News

News from the project and partners

Creating Enterprising Futures: Microenterprise amongst women refugees in the Middle East, May 17 2018, 5.30 – 8pm at the Ingenuity Centre, University of Nottingham, Jubilee Campus

Professor Susan Marlow (Nottingham), Dr Haya Al-Dajani (Plymouth) and Dr Nasser Yassin (AUB, Beirut) will draw on evidence gathered from an Economic and Social Research Council & Department for International Development funded research project, to critically evaluate the scope of micro-enterprise to change lives. Working with refugee women in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey and a range of intermediary organisations, we present evidence illustrating the potential of micro-enterprise to generate income, offer independence and empowerment to women whose lives have been devastated by conflict, violence and forced displacement.

Find out more and register

Mirco-enterprise 
Public Seminar exploring the role of micro-enterprising as an emancipating influence upon refugee women in the Middle-East
Aisha Focus Group Discussion Photo

First stakeholder focus group discussions in Amman, Ankara and Beirut were completed between January 17 and February 3, 2017. Representatives from UN agencies as well as other international and national agencies gave up their valuable time to attend and share their expert opinions and knowledge to help the research team to develop a healthier and improved research methodology and sampling strategy that will positively impact upon the project’s developments. These contributions will enable the research team to capture comprehensive and meaningful results that can benefit practitioners, policy makers and researchers engaging with refugee in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey and elsewhere. We are now preparing for the data collection with the Iraqi, Palestinian and Syrian refugee women living in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, and operating enterprises that they established at least three years ago. If you would like to direct us towards such entrepreneurs, please do get in touch.

Project investigators Professor S Marlow and Dr H Al-Dajani chaired a Professional Development Workshop at the Academy of Management conference entitled 'Entrepreneurial activity at the interface of conflict, displacement, and resettlement'. 

Joined by Professor J Mair of the Hertie School of Governance and the Stanford Centre on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and project partners Dr A Essaid of the King Hussein Foundation Information and Research Centre and Dr N.Yassin of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, the team delivered workshop offering visibility to a growing sector of humanity who are now dependent upon micro-enterprising to re-build their lives, support their families and the wider community. 

We are delighted with the feedback from Dr Signe Hedeboe Frederiksen of Aarhus University; 

''This was the best session I have attended so far at AOM with a sense of importance and meaningfulness. It opened my eyes and I left the room full of new ideas''. 

AOM Conference in Atlanta, USA,  August 2017

We are into the second year of the project and delighted that the first phase of data collection with 150 refugee women from Iraq, Palestine and Syria, residing in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey is complete. 

We have also conducted some preliminary data analysis and discussed these findings with stakeholders representing UN agencies as well as other international, national and local agencies in Ankara, Amman and Beirut in October 2017. 

Dr Haya Al-Dajani also presented these preliminary findings at a webinar entitled ‘Conquering Borders: Gender, Entrepreneurship and Prosperity’, which was organised by the Gender and Enterprise Network annual conference of the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship in November 2017. 

We are now preparing for follow-on survey that will be completed in the summer of 2018 with the 150 participating Iraqi, Palestinian and Syrian refugee. 

View a video on Conquering Borders: Gender, Entrepreneurship and Prosperity Webinar

Data collection

An AUB professor is challenging xenophobia against Syrians with facts

In a bid to counter the current negative perceptions on the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon, Dr Nasser Yassin, Director of Research at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, and professor of policy and planning at the faculty of Health Sciences (American University of Beirut), decided to launch a powerful series on Twitter.

Titled "fact of the day," the thread aims to create a more nuanced debate on the issue by challenging false perceptions with facts and evidence.

Read the article on Stepfeed.

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Rana A. Safadi is an artist of the mystical, the emotional and the spiritual. She was born in Amman; studied literature, arts and tourism in Jordan, Austria and France.

Safadi’s work has travelled a trajectory of fine art investigations. Evolving and exploring, she first used photography as a medium before turning to oil paint and soon after, mixed media with oil. Sensitivity to delicate states of experience in her mature works is expressed by Safadi’s characteristic use of bold colour, the emblem of the strong feelings she has for her subjects, the strong emotions she wants to share with her viewers.

Safadi works in a context of modern Arab artists creating in a plethora of mediums. She is a voice working along others in defining what the Arab “Modern” style is.

One of Rana A. Safadi's Paintings