Our mission is: “Leveraging regional business incubation experiences with the timely and effective involvement of concerned stakeholders for bettering aligning and advancing national incubation initiatives at their various stages”

Regional Snapshot

21 organizations in 11 countries throughout Middle East/North Africa.

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iDISC - the infoDev Incubator Support Center - is a virtual networking and knowledge-sharing platform for incubators and technology parks leveraging ICT to facilitate entrepreneurship and new business creation in developing countries. More

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Regional Network

Middle East/North Africa

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MENAinc is the regional network of business incubation and entrepreneurship support institutions, organizations, associations, and networks – formal or informal – in the Middle East and North African region. MENAinc is part of the global network of the infoDev Incubator Initiative.

Our objectives are:

Create awareness about incubation
Influence the development of country policies relating to incubation & entrepreneurship
Share tools and practices
Develop knowledge repositories as part of the global iDISC Incubator Support Center

MENAinc invites all parties able and willing to support our mission to join the network.

MENA Regional Briefing Sheet

Pépinières d’entreprises au Moyen Orient et en Afrique du Nord

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Highlights

International Good Practice for Establishment of Sustainable IT Parks

infoDev, in cooperation with the Global ICT Department (GICT) of the World Bank Group, has commissioned a global best practice study on IT Parks which draws on the experience of several countries and leverages infoDev’s global network of business incubators, which in many instances are housed within IT Parks. The study provides a synthesis of best practices and lessons learned (both from success and failure) and supports governments in developing and transition economies in designing and promoting such projects. More

infoDev announces awards for projects that advance the use of ICT for Development Proposals were submitted in response to the Call for Proposals under the Korean Turst Fund for ICT for Development. The Korean Trust Fund finances projects chosen followig a competitive selection process of proposals received from operational units for the World Bank.

Press Release: infoDev establishes partnership with Brazil on ICT-enabled innovation and entrepreneurship infoDev today announced a partnership with Brazil to explore ICT-enabled innovation and entrepreneurship as tools for sustainable development. The objective of this partnership is to explore the role of ICT, innovation and small business entrepreneurship as engines of economic growth and social empowerment and inclusion. As part of this partnership, Brazil will host the 3rd infoDev Global Forum on Business Incubation in May 2009.

Essay Competition on Innovative Business Initiatives Co-Sponsored by IFC The 2nd Annual Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Narrative Competition 2008 is now accepting submissions for its short essay competition on initiatives developed to overcome challenges in low-income communities. infoDev encourages its Global Network of Business Incubators to participate!

MENAinc to Hold 7th Regional Workshop in Morocco Building on a series of activities in the Middle East & North Africa network of business incubators and technology parks, the MENAinc network will convene in Morocco on Oct 29-31 to discuss the important role of business incubators and technology parks in national and regional economic growth.

infoDev launches new report "Financing Technology Entrepreneurs & SMEs: Challenges and Opportunities" A key finding from infoDev's Incubator Initiative and our country work on growth and competitiveness is that there is little available financing for technology entrepreneurs. This study assesses the current efforts by multilateral institutions and investors to address the financing needs of ICT and ICT-enabled SMEs in developing countries, and identifies the key challenges and constraints to meeting these needs.

infoDev announces awards for the establishment of Working Groups and Regional Networks on Business Incubation that promote South-South Knowledge Sharing Proposals were submitted in response to RFP "Promoting ICT-enabled Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries through Business Incubation".

The MENAinc Damascus Workshop & Reports from Working Groups The 6th MENAinc workshop, "Entrepreneurship Development and Promotion of Innovation in MENA Countries through Cooperation between Business Incubators” was held on June 3 -5, 2008, in Damascus, Syria. More than 200 participants from over 30 countries took part in the event hosted by the Syrian Computer Society and supported by infoDev.

infoDev Global Working Groups Begin Collaboration An opportunity to become a member of a virtual think-tank on business incubation working groups on Women, Youth, and High Growth. Make sure to submit a proposal by April 15th, or become a general member by contacting one of the infoDev focal points.

MENA Network Conference in Bahrain to Discuss Regional Collaboration The 5th MENAinc Workshop, “Shaping the Future through Innovation and Entrepreneurship”, brought together over 200 experts and stakeholders from 39 countries around the MENA region and beyond.

MENAinc Network takes Action The 4th MENAinc Workshop held in Elgazala Technopark in Tunis, Tunisia, May 22-24, 2007 continued the development of the infoDev business incubation network in Middle East and Northern Africa. After the first Regional infoDev Forum for the MENA region, held in Casablanca, Morocco January 2006, the Tunis Workshop already was the fourth meeting in a period of just a little more than 16 months time.

3rd MENAinc Workshop agrees on Constitution At the 3rd MENAinc Workshop in Amman, Jordan participants agreed on a constitution for the network by signing a document developed jointly at the event. This agreement includes setting up a "Focal Point" of the network at the Bahrain Business Incubator Center for administrative functions as well as collection and dissimination of information MENAinc invites all business incubator, technoparks, and their stakeholders to join the network.

Kick-off for MENAinc The 3rd infoDev MENA Workshop, hosted by iPARK, Amman, January 27-28, 2007 focused on practical issues of network building and content. Participants from seven countries of the region (Bahrain, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, and Tunisia) kicked-off “MENAinc”, the Middle East and North Africa Business Incubation Network.