Project Objectives

1. The project, launched in 1996 in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, aims to improve the socio-economic situation of the rural population in the coastal areas/midlands of Syria by enhancing agricultural productivity. The project area covers 2 300 square kilometres in the districts of Hama, Homs, Lattakia and Tartous, and it includes 511 villages, with a total population of about 580 000.

Specific project goals include:

• improving livelihoods through land reclamation and enhanced agricultural methods;
• increasing productivity by introducing crop farming and fruit tree cultivation on de-rocked land;
• strengthening existing extension services and livestock resources;
• improving water supply in dry areas, and water use and conservation in areas where natural sources are present;
• integrating women into the development process;
• offering rural women access to a variety of services, including literacy training, vocational training (specifically in health care, handicrafts and food processing), and training in setting up and managing small businesses; and
• increasing beneficiary participation in local decision-making institutions

Social and Economic Situation of Rural Households in the Project Area

2. Nuclear families represent 76% of households in the project area, while extended families represent only 24%, with an average of 9-10 members per household. About 53% of men and 59% of women are between 16 and 60 years old, i.e. of working age. However, up to 75% of men and 74% of women are below the age of 30.

3. Some 63% of households own private land, while 17% rent it and 13% are landless. Due to inheritance patterns, holdings are often fragmented into sizes that do not support subsistence. On average, holdings in the project area are between 2 and 7 hectares.

4. Agricultural work tends to involve all household members to a varying degree, with women participating in all activities alongside their husbands or men relatives. However, animal husbandry is almost exclusively the domain of women, while the marketing of women’s products (including livestock) remains the prerogative of men.

Rural Credit

5. Rural credit was not a stand-alone component at project design. Project management later included it as a separate component because of its crucial impact on rural household income.

The goals of the rural credit component include:

• increasing household income by helping rural households set up small income-generating projects;
• created employment opportunities and reducing unemployment rates, thereby stimulating greater economic dynamism to the benefit of both the local population and the economy as a whole; and
• strengthening beneficiary capacities.

6. The project has reached local communities through socio-economic studies, existing extension units, mobilization activities such as meetings and field days, and individual encounters with local farmers.

7. Women’s participation in project activities has generally been accepted by both men and women in the target households, which has meant that efforts to reach women have not encountered particular obstacles or constraints. Two factors that initially contributed to this attitude were the deteriorating household income levels and the widely felt need to find income-enhancing strategies that would benefit the entire household, irrespective of gender. In other words, local communities perceived economic need as a sufficient rationale for seeking new ways to enable women to increase household income. The project therefore decided to facilitate women’s participation through its credit component, rather than through awareness-raising and other measures that were perceived as being less necessary in this specific project area.

Relevant credit measures included:

• diversifying loan types based on the rural community’s needs and preferences in each locality;
• lowering interest rates for farm loans, based on government policy;
• implementing special facilitating measures for members of rural cooperatives and groups, such as reduced interest rates and relaxed loan guarantees;
• relaxing guarantee requirements for women borrowers;
• using flexible loan mechanisms adapted as far as possible to the needs and characteristics of the region;
• providing skills training to both men and women farmers, and training women in the establishment and management of small businesses;
• raising the loan ceiling for credit used for land reclamation;
• examining new types of loans and services that could be introduced to meet specific beneficiary needs;
• establishing loan conditions that guarantee that borrowers intend to use loans for productive investment and are in a position to do so, thus securing timely repayment and real income-enhancing impact; and
• making loans to women on a medium-term basis, with payments generally due within five years of the date of loan disbursement.

8. The main constraint women faced in accessing rural financial services was the lack of land collateral since most women in the project area do not own land. The project addressed this problem by relaxing collateral requirements in favour of recourse to two men guarantors for each woman borrower. Since problems in marketing microenterprise products were also considered likely, the project recommended a greater focus on training in small-business management.
Positive Impact of the Credit Component on Men and Women Beneficiaries

9. Between early 2000 and end 2001, the project granted 1 172 loans, of which 522 were given to men farmers and 650 to women. The vast majority of these loans were issued for livestock (cows, hens, sheep, bees), although a significant number were for the purchase of sewing or knitting machines.

The project’s most important achievements in relation to its credit component were to:

• create income-generating activities for rural households;
• reduce unemployment among young people, especially those who had not completed their studies;
• achieve household self-sufficiency through on- and off-farm production, depending on the type of loan;
• increase household income, encouraging household financial self-sufficiency; and
• foster rural women’s economic independence and increase their confidence in their ability to manage small enterprises alongside men.