted independently by leading Dubai-based market research company 4SiGHT, was commissioned by Phillip Morris Management Services (Middle East) Limited (PMMS) to better understand how an organization’s efforts towards sustainable practices play a role in consumer decisions and which efforts are most important.

Drawing on the findings of more than 2,000 respondents across the three GCC states, the survey revealed that the majority (76%) agree that sustainability efforts of a company are likely to positively impact  their choice in buying their products. Meanwhile, among KSA and UAE participants, 84% and 81% respectively agree that it is important for a company to act sustainably. Similarly, across KSA, UAE, and Kuwait, 68% of respondents said that they would pay more for an item if the company selling it demonstrated sustainable practices.

Digging deeper, the survey also revealed the corporate sustainability efforts considered most relevant to consumers today. Although all efforts were considered highly relevant, respondents identified the need to protect the environment through sustainable practices that address social and environmental challenges, like child labour and agricultural workers, as being most relevant at an average of 94.3% across the three countries. Additionally, when asked about their environmental concerns, pollution was identified as the most concerning factor (64% in Kuwait, 56% in KSA, and 61% in UAE).

Meanwhile, the majority of respondents across all nations believed that committing to environmental, social and governance goals best defined a company as ‘sustainable’, suggesting that tangible action is now a necessity if a company is to engage with consumers.

“The survey findings highlight the need for businesses to commit to sustainable practices because their consumers recognize the importance of protecting the environment now and in the future.” commented Tarkan Demirbas, Area Vice President, PMMS. “Businesses need to clearly define goals and hold themselves accountable to the promises that they are making. Being a more sustainably minded company brings a clear competitive advantage as the survey shows.”

The survey comes at a highly relevant time in Phillip Morris International’s (PMI) own transformation as the company continues to make strides towards a more sustainable future. Most notably, PMI has committed to setting an ambitious goal, with at least 40 million current adult smokers to have switched to its smoke-free products by 2025, and for smoke-free products to account for more than 50% of total net revenues by 2025.

The company has recently expanded its own sustainability metrics and goals with a particular focus on achieving its smoke-free vision. Earlier this year, PMI released its 2021 Integrated Report, which outlines the company’s sustainability commitments and progress toward the same. According to the report’s sustainability index, PMI is working to increase the shipment ratio of its smoke-free products by 30 per cent by 2025, while also growing the number of markets it sells smoke-free products in from 70 in 2022 to 100, also by 2025.

Within the Middle East, in 2021 PMMS launched Our World is Not an Ashtray, the Arabic edition of PMI’s global initiative to raise awareness of the issue of cigarette butt littering and drive long-term behavior and attitudes changes. The initiative encourages proper waste disposal through education while also supporting litter clean-up activities.

As in previous years, in September 2022, PMI supported World Clean Up Day, the world’s largest annual litter clean up event. PMI teams worldwide participated in this global action, including PMMS with 50 employees, their families and friends joining to clean up one of Dubai’s beaches.  In total the volunteers were able to collect —12 kgs of waste and more cigarette butts in previous years.  The litter collected will be upcycled to be turned into valuable construction materials such as resistant plywood replacement boards, beams, pipes, moulded items as well as concrete and pavements.

In cooperation with the INP and DCarbon Egypt: TOP 50 Women Forum leads new initiative to advance Egyptian women’s leadership in climate action

Top 50 Women supports the Egyptian agenda at COP28

Top 50 Women aims to integrate climate action into all economic activities

Cairo December 1,2022

Cairo-based Top 50 Women Forum is leading a first-of-its-kind initiative by launching training packages tailored to enrich women cadres across public and private organisations with skills needed to pivot on sustainability and green economic activities.

Building on the success and recommendations of the UN climate conference COP27 hosted by the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, the initiative will include areas of sustainability, sustainability reporting with GRI standards, and a green economy transition, aiming to integrate environmental and climate action into all economic activities.

For this, the Top 50 Women Forum has signed a cooperation protocol with the Institute of National Planning (INP) and DCarbon Egypt to implement the initiative and prepare the training programmes and workshops designed to strengthen women’s decision-making role in driving a climate action.

The Forum will start the first executive steps in implementing the initiative as it will launch the first training programme for women cadres from public and private sectors on December 6-7, 2022 at the INP’s headquarters in Cairo.

The programme will tackle methodologies of sustainability reporting with GRI standards, thereby enriching the participants with the skills and expertise to transition to sustainable and green economy in according to global standards.

Commenting on this initiative, Dr. Ashraf El-Araby, President of the INP, stressed the importance of uplifting the skills of Egyptian women cadres in public and private sectors to pivot to a sustainability-focused career path to cope with the climate change and its negative impact on environment and economic activities.

The whole world is rapidly moving into achieving sustainability to reverse the cascading impacts of climate change, El-Araby said, adding that Egypt is seeing tremendous challenges in its green transition goal, including the lack of training programmes that uproot sustainability as a concept and a way of doing business.

The INP is cooperating with Top 50 Women Forum as being a key woman driving force platform that best represents women professionals in Egypt.

“Women in Egypt are strategic partner and key national element for achieving sustainable development schemes under Egypt 2030 Vision. It is important to support a climate action in Egypt amidst the ongoing global climate change challenges that threaten women’s social and economic stability.”  El-Araby noted.

For her part, Dina Abdel Fattah – Founder and Chairperson of Top 50 Women – said the initiative and the training programmes are building on the recommendations made during the UN climate conference COP27, which stressed the need for taking faster action to transition to green economy.

The Forum’s training programme related to sustainability reporting with GRI standards aims to help better speed up integrating governance and sustainability into economic activities, she added.

“We aim to empower companies to operate in accordance with global standards that are based on governance, disclosure, and corporate responsibility.” Abdel Fattah said.

“This will help improve corporates’ performance through better understanding of risks and available opportunities as well as increase their competitiveness and thereby attracting sustainable financing.”

Abdel Fattah further said this initiative is a proactive step to support Egypt’s agenda at the UN upcoming climate conference COP27 by developing women cadres’ skills and potentials as well as the performance of Egyptian economic institutions.

In the same context, Ehab Shalaby, CEO of DCarbon Egypt, has said that empowering women with the needed skills and expertise will boost the transition process towards witnessing more sustainable work models.

“DCarbon has prepared integrated training programme packages and will be carried out in cooperation with the INP and Top 50 Women Forum. We will first start with the sustainability reporting with GRI standards course.”