A mere 11 years after the end of the Shoah and
9 years after the birth of modern Israel, the country created a program that would become a beacon,
a true ‘Light unto the Nations’, for developing countries.

“Supporting those who face great development challenges goes to the heart of what it means to be a Jewish State.”

“Israel's official international development cooperation program was launched in late 1957 with the aim of sharing with the rest of the developing world the know-how and technologies which provided the basis for Israel's own rapid development. MASHAV, the Hebrew acronym for Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation, was established as a division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. What started as a modest program focused on grassroots-level human capacity building at a time when Israel itself was still very much a developing country, has blossomed into an extensive program of cooperation throughout the developing world with the aim of ensuring social, economic and environmental sustainable development.

“Since its establishment, MASHAV has trained close to 270,000 course participants from approximately 132 countries in Israel and abroad and has developed dozens of demonstration projects worldwide.”

“Supporting those who face great development challenges goes to the heart of what it means to be a Jewish State.

“MASHAV is both a manifestation of Israel’s political will, foreign policy and Development Diplomacy, as well as the ideological commitment of the Jewish State to the traditional Jewish ideals of tikunolam – repairing the world.”

“We at MASHAV believe that we can make a difference.

“Our greatest possible contribution to developing countries is made in fields where Israel has relevant expertise accumulated during its own develop​ment experience as a young country facing similar challenges. Our belief is that training of trainers and capacity building activities are the best way to achieve maximum impact in development activity. Education and the transfer of skills and capacities lead to empowerment, the surest guarantee of sustainable growth.”

In the words of David Ben-Gurion, the founder and first Prime Minister of Israel: “For Israel, development cooperation is both a moral and a political issue, and from both aspects Israel must look upon such aid as a historic mission.”

See more here:

https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/mashav/AboutMASHAV/
Pages/Guiding_Principles.aspx

All photos courtesy of MASHAV