National workshop on Gender assessment of the agri-food sector in Lebanon

Under the Patronage of His Excellency the Minister of Agriculture, Dr Abbas Hajj Hassan, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Lebanon (FAO) and the Directorate General of Cooperatives, in partnership with Fair Trade Lebanon organisation, organised a virtual workshop on Gender assessment of the agri-food sector in Lebanon.

This workshop falls within the framework of the project “Support to Women’s cooperatives and associations in the agri-food sector of Lebanon” funded by the Government of Canada. During this workshop, Fair Trade Lebanon presented the main findings and recommendations of the gender assessment of the agri-food sector.

In 2021, a team of experts conducted a comprehensive desk review of relevant research and authoritative studies and InfoPro, partner of Fair Trade Lebanon, conducted a data collection campaign that included 40 interviews with relevant personalities, 20 focus group discussions and a survey of more than 2 000 actors in the sector. Accordingly, the experts were able to analyse five sub-sectors, i.e. plant production, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, animal production and food processing. The team identified available opportunities for women, women's cooperatives and informal groups. They also presented the recommendations and enabling factors to help them better overcome these challenges and integrate better into the sector.

The study concluded that women have a critical role to play in the food and agricultural sector and that implementing the listed recommendations and enabling factors will help achieve a faster inclusion of women. In the light of the current unprecedented economic and financial crisis, the results of the study are not only expected to serve the projects beneficiaries, but also to reach a larger segment of women so that they, side by side with men, would revitalise the agriculture sector, which is urgently needed in Lebanon today.

About the project "Support to Women’s cooperatives and associations in the agri-food sector of Lebanon"

The project, funded by the Government of Canada, and implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and the General Directorate of Cooperatives, aims to empower rural women in Lebanon and improve their livelihoods through capacity building, grants and cash for work.

Since its launch in 2019, the project has contributed to building the capacities of 32 facilitators and 255 women groups (cooperatives, associations and informal groups) by enrolling them in cooperative business schools, where they followed specialized, complementary and gender curricula. They were trained by specialized experts and by the facilitators who followed up and helped them develop their business plan in a feasible and sustainable manner. One hundred and fifty women's groups are being selected to receive cash or in-kind grants. The grants will enable them to obtain equipment and production inputs to move forward in the production and marketing, with the aim to create sustainable income-generating small scale projects, to generate job opportunities, and to improve the economic and social conditions of women, their families and communities.