The Global Entrepreneurship Program (GEP), led by Senior Advisor for Global Entrepreneurship Shelly Porges is a U.S. State Department-led effort to promote and spur entrepreneurship around the world. Announced by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in April 2010, the GEP highlights the United States’ commitment to use our entrepreneurial culture to advance entrepreneurship in emerging markets and developing countries.
The U.S. Department of State has the unique ability to play the role of convener, coordinator and connector. Utilizing this ability, the GEP marshals primarily non-governmental partners around six key areas that are essential to creating a successful entrepreneurial ecosystem. These six areas include: identifying promising entrepreneurs, training them, connecting and sustaining entrepreneurs, guiding them to capital, advocating for supportive policy and regulations, and celebrating their successes.
Dear GEP Partners and Friends,
When Secretary Clinton announced the creation of the GEP, she was clear that our mandate would initially include Muslim-majority countries but that the GEP would eventually expand its reach globally. I am proud to say that the time for global expansion is here, and it is a great honor to be leading the GEP into this new, exciting chapter.
On September 21, the GEP and USAID hosted a partner event where I unveiled some of the changes that the GEP is undergoing. In the coming months, we will continue to sustain and build on the momentum created in our initial focus countries, as well as launch programs in Turkey and the Maghreb. We are enhancing our strategy to focus on launching the GEP globally, institutionalizing best practices within our embassies, connecting our U.S. and foreign partners with posts to support their efforts, and expanding GEP’s focus on empowering women.
With the U.S. globally viewed as an entrepreneurship leader and with entrepreneurship being a critical component of the growth and development strategies in many emerging economies, the GEP, working jointly with USAID, has developed an Entrepreneurship Toolkit to enable embassies and consulates abroad to establish effective entrepreneurship programs. Officially unveiled at the partner event mentioned above, the Toolkit is based on the cumulative knowledge and experience gained since first launching the GEP and our successes thus far. It includes entrepreneurship best practices, case studies, lessons learned, key questions for program design, links to information about our partners, and additional reference materials. The toolkit is intended to be a “living” instrument in that periodic revisions will be made to ensure information is timely and accurately reflects the ever-changing entrepreneurial ecosystem in each country. We welcome feedback from our partners and posts on ways to improve the Toolkit. Please send your feedback to our address, entrepreneurship@state.gov. To download the Toolkit, please click on this link.
It was a pleasure meeting many of our partners during the partner event, and I look forward to meeting more in the months to come and to continuing our important work together! We have much work to do to spur and promote entrepreneurship as a way to create new enterprises and jobs!
All the best,
Shelly Porges
