News updates

The Arab world is facing a critical challenge as it needs to secure some 80 million jobs by 2020 (does this and the following figure include women as well?-Ed. note).  Indeed, one of every Arab youth (men and women?) is unemployed thus scoring one of the highest regional unemployment rates worldwide according to the report released by the Arab Thought Foundation (ATF) which was launched during its annual conference, “Fikr 12” held on the 4th and 5th of December 2013.
The report entitled “Enabling Job Creation in the Arab World: A Role for Regional Integration?” was produced by the Arab Thought Foundation in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) with the support of Human Resources Development Fund  The report emphasizes that the missed opportunity cost of youth unemployment in the Arab world amounts to USD 50 billion per year.
The report is based on data collected between July and September 2013 by Waterhouse Coopers from 350 individuals in 20 Arab countries in addition to a number of in-depth interviews conducted with selected individuals between the end of October and early November 2013.  The study showed that some 65% of the sample expected the economy of the region to improve during 2014, whilst 97% consider that education is the key factor in addressing unemployment amongst the youth.  The report also showed that economic complementarity amongst the Arab countries is week and interviewees had little hope that this will improve in the near future.
Some 91% of those interviewed indicated that private entrepreneurship is the main engine for creating employment.  The report further affirms that small and medium enterprises contribute to a healthy economic growth as they tend to result in the employment of significant number of people compared to large enterprises.  The report went on to stress that government and multi-national companies in the region cannot alone secure all the employment opportunities needed.  In addition, the study indicated that young people do not wish to work in low paid jobs of the private sector and particularly the services sector.  It went on to conclude that resolving the current unemployment problem in the region will necessitate a radical change in cultural values.
It is to be note that the study covered the following countries: Algeria, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Oman, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestinian Territories, Somalia, and Tunisia.
Source: Al-Diyar 8 January 2014

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was exchanged yesterday between the Pearl Initiative represented by its executive director, Ms. Imelda Dunlop and the Sharjah Business Women Council represented by its Chairperson H.E. Amira Bin Karam. The aim of this Memorandum is to strengthen women’s leadership role in the Gulf region through encouraging women to take on leadership position as well as take part in Councils and Boards of companies active in the region.  A number of joint programmes will be initiated as per the stipulation of this Memorandum, in addition to the undertaking of a study to assess the current role of women in the higher echelons of the public sector and their level of participation in leadership in the region.  The Memorandum also involves the development of a contemporary vision, providing support to stronger dialogue amongst leaders in the business community, academic circles, the investment community and the media for the purpose of encouraging diversity in board councils as well as improving processes of strategic decision making and strengthening competitiveness. The project also aims at introducing business leaders to practical initiatives that can support women’s access to higher management levels in the Gulf countries as well as in the Arab world at large.
Source: Al-Hayat 8 January 2014

Al Mustaqbal newspaper published a report on the planting of vegetables and greens in Akkar and which became a big burden on both small and large farmers as well as on seasonal land leases.  Farmers point out to a long list of challenges and hurdles namely the cost of production, the unfair conditions imposed by “middle men” (namely their commission charge), growing debts, competition from similar products brought in illegally from others countries, uninhibited monopoly control exercised by the “mafia merchants” of seeds and chemicals, aside from the unsuccessful attempts at marketing.  Challenges also include negative fallbacks from the deteriorating security situation, developing Syrian crisis over the past two years, the closing of official borders and the increased practice of road blocking.
The president of the farmers’ syndicate in North Lebanon, Ali al Ali, notes in his description of the situation of the past two years that there is a steady return to household agriculture in order to save cost as well and with the absence of good quality products.  He adds that commercial companies that import seeds insist on importing specific kinds which they say are more resistant to disease.  He also accused the latter to of spreading false rumors on non existing diseases so as to block the importing of specific kinds of seeds that are common regionally and internationally.  He noted that these practices are continuing despite lab tests that do not support their claims.  The real problem resides in the unbalanced nature of the relation existing between the farmers and the intermediaries with the latter putting pressure to control production and marketing.  Al Ali referred to the Arab Agreement for Facilitation and Promotion of Trade among Member Countries which supposedly lifted commercial trade barriers between Arab countries but without standardizing customs procedures and rules as well as subsidies systems. This situation has had negative affects on agriculture in Akkar notably the greenhouse sector whose farmers suffer most from poor social and economic conditions and from unfavorable prices.
One of the vegetable growers in Akkar, Samir Kheshfeh, noted that farmers are constantly in a battle from one season to another in an attempt to compensate their losses especially from planting vegetables and greens which are presumably less costly than others and do not necessitate high maintenance.  This has in effect caused a supply deficit of the most commonly consumed vegetables in the Lebanese cuisine and the rise of their prices as indicated in the price lists in the markets in Halba and its vicinity, which is considered a key indicator of the vegetable markets across the North.  According to Kheshfeh, the solution resides in circumventing the middlemen, and in developing strong and direct relations between the farmer and the consumer through agricultural cooperatives.  He also noted the importance of operating the new Saad Hariri market in Abdeh which would result in decreasing transportation and other logistical costs.
Source: Al-Mustaqbal 7 January 2014

The Minister of Agriculture affirmed that support and protection are the only two means to ensure the development of rural areas through supporting small landholders who constitute 70 to 80% of farmers most of whom are women and who suffer from high production costs.  The Minister added that some 200,000 families directly depend on agriculture for their livelihoods whilst 40,000 others depend indirectly on this sector.
Hajj Hassan was speaking during a twelfth consultation meeting of ICARDA and LARI and which was held last week in Ryak under his auspices.  The general director of LARI, Dr. Michel Efram, outlined the progress of the joint projects between LARI and ICARDA and which aim at addressing the challenges related to food, poverty, rural development, agriculture, and the consequences of climate change, namely poor rainfalls, desertification, increased pests and diseases.
On a related matter, the Minister of Agriculture is organizing next Tuesday January 14th at the Ministry of Agriculture a press conference in collaboration with the General Manager of IDAL, to review the results of the AGRI PLUS project for 2013.  To be noted that the Cabinet has endorsed in 2011 the resumption of the work of AGRI PLUS and had set the objectives to be achieved namely in terms of increasing competitiveness of Lebanese agricultural products through improving production and marketing.  The Cabinet allocated for that purposes a budget of 50 billion pounds to that effect.  That decision was taken in reverse to a previous one taken by the preceding government which in effect aborted the work of the Export Plus programme.
Source: Al-Safir 7 January 2013

The current Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Hussein Hajj Hassan, organised a press conference last Friday during which he presented the achievements of the Telefood programme in 2012-2013. The Minister also highlighted the project’s ways of working whilst noting the importance of facilitating interaction between organisations, cooperatives and beneficiaries of the programme in order to achieve better coordination and complementarity in the different types of assistance provided by his Ministry through its various departments and its cooperatives directorate.
Haj Hassan noted that the Telefood programme is one form of combating terrorism through resilience and through steadfastness and the will to survive and rebuild.  The Minister noted that 90% of the funded projects were meeting their set objectives.  He also added that 18 projects benefited from this initiative in 2013 and received the equivalent of USD 100,338.  The Minister clarified that the Telefood project targets rural women cooperatives and organisations that cater for the poor and for women through financing their small project.  The project is implemented by a joint committee including representatives of the FAO and of the Ministry of Agriculture and with funding from the FAO. Thus far the project has secured a total of USD 450,000, throughout its lifespan, that were used to finance 60 projects since 1997 with an average of USD 5,000 per project.
Finally, Haj Hassan listed the rural women cooperatives involved in food processing which benefited from this project namely Akkarouna Cooperative in Alburj- Akkar (20 women members), Chmestar Cooperative in Chmestar – Baalback, (15 women members), Zadet Al-Khayrat in Bednayel – Baalback, (20 women members), as well as Saint Joseph Monastery for nuns and elderly in Jrebta – Batroun that benefited form the beekeeping and honey making component and finally Sharq Cooperative in Ainata – Bint Jbeil (45 members of which 15 women) which benefited from the fruit, vegetable and irrigation component.
Source: Al-Nahar, Al-Safir, Al-Diyar 7 January 2014

An Nahar newspaper published an interview with Sheikha Hossa, the daughter of the late Kuwaiti Emir Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salim Al-Sabah who has been recently appointed President of the Femmes Chefs d'Entreprises Mondiales-(FCEM) and theGoodwill Ambassador to the MENA region in the international organization in addition to her usual post as President of the Arab Businesswomen Council and is listed on the Arabian Business website amongst the 100 most women (ranking 16th).
Sheikha Hossa notes in her interview that Lebanon is not officially represented in the Arab Business Women Council and is not listed on the agenda of the council given that it could not agree on its representation, because of the prevailing political and confessional divergences in the country.
Hossa noted that the Arab Business Women Council was set up to foster collaboration amongst business women in Arab countries and to assist them in economic self achievement as well as to secure financing for their projects.  The Council finances small and medium those enterprises engaged in handicrafts and agricultural work, and seeks to promote the products of such businesses in local and Arab markets  and that is, provided that the benefiting women register in the chambers of commerce of their respective country as business women.
Source: Al-Nahar 3 January 2014

The President of the Association of Lebanese Farmers, Antoine Hoayek, noted in a statement issued yesterday that the Ministry of Agriculture has failed over the last three years in resolving the problems of the agricultural sector.  Hoayek pointed out to the recommendations of the social and economic forum which was organised in February 2009 by the European Union in order to develop a strategy for the agriculture sector in Lebanon, and which included: the setting up of a proper mechanisms for agricultural lending, reviewing the law pertaining to the National Fund for Agricultural Development, adopting insurance programmes to protect harvests in case of emergencies and natural disasters and, finally, separating the chamber of agriculture from the chambers of commerce and industry.  Hoayek further noted that these demands were included in the 2009 ministerial statement but were later disregarded. Hence farmers were not issued special IDs and were not registered, as a first step towards their inclusion in the social security funds.  Furthermore, the Ministry failed to register their agricultural vehicles as private vehicles.  In addition, no mapping was made of agricultural property and investments so that these can be insured against natural disasters.  Finally, farmers’ access to loans and credits was not facilitated and no regulation of land usage was made.
Hoayek further added that the Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute (LARI) was a total failure and has not been able to provide proper weather forecast which has caused severe damage to the sector.  According to Hoayek, LARI has disregarded its key role as an early warning center to prevent against weather disasters hence causing serious damages to farmers. He went on to complain that the Institute did not properly react to disasters and that LARI staff members were not held accountable for their negligence or misuse of their positions.
Source: Al-Nahar, Al-Diyar 3 January 2014

The Union of Arab banks UoAB exchanged with the World Bank a memorandum of understanding which provides the UoAB with the remit to carry out an new assessment of micro, small and medium financial enterprises in the Arab world and so as to develop specific standards for financial institutions wishing to receive subsidized loans from the World Bank.  This assessment will also aim to identify new economic and banking structures as well as to develop existing institutions that support small and medium enterprises which should ultimately create new employment opportunities and address unemployment.
Within the same vein, the general secretary of UoAB, Mr. Wissam Fattouh clarified that this project comes after three years of undergoing the first assessment which responded to the key recommendations of the World Bank used for financing Arab countries.  He noted that this new study will focus on how to finance small and micro enterprises, new enterprises, particularly enterprises run by women, as well as enterprises located in rural areas.  The study also looks at ways for ensuring collaboration of governments in supporting projects in rural areas as well as the provision of technical support by banking institutions.  
Source: Al-Nahar 31 December 2013

Grameen – Jameel fund recently provided loans totaling USD 2 million to micro-finance institutions divided equally between the Microfund for Women (MFW) in Jordan and al Majmooa in Lebanon.  This new contribution is intended to support both organisations in increasing their spread and reach and higher number of loans in both countries as well as increasing the size of micro finance in the Middle East and North Africa region.  This new financial input from Grameen – Jameel is an important step that will increase the microfinance portfolio of both organisations and hence will allow access to loans to more than 3500 needy families in Jordan and Lebanon.  
To be noted that the Grameen fund enjoys a strategic partnership with Al Majmooa since 2007, thus enabling Majmooa to provide  financing, training and technical assistance in various vital aspects such as ICT, human resources and products development.
Source: Al-Nahar 31 December 2013

The President of the Lebanese Franchise Association Charles Arbeed revealed that economic figures for 2013 show a 25% decline in the commercial sector and a 35% decline in the tourism sector.  The construction sector which is considered to be a key economic indicator has shown a decline of 17%.  This is the overall situation of most economic indicators as shared last week during a seminar entitled the Economic Round up for 2013 and which was held at the Press Club in Furn Al-Chebbak. Arbeed attributed the reasons for the sluggish economic situation to the poor political situation in Lebanon as well as the security outbursts.  He noted the necessity of declaring a national economic emergency and the need for employers and traders to take on necessary steps to improve the situation in 2014.
Arbeed further added that the poor performance of the economy was concomitant with a 20% population increase as a result of the influx of displaced Syrians against a growth rate of less then 1% which Arbeed described as catastrophic.  Finally, he urged officials to inform the population of the real situation and to take on the necessary measures to redress it.
Source: Al-Diyar 28 December 2013