Lebanese Field Implementation Partner for Mediterranean Agri-food Innovation – Community Engagement, MSME Support, Capacity Building
Michel Daher Social Foundation (MDSF) is a Lebanese non-governmental organization headquartered in the Bekaa region, one of Lebanon’s most agriculturally significant yet socioeconomically vulnerable areas. Established in 2014, MDSF reaches over 69,000 beneficiaries annually through four integrated programmatic pillars: Healthcare and Social Wellbeing, Education & Technology, Economic and Human Development, and Community Resilience and Sustainability.
MDSF holds EFQM certification, reflecting its commitment to institutional excellence, quality management, and results-based implementation. The organization works with an active portfolio of international partners, including UNICEF, GIZ, USAID (previously), and the Organization Internationale de la Francophonie.
MDSF operates through structured internal systems aligned with international standards, including MEAL framework supporting evidence-based programming, formal financial and procurement systems compliant with donor requirements, dedicated program management and field monitoring units ensuring implementation quality and accountability
Within its economic development pillar, MDSF delivers livelihoods and enterprise development programs targeting smallholder farmers, MSMEs in the agri-food sector, women entrepreneurs, youth in rural and peri-urban communities.
These interventions focus on strengthening income generation, business sustainability including environmentally friendly practices, value chain integration, and local economic resilience.
MDSF also supports entrepreneurs in cleantech and agritech, fostering innovation that improves resource efficiency, sustainable production, and climate resilience within local farming and food systems.
Through its Education & Technology pillar, MDSF implements digital literacy and innovation programmes, including a Tech Academy and vocational pathways, aimed at bridging the gap between technological advancement and community-level adoption.
MDSF maintains strong, operational partnerships with:
Local municipalities
Agricultural cooperatives
Community-based organizations
This positioning enables rapid mobilisation, high community trust, and participatory co-design of interventions, ensuring that solutions are locally relevant, scalable, and sustainable.
Lebanon · Bekaa · Mediterranean agriculture · smallholder farming · agri-food MSMEs · living lab · on-site food transformation · digital traceability · technology adoption · WEFE Nexus · capacity building · MEAL · community mobilization · municipal governance · post-crisis resilience · scaling pathways
MDSF seeks to join PRIMA 2026 consortia as a field implementation and living lab partner, providing direct access to smallholder farmers, agri-food MSMEs, and rural communities in the Bekaa Valley-one of the Mediterranean’s most representative and vulnerable agricultural ecosystems.
MDSF enables partners to test, validate, and scale innovations in real-world conditions, ensuring that solutions are not only technically sound but adoptable, economically viable, and scalable.
MDSF brings to consortia:
Living lab field environment: Immediate access to smallholder farmers, agri-food MSMEs, and cooperatives across active vegetable, fruit, and dairy value chains
MSME & value chain integration: Embedding innovations into existing production and market systems, tested against real operational and economic constraints
Adoption & scaling pathways: Structured capacity building linked directly to technology uptake and business performance, ensuring innovations move beyond pilot reports into live use
Structured MEAL system: Reliable field data collection, monitoring, and feedback loops aligned with EU donor and research output standards
Institutional networks: Established relationships with municipalities, cooperatives, community-based organizations, and local authorities
Contribution by PRIMA topics:
-Topic 1.3.1 (IA):
.Co-design and validation of on-site transformation solutions for perishable products
.Testing resource-efficient and economically viable models with MSMEs
-Topic 2.3.1 (RIA):
.User-centered validation of digital traceability tools
.Training and integration of digital solutions within value chains
.Field data collection for system refinement
-Topic 1.4.1 (CSA):
.Facilitation of WEFE Nexus governance at local level
.Engagement of municipalities and stakeholders
.Contribution to Mediterranean knowledge exchange and policy uptake
MDSF seeks to collaborate with research institutions and universities, agritech and cleantech innovators, and NGOs and ecosystem actors across Mediterranean member and partner states. Its role in any consortium is to ensure that innovations are validated under real conditions, adopted by end users, and scalable across Mediterranean agri-food systems.
MDSF is particularly suited for projects seeking to move beyond pilots toward practical adoption and scalability, ensuring that innovations generate tangible socio-economic and environmental impact.
MDSF is ready to engage at proposal development stage, including:
Co-design of work packages
Definition of pilot methodologies
Contribution to impact pathways and dissemination strategies
