Digital transformation is creating new opportunities for businesses across the Mediterranean, but unequal access to digital skills, tools and markets risks leaving many entrepreneurs behind.
E-commerce can help SMEs, cooperatives, social enterprises and entrepreneurs reach new markets, strengthen their competitiveness and participate more fully in regional and international trade. Yet barriers linked to digital skills, access to finance, infrastructure and business support continue to limit these opportunities, particularly for women-led enterprises in the Southern Mediterranean.
Through the UfM Grant Scheme for the Promotion of Inclusive Digital Trade, the UfM supports initiatives that strengthen digital, technical and managerial capacities, facilitate access to e-commerce and help create a more inclusive digital economy, with particular attention to women entrepreneurs and vulnerable groups.
With the financial support of GIZ, on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ), and the Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID), the UfM Secretariat is supporting projects that turn digital transformation into concrete economic opportunities across the Southern Mediterranean.
Four projects have been awarded under the 2024 Grant Scheme, mobilising just over €1.06 million in grant contributions and supporting women entrepreneurs, SMEs, cooperatives, social and solidarity economy actors and business-support organisations across five Southern Mediterranean countries: Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Tunisia.
