Fostering Resilience by Strengthening Abilities (FORSA)

The 'Fostering Resilience by Strengthening Abilities (FORSA), is a €4,500,000 integrated programme designed to reduce inter-communal tensions between Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians by alleviating competition over livelihoods. FORSA will expand employment and economic opportunities for both individuals and businesses and improve the function of Public and Private TVET centres in Zahle, West Bekaa, Chouf, Jezzine and Saida. All of Lebanon’s major religious sects and political affiliations are represented in the target area, which includes or is bounded by three major metropolitan hubs and economic centres, including Saida, Zahle and Beirut. The overall objective of FORSA is to improve economic confidence and stability by creating equitable economic and employment opportunities for target communities in Lebanon. To do this FORSA will focus on addressing constraints to employment due to mismatched or missing labour skills, lack of social trust, political restrictions on employment, poor business management capacity and the poor capacity of vocational training institutions within the agriculture, manufacturing, services and energy sectors in Lebanon by: 1) Improving access to employment opportunities through market-led skills training courses; 2) Supporting micro and small business creation for vulnerable groups and graduated trainees through specialized training and technical assistance; 3) Building the technical capacity of both private and government-run vocational and professional training centres to provide sustainable high-quality training programmes.