The Private Sector Development Programme (PSDP), which is funded by the German federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) along with the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy as PSDP’s political partner decided to target the Palestinian ICT sector through a strategic initiative that builds on the success attained so far in the sector, but also with an ambition to provide strategic direction to its future evolution into a fast growing and employment generating sector.

The Palestinian Information Technology Association of Companies (PITA) as a representative of the Palestinian companies active in the ICT sector in Palestine, joined the effort aiming to lead the development of a 3 year Strategic Plan that defines where the sector want to be, what exactly can be achieved and how.

Solutions for Development Consulting company (Solutions); a Palestinian consulting firm has led a technical team of consultants under the guidance and leadership of the partners; MNE, GIZ and PITA to assess, facilitate and develop the strategic planning process.

Specifically, Solutions applied a disciplined and proven strategic planning approach that encompassed an in-depth situational analysis including stakeholders’ analysis, external environment analysis (Macro), and internal analysis of the local sector’s capabilities (Micro). An in-depth benchmarking of the ICT sector in Palestine against three other counties was conducted. The chosen three countries were Singapore Jordan and Egypt. A SWOT analysis was developed as a result. This helped identify the opportunities that the Palestinian ICT sector can leverage, e.g. the high regional spending on ICT and high demand for localized and culture-sensitive digital content.

All the above analysis was based on the considerable amount of data obtained through a combination of qualitative and quantitative research. This included an exhaustive set of secondary data sources as well as primary data, obtained through administrating a beneficiary questionnaire (directed to PITA members and non-members), a large number of one-on-one interviews with industry experts/leaders, as well as group interviews

The strategic planning process provided several venues for a wide participation from different actors in the sector aiming at building required commitment and ownership. Several workshops were held including a strategic planning 2 days retreat in which key representatives of all stakeholders participated.

Consensus among participants was reached to focus on the following four areas; in addition to strengthening PITA’s capacity.

The three-year strategy was evolved as a strategy for the Palestinian Private ICT sector and fully adopted by PITA; the sector representative organization.

The strategy has identified the following Strategic Framework which PITA fully adopted and committed itself to pursue in the following three years:

The Vision Statement: “A nation nurturing innovation and contributing to world knowledge”.

The Mission Statement: “To lead the ICT sector towards an innovation-based economy”

The Strategic Goals are:

• PITA operates efficiently, effectively and sustainably.
• The ICT business environment has been enhanced to enable the industry.
• The ICT sector has been effectively promoted and positioned in the local, regional and international markets.
• Sufficient qualified human capital exists in Palestine to boost the ICT sector.
• The competitiveness of Palestinian ICT enterprises in the local and international has been enhanced.

The evolved Strategic Framework was the tool which helped PITA and the Consultants to develop a detailed 3 year implementation plan stating the long, medium and short term impact and results aspired by the sector and PITA (both in West Bank and Gaza), identifying areas for development intervention and resources required for implementation.