The Middle East North Africa Region (MENA) is mired in mis-representation and a biased narrative. Part of the problem can be traced to the  constant crises the region faces.  The humanitarian crisis due to the constant political upheaval in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Palestine has led to a refugee crisis for Lebanon and Jordan. Lebanon (population of 4.3 Mn) is hosting over 1.3 Mn Syrian refugees. Jordan hosts 2 million refugees (Syrians, Palestinians etc). There is a significant GDP disparity between those countries with oil resources and those without (falling oil prices may have an impact). However, if you have visited the region, you will see the foresight some countries have in investing in infrastructural development. For example, Egypt is funding the second Suez Canal project with Suez Canal Investment Certificates (for nationals only) and was able to raise USD 8.5 billion.  Few people realise UAE is the world’s largest humanitarian donor government.   

This region has one of the largest youth populations which means significant  employment needs to be generated in the coming years. The World Bank estimates that 100 million jobs need to be created by 2020. Some parts of MENA are still heavily reliant on expatriate labor. Hence talent management, knowledge retension and entrepreneurship are key focus areas. But this region is a hotbed of technology! The Arab Spring which swept across the region and began in Tunisia and Egypt, began thanks to social media! Despite all of the challenges this region faces, the opportunities are immense for business. Africa and Asia are major focus areas for MENA trade.  The entrepreneurship scene is creating a hotbed of innovation as evidenced by Christopher Schroeder, author of Startup Rising, Fadi Ghandour, Founder of Aramex and Dave McClure, Founder of 500 Startups. EMNCs and born globals are growing. The management of diverse cultures, human capability management and crisis management are issues of great importance in this region as they overcome country of origin effects. Women empowerment is on the rise but not in the traditional ways the west perceives it. While research is nascent for many systematic issues, it is important to capture any knowledge from a region mired in bias. This workshop hopes to address some of the issues and observe methods on how this bias can be overcome by the IB community so that this region gets a fair perspective. The AIBMENA chapter has been working in this region since 2009 and will be facilitating this session.

 

 

The workshop will address the following themes through a panel format, after which we will break up into smaller groups to address the following themes in greater detail:

1. Encouraging more research despite systematic constraints - looking at qualitative insights, smaller samples etc

2. Human Resource Challenges and Opportunities

3. Overcoming the Country of Origin (COO) bias

4. Entrepreneurship (and the need to embed social causes in a region mired in crisis)