QOOT Cluster organized an informative session with the Agriculture and Rural Empowerment (ARE) team, a USAID funded activity, to present the program to QOOT Cluster members and support them in the application process as well as receive answers to any eligibility criteria.
More than 30 members from the QOOT Cluster joined the session and showed interest in applying to the program.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched the Agriculture and Rural Empowerment (ARE) program, designed to support several industries in Lebanon for the development of rural economies in Lebanon by helping the agri-food industry increase domestic and export sales, increase access to financial resources, and improve the productivity of MSMEs.
ARE utilizes a facilitative approach, based on the theory of market systems development, to incentivize value chain stakeholders in prioritized value chains and sub-sectors to take advantage of new and emerging opportunities to increase their potential to grow sales both internationally and domestically.
The prioritized agriculture and non-agriculture value chains that ARE targets include: fresh and processed produce, dairy and fodder, stone fruits, table grapes, wine and arak, and tourism.
ARE also invests in strategic interventions in the agricultural sector that respond to urgent needs and opportunities identified during implementation. Through these interventions, the team identifies and addresses cross-cutting challenges in order to generate impact at the broader sectoral level. Illustrative strategic interventions may include but are not limited to the development of industry-led quality seal programs, sector level association capacity building, industry/sector branding, and investment in emerging, high-potential value chains that are not included in the prioritized list above. Other interventions may include innovative grant interventions to promote innovation and technology upgrading on-farm, support to start-up ecosystems, and other similar themes.
For more information on USAID’s Agriculture and Rural Empowerment activity, please contact info@lebanonare.org.
