On Thursday 11 November, the Business Development Center (BDC) and the Regional Activity Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP/RAC) held an interactive event dedicated to Jordanian sustainable investors in Amman. This event, held in the premises of BDC, the organization coordinating the Switchers Support National Partnership in Jordan, was organized within the framework of the SwitchMed programme.

It aimed at introducing SwitchMed and the results achieved so far, particularly in Jordan, to potential sustainable investors in Jordan who had been identified by BDC, and might be appealed to invest in business models at ideation and early stages. The Ministry of Environment of Jordan was also participating in this event as SwitchMed local focal point.

Through the interactive session, a network of entities supporting green entrepreneurship locally was established, thus fostering cooperation among different kinds of stakeholders including finance organizations, investment funds or civil society organizations.

Furthermore, in order to collect some valuable feedback from investors, BDC organised a roundtable to discuss few essential questions, focusing on what would be the best business profile from a sustainable investor’s perspective and the main constraints that entrepreneurs or investors might face regarding the possibilities to be funded. To the question concerning the criteria investors use to identify potential green businesses to support, they answered that they were assessing above all whether the green businesses had successful models with tangible results and its environmental impact. As for the challenges/solutions faced by the Jordanian business ecosystem, they agreed on the lack of green awareness. Finally, in order to measure the level of maturity of green businesses, they answered that they were mainly using the high-knowledge management criterion.

Here is the list of organizations that participated:
– Ministry of environment
– BDC
– SCP/RAC
– ISSF
– GIZ
– Tanmeyeh association for micro finance
– IYAF
– UNRWA
– Action Aid
– Vetas microfinance
– Rakha’a investment association
– Dollani crowd funding platform

SwitchMed progress in Jordan
During this event, SCP/RAC had the opportunity to highlight the activities developed in Jordan under the Green Entrepreneurship component of the SwitchMed programme and its progress since the beginning of Phase II (2019-2023). It was underlined that, within the framework of the implementation of the Green Entrepreneurship programme, 4 workshops dedicated to Green Business Models started in October while 4 more were about to start, covering almost all governorates of the Kingdom.

In total, 160 entrepreneurs with a large variety of green business ideas were selected to participate to this training spanning over 2 months and implemented by Business Support Organizations (BSOs) under the coordination of BDC, aiming at boosting green and sustainable local economies.