This milestone of SwitchMed Phase II (2019-2022) was made possible through the commitment of a local partner organisation in each country (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon) responsible for the implementation of this programme at the national scale.

As part of the Start-ups and Entrepreneurs area of the SwitchMed initiative, the Green Entrepreneurship programme aims at providing a full range of activities and tools to support green entrepreneurs throughout the southern Mediterranean region.

In the coming months, the local partners and the Regional Activity Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP/RAC) will set up a “Switchers Support National Partnership” in each country. In more concrete terms, those partnerships will bring together public and private Business Support Organisations (BSOs) that will provide sustainable business development services to the green entrepreneurs enrolled in the programme, including training, mentoring, incubation and technical assistance.

Through SwitchMed Phase I (2013-2018) and the local partners‘ commitment, 2201 green entrepreneurs (38% women) had been trained and supported to develop their green business models across the southern Mediterranean.

The SwitchMed initiative is funded by the European Union and implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Economy Division, the United Nations Environment Programme Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP) and its Regional Activity Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP/RAC). The initiative was launched in 2013 to speed up the shift to sustainable consumption and production patterns in the Southern Mediterranean, notably through the promotion of circular economy approaches. The programme aims at achieving productive, circular and sharing economies in the Mediterranean by changing the way goods and services are consumed and produced so that human development is decoupled from environmental degradation.

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