The rapid spread of the Corona Virus presents a grave concern for Gaza, as one of the most densely populated places in the world, cut off from the rest of the country and severely lacking access to an already teetering healthcare system with limited medical supplies, with largely contaminated water sources, and with malnutrition on the rise, the dire conditions which may spark an extreme humanitarian crisis with potentially disastrous consequences.

Without the private sector to propel economic growth, job creation is at an all-time low. Unemployment has disproportionately affected women and youth in Gaza, with over 70 per cent of young people and 78 per cent of women unemployed in 2018. For youth, economic hardship is directly linked to unequal access to resources necessary for entrepreneurship and limited access to decent waged work, while for young women, this is exacerbated by social expectations about what is an appropriate profession/sector for young women, outright excluding them from a number of professions.

Impact

Contribute to the enhanced socio-economic resilience and empowerment of vulnerable communities and individuals, particularly women and youth in Gaza.

Expected Results

ER 1: Profitability and sustainability of cooperative-run businesses enhanced through tailored capacity and organizational development support to women’s cooperatives.

ER 2: Female/male youth and women, including women living with disabilities, supported to enhance their employability and establish their own start-ups through market-oriented training and entrepreneurship development services.

ER 3: A safer, more protective environment is fostered for economically-active women survivors of gender-based violence or at-risk women, including female youth.

ER 4: Strategic evidence-based advocacy is conducted to challenge barriers to female and youth entrepreneurship, to promote a more inclusive enabling environment, and end the blockade of Gaza.

Main Activities

• Support three women cooperatives in the development and implementation of their business plans
• Provision of supplies and equipment as identified in the plans, as well as tailored business training and technical support
• Deliver agency building sessions (communication, leadership, problem-solving and negotiation skills) for women members
• Develop a gender-responsive business plan, organizational plan and sustainability plan for a technical training center (TTC)
• Equip the TTC and provide consulting support to the TTC to design demand-orientated technical and entrepreneurship training
• Deliver business development trainings and support on business planning for women and youth
• Provide a startup package for the selected business plans, including inputs and supplies, technical assistance, mentoring and agency-building training
• Provide an integrated package of business development (including in-kind support, business training, marketing) and protective services to women survivors or at risk of gender based violence (GBV)
• Organize awareness raising workshops on GBV prevention and protection mechanisms for women, for family members of the participant women
• Hold community meetings on project’s objective support of women at risk or, survivors of gender-based violence
• Deliver training for local CBOs involved in economic resilience interventions for women, on detection of GBV cases and referral pathways
• Establishment of Women’s Leadership Committees at community level to raise women’s concerns and lead community awareness raising actions on women’s economic rights & GBV
• Develop an advocacy frameworks strategy on enabling environment for entrepreneurship for women and youth
• Implementation of the advocacy framework, which will include round table discussions, production of awareness raising materials, etc.
• Development of policy briefs, human-interest stories and case studies on women and youth entrepreneurship
• Media and lobbying actions such as an advocacy tour for relevant project staff from Gaza to Austria or Brussels and/or journalists’ visits to project locations.

Participants

The project will directly target 1,760 persons, including women and female/male youth entrepreneurs and employees in micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and community members. The action will reach beyond 200,000 persons through media/advocacy campaigns on female and youth entrepreneurship and economic engagement – and will have an impact on the lives of an estimated 8,680 household members of target female/male youth, and women entrepreneurs.