Strengthening of agriculture in Lebanon

The project Strengthening the Resilience of Smallholder farmers, Micro and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Local Communities primarily follows BMZ strategy paper 02/2020 Strategy on Transitional Development Assistance. It also follows the Lebanon Reform, Recovery & Reconstruction Framework drawn up in August 2020 by part of the international donor community and the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan revised in 2020 and relates to the national agricultural strategy of the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture (in effect from 2020 to 2025). A country strategy for Lebanon is currently being revised. It is the objective of the transitional development assistance project to strengthen the socio-economic resilience of vulnerable groups in Bekaa and Mount Lebanon. The transitional development assistance measure planned aims to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable groups and is divided into three fields of action. These fields are: (1) strengthening the agricultural sector, reflected in the first project objective indicator, (2) funding for MSMEs and start-up funding, reflected in project objective indicators 2 and 3, as well as (3) promotion of social cohesion at the local level (fourth project objective indicator). The project therefore contributes to the implementation of the BMZ Strategy on Transitional Development Assistance and particularly assists with field of action 1 'Food and nutrition security' and 4 'Peaceful and inclusive communities' set out in the strategy. By strengthening production capacities in the country and promoting local economic and business cycles, a contribution to the cross-cutting issue of employment security will also be made. Transitional development assistance field of action 'Peaceful and inclusive communities', as an integral aspect of the Strategy on Transitional Development Assistance ('Overcoming crises, strengthening resilience, creating new prospects'), is addressed indirectly since economic relations and the exchange of information for dealing with the crisis across political-sectarian lines of conflict are supported. In specific terms, the project will play a role in promoting social cohesion at the local level by encouraging social participation and transparent decision-making in selected communities and by supporting solidarity initiatives for strengthening communities. Support in the form of a behavioral science-based community survey during implementation, particularly in terms of promoting social cohesion, will increase the effectiveness of the project since the findings of the survey are to be incorporated into the conflict-sensitive monitoring process and will help with the collection of new evidence - for example in order to improve horizontal social cohesion (attitude towards other groups) within the selected communities.