“The empowerment of young people and women lies at the heart of our organization,” declares Fatouma Harber — human rights activist, teacher, blogger and CEO of SankoréLabs. SankoréLabs is an incubator that also provides training and co-working spaces to young entrepreneurs in Timbuktu in northern Mali. Named for the city’s world-renowned historical university and 14^th century mosque, SankoréLabs provides aspiring entrepreneurs with support and a space to work. Along with meeting incubees’ IT, internet and networking needs, the incubator is also a vehicle to promote better local governance and enhance citizen engagement in a region that desperately needs both.

Founded in January 2016, INCUBONS provides access to co-working spaces and free services to social enterprises and start-ups including intensive technical assistance, mentoring and 24/7 coaching. The incubator has an extensive outreach program, including events, debates and concerts, as well as networking opportunities to connect their incubees (10 companies a year) to each other and to potential partners and investors. INCUBONS also provides pre-incubation counters where people can present their ideas and projects are diagnosed free-of-charge and then referred to affordable training courses.