(IMD) – Egypt
The newly launched Inclusive Markets Development (IMD) project embodies IMC and UNDP's Egypt strong conviction that the private sector is a great resource to achieve the millennium development goals. The overall goal of the project is to broker and facilitate linkages between large businesses,
potential investors and local partners, to strengthen and expand the local SME sector and facilitates the development of new products and services which address the needs of the poor and to promote a market that is inclusive of the poor as producers, employees and consumers.

What's in it for a company?

For businesses, the project engages the company with the government, civil society, and donor community and investment partners. Such partnerships mitigate investment risks by resolving obstacles and facilitating access to supplementary finance, new markets, and information.

Activities

The IMD provides technical support towards the piloting and implementation of potential viable business models through professional consultancy firms, R&D, marketing etc… on cost-sharing basis.
Within this context, three IMD project ideas are currently being developed. The project is partnering with a company that aims to tackle the retailing market at low-income areas. The company intends to expand its retailing operations to set up and implement a distribution and retailing model in the areas of Middle and Upper Egypt. The success of this project entails the creation of jobs and availing good quality products to the villagers.
Similarly in the health care sector, the project is also currently developin a business model with another large reputed company in the field. It will be focusing on women in poor regions, as they are usually neither granted fair chances for employment in rural areas nor quality health care. Hence, the
project partners with the private sector to establish sustainable product supply chains, while training women on small business skills and providing them with start-up baskets of marketable health care products on a rotational credit basis.
The project also is enhancing solid networking and linkages with local and international partners through the engagement of various donors (such as the Japanese Agency for International Development – JICA) and other relevant stakeholders (like local community groups and NGOS) in on-going and
future IMD projects by approaching and introducing them to the IMD concept. In addition to that, the Project is planning for sectoral consultations with stakeholders through a series of workshops, sharing information and maintaining regular correspondence. The project also aims at fostering global
IMD business networking activities in order to apply other countries' best practices. In light of that, the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) have recently approved the initiative of linking Egypt's IMD Project to the "Growing Inclusive Markets in Eastern Europe and
Common Wealth of Independent States" regional projects. To Egypt's IMD project, this linkage will provide technical backstopping, coordination, business outreach and connection to Turkey-based companies and ultimately, an opportunity to discuss issues/solutions and share best practices and
lessons learnt between the brokers.

Project Selection Criteria

Partner companies should fulfill all the following criteria to be eligible for IMD Project's support:
Support for the MDGs
1- Strong business model with potential for systemic impact
2- A strong commercial partner leading the project
3- Need for additional Technical Assistance (TA) and Capital identified
4- Direct link to UN / UNDP objectives, priorities and programs in the country
5- Global Compact Principles
6- Work plan in place for project monitoring