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Promoting Young Agripreneurs in Tunisia
& SV Jugendbeschäftigung & PAD II
Matthias Schnier – GIZ Tunisia

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I. Context
II. Agripreneur 2.0: Ideation results

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Context
A. Youth-Entrepreneurship vs. professionalising smallholder farmers
B. Rural Youth in Tunisia (and elsewhere):
• High youth unemployment rate: 37 - 47 %,
• Agri-Sector considered (economically) unattractive, limited access to
capital and assets, ‘old’ farms,
• Lack of initiative and own ideas (inside the box), focus on ‘classic’
production and primary VC-links
• Quasi absence of HCD-support and adapted financial tools for youth
promotion (Ecosystem under construction) despite classical production
projects
C. Other development projects (UNIDO, BAD, FAO,…) not sector specific and
exclusively for university graduates
D. Present GIZ offer: FBS, BUS, CEFE via Business Loop, but mostly
smallholder or for existing (informal) SMEs
 lacking specific offer for youth, Idea-testing and new (market
opening) SME creation

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Thus
Orientation towards « NaWI » & ICT-Promotion tools:
BOS, Ideation, LEAN, BMC, Coaching (Customer-Oriented vs.
Credit-oriented), MVP, Mentoring, etc.
&
Adaptation to Tunisian-, rural- & agri-Sector
• Inspiration: Attractivity Campaign, Success stories,
Facebook!, Caravan;
• Ideation: Support in finding ideas, suggesting ideas,
teaming up with others, etc.
• Concretisation: Market orientation & testing (LEAN), BMC

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Other projects
& private
initiatives
Incubation
Framework
and rural
context
ICT
Attractivity campaign
Ideation et idea matching
Concretisation & market testing
of ideas into BM
Incubation for test and launching
23 000
reached
950
ideas
<950
Business
Models
250 ready to start

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Results of sign-up I

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Results of sign-up II
100 TND = 31 Euros

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Results of sign-up = Baseline

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Impact of Ideation on idea-type distribution
+ 12 %
+ 3 %

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+ 19 %
Impact of Ideation on sub-sector distribution
- 39 %

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VC Example I
Nabha Akramy from Kairouan:
Production of Bee hive wax - filling the gap in the value
chain - bee hive wax is mostly imported into Tunisia and its
cost is rising due to the rise of the USD exchange rate to
Dinars.

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VC Example II
Waleed Faleh from:
Fresh water fish in Kairouan. Most
fish in Tunisia is sea water fish and
in Kairouan most fish are brought
in from other cities.

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Impact of Ideation on finding and changing ideas
• Initial 21% without idea, down to 2%
• Advanced participants tend to have more « classical » ideas, but also tend to change
or abandon idea!

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Necessity vs. Opportunity
Avoir une grande

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Learning & Recommendations
Campaign: Facebook & Videos
BOS: to express informed recommendations to “what works and what
doesn’t”
Ideation: Inspiration, Analysis, Recommendations
Concretisation: Client-& Market-orientation + BMC
Work with those that are motivated and want to!
 Preselection  Idea-finding  Testing 
Competition  Incubation  Financing
Strengthening the « Ecosystem »
Public partners to manage private service providers
Private actors to offer attractive and adapted services & formats
Under construction:
Framework
Financing (Equity, Crowd, Seed-Grants)

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Lernerfahrung/ Diskussion
Financing: Are classic credit/ loan schemes the
right tool for SME-creation
Partner: Is the state the right partner to promote
entrepreneurship?
Konkretisierung: Kunden/ Marktausrichtung
What is our offer as GIZ?
- Can we offer big numbers via entrepreneurship-promotion?
- How precise and thourough are our market analaysis and on
what basis do we support ideas and express
recommendations?
- SME Promotion vs. Smallholder Professionalisation!