The “How-to” of Technology Acquisition, Innovation and Entrepreneurship initiative is a practitioners exchange and learning series for the Middle-East and North Africa (MENA) region seeking to advance policy implementation by distilling operational lessons on the “how” of public support to technology acquisition, entrepreneurship and innovation-driven growth.

It comprises a series of cross-regional Innovation Forums, Study Tours and Knowledge Notes for Bank client counterparts and experts/practitioners in the field to collaboratively work policy and program solutions for specific challenges leveraging knowledge from the latest research and working in thematic based groups. This is a multi-year partner activity between the World Bank, MENA region, the World Bank Institute (WBI), and InfoDev.

The first Forum and Study Tour took place in May, 2012 in Prague in collaboration with the World Bank Europe and Central Asia region (ECA), the World Bank Innovation Technology and Entrepreneurship Global Practice (ITEGP), CzechInvest, the Export promotion agency of the Czech Republic, the Fraunhofer Institute, and the Korean Development Institute (KDI).

This year’s Forum and Study Tour will take place in Murray Edwards College, Cambridge in collaboration with the Center for Mediterranean Integration (CMI), the Fraunhofer Institute and UNESCWA Technology Center.