Entrepreneurship for peace: The role of start-ups and female leadership in economic transformation

A podcast by SaferGlobe.

In a unique discussion on practical experiences from supporting entrepreneurship in North Korea, Lebanon and Somalia, Maria Mekri, Executive Director of SaferGlobe and Jukka-Pekka Heikkilä, a Scholar-Activist in Entrepreneurship Education in Extreme Environments, explore opportunities and challenges for entrepreneurship for peace with their guests Nour Atrissi and Yusuf M. Mubarak.

Four themes emerge from the discussion as practical lessons for programs focusing on promoting entrepreneurship in fragile contexts: the necessity for co-creation and local ownership in creating entrepreneurship; the central role of trust and trust-building; the need to overcome structural obstacles for change, specifically in financing and banking, and finally the central role of female entrepreneurs and inclusion for sustainability.

• Featuring:
  • Maria Mekri, SaferGlobe. Maria Mekri is the Executive Director of SaferGlobe, Finland’s leading think tank on peace and security. She  aims to foster and mentor success, strives for excellence, and drives projects forward with 20 years of academic experience in international relations, 10+ years years teaching (e.g. international relations, peacebuilding) and 7 years in management. Maria is motivated by uncovering and supporting processes by which building peace can be more effective. She personally focuses on business in fragile contexts, digitalization, peace technologies and innovation.  More from: www.saferglobe.fi
  • Jukka-Pekka Heikkilä, Aalto University. Dr. Jukka-Pekka Heikkilä is a scholar-activist based in Finland, Aalto University School of Business, a visiting scholar in Stanford University, Harvard University and a Newton Fellow of the Royal Society. His work focuses on science diplomacy, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education in extreme settings. He has been teaching entrepreneurship in North Korea between 2012 - 2017 and is the co-founder of WTSUP! Beirut that focuses on supporting equality and equal opportunities for women entrepreneurs in Lebanon. More from: https://jukkapekka.com/ 
  • Nour Atrissi, TeensWhoCode. Nour is founder of TeensWhoCode, a Lebanon based education startup whose mission is to equip the next generation (12 - 18 y.o) with the necessary skills in order to thrive in a tech driven world. She is the director of Startup Grind in Beirut, a global community inspiring, educating and connecting two million entrepreneurs across 130 countries. Nour holds a Bachelor’s of Science from the American University of Beirut and a Master’s of Science from the Lebanese University & the University of Nantes (France). She’s also a proud Draper University Hero (Silicon Valley).
  • Yusuf M. Mubarak, Finland-Somalia Association. Yusuf is a specialist in mobile networks with over 20 years experience working for Nokia. Yusuf is also a business and Somali culture expert, who shares Somali cultural experiences through the Finland-Somalia Association as well as promotes Finland and Somalia business relations together with Finnpartnership, and VTT, MFA and other Finnish institutions. For the last five years, Yusuf has been working on encouraging entrepreneurship in Somalia and business engagement with Somalia, and has been able to foster business ties.

Contributions to the Geneva Peace Week 2020 Digital Series do not necessarily represent the views of the Geneva Peacebuilding Platform, its partners, or the partners of Geneva Peace Week.