GAZA RESOURCES

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Globally, there has been a growing interest in finding approaches that can support, accelerate, and sustain the development of agricultural innovation systems and promote the growth of agribusiness enterprises. Consequently, Oxfam and its partners are sponsoring this study to select one of the existing business incubators and accelerators that can build a partnership with a view of supporting the agriculture start-ups in the Gaza strip and developing the capacity plan of the recommended incubator that has the highest potential.

The mapping of incubators in the Gaza Strip shows that there are about 12 active incubators, accelerators and other related institutions. They were shortlisted for six incubators in addition to Al Azhar University (Faculty of Agriculture and Environment) which was targeted in the assessment phase. The mapping, as well as the shortlisting, were prepared according to the specific preliminary criteria with deep consultation from the Oxfam team.

Based on the assessment's results, interviews with the management team of the selected incubators, and the assessment tool that was designed, the main findings demonstrated that most incubators and accelerators in the Gaza Strip are working as traditional ICT and business incubators, and there is no mature model of agribusiness incubator in the Gaza strip.

The findings and conclusions of the analysis, which are based on the assessment of incubators' ecosystem, and the capacity to serve agribusiness, indicated that both UCASTI and BTI are the strongest

competitors, while Gaza Sky Geeks and PICTI were in the second rank because their services are limited to the ICT sector. Furthermore, there is no potential for widening their services to include agribusiness. The same applies to MAHART, which is limited to the industrial sector. With regard to Al Azhar University, there will be a high risk of establishing agribusiness incubators in an institutional environment with limited knowledge of the business incubation concept and a little practical experience in operating incubators. Additionally, regarding the agricultural experience, the partnership with Al Azhar is essential to add value to agri-incubator performance.

Taking into account the results of the detailed assessment, the selection of UCASTI, the agribusiness sector requirements and the potential threats and gaps, the consultant recommended three scenarios that were developed to manage the program agribusiness:

i. UCASTI has to develop the incubation model and manage the program in coordination with Oxfam.

ii. UCASTI has to operate the incubator with the existence of a steering committee that consists of Al Azhar University as an experienced body in agribusiness, and Gaza Sky Geeks as a body that has the ability to network and hire international experts.

iii. UCASTI has to develop the model and operate the incubator with the support of an advisory committee that includes Al Azhar University, the Ministry of Agriculture, UAWC, Ma’an, and others (if necessary).

Consequently, the consultant prepared the capacity development plan that concentrates on the first scenario with additional elements in order to be consistent with the other scenarios, considering the key driving elements including the scale of startups and providing services, business models, partnerships with other sectors and institutions, the instruments for driving change, the level of technology upgrading, and the organizational design.