Awareness is considered central in bridging the gap between MSMEs’ needs on one hand, and innovation and technology on the other hand. The specific objectives of our awareness efforts are to guide the project activities and stimulate its implementation during the course of the action, as well as to present success stories to the industrial sector in Egypt to enhance MSME competitiveness and growth solutions. The outcomes of our awareness effort are expected to include a Literature Review and Stakeholder Survey, an Awareness Campaign, and an Online Campaign.
Activities and milestones
Project’s activities and milestones
RIndustry’s intervention is designed to draw the attention of industrial beneficiaries and stakeholders to the positive impact of the proposed affordable resources on their economics and competitiveness and hence bring them to embrace a new culture of resource utilization. We propose to do this through:
Our Training initiatives target the capacity building of human resources in MSMEs and industrial sectors toward resources and energy management and efficiency to achieve the following objectives:
Supplying Egyptian industries with professionals capable of creating a wave of upgrades in the industrial norms and standards in Egypt.
Building capacities for Egyptian youth in much-needed fields of resource and energy management.
Building strong relations with prospect beneficiaries of the action, particularly in line with our Consultation and Implementation efforts.
Building capacity for young entrepreneur to initiate start-ups in the targeted fields.
The proposed training targets staff at resource-intensive MSMEs, start-ups and entrepreneurs, as well as fresh graduates from relevant backgrounds. A total of 500 trainees are targeted throughout 10 training workshops offered to cover Business & Entrepreneurship, Technology Training covering and Resources & Energy Management.
Our Consultation is designed to build on the outcomes of our awareness campaign, where the need of MSMEs in Egypt (focusing in agro-food and resource-intensive sectors) has been determined. Our specific objective here is to provide consultation to MSMEs in Egypt especially those in agro-food and resource-intensive industries to fill in the existing gap relative to innovation as well as resource and energy efficiency. Unfortunately, most MSMEs in Egypt apply outdated technologies perceived by experience, where innovation can play an important role in achieving better efficiencies and therefore economics. We aim to prepare these MSMEs for global competition.
The Implementation phase will focus on the application of resource solutions for improved processes productivity to a number of pilot projects in high resource utilization industries as well as agro-food MSMEs.
First, in many resource-intensive metallurgical industries such as small foundries, there are many risks that cannot be avoided and handled by conventional procedures. A hazard condition will result during melting steel alloys at 1500- 16500C in case of sudden electric power failure. In this case two problems will result; the first is concerned with the safety of labor while the second problem is an economic one. To resolve such problems, alternative backup power generation system is needed. Accordingly, a small Off-grid PV unit (20-30 KW) is important to be installed as an emergency power unit. Under normal conditions this unit can provide power for crushing, and molds preparation.
Second, in MSMEs working in the agro-food sector, there is an urgent need to apply renewable energy solutions and maximize the use of resources. RIndustry will develop an integration mechanism on TRIPLE M farm that combines agriculture, intensive aquaculture and animal production to rely on renewable energy resources and minimum water resources losses. This allows for the highest economic advantage of the water resources used in the cultivation of new acres and increasing the production of the already cultivated lands. We believe that such an integration mechanism is suitable for all levels of investment starting from the five acres that are distributed to young graduates to national megaprojects.
Third, ISIS produces organic foods for both local and global markets. The company has its own farm for agricultural and animal production. Unfortunately, the company suffers from some salinity of the irrigation water. Consequently, it is important to use the desalination technology to improve the properties of irrigation water. A small Reverse Osmosis desalination unit of 10-12 cubic meters per day capacity will be provided to ISIS for eliminating the salinity of irrigation water.
RIndustry accreditation will be achieved by completing and supporting the quality control role of the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) by adding a testing facility for PV solar inverters according to the IEC 62109 and IEC 61683 specifications. These tests include Inverter DC, AC, 3-Phase AC performance tests and advanced features performance tests. It is expected that the testing facility will conduct the testing of the grid connected PV solar inverter that will be used in the implementation phase as an outcome of BUE research projects. This phase of the project will be concluded by accrediting the testing facility by the Egyptian Accreditation Council (EGAC).
Through rigorous monitoring we aim to ensure a proper utilization of the action resources, measure the financial and environmental benefits and suggest corrective actions, if needed. RIndustry will also monitor the socio-economic impact on such enterprises that are necessary for action sustainability after which we will identify and quantify success stories to be further presented through our awareness campaign. As such, a comprehensive monitoring and verification process would be conducted for the pilots in the participated MSMEs. It is necessary to identify and document the baselines and the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the identified measures at the selected MSMEs in the onset to properly monitor the proposed savings of the implemented measures. Monitoring consists of three activities, namely periodical visits, progress reports, feedback and corrective actions.
The largest educated group among the unemployed is university graduates, almost 34% of Egypt’s 2.3 million graduates. On the other hand, self-employment, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), declined from 43.3% in 2004 to 30.6% in 2018 due to several reasons including:
Lack of entrepreneurial skills especially among youth.
Unstable economy and investment laws which deterred many angel investors from funding start-ups.
Limited number of incubation programs that offer professional incubation services/facilities to young entrepreneurs.
Lack of information and post-incubation support for successful startups.
Ineffective coordination among governmental and public organizations that support entrepreneurship and promote innovation in Egypt.
To tackle some of these problems, RInudstry will build the capacities of promising entrepreneurs who have the ability and enthusiasm to start, manage and grow their businesses in energy or resource management. To achieve this goal, the following activities will be conducted:
Ideation camp.
Entrepreneurship Bootcamp (Pre-incubation).
Support the establishment of new renewable energy businesses (Incubation).
Support the growth of successful startups after graduation (Post-Incubation).
RIndustry’s Management objectives are to ensure the coherence and the professional management of the all project activities, identify and mitigate risks, as well as to guarantee an efficient utilization of financial and human resources. In addition, our team will assure the quality of the project various output and activities (awareness, training, consultation, implementation, accreditation, start-ups, etc.). BUE functions as the project coordinator which ensures the transfer of information from the Contracting Authority to all beneficiaries and vice-versa, with respect of the timetable of the project relatively to the succession of the tasks and of the reports.