On Tuesday, April 12, 2022, the 2 sub-grantees of MoreThanAJob in Lebanon: PHI Group represented by Mr. Rodolphe Saadeh, and Common Effort represented by Ms. Yara Ayoub in the presence of Business Consultancy and Training Services (BCTS), the Lebanese partner of MoreThanAJob project, represented by Dr. Wafaa Haidamous, signed a Memorandum of Understanding  (MoU) with the Ministry of Social Affairs represented by the Minister Dr. Hector El Hajjar and his advisor Dr. Pierre Baz. The partnership will focus on promoting sustainable economic growth and boosting employment opportunities in Lebanon.

This MoU aims at providing a cooperation framework in which all parties shall collaborate in areas of common interest related to social and economic resilience in deprived areas in Lebanon. Through this agreement, the Ministry of Social Affairs will play an active role in implementing the 2 sub-grantees’ projects in Lebanon aiming at improving welfare and social services for vulnerable groups to increase their opportunities of social and labour inclusion.

The MoU brings PHI Group, Common Effort and the Ministry of Social Affairs in Lebanon together to work on several initiatives, including supporting vulnerable women and girls as well as under-skilled workers from different rural areas. The collaboration will cut across policy, institutional, and individual levels to support the target groups and their small businesses and start-ups needed for employment generation in Lebanon today.

The Ministry of Social Affairs will be an integral part of the implementation process through bolstering its efforts to achieve the following particular goals of the two projects:

• Enhancing the psychosocial wellbeing of vulnerable women from the most deprived areas of Lebanon through Peer-to-Peer (P2P).
• Strengthening economic resilience of decentralized sector-focused on women clusters through social business development workshops.
• Fostering efficient dialogue, cooperation, and synergies between emerging social initiatives and relevant private and public sector stakeholders.
• Improving Laborer’s health and safety conditions through awareness sessions.
• Improving workers’ skills and increasing their accessibility to decent work opportunities.

Keep following us on the project website and on our social channels (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) to find out more about the local initiatives of MoreThanAJob.