COVID-19 Relief Program 2021

IPSD is a Palestinian Ministry of National Economy (MoNE) Project, and TechStart is a Palestinian Ministry of Telecom and Information Technology (MTIT) Project, both funded by the World Bank and implemented by DAI. 

Both projects aim to provide the Palestinian economy with working capital that can help sustain jobs, and even create new ones in the West Bank and Gaza. It also falls under the World Bank’s overarching objective to alleviate market failures related to gaps and binding constraints in the entrepreneurship ecosystem of the digital economy including human capital, financing, product markets, enabling policies, institutional support, and connectivity.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent business challenges that it has caused both locally and globally, IPSD and TechStart launch a support program to address the need to provide financial and technical assistance to affected IT services firms, startups and innovative SMEs. 

Therefore, to ensure broad outreach and impact within the tech sector and the local entrepreneurial ecosystem, both projects welcome both Palestinian IT companies (that provide: a) software development b) computer programming c) consultancy d) data processing e) hosting or related activities f) a high-tech enabled startup and (2) startups and SMEs (that: (a) possess an innovation-driven business model; (b) are technology-enabled businesses; and/or (c) have a technology-based product; (regardless of their sector) to apply for their COVID-19 Relief Program.

Grant Details:

The program will support selected firms through financial and non-financial technical assistance:

Financial Assistance: Up to USD 50,000 per firm in grants for cost-sharing of employee salaries; and 

Non- Financial Assistance: Training programs on re-tailoring your business for a COVID-19 affected world and online courses for individual employees

Eligibility Criteria:

In addition to the above, Applicants must meet the following requirements: 

Be a legally registered IT services Company; or  

Be a tech or tech-enabled startup or innovative SME that: (1) has legal registration; (2) is in the process of legal registration; or (3) is willing to commit to legally registering. (IPSD may provide technical support to eligible firms needing assistance in registration with MONE); and  

have been operational for at least six (6) months prior to the submission of the application; and 

revenues for the previous 3 years shall not exceed USD 5,000,000 annually.; and 

business activities have minimum or non-existent environmental impacts. 

For further inquiries email: info_techstart@dai.com or info_ipsd@dai.com

Application Deadline: Applications will be assessed on rolling basis with a closing date on 20/10/2021 

Information Session: COVID-19 Relief Program

Recorded Session: