Hisham Jabi has spent decades working in some of the world’s most difficult places — Libya, Yemen, Syria, Gaza, the West Bank — helping young people find a foothold in environments that often treat them as liabilities rather than assets. Today, that mission is at the core of his work as founder and CEO of Jabi Consulting, a company providing Positive Youth Development (PYD), monitoring and evaluation, capacity building, and digital transformation in the Middle East and North Africa.
“The most powerful tool for stabilizing the Middle East is its youth,” he explains.
Youth is an Asset
Jabi’s focus on young people is grounded in both research and lived experience. He points to a fundamental shift between the 20th and 21st centuries: the transitional period between childhood and adulthood has grown longer and more complex. The influence of family, school, and community has been declining relative to social media and peer-to-peer networks. Taken together, this creates an environment that puts young people at risk for radicalization.
While policymakers too often see youth as a liability, he estimates that 60% of the roughly 500 million young people in the Middle East could be a transformational asset for the region. But they need the necessary skills, support, and belief in their own potential to do so.
His perspective is grounded in experience. He recalls a young woman from Hebron, a conservative town in the southern West Bank, who attended a leadership training he ran. She was shy, covered her head, and quietly told him her dream was to become a radio announcer. He offered a word of encouragement. Years later, visiting a youth center, a woman stood up and asked if he remembered her.
“She said, ‘I became an announcer for a local radio station. You gave me the courage. Thank you so much.’ It was so emotional,” he recounts.
The story, he says, captures the core of his work: “We just told her we believe in you. That’s all.”
From Project Mindset to System Change
The international development sector has long operated on a project-based model. Jabi sees this as an opportunity, not a failure.
“The most important shift is moving from thinking about a project as an end in itself to thinking about it as a tool to ignite local system change,” he says. “That means thinking about a 20- to 30-year transformation, not just deliverables.”
For Jabi Consulting, that philosophy shapes everything, from how programs are designed to how success is measured. And the current moment, disruptive as it is, has created real urgency around ideas that the sector has long aspired to: localization, sustainability, and community-led solutions.
A Case for Small Business
“Small businesses are not peripheral to the mission of keeping America safer, stronger, and more prosperous, they are central to it,” says Jabi. Companies like his are not only flexible but also culturally fluent and deeply embedded in the communities they serve.
That is one of the primary reasons he joined SBAIC a year ago and quickly moved into an active leadership role on the Board. As Co-Chair of the Membership Committee, he’s particularly focused on unlocking the peer knowledge that already exists within the membership, connecting members around practical skills like facilitation, team building, and business development. And, at a moment when the U.S. government is rethinking its approach to international engagement, he is eager to help SBAIC amplify its message.
“America led the world through engagement,” he says. “Now, we need to build bridges. And small businesses can help do that.”
