UNESCO Office in Cairo organized a regional forum on “Angel Investing: The Missing Link towards an innovation economy in the Arab region”, that took place from October 30 till November 1, in Cairo, Egypt.

The forum gathered women angel investors and businesswomen from the Arab region together with international trainers from around the globe in order to group educate and share together evidence-based information acknowledging the benefits of angel investing on the entrepreneurial ecosystem and national and regional innovation economies.

The three-day forum led the participants to accepting and adopting the UNESCO Initiative to establish the Arab Women Academy for Business Angels (AWABA) in the region. This non-governmental non-profit organization is envisioned to be necessarily affiliated with the many international Angel Investing groups and funds through future well-designed partnerships

As a prospective future active member of AWABA, UNESCO invited Dr. Nicolas Rouhana, Chairman and CEO of IM, to participate in this regional forum to share his expertise and experience in addressing the opportunities and challenges facing the journey to an innovation economy in the Arab region.

Dr. Rouhana delivered two sessions: “Providing Support to Women–led Startups: Opportunities and Challenges”, and “Eliminating the Traditional Gender Barriers for Women-Led Initiatives”, sharing the European Business Angels Network (EBAN) initiatives related to Gender-Lens Investing, and the “Making-of” Seeders & LWAF Business Angel groups in Lebanon.