Features

Women's Enterprise for Sustainability: Supporting Innovators and Leaders

A look into the WES program through personal stories of women entrepreneurs and WES partners.

Boudour Khthiri’s Mobile Restaurant

“This project changed my life and made me a different person. I now feel like a fighter who wakes up every day to change my life for the better. I am more confident and stronger and I am sure that I can make it!”

Turkia Saiidi launched her Margoum weaving business in 1999, during Ben Ali’s autocratic rule over Tunisia. Despite Ali’s policies to foster economic development, small and rural businesses suffered while the rest of the country prospered. This is the climate in which Turkia started her business.

Borj Louzir is one of the poorer neighborhoods in Tunisia’s capital city, Tunis. For four years, Fathia Jouabria managed a micro-credit program in Borj Louzir run by the Tunisian Association for Management and Social Stability (TAMSS). She successfully helped low-income women secure micro-loans to start small businesses and support their families.

November 13, 2012

The Institute of International Education (IIE) Center for Women’s Leadership Initiatives is partnering with eight women-led organizations in Tunisia to deliver leadership, social media, e-commerce and entrepreneurship training to emerging and established women entrepreneurs throughout the country. The new program, Women’s Enterprise for Sustainability (WES), is funded by the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) of the U.S. Department of State.

Tunisian Women Seek Economic Empowerment

Tunisia Live - The dip that Tunisia’s economy took after the revolution has hit the average person hard. If you’re a woman, though, the odds are particularly stacked against you in the current labor market.

October 2, 2012

Middle East Constitutional Forum - In a podcast interview with The Middle East Consitutional Forum, Ms. Chema Gargouri discusses the changes in civil society after the fall of Ben Ali; the challenges and successes.