In Lebanon, USAID will inaugurate a new youth soccer facility created through its Municipal Capacity Building and Service Delivery Program. The inauguration ceremony for the new youth mini-soccer court will be held in Jdeydet Al-Aytaa in Akkar, North Lebanon. Funded by USAID, this initiative created several local jobs and is expected to generate over $9,500 profit for the municipality, which they will then use for additional development work in the village. The municipality provided the land and built a retaining wall on the border of the plot as their contribution to the effort.
Also in Lebanon this week, USAID will hold workshops in Tripoli, Beirut, and Zahle on improving the regulatory environment in Lebanon by building private sector capacity for regulatory impact assessments (RIAs). These workshops, held under the program to support Lebanon’s accession to the World Trade Organization are part of an overall private sector capacity building effort to support Lebanon’s accession. The aim of an RIA is to assess the impact of newly developed laws in order to improve them and achieve better regulations.
In Georgia, we will open up a new Agriculture Mechanization Service Center. As part of the U.S. Government’s pledge to assist the people of Georgia following their war, the Access to Mechanization Project is funding the development of up to 25 privately-owned machinery service centers throughout Georgia which will increase access to machinery services for small farmers, leading to increased agricultural sector productivity, competitiveness, and profitability. The service centers are expected to create up to 225 new jobs, provide services to 14,000 small farmers, and increase agricultural revenues by $10 million.
