Khaled Hijab discusses what makes economic empowerment and entrepreneurship programs for marginalized communities successful.
Khaled E. Hijab is the executive director of Tech Tribes. Through his expertise in social innovation and information and communications technologies for development (ICT4D), Khaled connects youth-focused NGOs across the region with technology tools useful for advancing their work, increasing civic participation and cause-based advocacy. He is the founder of Tech Tribes, a regional organization that helps youth, cause-groups and CSOs better achieve their missions by utilizing new media and mobile technology. The projects supported and brought together by Tech Tribes are not only about technology; they are about approaching common challenges to civic participation and democratization in the Arab World in a more participatory, more effective, and more powerful way. Khaled is a member of UN Women’s Civil Society Advisory Group, sharing his regional expertise in youth empowerment and gender equality. His role as an international social innovation and ICT4D speaker and trainer brought him closer to a number of social change groups in the MENA Region. He pursues his online activism as a blogger and an online-communities analyzer, working with online users on issues like digital security and internet freedoms. He works with marginalized groups (like victims of honor crimes and harassment) in Jordan and around the region on cause-based communication strategies and helps them utilize online technologies to advance their work. His expertise supported the development of various social change programs and global initiatives by the World Bank, the World Economic Forum (WEF), UNICEF, UN Women, UNDP, Action Aid Denmark, Save the Children, MBC Group (MBC al Amal), Equitas, the Munathara Initiative and many others.
