UNIDO - “FOSTERING INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN COMPANIES AND/OR INSTITUTIONS OPERATING IN THE ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT SECTORS”

Globally, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups have the potential to be key players in technological innovation, contributing to the identification of solutions to environmental problems and at the same time to poverty reduction, in the context of green and sustainable growth led by the private sector. However, very often innovation ecosystems in developing countries are weak or non-functional, and do not provide their SMEs and start-ups with the opportunity to turn clean technology innovations into solid businesses that attract local and global investment.

"Fostering international partnerships between companies and/or institutions operating in the energy and environment sectors" project (FIPEE), funded by MiTE and implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation's Office for Technology and Investment Promotion in Italy (UNIDO ITPO Italy), aims to offer support to SMEs in the marketing and scale-up of technologies and projects in the green energy and environment sectors. The project is part of an agreement between UNIDO and the then MiTE signed in December 2018 and launched in April 2019, and identifies as targets six countries in Africa, Latin America and Central Asia with which the Ministry has developed close relations and promotes bilateral cooperation activities: Botswana, Cuba, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Kenya and Peru. At first, the project also included activities in Iran, which were not developed.

The project works through two interconnected approaches: on the one hand, it provides technical assistance to SMEs in target countries operating in the sustainable energy and environment sectors to identify and develop high-impact innovations and investment projects, through mentoring and expert coaching, facilitation of policy dialogue, knowledge exchange and relations with other international partners. On the other hand, investment, marketing and exchange opportunities for SMEs are facilitated through the creation of international partnerships and collaborations, by providing an online platform for matchmaking with potential partners and investors, organising networking opportunities and supporting the exchange and transfer of knowledge between policy-makers in the six partner countries and Italy.

To date, the project has involved more than 140 companies and over 90 stakeholders in Italy and in the target countries operating in the energy/environmental sectors, whose contacts have been included in the UNIDO ITPO Italy database.

The project - which is currently being reshaped also to take into account the impact of Covid-19 on activities - has a planned budget of € 1,625,800, of which € 812,900 has been transferred to date.