Facilitating the national forum for an innovative and sustainable agricultural sector in Palestine

On Wednesday March 15, a group of stakeholders of the agricultural sector in Palestine agreed on concrete steps to create a forum with the purpose to foster innovation and sustainability in the agricultural sector of Palestine through linking and learning. It is an initiative from all key stakeholders of the sector, such as universities, private sector, government, NGO’s, and donors. It is an open forum. MSM facilitates this process as part of the Netherlands-funded PAAC project (Palestinian Agribusiness & Academic Cooperation).

The forum is established by stakeholders from the belief that addressing the opportunities and challenges of the sector is best done through joint efforts, rather than by segregated or single-stakeholder initiatives. The perspectives of all stakeholders come together in this forum, which will be guided by the concept of “creating collective impact”. As a start-up, the forum is an entity that enables stakeholders to meet – online or offline – and share ambitions and align efforts. It is a ‘marketplace’ where circumstances are created for stakeholders to learn from each other and to develop and experiment with new initiatives.

The forum aspires to be lean and flexible in its set-up, and maximize its ability to stimulate innovation and sustainability. It intends to keep structure, bureaucracy, hierarchy and administration to a minimum. In the next few months, pilot projects will be implemented around the priority areas as identified by the stakeholder collectively: Market oriented training and education, Agro-ecology, Technology pre and post-harvest, Agricultural Research, Promotion and marketing, Natural resource management, Polices and legal framework, and Certifications and quality standards.

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