A six-month project that strengthens food systems and disaster preparedness in the Jordan Valley has finished, and it met or exceeded all of its targets. ECO Consult implemented the project for UNDP Jordan between January and June 2026. It worked with four municipalities: Deir Alla, Sweimeh, Sharhabeel Bin Hasneh and Tabaqet Fahel.

The Jordan Valley faces drought, floods, frost, heatwaves and economic pressure, and these threaten farming livelihoods and food security. Women, youth and other vulnerable groups are hit hardest. The project worked with municipalities, community organisations and farmers to help local communities prepare for these risks and respond to them.

Stronger municipalities
After assessing each municipality’s capacities, the project trained 17 municipal staff members, 59% of them women, in disaster preparedness, food systems resilience and gender-responsive planning. Each municipality developed its own action plan and planning tools. 94% of participants showed improved knowledge after the training.

Communities drawing on local knowledge
Storytelling sessions with farmers, elders, women and youth recorded traditional coping practices. Examples include beit al-mouneh food storage, food drying and preservation, intercropping, and al-ouneh, the tradition of neighbours working each other’s land. These stories became an awareness brochure and the content for crisis preparedness workshops. The workshops reached 124 community members, 94% of them women, and participants wrote local preparedness action plans.

Women leading change
The project trained 41 community champions, most of them women. They designed and carried out one initiative in each municipality:

• Tabaqet Fahel: drying vegetables to reduce waste and create income for women and persons with disabilities
• Deir Alla: turning damaged tomatoes into natural seasonings
• Sharhabeel Bin Hasneh: making organic fertiliser from food waste and building low-cost drip irrigation from recycled plastic
• Sweimeh: Faz’at Ahl Sweimeh, a mobile app that gives farmers weather alerts, emergency contacts and direct links to the municipality, the Directorate of Agriculture and Civil Defence

Smarter farming
32 smallholder farmers took hands-on training at the Yanmoo Horticulture Hub in Madaba. They learned water harvesting, soilless farming, efficient irrigation, bee pollination and post-harvest handling. 79% showed improved knowledge.

Women made up about 82% of all participants. The project’s tools, its trained champions and its low-cost solutions that other communities can copy will keep supporting the Jordan Valley after the project ends.