UfM Grant Scheme for the promotion of Inclusive Digital Trade

Digital transformation presents unprecedented opportunities as an enabling tool for economic growth and social inclusion. It can help strengthen linkages between sectors in economies with high levels of informality, such as in Southern countries of the Mediterranean, and it provides smaller companies the chance to expand their markets. However, digitalization can also deepen existing gaps by generating more significant exclusion and distributive inequity. Therefore, comprehensive policies and capacity-building programs appear to be essential to improve the population’s digital skills and to increase women’s participation and inclusion in innovation activities and trade process optimization.

The UfM Grant Scheme for the promotion of inclusive digital trade aims to support and increase the participation of relevant entities, such as SMEs, cooperatives, entrepreneurs, social enterprises, and business communities in e-commerce, with a particular focus on business organizations led and operated by women in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia. It also seeks to foster the use of digital tools. The Grant Scheme intends in particular to identify and address the challenges SMEs and other business organizations face in e-commerce through training and capacity-building measures.

The Grant Scheme is not intended to replace government approaches but rather to seek local solutions, which help to overcome challenges in digital commerce.

Objectives

• As a summary, the objective of the UfM Grant Scheme on the promotion of inclusive digital trade is to:
  • Increase the participation of SMEs, cooperatives, social enterprises, entrepreneurs, and other business organizations in e-commerce to achieve greater market access and better integration in regional and global value chains
  • Strengthen their digital, technical, and commercial capacities – Increase their resilience, competitiveness, and innovative power
  • Overcome the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on their business sectors – Maintain employment during and after economic disruptions
  • Create new jobs for various workforce segments, especially women and youth and other vulnerable groups
  • Encourage the creation and development of ecosystems that give way to e-commerce, particularly for businesses in rural areas
  • Expand existing training and skills measures
  • Support new training and qualification measures at different levels of business management
  • Foster social and environmental sustainability in their operations

Priorities

• Priority 1- Development of digital, technical, and managerial capacities to facilitate greater participation in ecommerce in the Southern Mediterranean.
  • One of the purposes of this priority is to learn from the Covid-19 recovery by building resilient digital economy ecosystems. Projects under this priority should focus on supporting women-led cooperatives, entrepreneurs, start-ups to improve their use of e-commerce opportunities. The projects should enable SMEs through capacity-building programs to export and do business regionally and internationally at lower costs and without intermediaries through e-commerce.
  • Project activities may include, for example, incubation programs or training programs that build the capacity of SMEs in cross-border access to e-markets, critical business thinking, business operations, and finance, among others. This priority aims to promote and support SMEs, cooperatives, entrepreneurs, social enterprises, and startups, especially those in rural areas of the Southern Mediterranean through training measures, in order to obtain the knowledge, expertise, and digital skills that enable them to participate in e-commerce and thus gain access to new markets. These measures aim at a greater participation in regional and international trade, the generation of more employment opportunities and, therefore, greater socio-economic welfare for society.
• Priority 2- Enhancing the participation in e-commerce of women-led enterprises, particularly those operating in rural areas.
  • In the digital era, and e-commerce is key for SMEs, entrepreneurs, cooperatives, and other business communities led by women to expand to new markets. It is vital to enable these women entrepreneurs not to miss their opportunity for change and growth.
  • Projects under this priority aim to design and deliver specialized training programs that increase women-led businesses’ knowledge and digital skills to initiate or strengthen women´s participation in e-commerce. The goal is to increase regional trade between the Southern Mediterranean countries and enhance regional and international exports through e-commerce, while improving women’s employment prospects in the Southern Mediterranean.
  • Projects in the framework of this priority should support women-led SMEs and female entrepreneurs through e-commerce training or mentoring programs. The programs can include a focus on logistics services and electronic payment solutions that enable e-commerce. Examples are the support of women’s cooperatives or business communities in the creation of online platforms, the design of business plans and online marketing, as well as the development and improvement of products for online trading.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 1.200.000,00. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds. It is however possible that in the future supplementary resources, indicatively estimated at EUR 250.000,00, will be added to the current allocation. In this case, applicants whose proposals have been placed in the reserve list, if any, will be contacted, following the order of the reserve list, in view of possible funding.
• Size of grants:
  • Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
    • Minimum amount: EUR 150.000
    • Maximum amount: EUR 300.000
• Duration: The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 6 months nor exceed 15 months.

Expected Results and Impacts

• Priority 1
  • Increased access of entrepreneurs and SMEs to relevant knowledge resources to engage in ecommerce
  • Strengthened digital economy ecosystems for the private sector
  • Increased participation of SMEs and entrepreneurs in e-commerce to access more regional and international markets
  • Enhanced knowledge of digital trading tools and digital skills development of traders and leaders of cooperatives and entrepreneurial communities, in particular in rural areas of the Southern Mediterranean countries
  • Improved conditions for the development of innovative approaches to e-commerce for SMEs, entrepreneurial cooperatives, and communities to cope with changes related to disruptions at national, regional, or global level
  • Strengthened knowledge among SMEs and entrepreneurs about the advantages of the AfCFTA ecommerce protocol
  • Facilitated participation in e-commerce of sustainable, productive sectors
  • Increased professional advice on legal compliance in e-commerce
• Priority 2
  • Increased use of e-commerce to access national, regional, and international markets
  • Increased awareness of the importance of e-commerce in today’s business and work environment
  • among women-led SMEs, cooperatives, entrepreneurs, and start-ups
  • Enhanced knowledge of digital trading tools and digital skills for women-led cooperatives and
  • communities, in particular in rural areas of the Southern Mediterranean countries
  • Increased trade resilience of women-led SMEs, cooperatives, and start-ups to cope with national,
  • regional, or global disruptions through e-commerce.
  • Strengthened awareness among women-led SMEs and female entrepreneurs in North African
  • countries on the advantages of correctly implementing the AfCFTA e-commerce protocol.
  • Facilitating participation in e-commerce of sustainable, productive sectors
  • Increased professional advice on legal compliance in e-commerce.

Who can apply?

• To apply for a grant, the lead applicant must:
  • be a legal person (non-governmental organization)
  • be non-profitmaking.
  • be established in the UfM Region
  • be established in one of the following countries: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia or have at least one co-applicant established in one of the above-mentioned countries.
  • be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary.
• Government agencies, local authorities, and public sector operators are not eligible under this call. – except for state dependent or publicly funded research centres and universities.
• Enterprises cannot apply directly for funding under the Grant Scheme, nor can funds be forwarded to for-profit entities. However, the activities or measures to be implemented may provide capacity building for enterprises with social benefit purposes.

For more information, visit UfM.