Lebanon Enterprise Development (LED) Project Grants Annual Program Statement (APS) No.02 Amendment 03 / 2020-2021 Funding Round

Lebanon Enterprise Development (LED) is a 5-year (October 2017-September 2022) project funded by USAID. LED’s goal is to increase private sector jobs for Lebanese citizens.

The objective of this grant program is to complement LED’s aim of supporting local enterprise growth as a pathway to creating jobs for Lebanese citizens by leveraging the ideas, knowledge, skills, and resources of local organizations. The outcomes achieved by LED’s grantees will enhance LED’s overall impact on the Lebanese economy or help LED to understand it’s impact on assisted enterprises and/or the sectors in which they operate or on a learning topic related to LED’s work.

LED invites private not-for-profit and for-profit associations, syndicates, cooperatives, universities or private enterprises to propose activities they wish to implement with LED grant funding.

As noted above, LED’s grants are to support activities in three primary areas as follows:

1.  Entreprise or Industry/Sector Competitiveness :While taking into consideration the current economic and financial challenges confronting Lebanon’s private sector, grant activities should result in improved business performance for individual firms or groups of firms, especially those that are exporting or able to export; producing locally previously imported goods or services (import substitution); or serving growing local market niches. Preferred grant activities are those that address economic challenges faced by groups of enterprises rather than single firms.

1. Improved Business Enabling Environment: Grants shall address policy, regulatory, or administrative constraints to doing business that will reduce the cost of doing business, increase investment, or have other beneficial impacts, thereby accelerating private sector growth and job creation.

1. LED learning: Grants shall cover the design and implementation of a “learning project” to understanding LED’s impact on assisted enterprises and/or the sectors in which they operate or on a learning topic related to LED’s work.

Total available funding for all awards is $114,000. LED expects to make up to 3 awards. Individual awards are not expected to exceed $55,000. The maximum duration of any grant is 7-months.