News

Results of the annual NOWARA contest prizes for best economic initiatives implemented by rural women were released yesterday in a ceremony organized by the National Observatory for Women in Agriculture and Rural Areas (NOWARA) and held one day before at the Ministry of Agriculture on Monday. The ceremony on October 15 was held on the occasion of the International Rural Women Day and was headed by the Minister of Agriculture, Hussein al-Hajj Hassan and former Minister, Wafaa al-Diqa Hamza. The winners of the 2012 prizes were as follows:

• In the category of ready-made rural foods – Freelance category: the winner was Fatima Zein, the Director of Ajami al-Mrooj establishment – Shoukeen, Nabatieh
• In the category of food and agricultural processing: The prize winner among cooperatives was Al-Ameera cooperative headed by Naoofa Ja3far and located in Dar al-Was3a, Baalbeck.
• NOWARA prize in the field of food and agricultural processing – Freelance category was shared by Dunia Bassil, the owner of Joozoorina establishment from Smaar Jbeil, Batroon; and Mayssoon Abu Matar, the Director of the Al-Koowara Natural Food institution – Kfarkatra, Shoof.

The meeting also saw the announcement about the qualification of ten female entrepreneurs and participants from the cooperatives to participate in the international fair, Horeca, which will take place in Beirut in 2013.
For his part, Minister Al-Hajj Hassan indicated that the ministry of agriculture aspires to ensure the continuation of the NOWARA competition by providing funding for the prizes from the budget of the ministry of agriculture so as to ensure this project’s viability and autonomy from relying on donor agencies. He added that efforts will be exerted with the aim of turning the NOWARA into an established institution with a clear administrative structure, and adequate budget and personnel. It is worth mentioning that funding of the NOWARA prizes for 2010 and 2011 was made through a foreign funded project aiming at supporting olive and olive-oil producers in marginalized areas of Lebanon. The project was funded by the Italian government and is implemented by the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute in Bari.

Source: Annahar, Mustaqbal

The Spanish contingent at UNIFIL organised in Ebel e- Saqi, an exhibition of crafts and products hand made by women from the area including food products, straw baskets, jewelry, traditional soap, bread and other products.  A number of local organisations and women cooperatives took part in this activity including Caritas, Khiam Women Association, Social Welfare Association in Hasbaya and Arqoub, Dar al Aytam al Islamiyyah, Amel, Bayt Hassad of Bayt al Moulouk, the Development of People and Nature Association, al Mabarrat, the Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Habbaryeh, Aghssan Association in Deir Mimas in addition to some exhibitors from the private sector.

Source: Almustaqbal, Annahar

The Ministry of Agriculture organized, in collaboration with the FAO, an event at the UNESCO to celebrate the World Food Day.  The slogan of the event was "Rural Cooperatives Feed the World" and sought to highlight the important role that rural cooperatives play in developing and strengthening the agricultural sector.  The event was held under the auspices of the President of the Republic, General Michel Suleiman who noted that the contribution of agriculture to the GDP has increased from 5% to 6.5% this year indicating that "farmers now need to resort to cooperatives so that they can secure markets especially in the era of globalisation".

The Minister of Agriculture, Hussein Hage Hassan, highlighted the continuous support that the government extends to the agricultural sector and which resulted in "a radical and structural development through the national strategy that was recently developed".   The Minister added that the Cabinet is about to modernise and issue a number of new laws and decrees that would develop the structure and capacity f the Ministry of Agriculture and will increase its budget from 41 billion LBP in 2009 to 102 billion LBP in 2013.  He also added that the total budget allocated to the agricultural sector will increase from 120 billion LBP to 320 billion LBP in addition to the launching of a number of new programmes in partnership with regional organisations and covered by grants and loans secured during the past year and which in total amounted to approximately 103 million dollars.

Hage Hassan further reiterated that "the Ministry has made leaps in working towards the objectives set in its strategy and which revolve around increasing the contribution of agriculture in the GDP, in providing employment opportunities especially for women and youth, increasing food security especially for strategic products while increasing food safety and finally decreasing the deficit in the agricultural and food trade balances.

Participants in the event also discussed the challenges in the work of agricultural cooperatives in Lebanon as the Minister revealed that he has scrapped some 400 non-operational cooperatives out of a total of 1300 licensed cooperatives.  He also added that the Ministry has developed a national strategy to support cooperative work and to convince local farmers that they can gain from engaging in cooperatives.  He added that the Ministry will secure incentives amounting to 3 billion LBP which will benefit some150 cooperatives across Lebanon.  Finally, Hage Hassan concluded by adding that "despite the fact that international organizations have invested significant amounts of money to support cooperative work, there is still a problem in operating and managing the heavy equipments which they acquired hence the intervention of the Ministry in organising workshops to address the situation and strengthen the understanding and culture of cooperative work amongst farmers.

Source: As Safir, An Nahar and Al Mustaqbal

On the occasion of the international day for mitigating risks from disaster and which was dedicated this year to gender equality, As Safir newspaper published a report by Fadi Hamdan, the director of the Centre for Disaster Management focusing on the gendered impact of risks resulting from disasters.  Hamdan concluded in his study report that risk reduction needs to take gender differences into consideration.
According to the same study, the main causes for increased risks from disasters are poverty, environmental degradation, unregulated constructions and poor governance. The study indicated the need to assess the impact of each of these causes and the ways in which their impact is gendered so that we are able to develop an appropriate risk mitigation policy and suggest solutions.
Two key causes were addressed in details namely rapid and unregulated construction which impact poor women and men and environmental degradation which greatly affects agriculture. The study indicated that losses in harvests lead to increasing poverty and unemployment within the agricultural sector with a particularly harsher impact on women. Indeed, and according to the national study of the level of household livelihoods of 2007 which was published by the Ministry of Social Affairs and the UNDP, the agricultural sector secures 4.6 % of employment for the total of 8.1% of women out of the total 7.2% of the labor force.
Since disaster risk management policies often focus on specific economic sectors, there is a serious threat that women's real role is overlooked in such policies especially in the case of women who are considered to be outside the mainstream job market.  In Beirut for instance, 13% of poor women are recognized as "working", 7.1% are considered to be unemployed and 79.3% are considered to be outside the job market.

In the North, 5.6% of poor women are recognized as "working", 0.21% are considered to be unemployed and 94.2% as being outside the job market.  The figures for South Lebanon are 7.9%, 2.3% and 89.8% respectively.
Women considered to be outside the job market are accounted to as follows by Mohafazat:
65.5% in Beirut
76.4% in Mount Lebanon
88.4% in the North
89.8% in the Bekaa
82.6% in South Lebanon
80.3% in Nabatyen
and 79.9% as an aggregate figure for Lebanon

Hamdan indicated that disaster mitigation policies should take into consideration the capacities of communities as a whole including women who constitute 50% of all communities.  

He suggested a number of interventions that take gender into consideration, namely:

• Consider disaster mitigation as a national priority and ensure that policies and national strategies take into consideration the gendered impact of disasters and rely on the capacities of women
• Identify, evaluate and monitor risks and consolidate early warning mechanisms: identify gaps, evaluate the gendered risks and use communication policies which are able to target and reach all women
• Raising awareness, education and training on mitigating risks resulting from disasters: developing national awareness raising policies which take gender into consideration and build up teams able to identify women and men who are at risk and how to reach out to them
• Mitigating risks in key sectors: ensure that policies aiming at securing continuity of work include strategies to ensure the continuity of women-headed small and medium enterprises
• Consolidate readiness and response to disasters: identify appropriate partners from civil and women organisations and build their capacities to respond to disasters

Source: Assafir

The "National Campaign for Women's Quota" held a press conference to launch its mobilisation plan to secure a minimum and transitory women's quota of 30% in the next legislative lections.
Former Minister Mona Ofeiche spoke on behalf of the Campaign and called on "all Lebanese women and men to join forces and agree on a unified position regarding this matter and take part in demonstrations and sit-ins as well as various awareness raising activities in all parts of Lebanon. She also called on women and civil organisations to strengthen their contacts with UN organisations for this matter and as a last resort use the white vote in case the 30% quota is not adopted. Ofeich indicated that the "women's quota seeks to realize equality as stipulated by clauses 7 and 9 of the constitution", and concluded by noting that "political participation is both a right and an obligation and we are already very late".  She addressed Lebanese women calling on them to "be mindful of their rights, to close ranks and support other women in their struggle for equality in political participation"
Source: Anahar,  Almoustakbal

Swiss Ambassador to Lebanon Rose Flint inaugurated yesterday, Thursday 11th of October, a training center for women of Saida. The center is targeting poor and displaced women, from all nationalities, who have difficulty finding work and will provide them with specialized training in computer work, nursing, math and entrepreneurial skills and other technical skills in the demand by the job market.
This center was set up in collaboration with the Danish Refugee Council and Forum of Palestinian Women in Lebanon. A study was carried out before hand to assess the needed skills in the job market. The study surveyed 1,239 women in Sidon and found that professionalism and life skills are what employers seek in job candidates. It also indicated that the market is over saturated with typical women occupations such as beautician, hairdresser and caterer and that there is a clear demand for accounting, health and business skills. (The Daily Star)
 

Al-Hayat newspaper carried a report about tobacco growing in Lebanon and the main problems faced by the farmers especially at a time when Lebanese tobacco growing families are getting ready to deliver their crops to the “REGIE LIBANAISE des TABACS et TOMBACS,” the official Lebanese monopoly of tobacco products.
The newspaper indicated that around 25,000 Lebanese families are making a living from tobacco growing according to sources of the “Regie” company. These families normally include people from both sexes and from all age groups and work very hard in handling the crops. However they suffer from some serious problems such as the total lack of governmental support when it comes to provision of fertilizers and pesticides in addition to lack of health insurance, thus placing families at severe risks in case any of their members falls sick especially since they are unable to get reimbursed for medical bills.
The newspaper added that the new young generation is shying away from working in tobacco growing, thus forcing older male and female farmers to bear the additional financial burden of hiring foreign workers in order to plant and harvest the crops. This has resulted in the rise of production cost and thus farmers end up making around only USD 2,500 per year, i.e. just USD 208 US per month.
The newspaper suggested several alternatives for farmers of South Lebanon such as the production of bamboo building on the experience of Kenya or organic food production as in the case of Bangladesh.

Source: Al-Hayat