The project focuses on promoting economic recovery and decent work conditions in refugee camps in Lebanon for Palestinian women. It supports ongoing efforts to increase income and improve decent work conditions for women entrepreneurs in refugee camps in Lebanon.
The two-year project consists of three main stages: conducting an initial baseline; training in enterprise development and business group formation; supporting the establishment and strengthening of business groups for cooperation and pooling of resources.
While several development initiatives have addressed Palestinian employability in Lebanon, no other project has focused on the formation of business groups and tailoring business development services on the basis of needs of these groups.
The project identifies stakeholders that deliver of entrepreneurship activities and would benefit from having Business Group Formation in their delivery repertoire, in order to empower entrepreneurs and ensure sustainability.
Project Objectives
The development goal of this initiative is to promote economic empowerment and cooperation among women entrepreneurs in refugee camp economies of NBC and AHC. It aims to:
Identify decent work deficits to demonstrate the need for humanitarian aid to contribute towards improving the lives of refugee women entrepreneurs in NBC and AHC.
Protect low-income entrepreneurs from risk by creating sustainable income streams, helped by business group formation for resilience, the pooling of resources and a collective voice.
Help survivalist economic activities grow into more economically viable businesses with improved livelihood opportunities.
Promote economic empowerment and cooperation among women entrepreneurs in NBC and AHC by: increasing the institutional capacity of local service providers to provide business development services to the community; and enhancing the capacity of women entrepreneurs to work collectively.
Promote greater access to resources and markets among Palestinian women entrepreneurs in NBC and AHC, with an emphasis on enhancing collective voices and increasing representation.
Main Activities
Carry out a survey of existing businesses run by women in both camps.
Identify local service providers in both camps.
Train trainers on Gender and Enterprise Together (GET) Ahead + Business Group Formation for local service providers.
Conduct 11 GET Ahead + Business Group Formation trainings for direct beneficiaries.
Assess the feasibility of the Business Groups’ action plans.
Disburse group grants to business groups.
Provide technical support including implementing training and workshops tailored to meet the needs expressed by women entrepreneurs.
Conduct product standards, packaging, labelling and marketing workshops in AHC and NBC in co-ordination with Souk El Tayeb.
Modernize the traditional Palestinian embroidery workshop.
Build partners’ capacity to manage microfinance projects.
Project Outcomes
Enhanced capacity of women entrepreneurs to collectively address common work deficits.
Increased institutional capacity of local service providers to provide business development services to the community.
