Palestine—Palestinian Market Development Programme (PMDP)

The Palestinian Market Development Programme (PMDP) worked to improve market systems and improve the competitiveness of the Palestinian private sector. We did so by improving private sector skills and innovation through technical assistance and matching grants; addressing market system failures in specific sectors through market analysis and facilitation; and strengthening trade and investment linkages with international markets in collaboration with key commercial representatives. DAI mobilized the Palestinian diaspora to explore opportunities to transfer knowledge and improve linkages on trade and investment.

PMDP was a follow-on to the Facility for New Market Development project (2008–2012) implemented by DAI, which built a portfolio of 603 client-companies in the West Bank and Gaza from sectors including manufacturing, agribusiness, stone and marble, ICT, services, tourism, pharmaceuticals, media, and handicrafts. During the project, these client-companies increased their sales by $118 million and created more than 3,400 permanent jobs.

Sample Activities

• Provide and manage matching grants to Palestinian businesses to assist them in innovating products/services.
• Analyze and identify the root causes of underperformance and market failures.
• Offer capacity support to the Palestinian Investment Promotion Agency (PIPA) to strengthen foreign and local investment.
• Create linkages to mobilize potential diaspora investment, knowledge, and technological transfer to the Palestinian private sector.

Select Results

• Supported 884 enterprises in the West Bank (431) and Gaza (453) from a pool of nearly 2,000 grant applications, injecting £7.5 million worth of grants assistance that leveraged more than £5 million in private investment.
• The programme’s 884 grantees increased revenues by £131.26 million and created nearly 3,000 net jobs.
• This assistance helped 264 firms to get back to business after the 2014 war, resume their operations, employ, and sustain a net 1,201 workers even though the general economic environment continued to deteriorate.
• Grantees introduced 838 new or enhanced products which, along with other market entry activities, helped them enter or expand into new domestic and export markets where they generated £74 million of attributed sales.
• One-third of grantees received £1.97 million in grants to export for the first time or increase exports; this investment resulted in £26.9 million in additional export sales in 52 countries.