Enroot Projects

About Us Enroot is a development consultancy, committed to supporting inclusive economic growth in Egypt, utilizing the multidisciplinary approaches, international best practices and innovative techniques brought forth by a diverse and seasoned team of experts. Enroot leadership is comprised of veteran experts in industry, policy making and social and economic development, bringing together corporate experience with government, development and policy making, at an intersection of knowledge and experience that adds depth and dimension to our developmental approach. We have long standing working relationships with donor and international organizations, as well as local and regional government, partnership agreements with academia and a wide network of industry and corporate clients and partners. Enroot experts and consultants have a combined experience of 100+ years of providing support and business development services to youth, whether entrepreneurs, startups or SMEs in developing and growing their business, promoting the development of industry clusters and upgrading value chains.

Areas of Focus Enroot sets its primary focus on fostering economic development through supporting local communities and raising their capabilities. Our experience and scope of activities revolve around the design and implementation of initiatives supporting emerging businesses and entrepreneurship, developing productive clusters and value chains with a focus on less developed regions, and with an emphasis on empowering youth and women.

Employment and Entrepreneurship

Promoting entrepreneurship, and more specifically, entrepreneurial culture among youth, is key for fostering competitiveness and economic growth. The Enroot team has vast experience in entrepreneurship education and support services to start ups. We offer our clients customized curricula, a wide array of services in guiding and supporting entrepreneurs, and a qualified pool of trainers and coaches. Enroot has established partnerships with development partners, local and international organization, academic institutions, as well as investors and the private sector to enhance our programs and link our entrepreneurs to a network of suppliers and buyers.

Entrepreneurship education and school-to-work transition

Enroot carries out customized entrepreneurship education and school-to-work transition programs in partnership with educational institutions and civil society organizations. The primary focus is to promote entrepreneurial culture among the target groups which includes a set of skills, values and attitudes not only to envision starting own businesses but also conducive to successful career development and bringing added value to the individual and the community.

The program contains a set of soft and interpersonal skills and business education (including general coaching and business planning). Skills development and educational programs blended with tailored sectoral technical awareness create a shift in the mindset of target youth towards the business environment and bridge the skills gap needed in the job market.

Enroot services in this area include the following:

• Skill gap and training needs assessments

• Development of training curricula (customized material based on target group, region and target sectors where applicable)

• Training of Trainers (ToT) programs to instructors

• Comprehensive training programs and awareness programs

• Monitoring and evaluation services including post training impact assessments

Specialized Entrepreneurship programs with sectoral focus

An entrepreneurship program that is designed with a sectoral focus increases the success rate of the process and improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the mentoring and incubation activities and promotes collaboration between the members of the target groups. Enroot provides the whole range of activities along the process which include:

• Entrepreneurship and technical trainings including transfer of skills and technical knowledge

• Organization of technical study tours, business to business activities and trade missions

• Supporting start-ups in conducting needed market researches and facilitate access to market

• Institutional and legal support

• Linkages with input suppliers, buyers and potential investors

• Supporting in technology upgrade and transfer of production and quality best practices

Strategic Partnerships

• MOU with Nile University and the Central Bank of Egypt to contribute to the Nilepreneurs initiative by supporting universities to implement entrepreneurship projects.

• MOUs with Sohag, Aswan, Assiut and South Valley Universities on entrepreneurship development and the establishment of business development service units supporting students and graduates.

• A sole provider contract with the USAID SEED project to implement a package of entrepreneurship training programs and TOTs at different universities.

• Grant from the Embassy of the Netherlands to implement an 18-month pilot project in Sohag to graduate 50 startups in agroindustry and related sectors

• Grant from Drosos Foundation to implement a 4 years program with Aswan University to support entrepreneurs and clusters to support rural economy.

Productive Clusters and Value Chains

Upgrading value chains and promoting cluster development directly contributes to Egypt’s inclusive economic development. Armed with extensive experience in this area, Enroot provides a variety of services in support of raising competitiveness of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), productive clusters and value chains. The scope includes diagnostic studies and development of improvement action plans and extends to providing business development services focusing on skills development, productivity and quality enhancement, technology transfer, market access, business linkages and investment promotion.

Value chain assessment and cluster diagnostic studies

Enroot offers research services including:

• Rapid and in-depth value chain analysis, sub-sector assessment and cluster diagnostic studies

• Background and baseline studies and context analysis

• Demand analysis and market surveys

• Design of logical frameworks, action plans, concept notes and project documents

Implementation of value chain upgrading initiatives

• Enroot supports the upgrade of value chain through various activities including:

• Technology transfer, production upgrade, quality and safety management systems

• Capacity building and skills enhancement programs

• Facilitating access to markets

• Supporting value chain linkages, investment promotion initiatives, and access to finance

Implementation of cluster development programs • Cluster diagnostic studies and development of cluster

development action plans

• Building capacities of cluster development agents and cluster members

• Implementing cluster development activities based on value chain concepts

• Facilitating cluster linkages and collaborative activities

• Promoting investments, access to markets and finance

Support to the enhancement of industrial ecosystem • Services to quality infrastructure including assessments, diagnostic studies, pilot

testing and review of standards, regulations, quality and food safety systems and tools

• Upgrading Business Development Services (BDS) by supporting BDS providers in raising institutional capacity, development of service portfolios, training curricula and skills upgrade.

• Providing assistance to policy makers and support institutions in the development and review of policies and programs in support to economic and industrial development process

Sector-based Experience • Enroot team is specialized in the following sectors:

• Agribusiness and Food Processing

• Tourism, gastro-tourism and eco-tourism

• Textile, furniture, leather and other non-food agribusinesses

• Handicrafts and creative industries

• Waste management, up- and re-cycling

• Renewable energy with focus on solar and biomass

Enroot Development Principles • Enroot follows strict principles in the process value chains and productive clusters

development that result in maximizing effectiveness, efficiency impact and sustainability. These include:

• Market based and private sector led development, relying on demand driven approaches to create clear incentives for clusters and value chain members

• Investing in human capital, putting primary focus on developing human capacities and self-help mechanisms and promoting exchange of knowledge and experiences

• Participatory approaches and community ownership, engaging beneficiaries in the development and implementation of solutions and building trust through effective communication and provision of real added value

• Promoting and supporting collaborative efforts, whereby beneficiaries can reach economies of scale and scope and for achieving innovative business models embedding access to markets, finance and investments

• Establishing replicable models and demonstrations with minimal external contribution. Such pilots are effective elements for training and learning and for facilitating up-scaling and replication by target groups

• Effective monitoring and evaluation and strong field presence, through which the interventions and approaches are continuously adjusted based on the day-to-day findings and lessons learned and key performance indicators are closely monitored supporting result-based management

Support to Women and Youth

Enroot recognizes that the empowerment of women and youth is key to inclusive economic development. Therefore, Enroot provides a special focus on women and youth in its programs and projects. The various initiatives are designed and implemented considering this principle and special tools are used for its realization including gender analysis and gender mainstreaming.

Enroot Founders

Hanna Grace

Chairman

Hanna Grace is an expert in sustainable development policies and strategies. He is an advocate for social dialogue, civic engagement, youth empowerment and gender equality. He led several projects related to mediation, training on conflict transformation in the MENA region and how to use the societies’ cultural heritage as a driver for development. He worked as a consultant to the Humanitarian Dialogue Foundation in Geneva (2011-2016) and the Regional Council for Mediation and Dialogue in Cairo (2011-2016). He is an active researcher on cultural identity, youth personality development and responsible citizenship in the Middle East. Hanna holds a B.Sc. in Medicine and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University.

Ziaad Bahaa-Eldin

Board Member

Ziad Bahaa-Eldin is a seasoned expert in economic development, investment, financial law, and governance. He was the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Development and Minister of International Cooperation (2013-2014), Member of Parliament (2012), Executive Chairman of the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (2009-2011) and Executive Chairman of the Egyptian General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (2004-2007), non-executive member of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Egypt (2004-2011), the National Bank of Egypt (2005-2010), and a Senior Legal Advisor to the Central Bank of Egypt (2011)

Hany Elsalamouny

Hany Elsalamony is a strategic development expert with a track record in Socio-economic development and served as Advisor to United Nations organizations. He has a strong network with government organizations, NGOs, and international entities and was in charge for drafting prominent legislations, work schemes and standards. His expertise extends from strategic planning, decision making, leadership, value chain development and food security. His media contributions on sustainable development are published regularly in Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper among others. Hany holds a M.Sc. in Food Safety Management Systems and Quality Assurance, a Total Quality Management Diploma and is a Food Safety certified expert from CIEH.

Board Member

Mohamed Kamal

Board Member

Mohamed Kamal is a visionary Leader and strategic advisor with a successful track record in strategic planning, market strategy, investment advisory, entrepreneurship, business turnaround and leadership. He is a board member & strategic advisor for key organizations in the Healthcare and Manufacturing sectors. He was the founder of Awe Research, the leading & fastest growing research agency in MENA region (2012-2017) and worked as 2011: Consumer Research Head of Nielsen (2011) and MENA Business Development Director of Ipsos in Morocco and Algeria (2009). Mohamed holds a B.Sc. in Medicine from Cairo University and a Management Diploma from the American University in Cairo and is a Certified Dale Carnegie Trainer

Alaa Fahmy

Board Member,

Chief Executive Officer

Alaa Fahmy is a senior industrial and economic development expert with a track record with international organizations, consulting firms, business associations and private sector in more than 15 countries. He was the Chief Technical Advisor of a lead Quality Infrastructure project in Malawi with UNIDO and UNDP (2017-2018), the National Programme Officer of the UNIDO regional office in Egypt (2012-2017) and the Director of the Traceability and Agro-industrial Value Chains Program of UNIDO in Egypt (2007-2012). He conducted a number of assignments as a Team Leader and Technical Expert with the World Bank, USAID, EU, EIB and international consulting firms. Alaa holds a Ph.D. in Process Engineering and a MBA in international Markets.

Enroot Organizational Structure

Chief Executive Officer

Alaa Fahmy

Managing Director

Mohammed Kamal

Development Division Head

Hany ElSalamouny

Operations Department

ManagersAhmad Amin

BDS- Local Coordinators

13 Coordinators

Program Executive

Logine Ahmad

Program officer

Abdelrahman Khaled

Research&Strategy Division

Senior Program Executive

Nada Abdelghany

Program Officer

Amira Fekry

Senior Program Executive

Reem Abughattas

Program Officer

Aly Elnady

Enroot Projects

No Client Duration Description

1 Plan

International Aug 2018 – Dec 2018

Project Title: Rapid Value Chain Assessment of Handmade Carpet Sector in Beheira & Giza Assessing the hand-made carpet sector in two governorates, Giza and Behaira with focus on women engagement in various value chain activities. Qualitative and quantitative research activities included in-depth interviews with stakeholders and enterprises, focus group discussions, data analysis, reporting and recommendations for a support programme addressing the needs and potentials.

2 USAID- SEED Sep 2018- April 2019

Project Title: Entrepreneurship Training at Upper Egyptian Universities The assignment aims at prompting the entrepreneurial attitude of students and graduates of universities in Upper Egypt and improving their employability options. Activities include a series of workshops and competency-based trainings focusing on relevant personal qualities and engagement in the business environment, as well as a start-up competition and TOT for university staff. The content is a blend of Enroot employability modules and SEED entrepreneurship education course delivered through a team of trainers and capacity building advisors with involvement and support of relevant university cadre. Beneficiary Universities are Sohag, South Valley, Aswan and New Valley.

3 Dutch Embassy Dec 2018 – April 2020

Project title: Youth Entrepreneurs as Sustainable Development Solution in Upper Egypt (Massar- Sohag Governorate).

The overall objective of the project is to Empower youth socially and economically, through establishing and implementing sustainable Clusters and Business Development Services (CBDS) Unit in Sohag University that will ensure the provision of nonfinancial services to entrepreneurs and Sohag MSME’s, in particular females in Upper Egypt, Masaar project will be implemented in Assuit, Qena and Aswan Governorates by 2020.

Project outputs include identification of viable business opportunities, establishment of a Business Development Service Unit at the university, the development of viable entrepreneurial initiatives by young men and women, strengthening of the entrepreneurship ecosystem and increased synergy among local economy stakeholders in Upper Egypt. Activities include the development and delivery of a custom designed entrepreneurship capacity building program qualifying the youth to be self-dependent, reliable and engaged in the business environment. The sustainability of the BDS activities will be assured through mobilizing a number of relevant educational and civil society organizations to adopt the capacity

building program to a wide range of target youth. The whole initiative will be supported by the private sector assuring the alignment of the demand and access to markets.

4 JICA Feb 2019- March 2019

Project title: Employment Needs and Trend of Youth Employment Activities in Egypt

A survey conducted to collect the information on youth employment trends, providing information on the current situation of youth employment in Egypt. The research supports the future direction in undergraduate education as well as career support at the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-JUST). The result of the surveys suggested JICA’s possible cooperation to the unemployment issues in Egypt.

Data collection was carried out in the governorates of Cairo, Giza and Alexandria, targeting youth from the Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of International Business and Humanities and surveying the demand side. The research provided an overview of the youth employment situation in the target locations and shed light on the employment needs of E-JUST undergraduate students.

5 USAID- SEED

project Feb 2019- Feb 2020

Project title: USAID SEED – Enroot Entrepreneurship Competition in Upper Egypt

Implement an entrepreneurship competition targeting 3 governorates in Upper Egypt, to promote MSMEs development and strengthen entrepreneurship ecosystem while promoting youth-led start-ups and increasing youth economic participation.

6 UNDIO

March 2019- June 2019

Project title: Promote Value Addition along the Egyptian Cotton Textile Value Chain and Management of Multi-Stakeholder Working Group to Promote Sustainable Cotton Cultivation in Egypt The assignment included supporting the management of the working group through establishing its strategy, working plan, sustainability plan and membership framework. It also included conducting a mapping of the Egyptian cotton industry and a market analysis of the available sustainable technologies, technology providers and potential applications in the Egyptian cotton industrial value chain.

7 ILO Oct 2019 – July 2020

Project title: Delivery of Training on Business Management, Business Literacy and Employability Skills

Implement a series of workshops falling Within the framework of ILO’s Egypt Youth Employment (EYE) programme: Jobs and Private Sector Development in Rural Egypt “RAWABET” project. Enroot’s is responsible for the delivery and overall management to the service tracks offering business management and employment training, where the ILO’s key training packages can be delivered in Assuit. The assignment involves three major training packages targeting illiterate women, recent university graduates and youth with potential business ideas.

8 ILO June 2019- Dec 2019

Project title: Market System Analysis of Agribusiness and Tourism in Minya and Luxor

The assignment is divided into two dimensions: Agribusiness in Minya and Tourism in Luxor. In the Agribusiness assignment, Enroot conducted market system analysis of 3 value chains, namely: Garlic, Dairy and Green houses. For the Tourism assignment, Enroot conducted the market system analysis for 2 services sub-sectors, namely: hospitality and entertainment while integrating 4 value chains namely: Guesthouses, Local Restaurants, Horse Carriages and Sail Boats. This is in addition to 1 goods sub-sector: Handicrafts with focus on Alabaster as it is the only organic cluster in Luxor and one of the 145 identified organic clusters in Egypt

The market system analysis involved analysis of the value chains, supporting functions in addition to rules and regulations governing the business operations in order to identify the bottleneck constraints and recommend interventions that would promote both employment and value addition along these value chains.

For the purpose of this assignment, Enroot utilized on secondary resources and primary resources including key informants IDIs, local informants IDIs and focus groups with beneficiaries including youth and Women.

9 GIZ June 2019- Mar 2020

Project title: Supporting ASRT- INTILAC Incubation Programs

Supporting the ASRT Incubation programs both in Sohag and in Qena and providing entrepreneurship capacity building for youth in Sohag to promote youth-led projects in Upper Egypt

10 NSCE, EU project Sep 2019 – Dec 2019

Conducting value chain assessment for palm dates sector in Bayehmo village in Fayoum.

11 UNIDO Oct 2019- Dec Feb 2020

Project title: Inventorying of Egyptian typical food

The assignment objective is to conduct a mapping study on Egyptian traditional food products in all governorates to identify potential terroir/typical – Origin-linked – products that could be promoted by chamber of food industries through a national contest among formal producers of the identified products. In addition to designing an evaluation grid encompassing the four characteristics of terroir products: Typicity, History, Physical and Culture with their weights to score the mapped traditional products. The assignment is carried out using both secondary and primary resources including key experts and local informants and findings will be validated through four validation workshops in four different regions to ensure representative locals’ contribution to the study.

12 ILO Jan 2020- March 2020

Project title: Situational Analysis for Enterprise Development in Egypt

Conduct a situational analysis report on Enterprise Development in Egypt for the formulation of new projects based on a deep and thorough understanding of the national needs and problems faced to support the development of enterprises in Egypt.

13 GIZ Jan 2020- March 2020

Project title: Cost benefit analysis on Dual system

This study aims to contribute to the enhancement of the Egyptian Dual System by quantifying the costs of apprenticeships during the study period and the benefits accrued to companies. The assignment will inform political decision-making on the efficacy of this model of VET for businesses in Egypt.

14 Drosos Feb 2020- Jan 2023

Project title: Massar Aswan

The project aims at boosting local creative economies in Aswan with focus on the agriculture, waste management and creative sectors that offer opportunities for young women and men to generate income and contribute to the overall local economic development of the governorate. The project adopts a cluster development approach to address common challenges and seize collective opportunities with the aim of reaching a higher level of competitiveness. The project promotes youth-led enterprises, focusing on commercializing products and services offered by existing clusters and enhancing their access to markets, which will maximize the socio-economic return. The entrepreneurship support pillar follows a phased approach, starting with awareness building around entrepreneurship, cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset to introduce them to business opportunities as potential start-ups and in the labor market. Selected groups will be then supported through a full entrepreneurship cycle that includes training on business planning and mentoring, from which selected start-ups will advance to incubation and acceleration stages, to end up with 20 businesses successfully linked to existing clusters and the local ecosystem.

Enroot Projects

Other Relevant Experience

Project Title Promoting Inclusive Economic Growth in Egypt/ EU Facility of Inclusive Growth and Job Creation

Donor/Client ILO

Time frame March 2019- November 2019

Short description

Revise and update the ITC- ILO toolkit on innovative BDS / networking and integration of SMEs in the value chains and pricing and marketing of BDS. Conduct an institutional and capacity development assessment of potential BDS providers in target areas in Sudan and adapt the fully developed toolkit to the Sudanese context. Conduct a ToT on the developed toolkit in Sudan.

Project Title “Promoting Women Empowerment for Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development in the MENA region – Phase II”

Donor/Client UNIDO- United Nations Industrial Development Organization

Time frame April 2019 – October 2019

Short description

Assess priority value chains for the ability to boost women economic inclusion in Egypt. This consultancy is for the project “Promoting Women Empowerment for Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development in the MENA region – Phase II”, through which UNIDO, FAO and UN Women will work to enhance women’s entrepreneurship and economic participation, in both rural and urban areas, by promoting women-led investments and supporting MSMEs development in selected gender-sensitive value chains.

Project Title Promoting Inclusive Economic Growth in Egypt/ EU Facility of Inclusive Growth and Job Creation - BDS4GROWTH

Donor/Client ILO – International Labor Organization

Time frame March – April 2019

Short description

Revise and update the ITC- ILO toolkit on innovative BDS / networking and integration of SMEs in the value chains and pricing and marketing of BDS. Conduct an institutional and capacity development assessment of potential BDS providers in target areas in Sudan and adapt the fully developed toolkit to the Sudanese context. Conduct a ToT on the developed toolkit in Sudan.

Project Title Value Chain Analysis for Responsible Tourism and Date Industries in Badrasheen with Focus on The Areas Of Sakkara, Abu Sir And Dahshur.

Donor/Client NSCE- North South Consultants Exchange, EU project

Time frame March 2019- June 2019

Short description

Conduct value chain assessments of the palm dates and tourism sector in Badrashin area for the project: “Visit Badrashin! A responsible tourism strategy for an inclusive and innovative rural economy”. The consultancy included secondary and primary research including fieldwork with different stakeholders of the tourism and date industries, such as palm trees producers, farmers, tour operators, women producers and workers, handicraft artisans, local administrative units and government representative. Develop a set of recommendations and outline an intervention plan with specific KPIs and M&E framework.

Project Title Monitoring and Evaluation of Project Outcomes

Donor/Client CNFA Feed the Future Egypt Food Security and Agribusiness Support (FAS) USAID project

Time frame November 2018

Short description

Managing field research to prepare an evaluation study to capture outcome indicators of the project aiming at improving productivity and market access of farmers in 7 Governorates in Upper Egypt. Activities include conducting a field survey on 360 beneficiaries using structured interview tools, analysis of data and reporting as well as on-the-job capacity building of the project monitoring and evaluation team.

Project Title Monitoring and Evaluation of Project Outcomes - Project Participant Database and Outcome Survey Data Cleaning Consultancy

Donor/Client CNFA Feed the Future Egypt Food Security and Agribusiness Support (FAS) USAID project

Time frame December 2018

Short description

Providing expertise to support CNFA in improving FAS’ management of performance indicator data to improve performance management, increase the accuracy of reporting, and to prepare for upcoming Data Quality Assessments. Activities: technical support to clean the project participant database, based on a verification survey and required follow up, to ensure that all non-participants and duplicate entries have been removed from the participant database, and to confirm the details of each individual in the database (including national identification number, location of farm, crops grown, and quarters of assistance.) The support targets completion of the cleaning of FAS beneficiary database, in preparation for importing the data into FAS’ M&E database software.

Project Title Project Management Training

Donor/Client North South Consultants Exchange - NSCE

Time Frame 29 – 30 January 2019

Short Description

A two-day training was delivered to the NSCE team of development field practitioners on Project Management. It focused on important management tools for an effective project, such as Result Based Management and Monitoring and Evaluation with practical examples and hands-on exercises. Participants were additionally trained on internal and external reporting systems including tools, communication strategies and knowledge management. In groups, participants, along with the trainer, discussed different team management approaches, leadership and financial and budget management for development projects.

Enroot Projects