Nine universities join the Safir community

Safir is an ambitious programme for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the economic inclusion of young people in nine countries in North Africa and the Middle East. Supported by the European Union, its aim is to create an environment conducive to the civic engagement of young people and to encourage the development of projects with a social, cultural and environmental impact.

It is led by a consortium of partners: the Institut Français (lead), the Francophone University Association(Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, AUF); LAB’ESS, Pitchworthy, the Arab Network of NGOs for Development (ANND), and CFI, which will specifically be providing support for media projects.

The universities selected will benefit from technical and financial support to strengthen their academic offer in social entrepreneurship and to create dedicated incubation spaces for student entrepreneurs.

Ultimately, the aim is to enable these spaces to incubate social entrepreneurial initiatives developed by students (who will join the Safir incubator network (editor’s note: innovative entrepreneurship support structures, SAEI)) and to organise sessions to raise awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals. They will attend regional meetings of project beneficiaries and will have an annual programme of citizen events.

A further nine higher education and research establishments will be selected as part of a second call for applications.