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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.