The chronic poverty and lack of employment opportunities in Area C of Palestine have been aggravated by the impact of COVID-19, weakening its precarious economy with the loss of employment of workers in Israeli companies and further isolation from the rest of the country, seriously affecting local agricultural markets.

78% of families in Area C depend on agriculture for survival and only 28% of the population has a job that guarantees their subsistence. ¼ of the households depend on assistance to guarantee their food security.

This intervention would facilitate the establishment of sustainable business initiatives in the economic, social and environmental dimensions, creating employment and wealth by strengthening local value chains, promoting responsible consumption of resources and generating social change. In order to ensure ownership and integration of these initiatives in the infrastructure of the target communities, the initiatives will be designed and led by young women and men from the target areas.

The main objective of the project is to recover sustainable livelihoods that improve the resilience of the most vulnerable population in Area C and for this purpose, the intervention will be articulated in 4 axes:

• Training:

Aimed at young women and men who have completed their studies or have equivalent professional experience, lacking the necessary mechanisms (knowledge and resources) to launch their business projects. Secondarily, universities, ministries and training centers that do not have the necessary curriculum, approach and resources to promote entrepreneurship will participate. In this sense, it is not only intended to impact the lives of the project participants, but also those of the next generations of students/entrepreneurs.

• Entrepreneurship:

Training and entrepreneurship go hand in hand in a process that seeks tangible products for the owners of initiatives, whether or not they are selected for the entrepreneurship phases. This axis includes 5 stages: pre-incubation, incubation, acceleration, access to financing and post-establishment follow-up of the business.

Priority will be given to the selection of green business initiatives due to the interrelationship between the deterioration caused by agricultural development on ecosystems and biodiversity (increasing the risk of zoonotic diseases) and those that guarantee the participation of women, who are particularly affected by the informal labor market in the context of the current crisis.

• Establishment of working networks that include ministries, universities, vocational training centers and the private sector:

The project includes 2 axes of national scope through a round of working tables with the Ministries of Agriculture and Entrepreneurship, educational centers and the private sector that will identify existing gaps in the promotion of youth entrepreneurship and design a guiding document that will help the various public and private institutions to improve their impact in this field in the short term.

• Socialization of the processes and results of the intervention:

A wide range of socialization and accountability mechanisms (webinars, documentary, awareness-raising events, etc.) will be included to facilitate networking and promote the expansion of these types of initiatives and social change in the future.