PM of Tunisia discusses social business with Professor Yunus at Davos
Prime Minister of Tunisia Habib Essid shakes hands with Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus during a meeting in Davos where the Prime Minister sought Professor Yunus's advice on how to tackle youth unemployment in Tunisi. Photo: Yunus Centre
H.E. Habib Essid, Prime Minister of Tunisia invited Professor Yunus for a bilateral meeting to discuss ways to tackle youth unemployment in his country, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Mr Habib Essid is the first democratically elected prime minister as an outcome of Arab Spring, since the start of 2015. He wanted Professor Yunus's guidance on how to replicate the programs in Tunisia he created in Bangladesh in Tunisia. Professor Yunus shared the experience of some social businesses in Bangladesh and around the world and especially briefed Mr Essid on the Nobin Udyokta program being implemented in Bangladesh, which is a fast growing program turning youth unemployment into entrepreneurship.
He also briefed the Prime Minister on Yunus Social Business, the global implementation organization for social business based in Germany, which has set up an office in Tunisia three years back. It has set up a social business fund in Tunisia. It has already invested in several social businesses. Mr Essid would like to support the existing initiatives of Professor Yunus and also invited him to come to his country to advise on programs that the country could implement.
Professor Yunus is in Davos to attend the board meeting of the Schwab Foundation of which he is a member, and to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF).
During his stay he addressed the WEF Debate on "Clash of Modernities" on Wednesday and another Davos Session on "Regions in Transformation: South Asia" where he was a panelist alongside Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, ADB President and President of ICICI Bank of India on Thursday. He was also invited by the Schwab Foundation to addressa meeting of leading social entrepreneurs at Davos on the best strategies to replicate and scale up their successful initiatives.
