Sahel Akkar and Wadi Khaled are two of the poorest clusters of villages in Akkar whose residents largely rely on agriculture for a living. Longstanding vulnerabilities in the area have been compounded by Lebanon’s ongoing socio-economic crisis and the devaluation of the national currency, especially for local farmers who can no longer afford to cover rising costs of production. This has severely stunted local livelihoods and has fueled growing communal tensions over limited income-generation opportunities. In response, USAID’s Community Support Program (CSP) and its local partner, the Renée Mouawad Foundation, are implementing an income-generating labor-intensive work (LIW) activity to provide short-term work opportunities for Lebanese residents to sustainably improve the lands and livelihoods of local farmers. On December 20, 2022, CSP kicked-off the works in the village of Tall Maayan (Sahel Akkar) with 110 participants, including 18 women, who are being paid to support 11 local farmers in cultivating, cleaning irrigation channels, and other maintenance and improvement works needed for their lands. Overall, this activity would support up to 254 vulnerable workers to purchase essential commodities, in addition to improving the cultivation process for around 50 local farmers in Sahel Akkar and Wadi Khaled. CSP expects to complete the intervention throughout all targeted villages by the end of January 2023.
“I have been unemployed and worried about the winter cold. Now, thanks to this opportunity with USAID/CSP, I will be able to buy warm clothes for my children and secure heating for our house,” stated Maguie Khaled Khwayled, LIW worker from Tall Maayan.