Building Resilience of Syrians under Temporary Protection and Host Communities in Turkey through Supporting Socio-Economic Integration and Creating Livelihood Opportunities

The Kick-Off Meeting and Implementation Workshop will be organized by FAO under the project "Building the Resilience of Syrians under Temporary Protection and Host Communities in Turkey by Supporting Socio-Economic Integration and Creating Livelihood Opportunities", which is financed by the European Union and implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Family and Labour and Social Services, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and the Union of Turkish Agricultural Chambers.

The project aims to strengthen the community resilience and socio-economic integration of Syrians under Temporary Protection (SuTP) and vulnerable host communities in Turkey, specifically in Adana, Bursa, Gaziantep, Hatay, İzmir, Kahramanmaraş, Kilis, Manisa, Şanlıurfa and Van. In this context, certified vocational training courses will be organized on crop production, livestock and food sectors for 3 000 SuTP and host community members. After the training courses, graduates and potential employers seeking skilled employees will be brought together at Job Fairs.

Moreover, the project will transfer knowledge and skills in new and improved climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies and practices to 1 500 smallholder farmers through group-based, market-led and participatory learning approaches, as well as through FAO Farmer Field Schools (FFS), with a view to increasing their production and boosting employment. FFS participants will also receive agricultural tools and input packages necessary for testing and learning the technologies and practices of their choice. This intervention also provides an opportunity for 1 500 SuTP to gain short-term employment through “cash-for-work-plus (CfW+)” to support participating farmers and their communities in land development activities (i.e. tree planting (agro-forestry), land levelling, soil and water conservation measures, terracing, water harvesting, rehabilitation of irrigation channels and fish ponds, etc.).

The project will establish agriculture employment bureaus in targeted provinces. The bureaus will facilitate the employment of successful graduates of the vocational training courses and provide skilled labour to local producers and agri-food industries by acting as a contact point between employers and workers.

The activity will also seek to capitalize on existing entrepreneurial initiatives, expand and increase their production, and thus generate employment. To this end, a grant scheme is envisaged for approximately 250 micro-scale entrepreneurial activities (up to EUR 2 190) and 50 small-scale activities (up to EUR 10 951).

A pilot social insurance scheme will facilitate the access of beneficiaries to social insurance by stimulating demand and supply of services. The project will provide a subsidy to pay for the first three months of employed beneficiaries’ insurance premiums.