The impact of the Syria crisis on Lebanon is unprecedented in the history of complex, refugee-driven emergencies. Not only has the crisis challenged the country’s existing social and economic infrastructure and employment, it also brought to Lebanon a new set of disparities, cleavages and tensions that threaten to undermine Lebanon’s delicate social and political stability.

Within this setting, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has taken on several roles to help ensure the response to the refugee influx while focusing on the immediate lifesaving needs of the refugee population. UNDP plays three equally important and reinforcing roles:

1. Support for vulnerable host communities; integrated components for stabilization and livelihoods;
2. Inter-agency coordination through UNDP’s co-lead of the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan;
3. Sector Coordination through UNDP’s lead of the Livelihoods, Social Stability and Energy Sector.

Due to the marginalization that Northern Lebanon, and specifically Tripoli, faces, it continually suffers from sector coordination through UNDP’s lead of the livelihoods, social stability, and energy sectors, low job creation, long-term social and political instability, and a lack of good governance both locally and nationally. Moreover, the arrival of Syrian refugees after the 2010 Syrian crisis, with a ratio of around 30% refugees to the population in North Lebanon, has added significant pressure on social services and the labor market and increased tension in the city.

Thus, UNDP has implemented a project to help provide:

1. An in-depth analysis of Tripoli’s socio-economic context allows for tailoring and designing convenient guidelines and policies to improve the ability of MSMEs to ameliorate their production (in cost and quality) as well as access new local and international markets.
2. Facilitate the accessibility of information with the support of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture of Tripoli and North Lebanon (CCIAT). The chamber plays a core role in the local economic sector, and building the needed capacities in the chamber will improve its service provision.

The project is expected to reach the abovementioned objectives through the following outputs:

1. An updated, in-depth analysis of two selected productive sub-sectors, including a thorough assessment of their value chains, sustainability factors, growth potential, gaps, challenges, and opportunities
2. Twenty local MSMEs in Tripoli will receive direct capacity building and support to adopt the latest trends and techniques to reduce their cost of production, improve the quality of their products, and enhance their marketing strategies.
3. The CCIAT team will be better equipped and capacitated to provide marketing and export-related services to a wider range of MSME beneficiaries.
   

Related activities for the project are allocated according to the outputs:

Output 1 includes:

• Conducting interviews, FDGs, and meetings or round table validation with local stakeholders, such as local MSMEs and other relevant actors in the city, to identify the specific 2 subsectors to be targeted.
• Selecting 2 sub-sectors based on the review of the previous findings and the validation with the relevant stakeholders, in coordination with the Chamber of Commerce in Tripoli
• Coordinating with the CCIAT and UNDP and validating the selection of the final clusters and beneficiaries’ criteria.

Output 2 includes:

• Identifying the selection criteria and proceed with the outreach in full coordination with the CCIAT.
• Conducting a detailed and personalized assessment targeting the 20 selected MSMEs, focusing on the cost reduction and quality insurance gaps, in addition to the adopted marketing strategies.
• Developing and deliver a technical capacity building program responding to the analysis findings such as good practices to reduce the cost of production, accessibility to services related to quality control and product certifications, assessing and accessing new markets (locally and internationally), and improving capacities and resources for export.

Output 3 includes:

• Identifying specific topics such as networking, facilitating access to info, referral of MSMEs cases, export guidelines, and other topics to conduct training sessions with a CCIAT-selected team.
• Identifying the CCIAT members of the technical team and a technical focal point who will be in charge of networking and managing the established export Unit and linking it to the Digital Transformation Platform
• Supporting the technical capacity building and delivering any identified needed coaching and training to the CCIAT selected team (through consultation sessions, provision of technical expertise, and ICT support)