In recent years, our economic landscape has been significantly altered by challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, devastating earthquakes in Türkiye, and ongoing conflicts and economic downturn across the Middle East. These challenges have disproportionately affected small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly those led by refugees and women, resulting in job losses and economic instability.

For the past four years, SPARK and the Qatar Fund for Development have been collaborating with partners across Türkiye and Jordan to address these challenges, focusing on safeguarding jobs, enhancing business resilience among SMEs, and creating new pathways to employment for young people. The IGNITE Istanbul conference served as a platform for practitioners to learn from the outcomes of these initiatives, engage in discussions and further develop solutions for robust economic growth in the region. Attendees will include a diverse group of thought leaders, stakeholders, and experts from various sectors, including government, private sector, investors, entrepreneurs, and higher education institutions.

Opening the conference, Mr. Simon van Melick, CEO of SPARK, said: “Economic resilience is a lifeline. You enable young people to survive and thrive in challenging circumstances. SPARK has been doing this for 30 years. Today, I would like us to build on the achievements of this programme, as well as our mistakes. We have to build economies together, in Túrkiye and Jordan, but also in Gaza.”

Keynote speeches from the Qatar Fund for Development and Qatar Charity followed, with esteemed speakers Ms. Alaa A Abdulwahab, Development Projects Researcher at Qatar Fund for Development and Mr. Yousuf Al-Hammadi, General Manager of Qatar Charity Türkiye discussing their contributions to approaching economic resilience building. 

Mr. Yousuf Al-Hammadi, General Manager of Qatar Charity Türkiye said: “We believe entrepreneurship is not about working in trade but increasing the development chances for the community. Together in this programme, we provided jobs for 1,100 youth. I’m happy to announce that this programme is a great milestone for us, it’s my honour to work with all the partners, officials, stakeholders and beneficiaries. I would like to show my gratitude for SPARK’s technical support. It was a beautiful journey.”

The first panel on Building Business Resilience during Crisis featured speakers Mr. Hüseyin Kaptan, Gaziantep Deputy Governor, Ms. Louisa Vinton, UNDP Turkey Resident Representative, Mr. Mr. Ishrat Ullah, Expert in Humanitarian Projects at Qatar Charity and Ms. Rasha Manna, General Manager of Flat6Labs. The panel discussed the impact of crisis on businesses operating in conflict-affected and fragile regions and solutions to supporting business resilience, creating jobs for youth and stimulating economies after shocks.

Speaking about the impact of the earthquakes in Türkiye, Mr. Hüseyin Kaptan, Deputy Governor of Gaziantep said: “We are building commercial zones in Gaziantep to continue the economic activities in the city. We are prioritising the support to vulnerable communities, people with disabilities and women. Together with NGOs we provided grants worth 200 Million Liras to local SMEs.”

Ms. Louisa Vinton, UNDP Turkey Resident Representative said: “The earthquakes in Türkiye was the ultimate resilience test. While commercial life is coming back, 15 months after the earthquakes we still see the needs. Our greatest efforts focused on reviving small businesses at a community level. Even a small investment could have a multiplier effect. Jobs are as important as housing, if not more so, the idea behind early recovery and needs to be emphasised in any crisis. The advocacy needs to not lose sight of livelihoods.”

During an onstage interview, Zana Nesheiwat, Partner at Blackhawk Partners, Inc., discussed her perspective on building entrepreneurial resilience as a corporate investor. She said: “We invest in people, not products or technology. So it’s all about demonstrating entrepreneurial spirit. The number one thing when we look at an investment, is the people with resilient characters, people who can build teams and pivot during crises.” 

The second panel on Digitalisation: Opportunities for Inclusive Growth featured speakers Ms. Gülbin Çalışkantürk, Deputy Secretary General at Gaziantep Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Sami Hourani, CEO at SouqFann, Nalan Kurt, Founder of NLK Software, Esra ÜZEL YÜNCÜLER, Chairperson of EkoDoku Sustainable Living Cooperative and Rahaf Abu Mayyaleh, Founder of 4Health EDU. The panel discussed the importance of bridging the digital divide among youth, women and refugees to ensure economic access for all.

Ms. Gülbin Çalışkantürk, Deputy Secretary General at Gaziantep Chamber of Commerce said: “For real impact, organising activities and events should not be the objective. The long-term, sustainable impact needs to be the objective. Our activities in Gaziantep focus on the vulnerable groups, such as the huge number of migrants. So far we have 35,000 registered companies, 35% are owned by Syrians. As NGOs and state institutions we should support both sides of the labour market.”

Dr. Sami Hourani, CEO of SouqFann said: “The role of NGOs is crucial in enhancing entrepreneurs’ digital literacy, supporting entrepreneurs to create quality products. In order for Souq Fann to succeed, we go back to the skills, supporting people with marketing, photography of their products, packaging and shipping.”

During an onstage interview with the founders of successful food delivery startup in Türkiye, Paketman, the founders, Mr. Osama Hennawi and Mr. Ömer CEMİLOĞLU discussed how they started their company and the obstacles they went through as Syrian founders doing business in Türkiye. Mr. Osama Hennawi said: “If you are an entrepreneur even in Silicon Valley, it’s hard. If you are a refugee, in Türkiye and an entrepreneur, it’s even harder! The bootcamp support from this programme enabled us to think about how to take Paketman everywhere. Now, we have seen a gap in the market and our business model is new to the international market.”

The third panel on Fostering Entrepreneurial Skills for Resilience featured Mr. Kazım Yıldırım, Chief Executive at Gaziantep Teknopark, Bilal Reslan, Director at TTi, Mr. Mustafa Saghezli, Director at BINA Business Incubator, Mr. Yavuz Selim Silay, Managing Partner at FONKOLAY and Mr. Ramzi Marji, Founder of Andrew’s ColdBrew Coffee. The panel of startup incubators that are nurturing entrepreneurial talent throughout Türkiye and Jordan discussed the skills entrepreneurs need to be resilient to economic shocks, as well as some of the regulatory challenges particularly refugee business owners experience.

Mr. Mustafa Saghezli, Director at BINA Business Incubator said: “We can as incubators provide entrepreneurs with the knowledge, coaching and mentoring. We can even connect them to investors. These challenges are easy to overcome. But in Türkiye, the issue of residency for Syrians in Türkiye impacts their ability to travel and expand their businesses. So much so, that successful startups are even being recruited to different countries, like Canada and the UK. In Türkiye, we should see entrepreneurs as an added value for the country.”

Mr. Bilal Reslan, Director at TTi said: “Refugees need a resilient environment, to become resilient in business. We are building the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Jordan more resilient and inclusive at three stages: at the micro-level for refugees, women and youth living in rural areas, capacitate entrepreneurship support organisations, and thirdly on the macro layer, we try to advocate and create data for decision makers.” 

The event was closed by Mrs. Fatma Mehtap Özdemir, Programme Manager at Qatar Charity, Mr. Mert Cantürk, Regional Programme Manager at SPARK and Mr. Simon van Melick, CEO of SPARK. The conference marked the closure of a four year economic resilience building programme in Türkiye and Jordan, financed by Qatar Fund for Development. The programme brought together university partners in Türkiye and Jordan, equipping more than 2,000 students with Entrepreneurial skills and trained 43 professors in entrepreneurial principles. Working closely with incubators, Chambers of Commerce, universities and development partners, more than 580 micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) have received vital mentorship, training and access to new markets to help them grow and build resilience. This led to the safeguarding of over 1500 jobs during the pandemic. Also, more than 230 MSMEs received financial grants to safeguard and grow their business. Over 1500 new startups have been created with 45 receiving access to seed funding to launch their businesses. By focusing on underserved youth, especially women and refugees, the programme has supported over 700 women-led enterprises and over 1,080 refugees have found employment within impactful jobs. In total, the programme has reached more than 10,000 individuals and by working with local and national partners, SPARK has enhanced their strengths and capacities to continue to deliver economic resilience support, long into the future.