News

A delegation of women from the Chamber of Tripoli and North Lebanon administration met yesterday with the General Secretary of the Federation of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry in the UAE, Hamid Mohammed ben Salem to discuss relations between the private sectors in both countries especially regarding bi-lateral collaboration between the two entities.  The administration of the UAE Federation expressed its disposition to collaborate especially in supporting programmes which seek to develop small and micro enterprises notably at the level of supporting women empowerment projects.  The delegation insisted on the importance to support women working in trade and investment since they participate effectively in the economy and especially in a sector that is traditionally male dominated.
The Lebanese delegation had already held similar discussions with the Council of Business Women in Dubai and reviewed the benefits gained from becoming a member in the Council notably in building personal skills and capacities, accessing new opportunities to set up businesses, finding partners for investment, and exchanging information and experiences with a select group of business women enjoying high skills and expertise in different sectors.
Source: Al-Diyar 22 October 2014

Following on similar previous posts on the WEEPortal, on the state of agricultural production and problems facing the agriculture sector in Lebanon, local newspapers carried several news bout this matter during the past few days notably in relation to apple and potato exports, the drop in olives production and the buying of tobacco harvest.  According to the Ministry of Agriculture, 9 trucks representing 20% of total exports failed the technical requirements of the Egyptian authorities as they mentioned that the date of production is 2013 and not 2014.  Traders were given a deadline by Egyptian authorities to correct their data and were subsequently cleared for export. In a related vein, As Safir newspaper noted in its issue of last Saturday that Lebanese traders were surprised, at the Masnaa3 checkpoint at the borders with Syria, by a Lebanese decision endorsed by the veterinary bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture prohibiting the export of potatoes on the ground that the Lebanese authorities have not received the approval for entry from Syrian authorities.
With regards to this year’s olives harvest, both An Nahar and As Safir noted that olive growers in Bint Jbeil and Tyre have suffered from important losses because of diseases as well as climate change.  The newspapers pointed out that olive production has not exceeded 10% of last year’s production level, noting that this will lead to a sharp rise in the cost of olives, olive oil and olive soap as well as in the cost of the material extracted from olive stones and used for heating.  Olive presses and their workers will also be negatively affected.  As for the delivery of tobacco, the vice president of the CGTL and the President of the Trade Union of Agriculture and Tobacco, Hasan Faqih, announced last week the start of the process of buying last year’s tobacco harvest.  The process will kick off in the South on October 21st and will start in 10 centres identified by the Regie.  Faqih noted that the timetable for the remaining areas will be announced at a later stage, expecting the operation to start in the North in early November and in the Bekaa during the second week of December.
Source: Al-Safir, Al-Nahar, Al-Mustaqbal 18 October, Al-Safir and Al-Nahar, 18 October, Al-Safir 20 October, Al-Diyar 19 October 2014

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation organized last week in collaboration with the empowerment committee of the Future Movement a workshop on the principles of leadership.  The workshop which was organized last in Byblos and was attended by the members of the local bureau and the areas coordinators, extended over three days and was facilitated Youssef Khury. The trainer spoke about time management and the characteristics of the leader who has the responsibility of training others and listening to them to reach the desired goal and overcome obstacles. Khury also noted that a leader should also adopt a problem solving approach and should seek improve action performance.  The workshop also included a speech by the coordinator of the women sector, Afifa al Sayed, who thanked the organizers for their efforts in strengthening leadership.

Source: Al-Mustaqbal 21 October 2014

The women sector, Mount Lebanon coordination, at the Future Movement organized last week in Ketrmaya the first exhibition of homemade traditional products in Iqlim al Kharroub.  The local responsible of the women sector, Anissa Youness, spoke about the role of women in social work, highlighting that the exhibition aims at improving home production and showcase the diversity of products.  Local MP Mohammed Hajjar noted that currently, women’s role is no longer limited to care for family and children but also to care for the community, stressing that the Future Movement is convinced of the importance of that role because women make half of society.  He also noted that such activities seek to strengthen and visibilise women’s role through providing opportunities that will secure “psychological and economic wellbeing for women and their communities”.

Source: Al-Mustaqbal 18 October 2014

The Women’s Affairs Office at the Amal party celebrated last week in the village of Ramia in Bint Jbeil, the International Rural Women’s Day which falls on October 15th of every year. The event included an exhibition of traditional products. Ms. Randa Berri spoke during the event noting that the exhibition was organized in order to highlight the central role that women play in rural areas especially in agricultural development and food security.  Berry reminded Lebanon, as a member of the UN, of its duties vis-à-vis rural women especially in terms of facilitating their access to production resources, land, financing, technology, training and markets.  She stressed the importance of government commitments to ensure women’s equal participation in national development.  Short of this, according to Berri, CSOs, local council and political powers should also be responsible vis-à-vis rural women.

Source: Al-Diyar 19 October 2014

The Rassemblement Democratique des Femmes Libanaise (RDFL) launched last week its national study entitled "Organizational Needs to Promote Women’s Participation in Political Parties and Trade Unions in Lebanon", conducted by Ghassan Sleibi and Saada Allaw.  This study represented one of the outputs of the regional project entitled "Promotion of the Role of Political Parties and Trade Unions in Enhancing Women's Political Participation" which is implemented in five countries and is financed by the European Union and managed by Oxfam Novib.
The study was divided into two parts, where the first addressed the level of participation of women in political parties based on a closer look at six parties namely Syrian Social Nationalist Party, the Phalange Party (Kata2eb), the Progressive Socialist Party, Hezbollah, the Lebanese Communist Party and the Future Movement.  The study noted that none of these parties adopted a women quota, while 33% refused it and 16.6% only presented women for elections. This part of the study noted also the negative impact of the confessional system on women’s political participation. The second part of the study focused on trade unions through studying those sectoral trade unions with high women participation namely MEA, The Tobacco and Tombac directorate, the NSSF, Bank employees in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, private school teachers, OGERO, bank employees in North Lebanon, and the Beirut and Mount Lebanon water authority.  This part of the study showed that women’s enrolment compared to men, in 6 of the 8 selected trade unions, reached 40% and 75%, while it did not exceed 11% in the water authority, but reached 20% for OGERO. Commenting on the above data, the study concluded that enrolment of women in trade unions reflects the level of economic participation in the whole sector.
Finally, the study made several recommendations for political parties to support the participation of women while highlighting the need of women partisans to support women’s issues in political parties.  The study also proposed the creation of women committees within trade unions to strengthen their participation and called for the adoption of a gender policy and women quota for elections in the trade unions steering committees.

Source: Al-Akhbar 17 October 2014

The Minister of Industry, Hussein Hajj Hassan, met yesterday with the president of the General Federation of Trade Unions, Marun Al Khaouli, and its general secretary, Farid Zeinoun, to discuss the situation of Lebanese workers in the sector.  Al Khaouli indicated in a statement after the meeting that the size of the employed Lebanese labor force continues to decrease as it is being replaced by foreign and notably Syrian labor.  Al Khaouli said that Lebanese labor in the industrial sector constitutes only 10% of totally employed, noting that this increases unemployment amongst the youth and negatively affects the economy. Furthermore, he pointed out to the negative effect on the national economy resulting from large transfers of remittances aboard by some 100,000 foreign workers. The size of these transfers is currently estimated at hundred of millions of US dollars every month.
Al Khaouli further said that the general federation requested during the meeting that a strategy be developed with the Ministries of Industry and Labor in order to protect the rights of Lebanese workers especially in the industrial sector.  He added that Minister Hajj Hassan expressed his understanding and solidarity with Lebanese workers and noted that his Ministry will be taking concrete measure to address this issue.

Source: Al-Nahar, Al-Diyar 17 October 2014

The Daily Star newspaper published a report last Saturday on “People of Rashiddiyyah,” a social media project that was launched recently by Mohammad al-As3sad, a 21-year-old Palestinian student from the Rashiddiyyah camp, located south of Tyre, in collaboration with Mary Mitchell, his former English teacher. “People of Rashiddiyyah” profiles stories focusing on women, youth and children from the camp on Facebook and Tumblr platforms, and was modeled on the widely popular “People of New York” project, which documents the stories of ordinary New Yorkers.
A3saad and Mitchell noted that they were motivated by the desire to tell the stories of Palestinians refugees who live a life of exile and exclusion in Lebanon, in an attempt to highlight the various aspects of Palestinians’ lives, and away for traditional media coverage. As3aad pointed out that the project focuses on young adults in particular, to profile the absence of choices and opportunities available to them, and the harsh realities they face.  Examples include their exclusion Lebanese law from a wide range of jobs and professions (some 70 banned jobs in total), particularly engineering and medicine domains, in which many graduates remain unemployed. As3aad concluded by saying that the project aims at brining the public closer to the reality of Palestinian in Lebanon who have been traditionally the subject of unfair discrimination and prejudice.

Source: The Daily Star 11 October 2014

As Safir newspaper published a report last Tuesday on the production of grape molasses in Rashaya.  The report noted that grape molasses is an important commodity for marketing internally and externally and provides a substantive additional income for small land and large land holders thus helping in improving their livelihoods and economic situation. It is also to be noted that grapes used for this production do not qualify for export and is of a lower quality of what is available for domestic consumption according to Sheikh Suheil al Qidmani who owns one of the largest grapes press in Rashayya.
Qidamni noted that there are currently only three operational grape presses in Rashayya al Wadi and they process around one quarter of all the grapes production.  He added that operating one press requires around 10 to 20 skilled workers.  However, this work is seasonal and extends over two months only starting in mid September of every year.  Qidmani also noted that Rashayya produces around 10,000 tons of various sorts of grapes most of which is used for food processing especially in wine and molasses production, where the production of molasses averages some 250 tons a year.  He added that the various phases of producing grapes molasses include: pressing, sedimentation, cooking and packaging into either liquid molasses or the more viscous one, after which it is placed into special jars for local or external marketing.  External marketing essentially targets Lebanese in the Diaspora in the USA, Canada, Australia and Latin America.  According to Qidmani, production costs heavily depend on the cost of fuel and vary between LBP 2500 to LBP 3500 per kilo, while sales price reaches LBP 8000 for liquid molasses and between LBP 10,000 to LBP 12000 for solidified molasses.

Source: Al-Safir 14 October 2014

Atayeb al Reef organized yesterday a seminar on food safety standards and food processing in the village of Kfarhabou in Zghorta with the participation of women from the Agriculture Cooperative Association of Beekeepers.  The workshop was held within the framework of the project entitled "improving the living conditions of women in North Lebanon" and which is implemented by the Rene Moawwad Foundation, DOT Lebanon, Mada, and the NGO Committee for Follow-up of Women’s Issues and which is funded by the EU.  The seminar focused on the importance of hygiene in food processing sites, packaging, personal hygiene, protecting food from pollutants and other matters related to food safety.
Source: Al-Mustaqbal 16 October 2014