Building on the success of several training programs for women in law and business, Amideast partnered with Citi Foundation to launch the Arab Women’s Entrepreneurship Project (AWEP), a six-year initiative that would provide business basics training, coaching, and mentoring to nearly 300 aspiring women entrepreneurs in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, and the UAE. In subsequent years, our commitment to empowering women economically has continued through targeted entrepreneurship and employability training across the MENA region. 

Morocco’s national phosphates company OCP Groupe, through its charitable arms OCP Foundation and Phosboucraa Foundation, selected Amideast to develop an employability skills development program in urban areas where it operates. Following the success of this initial effort, Amideast helped create and manage centers in four urban areas — Benguerir, Khouribga, Laayoune, and Dakhla — that are meeting the needs of these communities and surrounding areas. ​

Amideast was awarded the Public University Scholarships program, a high-impact component of the USAID-funded U.S.-Egypt Higher Education Initiative (HEI). By enabling nearly 700 deserving young Egyptian women and men to access excellence programs at leading Egyptian public universities, it has contributed significantly to the development of a workforce capable of enhancing Egypt's development. No less important has been the program's expansion of access to higher education for Egyptians with disabilities, breaking barriers through scholarship awards to individual students and by supporting the establishment of disability centers at 20 Egyptian universities.