SI welcomes 32 climate-focused entrepreneurs for Sweden Week 2025

She Entrepreneurs is a hybrid leadership programme run by the Swedish Institute, designed to support women entrepreneurs who are driving sustainable change in sectors such as clean energy, water, food production, manufacturing, infrastructure, and transportation. This year, the programme welcomed 32 participants from Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia.  

During Sweden Week, the participants explored leadership strategies, business development, and impact scaling. The week featured workshops, mentoring sessions, and peer-to-peer learning, all aimed at strengthening the entrepreneurs’ capacity to grow their businesses and deepen their impact. 

A highlight of the week was the opportunity to engage with Sweden’s innovation ecosystem through curated learning journeys and a large networking event hosted by Elements – a collaborative innovation space focused on sustainable impact at scale. These interactions provided valuable insights into Sweden’s approach to sustainable entrepreneurship and opened doors for future collaboration.

Ilham Baqqal from Morocco is the Founder and Director of Beeka Athletic Project – a start-up producing eco-friendly sportswear and equipment while reducing carbon footprints through local production. Ilham shares the impact the programme has had on the development of her business and herself as a leader:

– I am fascinated by the whole programme. It is about the personal and professional development of the entrepreneur, and I learned a lot from every session. We got insights from the programme, the facilitators, coaches, and mentors. We have discussed our challenges, obstacles, and opportunities a lot. But we have also taken advantage of our stay here in Stockholm to make good connections. Now, my business strategy is more clear, my vision is more clear – and I found a partner who will help solve 50% of my problems.

The power of community and connection was also a recurring theme throughout the week. Souha Bejaoui from Tunisia is the founder of Proverdy –  an AI-powered platform that helps organisations measure, reduce, and report their carbon footprint by turning complex data into clear, actionable visual insights for sustainable decision-making. She shared her insights from the week, emphasising the importance of sharing practices across countries and having the opportunity to learn from Swedish approaches: 

– I have been to many study visits of companies in my country, but the visits here were really something. It was honest and raw, and I left with so much inspiration. It was very practical and hands-on about how you can scale up your business and which mindset to use when approaching investors and growing. The opportunity to network, get to introduce yourself, and listen to others was also very impactful. I am very grateful that I could participate.