Lebanon: EU-funded project encourages rural women’s entrepreneurship

A meeting bringing together six players in the field of micro-finance took place last week in Maad, Lebanon, to examine ways to encourage rural women’s entrepreneurship through the creation of micro-companies and the access to financial instruments. This meeting comes in as part of the EU-funded project “Social and economic promotion of the Lebanese rural woman through the development of tourism, hotel trade and micro-entrepreneurs networks”.

During the meeting, the entrepreneurship coordinator Caroline Daher Khalifé presented the results of a field study conducted with 150 rural micro-companies in the regions of Bcharré and Deir el Ahmar. The study illustrates the current situation of rural micro-companies, especially concerning the access to micro-credits.

Based on this meeting, an action plan will be established with the micro-companies for the creation of a brochure of micro-finance products more accessible to rural women. An informative guide collecting the contacts of the different rural players (women entrepreneurs, NGOs, associations, agendas of the local and national events) will be published to facilitate the access to the market and to the micro-finance instruments.

This project is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Spanish NGO ONAY and the Lebanese NGO PRODES.

Source: ENPI http://www.enpi-info.eu/medportal/news/latest/35501/Lebanon