Palestinian initiative for start-ups makes waves at Paris Peace Forum

As rounds of applause periodically erupted at the Paris Peace Forum yesterday, pitchmen for 121 selected projects set out their ideas ahead of a vote that will select the 10 most promising.

In the heart of the forum’s pavilion – an area known as the “Space for Solutions” – 34-year-old Ismail Abu Arafeh completed his 25-minute presentation on a project that aims to alleviate poverty in his native Jenin, a town perched in the hills of the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Idea, an incubator founded in 2015, was born from a partnership between two local organisations, Mr Abu Arafeh’s Palestinian Consultative Staff for Developing NGOs and the Local and Economic Development Council.

“We want to prove that Palestinians are able to change their situation by themselves and resist the occupation,” he said in his pitch.

Since its launch, the incubator helped 45 local start-up businesses provide a lifeline for marginalised communities.

“In our semi-country, which has been under occupation for 70 years now, it is very difficult to build something meaningful,” Mr Abu Arafeh said.

“We really are trying from the bottom up to give opportunities to people.” The initiative has been instrumental in kick-starting the first pineapple farm in Jenin, an Arabesque wood design studio and a laboratory for carving quarry stones.

These businesses in turn generate employment and contribute to giving back to Idea and financing similar projects, which the incubator assists for an initial period of six months through feasibility assessments and training.

Mr Abu Arafeh said participating in the Paris Peace Forum had been an opportunity to network and be inspired, but being on the winners’ roster would give Idea the necessary boost to expand beyond the perimeter of Jenin.

“Our objective is to work across all 16 governorates in Palestine,” he said.

After a call for applications that collected 900 entries from 116 countries, the Paris Peace Forum Selection Committee selected 121 projects to be displayed from November 11 to 13 as part of the forum’s first edition. The forum offered them the opportunity to approach nearly 20,000 stakeholders from the worlds of politics, economics and academics at the forum, and put forward their global governance solutions.

In 76 countries, 100 citizens representative of their population in age, gender socio-professional categories attended a day-long event on June 6, 2015, that sought to gauge their opinions on climate change.

This was the project’s first attempt to gauge the feelings of a representative portion of the population and produce data that could then be fed to governments and stakeholders.

A number of high-tech projects also offered innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.

Nimray-Solar relies on the idea that blockchain technology can offer renewable energy to power the world while Embark is service connecting talented refugees with business leaders.

Meanwhile 3D Printed and Satellites, an initiative by the Peruvian organisation Ankawa Internacional, aims to provide 3D printed satellites to marginalised communities to monitor water, air and ground pollution, record aerial images or improve internet connectivity through the satellite technology.

Idea has kick-started the first pineapple farm in Jenin, an Arabesque wood design studio and a lab for carving quarry stones