The Maymoune factory is a small, women-owned specialty producer of preserves, jam, rose water and pomegranate molasses that employs primarily disadvantaged women.

USAID

To strengthen micro-, small- and medium-sized businesses, USAID works with the private sector to identify and expand Lebanese businesses’ access to markets and link them with buyers. To do so, USAID adopts the value chain approach in which actors throughout the chain, such as suppliers of materials, farmers, food processors, bankers, food machinery suppliers, distributors and buyers come together to facilitate technical assistance, marketing guidance and access to finance. USAID assistance includes acting as an intermediary to facilitate connections between different actors in the value chain; offering technical support to micro-, small- and medium-sized business owners through trainings and links to external consultants; helping local participants to acquire certifications for their products; facilitating businesses’ entry into high-quality markets and access to finance.

Our impacts in this sector include:

• Over three years, the USAID Lebanon Business Linkages Initiative program facilitated more than 650 connections between farmers, packers, processors and distributors, who, as a result of the program, saw their domestic and international sales increase by $10 million.