Mediterranean Innovators for Solidarity to promote social and solidarity economy
On 15 January 2021, has begun the regional common action "Mediterranean Innovators for Solidarity", launched by the EU-Programme Med Dialogue for Rights and Equality.
"Mediterranean Innovators for Solidarity" is an advocacy and awareness-raising initiative including 29 actions taking place in 10 Arab countries of the Mediterranean region and aiming at promoting the concept and the practice of Social and Solidarity Economy. Launched in the framework of Med Dialogue Leaders, a capacity-building scheme for young leading activists, the common action was discussed together by the involved young leaders on the occasion of an online bootcamp organized from 14 - 18 October 2020.
The Common action's activities will mainly take place in the last two weeks of January 2021, while some of them will continue also beyond that period. They include a range of different types of activity, both online and offline: from entrepreneurship initiatives to training sessions, from local advocacy events to public sensitization conferences, from thematic documentary films to social economy incubators.
Med Dialogue for Rights and Equality is an EU-funded Technical Assistance Programme with the overall objective to strengthen the role of CSOs active at the regional scale, in building sustainable development, regional cohesion and resilience, as well as in influencing policy-making in the Southern Neighbourhood and the Euro-Mediterranean Space. ‘Mobilising local communities on regional issues of common concerns to influence the agenda of public decision-makers and regional institutions, and involve CSOs in emerging regional agendas and thematic dialogues’ is its core attribute.
In this regard, Ibtikar Palestine has implemented an intensive training program for Palestinian women entrepreneurs in Bethlehem district with an aim to encourage Palestinian entrepreneurs to use storytelling to create connections with their community, their peers and the greater Palestinian diaspora. We do this simply through storytelling. With the power of storytelling, we can transcend boundaries and create a community with our entrepreneurs and innovators and to support local entrepreneurship and create a vibrant ecosystem. Afterward, Ibtikar works to promote these trained entrepreneurs through publishing their stories.