Small Ruminants Investment and Graduating Households in Transition Project

The small ruminant sector in Jordan faces several challenges, including water scarcity, feed shortage and degraded rangelands. Many communities in this sector are also hosting Syrian refugees. Both the host communities and the refugee populations frequently struggle with poverty – yet many have the potential to graduate out of it.

This project aims to reduce poverty and enhance national food security by improving the productivity of the small ruminant sector. It is also intended to assist Syrian refugees and host communities in graduating out of poverty through access to productive assets and the skills to invest in a sustainable source of livelihood that they could not afford otherwise.

The project's activities are organized into two components:

1. Investment in farmer services to strengthen the complementary public and private services offered to small ruminants producers, thanks also to the establishment of a National Agriculture Advisory Group for policy dialogue.
2. Livelihood investments and access to financial services, through grant-based income-generating packages for on- and off-farm enterprises as well as through lending facilities for rural businesses.

The project is implemented in the six northern and central governorates of Ajloun, Irbid, Jerash, Madaba, Mafraq and the outskirts of Amman. The primary target groups include some 11,920 households (or 57,216 individuals) among vulnerable smallholder livestock farmers. Additionally, the project supports 2,025 Syrian refugee households and 1,625 households from vulnerable host communities.