FAO helps Syrian rural women boost their processed food production with a voucher scheme

FAO in the Syrian Arab Republic has enhanced rural women’s skills to become more efficient producers by empowering their food production skills, business management, and supporting the establishment of a number of food processing units under the management of female leaders in local communities. Moreover, the Organization has also reached out to women who would opt to produce and promote their products independently to their customers. These women are currently struggling to access productive assets as a result of inflation and high prices. Through the Smallholder Support Program (SSP), FAO has supported these women with allocated value vouchers to purchase operational materials for their micro-businesses. It comes as a response to the continued inflation in markets’ prices and disruption of supply chains, which caused a dire limitation to access the needed inputs for production. To date, FAO’s voucher scheme provided more than 740 women with the opportunity to bridge the gaps in their production process depending on their needs.