Introduction
The social and economic repercussions of the Syrian crisis on both host and refugees communities in Lebanon have spurred a growing interest in understanding the factors that affect the growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). The Lebanese government, donors and CSOs have been increasingly participating in assistance programmes for MSMEs in their response to the crisis. The support of MSME growth hinges on the overall objective of spurring economic growth and creating jobs for vulnerable Lebanese and Syrian refugees. In other words a vibrant MSME sector can play a key role in creating jobs and stimulating economic growth. In turn, an in-depth analysis of the obstacles to the growth of MSMEs would appear to be necessary to understand and clarify how SMEs can overcome barriers to growth.
With the support of the EU Madad Trust Fund and DANIDA/Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, and under the Regional Resilience and Livelihoods Program for Syrian refugees and host communities, the LEADERS Consortium (composed of ACTED, Danish Refugee Council, CARE, Oxfam, Makzoumi Foundation and Save the Children) has launched a programme that aims to contribute to the economic self-reliance and resilience of displacement-affected populations in Jordan and Lebanon. One of the programme’s interventions aims at supporting existing and scaleable private sector enterprises (MSMEs) through improving access to sustainable livelihoods opportunities benefiting vulnerable households and individuals, and enhancing the overall economic enabling environment and service.
The present research falls within this context and aims at providing an in-depth analysis of three pre-selected sectors – construction, food services and food processing – in order to identify the market dynamics, characteristics, opportunities and challenges for their growth. The research aims to achieve the following objectives:
Provide an in-depth understanding of the various political, economic, social and legal forces affecting and governing the MSMEs within the selected sectors and subsectors
Analyse the main opportunities and challenges facing the MSMEs and identify ways to mitigate the challenges and benefit from the opportunities in the corresponding sectors and subsectors through the provision of a business support plan based on the various enterprise profiles
Analyse the potential for development of new subsectors in the different target regions regarding their challenges, needs and their capacity to create new job opportunities and contribute to local economic growth.