Prosperity Division – Hiroshima Office

IMPACT STORY
Enhancing leadership and entrepreneurshipskills of young people in Iraq

May 2021

Background
The UNITAR Iraq Entrepreneurship and Leadership Youth Training Programme is a fellowship
initiative that provides youth with skills in entrepreneurship and leadership to develop or strengthen
local businesses that contribute to social and economic stability in their country. The programme
objective is to equip the youth with hard skills to enhance project and business development andimplementation (i.e., business planning, business and revenue models, needs assessment, sales,
marketing and innovation strategies, and monitoring and evaluation techniques), and soft skills
to promote effective management of the businesses (i.e., teamwork strategies, communication andpresentation techniques, leadership skills, conflict identification and resolution).
Targeting young professionals working in areas or institutions relevant to entrepreneurship, project
implementation and leadership, the programme takes place yearly over approximately six months,
consists of two international and two national work workshops. Between workshops, theparticipants complete practical assignments and develop an individual business project with thesupport of international and regional mentors and local coaches. Since the 2017 cycle, theprogramme introduced local coaches, who are former participant volunteers, to support and mentor
the fellows.
Since its inception, the Government and the People of Japan generously funded the UNITAR Iraq
Youth Entrepreneurship and Leadership Training Programme to drive social, environmental, andeconomic progress and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Iraq andacross the region. UNITAR is genuinely grateful for the partnership to enhance the capacity ofyouth and drive the change for the good of the people and society as a whole.
From 2016 to 2019, 86 participants took part in the programme, 46
per cent of them female (37). According to past evaluations fromthe programme, 75 per cent of the participant respondents agreed
that the information provided was new to them and 96 per cent had
intentions to use it in their workplace. Moreover, 98 per cent foundthe programme contents useful and 80 per cent were overallsatisfied with the workshops.
In this Impact Story, we review the extent to which participants
have applied or transferred knowledge and skills from theprogramme and the challenges encountered by them and spotlightthe experiences from three participants. We conducted a survey with participants from the 2016-

2019 cycles (24 per cent response rate and 14 per cent complete responses) and organised threefollow-up interviews to deepen into potential changes. The results presented are based on thesurvey responses and interviewees only.

2016 Cycle
2017 Cycle
2018 Cycle
2019 Cycle
Aug 2016 - March 2017
Aug 2017 - March 2018
Oct 2018 - March 2019
Sep 2019 - March 2020
24 participants
25 participants
21 participants
16 participants
Workshops: 2 in Baghdad, Workshops: 2 in Baghdad, Workshops: 2 in Baghdad, Workshops: 2 in Baghdad,
1 in Istanbul, 1 in
1 in Amman, 1 in Hiroshima1 in Istanbul, 1 in
1 in Istanbul, 1 inHiroshima
Hiroshima
Hiroshima

Fellowship programme in figures

86 graduated participants

46 per cent women
54 per cent men

70 per cent agreed theinformation was relevant totheir jobs

96 per cent intended to use
the information

100 per cent certificationrate

75 per cent agreed theinformation was new

98 per cent agreed
information was
overall usefulApplication of knowledge/skills and individual project
implementation
Almost all of the survey respondents had previous experience working in entrepreneurship andleadership issues or knowledge before the programme. Seventy-six per cent had already received
training related to leadership, entrepreneurship or project/business implementation. Most of themwork in the private sector (usually as entrepreneurs) or are implementing projects in NGOs,
governmental organizations and universities. Eighty-three per cent of respondents considered theskills from the training to be very or fully important for their job success. The selection and profileof the participants possibly led to a high application rate of skills from the training with one
hundred per cent of respondents confirming application of knowledge and skills, which iswell above the average UNITAR rate of 80-82 per cent.
The survey found that soft skills had a higher application rate than hard skills (see Figure 1).
Communication and presentation techniques, leadership skills, and teamwork strategies were thethree most applied skills from the programme. On the other hand, implementing sales or marketingstrategies and elaboration of Pitch Deck (corporate strategy presentation) were the least applied
to respondents’ work activities.
The lower application of hard skills might be associated with conditions and opportunities at theworkplace and not necessarily a lack of knowledge acquisition from participants. The factors
suggested as hindering the application of knowledge (Figure 2) were related to structures andopportunities at work (e.g., lack of support from their supervisor at work, lack of funds, lack ofopportunities). All these factors are needed to apply many of the technical skills, such as
implementation of marketing strategies, whereas some of the soft skills may not need muchmonetary resources but could depend more on individual confidence to transfer the knowledge.
Also, most of the participants were early-stage entrepreneurs and then it was more difficult forthem to put into practice the learning from the programme.

Figure 1. Knowledge and skills orderedby rate of application
Teamwork Strategies; Presentation and

Figure 2. Principal enabler and deterrent factors for
applying or transferring knowledge and skills
ENABLING FACTORSHINDERING FACTORS

Support received from mentors

Lack of opportunity to apply theand coaches from the course

knowledge and skills

Communication Techniques

Leadership Skills

Support received from

Lack of support received by

Design/Implementation of Needs

colleagues at work

supervisor at work

Assessments; Design ofConfidence to apply knowledge

Lack of time

Business/Revenue Models; Stakeholder

and skills

Lack of funds

Mapping and Engagements; Monitoring

Training design andKnowledge and skills not

and Evaluation Methods

methodologies

adaptable to the context

Conflict Identification and/or Resolution;

Good level of knowledge andUnderstanding Post-War Reconstruction

skills to be applied

Processes
Development of Pitch Deck
Implementation of sales or marketingstrategies

The high application rate may also be linked to the design and implementation of individual
projects developed during the fellowship. Most survey respondents reported that their projects
were either implemented or that they were continuing to work on them. For those who have not yet
implemented the project, the main challenges are lack of funding or seed capital, lack of networks
to connect with potential investors, improved knowledge to continue the project and security
situation in the country.
An additional application driver from the programme is the coaching experience. Although only asmall proportion of the fellows have the opportunity to participate as a coach in future editions, theexperience seems to generate positive reactions in securing knowledge, gaining additional skills,
and expanding their networks as they can connect with other entrepreneurs in the country.

“Being a coach give me a new perspective to the learning process, give me more resources andan opportunity to meet new entrepreneurs in Iraq”“Gaining more knowledge about entrepreneurship and have the opportunity to look at variety ofideas and projects”“I learned a lot from being coach and it added more knowledge to my experience where I used
to be trainer with other company”“Coaching always mean leaning for me as well. One of the challenges was coaching online andnot receiving enough coaching practice before starting”

Akram Qadir Rashid
Co-founder of Paragon and Collaborator at Haw Organization
Transferring leadership skills to youth

Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan, Iraq – 2018 Cycle. Akram is a medical laboratory graduate but has
dedicated his professional life to the humanitarian, leadership and entrepreneurship sector foraround eight years. He is very passionate about learning and, above all, about transferringknowledge and aptitudes to others, especially to youth. Akram is currently working as a volunteer
at the Haw Organization, co-leading a project that provides training to youth, and has continued
working on his business project developed during the fellowship programme.
At the time of the fellowship programme, Akram was working in an NGO that provides services
and builds capacities in the areas of entrepreneurship, emergency relief, microfinance, youth,
women and protection in the Kurdistan region. He decided to apply to the fellowship programme
to acquire more knowledge and information about entrepreneurship and leadership from anorganization that specializes in capacity building. Moreover, the programme offered some of the
fellows the opportunity to act as coaches for the subsequent cycles, and Akram felt motivatedabout this potential opportunity.
Akram described the fellowship programme as an impactful learning experience with many
talented co-fellows. When he completed the training in 2019, he wanted to share with other people
the knowledge obtained from the programme and, together with some friends, decided to create
Paragon, a volunteer-based organization that aims to develop youth leadership andstrengthen educational development. Since 2019 they have delivered free face-to-face andonline courses in multiple areas, including business developement and entrepreneurship,leadership and public speaking, where Akram put into practice what he learned from thefellowship programme. Since 2019, they have delivered training to approximately 148 young
people and plan to partner with larger organizations. An example of thisis the “Haw Academy” project, in partnership with Haw Organization1,
which aims to provide leadership and vocational learning courses.
Akram is very passionate about teaching. Besides his work at Paragon
and the Haw Organization, he transfers the entrepreneurship skills
acquired from the programme when he has the opportunity. He told usthat recently he supported a friend working with traditional Kurdish
food in developing her business ideas, community management andhow to approach her clients.
The fellowship programme also helped Akram to work in and improve
his confidence. He always has been very motivated but sometimes he
1 https://www.hawngo.org/index.php

had not enough confidence to do new things. He believes that being more confident has helped
him to do the job he is doing now, including continuing to work on his business proposal from thefellowship programme.
Akram’s project is creating a digital platform that connects real estate agents and thegovernmental associations in charge of real estate processes. When working with his brotherin real estate, Akram had observed that there are often misunderstandings between governmentand real estate agencies with regards to the real estate prices and hence his idea aims to increasetransparency and accuracy. To gain more experience and develop networks with professionals in
the field, Akram started working as an assistant for one of the lawyers from a real estate
governmental organization. During this time, a challenege encountered by was the lack of funding
to start implementing his project, and it took him two years of hard work to mobilize investors.
Fortunately, this year his proposal was accepted for funding by an investor.
Overall, Akram is very positive about his experience in the fellowship programme and has
transferred what he learned to other people. He hopes that in the future the programme could
incorporate a diverse pool of coaches from different regions in the country and that fellows could
have more follow-up from the programme staff for the development of their individual projects.

Areeb Mohamed
Co-founder and Managing Director of eSITE
Information Technology
Leadership and entrepreneurship skills toimprove business solutions and access to clean
water

Baghdad, Iraq – 2017 Cycle. Areeb is an entrepreneur in the area of information technology. He
is one of the three co-founders of eSITE, a private business specialised in software development
and IT services. Aiming to improve and expand his business services, Areeb was interested ingaining knowledge in leadership and entrepreneurship skills and decided to apply for the fellowship
programme. Now, Areeb feels more confident about his knowledge and performance as anentrepreneur and feels more connected with other entrepreneurs in his country.
Many of Areeb’s company clients are engaged in startup projects and led by youth. Therefore, thecompany not only provides IT services but also advises on business solutions. Areeb considers
that the goal of the enterprise is to build projects for people. Having a better preparation on issues
related to leadership and entrepreneurship improves not only the quality of the services in his
company but also the quality of the projects of their clients. The fellowship programme helped him
to improve his knowledge about project planning, project management and presentation andcommunication skills, leading to better work performance.
As an example, Areeb is currently using the business model canvas and the project planningtechniques learned during the workshops in his projects. He considers this has been helpful toorganize and simplify information by identifying the different inputs, outputs and activities ofeach project and the stakeholders who are champions in each area of concern. Besides making
his work simpler, the external audiences (e.g., investors and stakeholders) can also read the
projects faster and understand better the project's purpose and the target audience.
Moreover, Areeb has shared the skills from the fellowship programme with his colleagues atwork, always advising them to improve the quality of their presentations, making them shorter,
clearer and more convincing. The proposal writing skills from the fellowship programme have also
proved to be important for Areeb and his team. They have recently gained a grant from IOM2 to
implement their project “Yummy Food Delivery”, which was the one presented by Areebas his individual business project during the fellowship. Areeb considers that incorporating
project planning and presentation skills to this project was relevant to win the grant and hence thefellowship helped winning the grant.
Yummy Food Delivery is a mobile application that provides food and water delivery services. Areeb
identified an increase in the demand for food delivery services in Iraq, however, there were notenough suppliers and some cities did not have enough coverage, or there were many problems
with the platforms, including delays and invalid orders. Providing services through a mobile
application also aimed to simplify the process that is often done on phone by other providers. His
2 https://www.facebook.com/IOMIraq/posts/5079750165432420

project aims to fill these gaps and also includes a service to deliver clean water to the households
in the city. Delivering clean drinkable water is a need that has not yet been addressed by any
company. Obtaining safe drinking water is a challenge in Iraq, and most people need to buy bottles
of purified water. Nonetheless, the people encounter difficulties transporting the water, especiallythose who do not own a car or truck. Therefore, their project aims to have a positive impact on thecommunity.
The project is now in its final stage, but it has not been launched due to the restrictions torestaurants and other food suppliers imposed as sanitary measures to control the spread of the
COVID-19 pandemic in Iraq. Areeb believes that they will soon be able to start delivering food andwater to many Iraqi households and expand the platform to cover other related needs. He also
hopes that the fellowship programme can be continued and even expanded to more than one
edition per year or provide short side workshops to support the training for young leaders andentrepreneurs in the country.

Basma Haitham
Communications Officer at Un Ponte Per
Implementing communication skills andnetworking to address local challenges

Baghdad, Iraq – 2018 Cycle. Basma has several years of experience working in the area ofcommunications, marketing and advertisement. However, she has always been interested inentrepreneurship, specifically in social entrepreneurship, and in providing solutions to local needs
and challenges. She is currently working as a communications officer in an NGO focusing on civilsociety activism and engagement through a series of information campaigns, cultural exchange,
cooperation projects, peace building programmes and the creation of social justice networks .
Basma would like to focus her career working on projects that help Iraqi communities to resolve
their needs.
At the time of the fellowship programme, Basma was working in an adversting company and wascompleting her undergraduate degree in English Literature. She was interested in gaining more
knowledge about entrepreneurship, and the fellowship programme was a great opportunity. Basmasays that she loves how someone can make changes throughout a small business or startup andhow entrepreneurship can affect us personally andprofessionally. Although she has not had the opportunity
to work directly in entrepreneurship, she has worked in
NGOs that aim to impact communities. As acommunications officer, she recently coordinated acampaign to create awareness about water conservation,
addressing the challenges with safe water in the country,
just like Areeb.
The communication and leadership skills gained during the course have helped Basma to
perform her duties as a communications officer, especially on how she coordinates with theorganization’s partners, donors or even the beneficiaries. Part of her work is to promote theorganization’s activities on social media and other channels, contact partners, and identify
stakeholders for funding opportunities. Hence, Basma states that she applies the knowledge fromthefellowship daily when performing her work. In addition, Basma occasionally deals with project
implementation and monitoring, using the knowledge from the training and transferring thisknowledge to her colleagues. When newcomers join the NGO, Basma also took the lead in
introducing them to their new tasks, thanks to her confidence and leadership skills.
Basma was selected to be a coach for the 2020 cycle of the fellowship programme, which she
considered an invaluable experience that allowed her to directly transfer the skills gained when
she was a fellow. Basma talks very passionately about her experience as a coach and seems very
committed to her role. She believes she strengthened her leadership skills while being a coach.
Moreover, the coaches received training before the programme took place which allowed her tolearn coahing techniques.

An important element from the fellowship programme for Basma was networking. She could
expand her networks with more experienced professionals in the entrepreneurship field, including
her classmates from her cycle and the coaches and fellows she met when she was a coach. She
also met other people with similar interests in regular meetings of alumni of the fellowship
programme in Baghdad with whom she is still in contact.
In the future, Basma would like to implement her own project with a focus on empowering displaced
women in the North of Iraq through entrepreneurship in the area of handicraft where she could use
the knowledge gained from the course and her experience working in NGOs dedicated to activism
and civil society. She also hopes that as soon as the COVID-19 restrictions are removed, future
fellowship programmes will again be organised in person, as she is able to observe differences inlearners engagement from her perspective as a coach of the 2020 online fellowship edition.

Conclusion
The professional profile of the participants allowed the application of knowledge and skills from theprogramme to their workplace. When disaggregating by type of skills, soft skills were morecommon to be used at work than hard skills, although all of them have a high application rate. The
above does not mean that hard skills were less useful, as interviewees and survey respondents
mentioned how technical skills improved the quality of their work, but that they encountered morechallenges when trying to incorporate these types of skills.
Regarding the implementation of the individual business projects, the support received fromcoaches and mentors in the design phase was valued very much by the participants. Nonetheless,the fellows encounter some constraints when trying to implement their projects once the fellowshipends. The main challenges include the availability of funds or seed capital and the lack of networks
to connect with potential investors. Some fellows recommended having more follow-up from theprogramme coordinators after the training, especially for those with less experience. Still, thedevelopment of projects during the fellowship certainly contributes to the application of knowledge
and skills after the training. Some participants, such as Akram, have shown an extraordinary
degree of persistence which led him to implement his project.
An additional advantage of the fellowship programme is networking. Exchanging ideas andexperiences with other professionals in the field allows participants to expand their networks andgain more knowledge from a practical perspective. The coaching component also brings additional
opportunities to those selected for increasing their knowledge, skills and networks. In a nutshell,
the structure, content and coaching support provided during the programme is well appreciated by
the fellows.