Lebanon Business Linkages Initiative

ACDI/VOCA implemented the Lebanon Business Linkages Initiative (LBLI), a $4,725,405 million project funded by USAID under the FIELD Leader with Associates program.

LBLI was a 3.2-year program based on two practical private sector concepts that improved livelihoods of small farmers and boosted the competitiveness of Lebanese agro-food processors by:

1. Using trust-building practices to foster commercial linkages between agricultural producers and market driver firms. These practices rapidly expanded market access, whether it was among small, medium-sized or large landholders, processors, exporters or retailers; and
2. Using value chain analysis to target project intervention points that produced positive impacts at all levels of the supply chain.

LBLI addressed economic growth and poverty reduction in Lebanon by working directly with the business sector facilitating technical assistance, and providing guidance on marketing and access to finance. It focused on strengthening the support framework in two Lebanese industries: agribusiness (primarily high-value foods) and tourism. The project partnered with private sector support organizations to achieve its three overarching objectives:

• Successful market access in target supply chains—LBLI carried out and supported efforts that expanded marketplace activity and trade options for Lebanese firms. Through association with the project, the firms became able to compete more effectively in target markets by developing more efficient and productive operations throughout their small-business supply chains
• Expanded economic growth opportunities in target sectors—LBLI developed and supported activities that resulted in economic growth strategies for target sectors and worked with and through key sector organizations to identify and develop programs through which they delivered improved services to members and increased their potential for institutional self-sufficiency
• Improved private sector capacity to drive economic growth—LBLI worked with and through private sector constituencies to identify and address weaknesses in the private sector framework that inhibited Lebanon’s ability to address political and religious differences by cooperating to turn comparative advantages into competitive propositions.

Project Achievements

LBLI supported market driver firms (MDFs) by facilitating communication with U.S. importers and Lebanese exporters/processors and providing guidance to MDFs on packaging and labeling, U.S. specialty food market requirements, sales sheets and brokering. This support has resulted in a $4.85 million increase in the value of international exports of targeted sector commodities. Through LBLI’s technical assistance and capacity building, Beyond Beirut has become an officially registered nongovernmental organization (NGO) with support from the Ministry of Tourism. Beyond Beirut aims to increase tourism traffic in rural Lebanon and stimulate public-private partnerships to support the tourism sector as well as promote responsible and sustainable rural tourism.

• LBLI provided assistance to producers in completing loan applications, developing business plans and determining appropriate collateral while at the same time coordinated with banks to develop producer-appropriate application forms in order to ease the application process. LBLI’s business advisor facilitated $300,000 in loans to producers for livestock raising and vegetable production.
• Tourism beneficiaries reported increases in sales in the local market attributed to LBLI support in developing packages with tour providers and developing a marketing strategy. Rida International reported a 22 percent increase in revenue which generated an economic impact of $379,611 in the tourism value chain.
• Through linkages to many new distribution channels, development of vertical and backward linkages, technical assistance on pre and post-harvest management and developing demonstration plots to introduce new varieties, LBLI facilitated an in increase in the value of domestic sales of targeted sector commodities of $6.01 million and assisted in developing over 523 linkages among various value chains in Lebanon.

ACDI/VOCA supports the efforts of industry groups to develop competitiveness strategies, identify solutions to business bottlenecks that constrain backward linkages, and encourage increased productivity and coordination.