UfM Grant Schemes

The UfM Grant Schemes aim at improving the employment situation, particularly those from the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries. People already more vulnerable to economic shocks and restricted mobility, such as informal workers, blue-collar workers, youth and women, are especially affected and thereby the primary target groups. The grant schemes reflect the UfM’s determination to respond to the economic crisis on regional, national, and local levels, by improving the citizens’ employment situation as well as the business environment for entrepreneurs and MSMEs.

As part of its regional response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UfM launched a Grant Scheme for Employment Promotion in 2020 aiming at improving the employment situation, particularly those from the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries.

In February 2023, the UfM launched the new Grant Scheme to Promote Employment and Entrepreneurship in the Green Economy. This Grant Scheme’s global objective is to support the green transformation of the Southern Mediterranean economies with a view of supporting employment promotion in the green economy. The call for not-for-profit organisations is especially designed to benefit vulnerable groups, which are disproportionately affected by the consequences of climate change and the related changing socio-economic landscape.

In 2024, following the experience of the previous Grant Schemes, the UfM launched the third edition of the initiative: The Grant Scheme for the promotion of inclusive digital trade, created to address challenges that SMEs, cooperatives and entrepreneurs can face within the e-commerce sector.