UNDP and UNIDO have awarded over $1.5 million in grants to women-led businesses in Lebanon

BEIRUT — Fifty-one women-led Lebanese businesses were awarded grants worth thousands of dollars on Thursday, along with tailored support to help them scale their operations locally and abroad.

The awards were presented during the Lebanese Industry Expo held at Beirut’s Seaside Arena, which began on Oct. 29 and runs until Nov. 1, as part of the Women’s Economic Empowerment Project launched last March.

The project is being funded by the Government of Canada and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

Thursday’s awards bring the total value of grants disbursed and technical assistance provided under the project to $1.5 million, distributed among 96 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Lebanon.

The newly selected group of beneficiaries represents all regions of the country — Beirut, Mount Lebanon, the Bekaa, and North and South Lebanon. Their ventures, operating in the agro-food, cosmetics, and creative industries, “are expected to create new jobs, sustain family incomes and livelihoods, and unlock new market opportunities,” UNDP stated in a press release announcing the grants.

In the project’s first phase last March, UNDP and UNIDO allocated $706,000 in emergency assistance to support 45 women-led enterprises, helping them “sustain production, improve quality, enhance market access, and protect livelihoods after recent hostilities,” the press release added.

“The ultimate objective of the project is to support more than 1,000 women-led businesses in accessing the needed services to grow and expand,” the statement further noted.

Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) account for roughly 90 percent of Lebanon’s economy and “remain the backbone of local livelihoods.” Yet women-led businesses have been “among the hardest hit by the country’s overlapping crises,” UNDP noted, “with the 2024 war forcing many to suspend operations and, in the hardest-hit areas, close entirely.”