Common Purpose - Leadership News

LONDON, 23 April 2012 - Forty emerging leaders from Arab and European cities will meet in Abu Dhabi this week to explore ways of creating and promoting entrepreneurship among unemployed youth in the two regions.

The inaugural Itijah Venture, a four-day leadership development course run by international organisation, Common Purpose in partnership with the Emirates Foundation, will take place at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Company from 23 to 26 April 2012.

Emerging leaders from seven cities which are Abu Dhabi, Budapest, Istanbul, Alexandria, Benghazi, Manchester and Amman are expected to attend to confront the challenge.

Unemployment has been a perennial problem for authorities in the Arab world and is a pressing challenge in Europe with over 5.5million young people unemployed in Europe and 24million in the Arab World.

During the four day Venture, participants will be set the challenge of boosting the number of young people who create new businesses using ICT (Information Communication Technology) and social media, a compelling task, common to both European and Arab regions.

Participants will explore the context of the before working up ideas (whether big or small) to feedback to the Itijah Advisory Group, which consists of experienced leaders from the participating cities.

"The Arab world has witnessed tremendous change over the past year and Common Purpose is excited to be expanding in the region during these important times" said Julia Middleton, Chief Executive and Founder, Common Purpose. "We are launching our latest Venture to bring together emerging leaders from Europe and the Arab world to work on a common challenge - youth unemployment - by looking at ways to promote entrepreneurship amongst young people. We are proud to hold the inaugural Itijah Venture in Abu Dhabi in partnership with the Emirates Foundation and believe that the will be a significant step forward for Common Purpose in the Arab world."

International sponsors supporting the leadership initiative include Cisco, Shell, Oracle, Newman's Own Foundation, PwC and DLA Piper. The local sponsor for the first Itijah Venture is Etihad Airways.

Commenting on the initiative, Maytha Al Habsi, Chief Programs Officer at Emirates Foundation, said: "This initiative highlights the Emirates Foundation's increased focus and commitment to the youth sector. We are pleased that Abu Dhabi will be the first Arab city to host Itijah. The event aspires to enhance cross cultural awareness, build new networks between young people and enable them to share and discuss ideas and visions to change the world around them."

Itijah, meaning 'direction' in Arabic, is part of a series of Ventures run by Common Purpose that will expand, enrich and energise relations between two or more locations.

Other Ventures Common Purpose is currently developing include Dishaa (India, UK), Dao Xiang (London, Shanghai), Pambili (South Africa, UK), Yon (Turkey, UK) Dou Heung (Hong Kong, Scotland) Kompas (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania).

Our Young Million campaign, to provide leadership development opportunities to young unemployed people in the UK, was featured on the BBC News on 12 October in relation to the latest UK unemployment figures which were released that morning.

A participant on our workshop in Teesside was interviewed, and this was broadcast on BBC Breakfast - you can watch the video on the BBC website. Our campaign also features on the news at 1pm, 6pm and 10pm.

BBC Chief Economics Correspondent Hugh Pym also visited our workshop in Teesside - you can read his subsequent article on the BBC website.

There are many initiatives that exist to help young unemployed people find work, but few that offer them the develepment opportunities they would have received were they in work. We are delighted that this important issue, and our campaign to help it, has received the coverage it deserves.