Entrepreneurship Camp-2025
SUPPORTING YOUTH’S ECONOMIC INITIATIVES FOR A PROSPEROUS AFGHANISTAN
The Afghanistan Economic and Legal Studies Organization (AELSO), in collaboration with Istiqlal Institute of Higher Education, and other universities and partner organizations, is organizing the Entrepreneurship Camp-2025 in Kabul for the third time. The camp will bring together the young and female entrepreneurs from across Afghanistan.
The Entrepreneurship Camp aims to promote entrepreneurial thinking, economic development, job creation, and support for creativity and innovation to ending poverty in Afghanistan. The country’s creative and innovative youth will compete together to win the golden award of entrepreneurship.
At the end of these competitions, three innovative teams will receive receive financial and technical support from the Afghanistan Economic and Legal Studies Organization (AELSO), collaborating universities, and the private sector of the country.
Conditions for participation in the Entrepreneurship Camp:
- Presence in one of the provinces of Afghanistan.
- Currently enrolled students or graduates of universities.
- Having a creative entrepreneurial concept note.
- Age between 18 and 35 years.
Entrepreneurship Team Conditions:
- Having a new and innovative entrepreneurial concept note.
- Choosing a creative name for the team and title for the entrepreneurial concept note.
- Selecting four members for the team; only males or females are accepted, mixed-gender teams are not accepted.
- All team members must reside in the same province.
- Team members should not be from the same immediate family or first-degree relatives.
- Selecting one individual as the team manager.
Entrepreneurship Concept Note Content:
- Your entrepreneurial concept note should address one of the social and economic challenges specific to your province.
- Clearly define the primary objectives of the concept note.
- Identify potential outcomes of the concept note.
- Determine the capacity for job creation and employment generation through your concept note.
- Consider a maximum of 6 months for the implementation of the entrepreneurial concept note.
Criteria for Selecting Top Teams:
Afghan youth from all 34 provinces of the country can register and compete in the entrepreneurship camp organized by the Afghanistan Economic and Legal Studies Organization (AELSO) based on the aforementioned conditions. Among all participating teams in this camp, three teams are selected as top teams through the following method:
- Your concept note will be put to a public vote via the Afghanistan Economic and Legal Studies Organization (AELSO) website.
- From the program announcement until May 31, 2025 (10 Jauzā 1404 SH), each team may campaign for their concept note on social media and ask for votes.
- Each collaborating university may nominate its teams to participate in the entrepreneurship camp.
- All teams’ concept notes will be reviewed and evaluated by the technical team and the entrepreneurship camp’s leadership board, with teams presenting via online platforms.
- The top teams will be selected based on 30% of the vote from citizens and 70% of the vote from members of the entrepreneurship camp leadership board.
- After the online evaluation of all concept notes, the camp results and the announcement of the top three concept notes will be made at a grand closing ceremony.
Financial Support through Entrepreneurship Camp:
At the conclusion of the entrepreneurship camp, the top three teams are selected based on public votes and evaluations by the program judges and are provided with financial and technical support ranging from 50,000 to 300,000 Afghanis. All competitors and teams are required to prepare and present their concept notes and programs within the specified budget range. Plans exceeding this limit will not be considered.
Therefore, ensure that your plan can realistically be implemented with this amount of money.
The camp leadership board, considering all factors and citizens’ votes, will select three concept notes as the first-, second-, and third-place winners, with the largest amount of funding provided to the first-place concept note as financial support.
Conditions for Financial Support of an Entrepreneurship Concept
- Advance to the top three stage of AELSO’s Entrepreneurship Camp.
- Provide a written guarantee to implement the concept.
- Allow the AELSO executive team to monitor the project’s implementation.
- Submit monthly progress reports on the concept’s development to AELSO by the top teams’ managers.
- If the top concept notes are not implemented within 3 months of winning, the support funds must be returned to AELSO.
- The team manager and guarantor are jointly responsible for returning the full support funds to AELSO.
- To ensure accurate reporting and proper execution, disbursement of funds to winners will be made in installments, tied to the concept’s demonstrated progress.
Registration Process for the Entrepreneurship Camp:
To register for the Entrepreneurship Camp and compete with the country’s creative and innovative youth, please complete the following steps:
- Download the camp registration form in Dari from here and in Pashto from here. After filling it out, email it to entrepreneurship@aelso.org .
- Prepare a 2–4 minute video describing your entrepreneurship concept, including your team name, objective, implementation location, how it addresses a specific community problem, its effectiveness in reducing poverty, and how it will create employment for at least 10–50 people within the next year.
- In your video presentation, be sure to cover:
- Team name and project title
- Brief introduction of team members (first name, last name, and education)
- Project location and timeline
- How you will generate jobs for 10–50 people
- Required budget for implementation
- Reasons your concept is sustainable and how it can become an ongoing source of your income
- Send your introductory video, clearly labeled with the team manager’s name and project location, via Telegram to
- To join the Entrepreneurship Camp’s Telegram channel and receive update information, click the link below:
https://t.me/EntrepreneurshipCampAELSO
The deadline for registration and submission of the entrepreneurship plan video is May 31, 2025
Download Registration Form:
Looking forward to seeing you at the Entrepreneurship Camp
