Context

Palestine has a well-educated youth population, whose potential is stunted by high unemployment rates, lack of local job opportunities and a difficult security situation that severely restricts movement.

The project aims to increase long-term income generation capacity for young Palestinians by accelerating coding skills, developing digital marketing and business skills, and strengthening a self-supporting community of aspiring freelance and salaried tech sector employees.

This initiative builds on Mercy Corps’ established Gaza Sky Geeks tech education and community building experience.

Digital social innovation

The project’s multi-pronged, long-term approach increases internet-enabled work opportunities by:

  1. developing technical talent among digital workers and businesses;
  2. strengthening skills for online workers;
  3. supporting promising digital entrepreneurs;
  4. offering cross-cutting support for a safe, inclusive and mutually-supportive community that promotes peer-to-peer learning.

Ensuring widespread and sustainable opportunities requires a holistic “ecosystem” approach that develops an overall enabling environment to support aspiring tech workers with skills and knowledge, a conducive culture and access to resources required for success.

Achievements

The project aims at ensuring that 400+ Palestinians will receive 3-6 months of training, mentorship and other resources to gain tech-enabled employment, with at least 50% of participants earning income six months post-engagement.

This will result in a leading cadre of globally competitive Palestinian tech workers, who can self-learn and train future Palestinian youth with the long-term result of building Palestine into a regionally competitive hub for digital products and services.

Country
Palestine
Sector
Closing the digital divide through education, training and the world of work
Digital tool
Digital skills
Duration
-
Budget
315 000 €

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