FAO in Lebanon
Lebanon joined the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 1945 as a founding member of the Organization. In February 1977, FAO and Lebanon signed an agreement to establish a country office in Beirut.
FAO’s assistance has focused on sustainable transformation of agrifood systems in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, other government partners and non-state actors, as well as development and international partners. Since 2015, FAO has been supporting the coordination and planning mechanism for humanitarian and stabilization assistance to Lebanon in the context of the Syria crisis. FAO is also contributing to restoring livelihoods and productive capacities of agrifood actors in response to Lebanon’s economic and financial crises.
Promoting sustainable agrifood value chains development
FAO’s main intervention focus on enhancing sustainable agrifood value chains to achieve food security, income generation, and competitiveness of MSMEs, including actions such as promoting efficient production practices, enhancing post harvest transformation and agri-food marketing systems, promoting collective actions developing innovative finance approaches and supporting sound policies for resilient value chains.
Promoting sustainable management of natural resources and the environment
FAO’s interventions include the promotion of sustainable natural resource management and ecosystem restoration, including actions such as promoting circular economy, restoring ecosystems, greening cities, preserving agricultural heritage systems, and supporting the developing of an insitutional enabling environement. .
Increasing the resilience of agrifood actors against multiple shocks
FAO’s interventions focus on increasing the social protection coverage and resilience of agrifood actors to face shocks and stresses. This involves supporting vulnerable communities including those hosting displaced Syrians, promoting a One Health approach, strengthening early warning systems, and generating knowledge for evidence-based decision-making.
FAO’s intervention in Lebanon is framed by the 2023-2026 FAO Country Programming Framework (CPF). The CPF includes three main strategic priorities aligned with three UNSDCF Outcomes:
- Enhanced competitiveness and business environment of MSMEs and high potential productive sectors' value chains through developing sustainable agrifood value chains for enhanced food and nutrition security.
- Strengthened stabilization and green recovery to reduce climate change vulnerabilities and environmental risks through supporting sustainable management of natural resources and the environment for healthy ecosystems in the context of climate change.
- Enhanced, inclusive, equitable, comprehensive, and sustainable social protection systems and programs through increasing resilience of agrifood actors following a humanitarian- development -peace nexus approach for sustainable livelihoods.
The new CPF Programme marks a transition to a programmatic approach adopted by FAO to work more strategically, efficiently, and effectively in supporting Lebanon. It adopts a food systems approach to drive transformative development in the agrifood sector.