HIGHLIGHTS:
In Lebanon, Livelihoods partners are reviewing the sector’s key achievements under the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan (LCRP) 2015-2016 and exploring the way forward towards 2017-2020. While short-term activities remain strong with 23,000 direct beneficiaries since 2015, longer-term activities are developing, with a 60 per cent increase in support to small business (467 in total, with USD 1.1m in financial support provided) and the strengthening of seven value chains. One of the key challenges identified, in addition to the chronic underfunding of the sector, is the limited engagement of the private sector in the response.
In addition in Lebanon, a private sector engagement mapping exercise is being conducted by the Ministry of Social Affairs to assess the support provided to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and value chains by LCRP partners and scale up their collaboration. The key objective, beyond information sharing, is to enhance the design of activities and make recommendations to improve the private sector engagement for more impactful livelihood programming.
In Egypt, there has been a substantial increase in the beneficiaries for wage employment compared to previous months. This includes individuals who benefited from training for livelihood support but secured employment on their own and not through partners. Overall, 432 individuals were able to secure employment since the beginning of the year thanks to the support of 3RP partners.
