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To mark the end of a year-long project dedicated to empowering women in rural communities through sustainable livelihood strategies, the Environment and Sustainable Development Unit (ESDU) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) organized a closing workshop. The outcomes of the project, entitled Climate-Smart Livelihoods Initiatives and Market Access Tailoring (CLIMAT), were presented to various attendees by honoring the women participants.
Throughout the workshop, attendees were introduced to the main achievements of the CLIMAT project and to plans of sustaining and scaling-up its results. The objective was to provide further support to rural communities in promoting climate-smart practices. A farmers' market was also held at AUB's Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences (FAFS) courtyard where the women who had taken part in the project displayed their products.
The event was held at FAFS, in the presence of the Minister of State for Economic Empowerment of Women and Youth Violette Safadi; World Food Programme country director and representative, Abdallah Alwardat; representatives of North-East Baalbek and West Bekaa municipalities; Dean of FAFS, Dr. Rabih Mohtar; director general of cooperatives at the Ministry of Agriculture, Gloria Abou Zeid; president of Lebanese League for Women in Business (LLWB), Asmahan Zein; as well as ESDU's CLIMAT partner, Cooperation without Borders.
About the CLIMAT project
CLIMAT is a one-year project implemented by AUB ESDU in partnership with Cooperation without Borders and funded by the German Cooperation under the World Food Programme's “Enhancing the livelihoods of Syrian refugees and vulnerable Lebanese host communities through Food for Training" program. CLIMAT built the capacities of more than 800 women, youth, and farmers – individual or agricultural cooperative – on sustainable agricultural practices and climate-smart food processing. Beneficiaries also received material support and market linkages were created. CLIMAT tackled three value chains: small ruminant production (wool and carpet production, dairy processing, and herd/pasture management); alternative and climate-smart agricultural crop production; and agro-food processing.