Project profile — Young Leaders of la Francophonie

This initiative aims to train and support 10 000 young leaders, mainly women, to become entrepreneurs and create businesses and sustainable jobs in countries of la Francophonie, more specifically Benin, Burkina Faso, Haiti and Senegal. The initiative includes a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for potential young entrepreneurs, as well as the establishment of business start-up centres in the four targeted countries to assist with participants with the creation of their own business. Project activities include: (1) registering 10,000 participants on the massive open online course (MOOC) in 4 targeted countries; (2) training 1120 young leaders (280 per year over 4 years), of which 50% are women, to develop their business plan; (3) supporting and coaching the implementation of 240 accepted business projects; (4) supporting 8 universities or learning institutions with access and licensing for the use and implementation of the MOOC; (5) improving the capacity of 4 financial institutions in risk and financial management of SMEs; (6) training 32 trainers from partner institutions, of which 50% are women; (7) training 40 local mentors in charge of business incubators, of which 50% are women; and (8) developing 4 Business Development Centers (one per targeted countries).

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) selected entrepreneurs received a personalized professional training by thematic and sectoral experts; (2) implementation of the massive open online course (MOOC) which offers flexibility in duration, interaction with other participants and availability of content in order to create an enabling environment for developing a business plan; (3) personalized learning of entrepreneurship including financial and legal components which are essentials to a successful business plan are offered with local and Canadian mentorship.

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