The project “Supporting the Creation of Small Businesses and Strengthening the Livelihoods of Returnees in Kikla” funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) seeks to strengthen livelihoods through asset recovery for households and potential entrepreneurs who have lost means of conducting business as a result of conflict. The project aims to assist a minimum of 80 households in Kikla to create or re-establish their small businesses through providing trainings on entrepreneurship and in-kind assistance.

Following an initial Kick-off with UNDP, Moomken conducted a Rapid Livelihoods Assessment in Kikla, which provided the project with actionable data and findings generated at the local level in order to inform the project’s overall implementation strategy and training and learning materials. Moomken’s team collected data through several means, including surveys and focus group discussions (FGDs) with community members and a variety of other stakeholders.

In order to publicize and gain local support for this initiative, Moomken began conducting a media campaign under name “Kikla Bena W Lina” – ككلة بينا ولينا””. The campaign used untraditional tools and methods to reach community members and potential beneficiaries, such as a door-to-door campaign where Moomken volunteers visited homes from villages far from center of the city to explain the objectives of the campaign and how to apply to participate in the program and asset recovery grants. As a result of Moomken’s outreach, this project received 380 applications, well over the target of 120.

As a critical step to prepare for upcoming Business Trainings, Moomken conducted a 14-day ToT for ten selected future trainers from December 21 to January 3, 2023. The ToT took place for eight days in Kikla and six days in Tripoli. The future Trainers will move to provide training and mentorship for project beneficiaries under Moomken’s supervision.

In the upcoming period, Moomken will work to finalize the selection of program beneficiaries and begin the Business Training program before grants for in-kind assistance are finalized and disbursed.

This project aims to target 120 Kikla returnees for business trainings and support at least 80 of these to receive in-kind assistance for their business’s regeneration. Beneficiaries include a variety of demographics, including men and women and people of all ages above 18 years old.

Moomken has engaged a number of different stakeholders, including:

• Kikla municipal council
• Office of Labour and Rehabilitation representatives
• Office of Social Affairs representatives
• Current local business owners
• Health and education sector employees
• Youth (students and employed youth)
• Community members

This project will be realized through the following guiding Outputs:

Output 1: Implementation design is prepared.

Output 2: Completed targeting and selection process.

Output 3: Asset recovery in-kind mechanism implemented for at least 80 returnee households pursuing to re-establish or start new income generating activity.

Output 4: Evaluation of the project completed.

In order to gain a greater sense of the local business landscape, community needs and challenges faced by business owners in Kikla, Moomken conducted a Rapid Livelihoods Assessment. Data collection, which occurred between September 29 and October 20, 2022, was conducted through several means:

• Surveys distributed through SMS messages (200 responses, 40 female)
• In-person interviews with current business owners (46 interviewees, 7 female)
• FGDs (53 participants, 18 female)

Moomken Organization’s mixed-methods methodology allowed the assessment to draw from a wide range of quantitative and qualitative data, providing the assessment with large data sets to work from and anecdotal evidence from Kikla residents and stakeholders. To ensure that the assessment included as many local voices as possible, Moomken made sure to engage a wide array of stakeholders, reflected in the composition of its four FGDs, which targeted public sector employees, youth, business owners/traders and women. Out of 53 participants, 18 were female.

The media team at Moomken Organization along with the project team visited the city of Kikla on November 27, 2022, in order to visit the city’s historic sites. Several interviews with business owners were also held and conducted in order to start preparing for the media campaign.

On December 26, 2022, the project’s media campaign was announced at the Cultural Center Hall of Kikla, in the presence of members of the municipal council and the elders of the city’s districts, as well as several members of municipal councils in neighbouring cities. Moomken Organization’s Facebook page also announced that applications for taking part in the project would begin.

One of the most important tasks that were conducted throughout the entire project was the Business training. The 119 trainees were divided into 5 groups which received training from 6 of the trainers that have gone through the (ToT). Each group received 5 hours of training for 5 consecutive days on different topics relevant to entrepreneurship.

During these training courses all the trainees were monitored closely by the grading committee and all their participation, and many other factors were noted down to assist in the grading period after the conclusion of the training period.

The training period coincided with the holy month of Ramadan where trainers were not able to conduct the trainings as well as the trainees expressed that they would not attend during the month. Therefore, only 1 group was given training before Ramadan and then the trainings were halted to after Eid Al Fitr for the remaining groups

The project team assisted the trainers contracted to design the training curriculum that was utilized during the training-of-trainers which was informed by the Rapid Livelihoods Assessment and included the following subjects:

• Entrepreneurship.
• Marketing.
• Financial management.
• Feasibility studies.
• Facilitation skills.
• Increasing social cohesion through entrepreneurship.

These curricula are designed in line with modern methods of enterprise development and include the tools and methods that contribute to business expansion in order to increase their popularity

After all the Business trainings have been officially conducted a committee was created and using the grading system the top 80 scorers were selected out of 119 the grading was conducted throughout the first 2 weeks of June.

After the final list of the selected 80 was produced, local coordinators started the process of reaching out to the selected beneficiaries to inform them of the selection as well as to organize logistics for them to sign the contracts. By the 27th of June, all 80 contracts have been signed and received by Moomken.

On September 5, 2023, Moomken conducted an event in Kikla, where assets were distributed to the selected from the first group that has been trained of 28 beneficiaries. This event marked a crucial milestone in our ongoing project especially with the challenge with CBL.