Organisational Learning and Facilitation
Scenario Building and the Future of Impact Investing
Impact Europe is an investing for impact network which mobilises capital and stakeholders to accelerate positive change. Using a futures thinking approach, we engaged Impact Europe and its partners through:
- Facilitating a two-day, internal strategy development to shape the future direction of Impact Europe during its annual all-staff retreat in Brussels
- Working with the Jordan Impact Investment Board (JIIB) to develop an organisational strategy to position Jordan as a regional leader in impact
- Guiding dialogues between Impact Europe and EU representatives to develop policy recommendations around impact investing
- Facilitating knowledge sharing sessions at the Impact in the Neighbourhood conference in Tbilisi, Georgia to foster cross-geography collaboration amongst Impact Europe consortium members from Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.
Afkar Fellowship
New Silk Roads initiated the Afkar Fellowship for changemakers in North Africa. Through this fellowship, we coached fourteen fellows over two years in leadership, fundraising, communication, and filmmaking to increase their impact. The Afkar Fellows encompassed an eclectic cohort, including a visual artist and gallerist from Libya, a media entrepreneur from Egypt, a calligrapher from the Western Sahara, a technologist from Tunisia, and an activist for LGBTQI+ rights.
Philea: Evolving Practices of International Cooperation Peer Learning Journey
New Silk Roads facilitated a two-year peer learning journey on international cooperation for the Funders International Network for Development (FIND) member community.
Our role included co-developing the learning journey blueprint and facilitating interactive online deep dives alongside an in-person meeting in Brussels. The peer learning journey explored topics such as locally-led development, innovative funding instruments, and collaborations with African philanthropy, with New Silk Roads curating speakers and producing an interactive digital knowledge product.
Athar Accelerator in Upper Egypt
Athar is an accelerator in Upper Egypt. Since its beginnings as a coworking space, New Silk Roads has worked with Athar to grow into Upper Egypt’s leading startup accelerator. Our team has provided fundraising assistance and trainings to the Athar team, resulting in Athar successfully raising funds from Creativa, Orange Corners, the Drosos Foundation, and the Finnish Embassy in Cairo, among others. As Athar scaled, we offered strategic advising, policy development assistance, and introductions to national and international ecosystem players – especially as Athar specialised in supporting agriculture, energy, and climate startups. We have also directly trained Athar-supported startups on programme design and financial diversification, resulting in follow on funding and geographic expansion.
Green Growth and Jobs Accelerator Project (GGJAP)
The GGJAP is a four-year regional project focused on accelerating SMEs to grow sustainably and create decent jobs for young people. We provided technical fundraising support to the Flat6Labs accelerator to prepare the $3.5 million tender and secure their first multi-year, regional programme.
As part of the GGJAP consortium, New Silk Roads is also assisting with the accelerator design and positioning, monitoring and evaluation frameworks, and internal team upskilling. Additionally, our team is developing a specialised e-learning curriculum, which features multi-lingual digital courses on business innovation, impact measurement, and access to finance, specifically designed for SMEs in the Arab states region.
Ford Foundations: Learning Journey for “Small BUILD” programme
New Silk Roads is facilitating a multi-year, participatory learning journey for the civil society organisations in the Ford Foundation’s Small BUILD programme. This role includes designing learning processes at organisational, cohort, and ecosystem levels and facilitating these processes through tailored coaching, collective sense-making, and full group convenings (in person and online).
Within the learning journey, our team also surfaces practice-based insights through documentation, convenings, and cross-ecosystem exchange. We then translate these organisations’ reflections into accessible knowledge. The result is to strengthen participating organisations’ internal learning cultures and surface actionable recommendations for funders and systems-change practitioners.
Scaling Green Startups in Upper Egypt
Athar is an accelerator specialised in supporting green sector startups and scaleups in Upper Egypt. Through an EBRD-funded voucher programme, Athar engaged New Silk Roads to provide direct fundraising and professionalisation services directly to the Athar team. In parallel, our team also delivered tailored fundraising and programme design support for a portfolio of green startups from the Egyptian cities of Alexandria, Assuit, and Sohag.
This support resulted in direct follow on funding, such as for Salahly from Assuit, which raised additional funds from LifeMakers Foundation.
Get Into Green, Académie des Talents Méditerranéen
New Silk Roads has designed and facilitated online learning spaces for multiple INCO programmes for young changemakers across the Mediterranean regions.
Under INCO’s Get Into Green and Académie des Talents Méditerranéen initiatives, our team members provided trainings on programme design and fundraising to assist youth entrepreneurs to develop impactful local initiatives. Promising initiatives also received tailored, one-on-one coaching.
PACESETTERS: Rural and Remote Artistic Practices Driving the Climate Transition
How can cultural practices driving the climate transition be supported through decentralized infrastructures? Instead of starting from major urban centers, PACESETTERS focuses on peripheral and rural contexts as sites of artistic research and practice. Current cases include Genalguacil (a small village in southern Spain), Nowa Huta (a socialist realist district in Kraków), and Galway (on Europe’s western edge). Together with this Horizon Europe consortium and 100 Funds, New Silk Roads is developing and testing a pre-accelerator model and impact fund for artistic entrepreneurship in rural and remote areas.
Hivos Learning Events
Since 2013, we have organised a range of learning events for Hivos program teams and their partners. This included gatherings for partners in Tunis and Djerba, a post-COP27 event in Sinai, Egypt, and a learning event in the Hague in collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These events brought together a variety of Hivos partners, including climate justice organisations, business support organisations, investors, creative hubs, and universities across Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Our role encompassed event management and logistics, curation of speakers, facilitation and moderations of panels, and documenting key learning outcomes.
The Challenge Fund for a Just Transition (CFJT)
As a consortium member of the Challenge Fund for a Just Transition (CFJT), New Silk Roads supported CFJT partners through proposal development support, partnership building, and an intensive fundraising coaching programme.
We also developed a corresponding online course, tailored for green sector startups and scaleups, to increase access to non-commercial funding and blended finance. Through our support, these businesses raised €2.5 million in additional funding to pioneer localised green sector solutions in the MENA region.
Climate Futures Labs
New Silk Roads designed and facilitated five multi-day Futures Labs in Tunis, Cairo, and Sinai to foster collaboration on climate justice and localised climate adaptation across the Middle East, North Africa, and East Africa. Using a futures thinking approach, we convened entrepreneurs, civil society representatives, creatives, policymakers, and funders to co-create climate innovation pathways.
We translated the Labs’ insights into digital stories with local illustrators and data visualizers, promoted through targeted social media campaigns, and complemented the Labs with an online Futures Talks series on sustainable cities, energy futures, and place-based design.
Fondation Botnar : Learning Partner and Community of Practice
New Silk Roads is designing and managing a global community of practice for Fondation Botnar’s Fit4Future programme, connecting partners across Asia, Latin America, and Africa. This member-driven community of practice is designed to foster knowledge exchange around leveraging digital technologies to promote young people’s wellbeing, inclusion, and collective agency.
Our role includes activating the member-driven design process for the community of practice, facilitating learning activities, and organising regional and global meetups for community members.
Green Growth Summit
New Silk Roads initiated and launched the Green Growth Summit (GGS) in Tunis (2024) and Cairo (2024, 2025). A regional learning platform, the GGS transformed lessons from early movers in the green economy into actionable insights to localise and accelerate regenerative economies.
Across three editions, the GGS convened 600+ green transition frontrunners, facilitated South–South collaboration between entrepreneurs and Africa-focused climate funds, raised awareness on green sector impact investing, and created a donor task force in Tunisia focused on the green economy.
New Silk Roads also raised an additional ~100K EUR in sponsorship to expand the summits’ reach and impact.