Lebanon Agriculture and Rural Empowerment Activity
Since the end of its civil war, Lebanon has shown incredible resilience through recent events such as the Arab Spring and the Syrian armed conflict, which resulted in an influx of refugees and significant shifts in agricultural trading. The ongoing impact of the Beirut blast and the pandemic have only furthered the country’s extreme political deadlock and economic turmoil. Currently, thousands of livelihoods in urban and rural communities are at risk; this coupled with a local deteriorating currency disproportionately affects the most vulnerable people, who often rely on the agricultural sector to survive.
The Lebanon Agriculture and Rural Empowerment (ARE) activity develops rural economies in Lebanon by supporting the agro-food sector and other industries to unlock local and export sales potential while creating jobs and increasing farmers’ and workers’ incomes. ARE uses a market systems development approach. This approach incentives value chain stakeholders in targeted sectors, including fresh and processed produce, dairy, stone fruits, table grapes, and tourism, to take advantage of emerging opportunities to grow sales internationally and domestically. ARE also invests in strategic interventions in the agricultural sector that respond to urgent opportunities identified during implementation. These include helping businesses recover from the Beirut blast to restore disrupted supply chains for fruits and vegetables and initiating an Agriculture Grand Challenge to address the pressing problems in Lebanon’s agriculture sector. ARE’s commitment to inclusive economic growth and improving employment opportunities will help pave Lebanon’s path to long-term stability.
