CARE Palestine Workshop

Palestinians harvest strawberries in a field in Beit Lahia, Northern Gaza Strip, December 30, 2015. (Emad Nassar/Flash 90)

The first three days of this internship were dominated by a workshop covering the private sector in Palestine. The speakers presented on a variety of topics including the landscape of the private sector in Palestine, strategies for increasing private sector engagement, building corporate partnerships, sustainably scaling for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), women's entrepreneurship, market-based approaches, results-based financing, project branding and the role of gender in development bank projects.

I was asked to listen in on this workshop and take careful notes with the goal of creating of a recommendation plan for development of the private sector in Palestine under Israeli restrictions. This recommendation plan was presented to the CARE Palestine team to further tailor to the goals of the private sector development program in Palestine.

One of the most affirming aspects of this internship has been the overlap between my assignments from CARE and my master's program curriculum. I presented my recommendation plan for the CARE Palestine team in the form of a slide deck. The organization of this presentation was adapted from the framework we learned in the HKS class on Policy Delivery and Design (PDD). I included slides for stakeholders, objectives and key results, analysis and critical drivers, criteria, options, risks and resources. These are all categories we have covered extensively in our PDD class and it was very rewarding to be able to put the lessons into practice.