Advocacy training for young entrepreneurs

Jasmine Foundation organized a training workshop for a number of entrepreneurs from Ariana, Kairouan and Medenine on the techniques of advocacy. The training took place at the Mechtel Hotel in Tunis on the 8th the 9th May . This activity is organised as part of the project Ryada “Preparing Entrepreneurs to Lead” which marks the first partnership between Jasmine Foundation and the International Center for Private Enterprise (CIPE).

This project is designed to help Tunisian entrepreneurs understand the pillars of participatory democracy and to learn to become active citizens. The project also empowers young entrepreneurs to reach out to decision makers and to propose policy reforms to improve the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Tunisia.
The training started after a brief opening speech by Dr. Tasnim Chirchi, Executive Director of Jasmine Foundation, and Mr. Ali Ayadi, representative of CIPE in Tunis.
The training course was led by Pamela Beecroft, Senior Program Officer at CIPE and attended by 40 entrepreneurs coming from Ariana, Kairouan and Medenine, as well as the participants of the project “Ryada”.
The training aimed to identify the problems in the actual entrepreneurship ecosystem in the regions, and to equip the participants with tools and techniques to better present the solutions and the alternatives to the decision makers by the means of writing and communicating policy papers.

To further understand their audience, the trainers initiated a debate in which each of the participants stated the issues they face in running or starting-up their businesses.  During this debate the trainers worked actively with the participants to explain the concept of the advocacy and the role the entrepreneurs could play to resolve their common issues. They also explained a verity of basic concepts, such as goals, strategy, problem tree, which can help participants to clearly identify their problems and formulate an accurate solution in their policy papers.
On the second day of the training, the trainers worked to give the participants a deeper understanding of the advocacy strategy in interactive exchange giving with real-life examples.  The participants then worked in small groups to apply the learned concept to create their own advocacy strategies and practice presenting their case in front of the audience.

Through these efforts the project intends to educate Tunisia’s future business leaders about new ways to bring changes that will address their challenges, establish dialogue channels with policymakers and create a tradition of encouraging the creation of new groups to represent the voices of business in Tunisia for the good of the economy.