PALESTINE: National Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency
Simon White, Managing Director of Southern African IDEAS, has been commissioned to prepare a detailed project document for the establishment of a national Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Development Agency in the West Bank of Palestine.
The MSME Development Agency will be established as a public-private partnership to facilitate and promote economic development, job creation and poverty reduction through the development of MSMEs in the Palestinian territory. It will work with all public and private sector actors engaged in economic and business development to enhance the impact and sustainability of their interventions and will be a national flagship for MSME development efforts. The Agency will build strategic alliances between public, private and civil society actors, and provide information and opportunity for these actors to become more responsive, effective and accountable. It will respond to the demands of the MSME sector with innovative programmes, services and methods that foster competitiveness and productivity.
The MSME Development Agency will pursue the following objectives:
- To foster the creation of a business environment that is conducive to the development of a vibrant Palestinian economy in which MSMEs participate and contribute to growth;
- To coordinate and enhance policy and programme formulation across the ministries and agencies of the Palestinian Authority;
- To enhance the effectiveness, sustainability and impact of government and non-government programmes and services directed toward MSME development;
- To monitor changes in the Palestinian MSME sector and evaluate the impact of enterprise development programmes and services;
- To promote entrepreneurial attitudes and skills among Palestinian women and men in order to boost the competitiveness and productivity of new business start-ups and the expansion of MSMEs; and
- To improve the knowledge of the Palestinian MSMEs and the sectors they operate in, and identify the lessons that can be learned from MSME development in Palestine.
