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Lebanon

Lebanon has a strategic location; it is often seen as the opening to the middle east. Its terrain allows trade with its various ports, and it has a track record of internal tourism and is known to be a touristic destination for foreigners. Prior to 2019, around 2 million tourists entered Lebanon annually.

Since 2019, Lebanon has been facing slow economic growth for years and several long- term structural weaknesses such as weak infrastructure, poor service delivery, and institutional corruption. Its fiscal deficits have increased debt-to-GDP ratio. Moreover, its current estimated unemployment rate is 6.70 %, with 82% of its population living in poverty.
about Lebanon

Country Facts 

  • Area: 10452 km²
  • Population: 6 million
  • Capital: Beirut

Swisscontact in LEBANON

  • since 2019
Country Director Lebanon
Hassan Bugnard

Our approach

In Lebanon and the surrounding region, Swisscontact invests in assessing development needs in relevant sectors. The organisation organises assessments of the skills and capacities of existing local and national partners with the aim of capitalising on their strengths in specific areas and strengthening them.

  • We offer expert services, project solutions, and develop local partner capacities to ensure optimal development impact.
  • We offer nexus oriented impact projects designed through programs linkages  
  • We ensure optimal impact by offering tailor made sustainable and long term solutions in our development projects

In addition to impact project management, we provide technical support services such as risk assessment, resource management and capacity building. 

Current assessment

Working in an Economic Nexus context requires an investment in knowledge of local and national dynamics and opportunities. In order to participate in the development of sustainable responses, Swisscontact conducts research to understand what the key areas are and seeks serious partners with coherent actions to outline local based solutions.

WHERE WE WORK

Our expertise

Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

In the middle east, most SMEs are micro and small enterprises. They constitute 80% of the labour market and face financial and non-financial barriers to growth.  

The entrepreneurial ecosystem was developed to maintain existing jobs, create new jobs, and allows MSEs to generate income.

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Labour Market Insertion

Marginalized segments of society face obstacles to labour market insertion.  

These obstacles range from the lack of market opportunities, mismatches of supply of skills and demand of skills, and the lack of skills, and other institutional barriers for particular communities.  

As such, our skills development approach not only addresses the skills element in the form of VET, coaching, and upskilling, but also other barriers to entry.

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Sustainable Agriculture

After analysing the market dynamics and technical elements of the Lebanese agriculture sector, Swissontact chose to support national stakeholders in distribution of fresh produce, the establishment of alternative and renewable energy sources, and the diversification of their sources of income. 

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Our interventions

Employment Support

Our employment support is a labour market insertion intervention area aimed at offering marginalized Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian youth the global coaching for employment coaching cycle product alongside employment office services to increase youths’ chances of employment. 

Business Center/Business HUB

Swisscontact in Lebanon developed a set of digital solutions SMEs can offer their microservices, access new markets, gain exposure. Additionally, we work on developing their technical capacities by developing their skills in key areas. These businesses are also linked with youth from the employment support, offering them internships and, when possible, employment opportunities.

Agriculture

Our current collaboration with ICRC in Akkar is in sustainable agriculture, specifically on developing locally grown feed substitutes to replace the costly imported livestock feed. This intervention is coupled with alternative energy projects. In other regions such as the Bekaa, Swisscontact has partnered with local stakeholders to establish agri-business hubs, which will support growers and producers to maximise their income through optimization and diversification. 

Re-Suite

We currently work with Arcenciel, a renowned NGO in recycling and agriculture on textile upcycling. Arcenciel has its pre-existing upcycling and collection facilities and Swisscontact is offering its technical expertise from logistics, trainings, to the value chain facilitation.

2019 - 2024
Lebanon
Initial vocational education and training
TAFAWOQ - Youth employment and skills
The Tafawoq project initially started off as a Coaching for Employment and Entrepreneurship project. Due to the economic crisis in Lebanon, assessments were done on the local contextual needs so we could increase the impact and guarantee labour market insertion. Some of these assessments included the weakened economy’s ability to take in an additional supply of skills, data analysis on the youth target groups, market demand, and how to offset the disadvantages marginalized youth face, all of which constitute barriers to labour market entry.
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News

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TEAM
Our team members in Lebanon
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Contact

Dekweneh, Building PG1776 Actel, Beirut