Third phase of the project to empower local communities which benefited 500 women

The third phase of the Community Empowerment and Livelihoods Enhancement Project (CELEP) implemented by UNIDO and the Italian Institute for Academic Collaboration with funding from the Italian Embassy was launched yesterday during an event held in Beirut under the auspices of the Ministries of Agriculture and Industry.  This new phase of the project aims at supporting the manufacturing capacities of small and medium enterprises and agricultural cooperatives (CELEP III) thus at increasing their competitiveness, improving the quality of production and increasing local and international sales.  This process will also result in creating new job opportunities and better development prospects.
The event included a display of the results of phases I and II, which showed that the project helped in improving the conditions of rural outfits especially in incentivizing women to work as 1700 persons benefited from training of whom, 500 are women.  The results also showed that 53 institutions and 17 cooperatives were supported during a 48 months period, where support included provision of construction work, new technology and equipment as 188 industrial equipments were donated in addition to rehabilitating 17 institutions. All these interventions have resulted in increasing the number of workers employed in these production enterprises.  A study on work opportunities was also carried out in August 2014 and showed that 3000 families have benefited from the project activities.  By the end of the event, representatives of the Ministries of Agriculture and Industry as well as UNIDO and the Italian Embassy gave a second presentation about the expected results and impact of the third phase of the project.  The event also included an exhibition of industrial goods produced by the beneficiaries of the first two phases of the project.
Source: Al-Safir, Al-Diyar, 30 October 2014