Engaging Diaspora Communities to Support Micro-Entrepreneurship in Morocco

The proposed project aims to tackle youth unemployment and create an improved climate to support entrepreneurship in Morocco through the establishment and growth of the online crowdsourcing microfinance platform, Narwi.org, already launched in Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Yemen, and Somalia. The platform serves young micro-entrepreneurs in marginalized areas with both capital and knowledge, supplied by diaspora communities through a system of crowdsourcing that is intuitive and easy to use. Funds on Narwi are given as revolving donations, so that when the entrepreneur repays the original loan, the donation moves on to support others.

However, the legal and financial frameworks are not all aligned across the MENA region to allow the crowdfunding platform to expand, requiring an institutional feasibility assessment on the context prior to engaging the diaspora communities in supporting micro-entrepreneurship.

Activities will include a feasibility study to identify and comprehend the impediments and opportunities facing the establishment of the crowdfunding practice in the Moroccan context. A sub-study will follow with an analysis of the potential for investments within the social-entrepreneurship sector in Morocco to help identify the niches and areas that could be linked to the practice of crowdfunding. Recommendations, drawing from the analysis conducted in both studies, will allow for the production of promotional information tools (videos, booklets and guides) to explain the concept and introduce the interested public (or relevant stakeholders) to the practice of crowdfunding, making it thus accessible and easier to comprehend and engage in. The products will be shared with startups and project holders and will be presented during a forum gathering a targeted audience of local stakeholders.