The Social Development Center - Nama is participating in the Qatar International Food Festival (QIFF 2018), being held at Hotel Park until March 25. 
Nama is a Qatar Foundation for Social Work-affiliated centre. 
“With this participation, the centre aims to enabling owners of the projects incubated by Nama to gain easy and affordable access to the local market, alongside strengthening the knowledge and experience they have acquired, so that these incubated projects can undertake successful businesses in a competitive global environment,” Nama said in a statement yesterday.
It is an opportunity to exchange experiences, where the owners of these projects come together alongside leading international chefs from Doha hotels and high-end restaurants to compete in offering “delicious dishes that are made from fresh ingredients and cooked in the best style”, in addition to offering many healthy food options that are suitable for all ages.
This participation also serves the purpose of monitoring, optimisation and impact measurement, especially in the light of the fact that the food festival is one of the major events organised annually by Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) and attended by leading food companies from within and outside Qatar, the statement notes. It also hosts various entertainment and cultural activities and attracts thousands of visitors daily.
Nama stressed that it is committed to providing various types of support to small and micro enterprises in order to accelerate their growth and ensure their sustainability in the local market. This includes incubation, management and training services, workshops, consultation programmes and awareness-raising gatherings, as well as motivation, promotion and financing programmes.
Mariam bint Abdul Latif al-Mannai, executive director of Nama, said: “We are keen to take part in the annual international food festival to highlight and give an opportunity to Nama’s incubation projects, contributing to the achievement of Qatar National Vision 2030 besides promoting and marketing these projects in line with the general message of the festival - which is a useful way to promote community partnership and encourage institutions and members of the society to provide various kinds of support for entrepreneurs and small and micro enterprises.”
She noted that Nama seeks to raise entrepreneurship awareness throughout the Qatari community and promote entrepreneurial projects by enabling them to carry out productive and marketing activities easily. It also aims to remove the obstacles facing these projects to ensure their success and to empower and support entrepreneurship in the local market. 
Al-Mannai extended her thanks to QTA, as well as public and private sector organisations, for their initiatives and contributions that have helped achieve the mission and strategic objectives of empowering young local-economy entrepreneurs, contributing to strengthening and consolidating the entrepreneurial
 ecosystem in Qatar.