The arrival of Mr. Alessandro Dessì, International Coordinator of the WATERMEDYIN project, in Lebanon on July 26th led the project towards further sustainability and success, for the ISOs and start-ups involved through the power of collaboration and partnerships.
Mr. Dessì met with key stakeholders of the project, including Dr. Mouïn Hamzé, CNRS Secretary General and Ministry of Agriculture Representative’s, Mrs. Wafa’a Dikka Senior Advisor and CIHEAM Board Member, and Mr. Hussein Nasrallah Consultant and national member of the project’s Steering Committee, to discuss the state of the art and possible goals of further joint initiatives in the future. The Project International Coordinator presented the various trainings offered to ISO managers, the value of the insights and tools brought to the start-ups trained, as well as the ongoing empowering activities for ISOs, and the upcoming ones our 5 finalist start-ups can expect to benefit from.
The Project Coordinator was also received at the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation in Beirut, representing the Donor that funds WaterMedyin. A fruitful exchange took place, with the Officers in charge and with the representative of the Italian Trade Agency. The Donor was particularly interested in the startups selected, and to explore how innovation becomes strategic to face the increasing challenges for young entrepreneurs.
Focusing more on the present situation of the country, and the difficulties affronting local start-ups and Innovation support Organizations (ISOs) on a daily basis, Mr. Dessì met with several ISO managers. They had a chance to share views on the main issues, and discuss how to adjust the project activities and other actions, in order to increase the contribution of WaterMedyin to overcome the challenges in an innovative and constructive way.
The list of valuable country ISOs met include academic-based, such as Centre Mine at the Lebanese University, The Center for Innovation Management and the Innovation Park of the American University of Beirut, the Balamand University and the Entrepreneur center at the Arab Beirut University, in addition to wider-range players like the Daher foundation, the Farah Social Foundation, Rural Entrepreneurs from El-Chouf area (where the Biosphere reserve management offered a brilliant example of how the beauty of natural resources and their conservation can be pillars of a sound socio-economic environment). Last but not least, the meetings with Beirut Digital District and Berytech offered a sharp evidence of great capacity to foster the enabling environment, and to boost the best entrepreneurial ideas.
Across the visits, the Project Management Unit (including Mr Dessì, Dr Roula Bou Khozam project National coordinator and the junior Officer Yara Ibrahim, an agriculture engineer from Akkar who already enhanced her career at CIHEAM Bari) could touch and see the potential hidden in the ideas of young startuppers, with a remarkable female component, too. Investing in this human capital is key to enlarge the impact of the development cooperation projects, by fostering the generation of income across a larger value chain, involving and benefiting producers, farmers, urban citizens and municipalities. All in all, matching the needs through innovation applied to sustainably manage local resources, seems to be fundamental to help Lebanon in this difficult time.
In doing so, we were able to better explore the need for support and set a clearer path of advancement for the projects of a few beneficiary startups in Lebanon, including Garbalizer, Smart Land, Clean2O, Sun Code, Global Steps, Sustainable Fish Farm, LCWE, and Cubex.
