ARCHAEOLOGY TO BUSINESS IN FAYNAN: EMPOWERING AND ALLEVIATING THE POVERTY OF BEDOUIN WOMEN IN SOUTHERN JORDAN

The 'Archaeology to Business in Faynan' (ABIF) project will draw on the outcomes of AHRC funded research to support poverty alleviation and gender equality in the Bedouin community of Faynan/Greigra, southern Jordan. This area has a high level of economic deprivation, which is especially felt amongst the Bedouin women. The recent development of irrigation agriculture to grow tomatoes and melons is only benefiting a restricted number of families, this partly arising from the community being divided into five tribes with different levels of access to agricultural employment. Tourism is increasingly popular to Faynan, this being supported by a single hotel that caters for affluent westerners and is run by a company from Amman. While this hotel has brings income into Faynan, via employment and its supply chains, the majority of Bedouin, and especially the women, have been unable to benefit. As with agriculture, the distribution of benefits is inhibited by the tribal structure within Faynan. The recent development of the Faynan Museum, supported by AHRC funding awards, has attracted further tourists by promoting the archaeological sites and monuments in Faynan, to be further enhanced by a Faynan Heritage Walking Trail. During the course of this development, Bedouin Women have approached the PI and his colleagues to express their desire to produce handicrafts to sell to the tourists.

The handicraft market in Jordan is substantial, but is increasingly flooded with cheap imports from China and India. Tourists, and especially the affluent tourists coming to Faynan, are looking for highly-distinctive and high-quality products, relating to the specific localities they have visited. Despite the presence of base-line handicraft skills, the Faynan women cannot at present, produce, market, and sell such products. As such, the ABIF project will support the development of a new range of handicrafts, combining traditional Bedouin skills in weaving and other techniques with designs inspired from the ancient art of Faynan to make locally distinctive products.

That ancient art was discovered during the AHRC funded excavations at the Neolithic site of WF16 in Faynan. Excavations were undertaken between 2008 and 2010, producing a wealth of new information about this critical period of economic change in the southern Levant, one which saw the transition from mobile hunting & gathering to sedentary farming communities, 11,800-10,200 years ago. A key discovery at WF16 was a collection of engraved objects that provides the oldest collection of art objects from Jordan. These primarily have geometric patterns engraved onto stone and bone, with some human and animal depictions. This art can be readily translated into the design of new handicraft products, creating a unique line of products for Faynan.

The ABIF project will involve collaboration between University-based archaeologists from Reading, UK, who excavated WF16, 'Future Pioneers for Empowering Communities (FPEC)', a Jordanian-based NGO committed to international development, and the Jordan-based Council for British Research in the Levant, that has expertise about traditional Bedouin culture and handicrafts. FPEC has extensive experience and an excellent track record in supporting local communities to develop their own sustainable business enterprises to alleviate poverty. These three bodies will work together with women from all five Bedouin tribes in Faynan to develop the 'Women's Cooperative of Faynan and Gregira'. This will produce, market and sell high-quality handicrafts inspired by the art from WF16. Training programs in handicraft design and production, and in a range of business skills including marketing, pricing and customer relations, will be delivered with a view to the development of a financially self-sustaining business at the completing of the funding period.

There will be five principle impacts from this project, these being realised at different levels in the short term (the 12 month duration of funding) and over the longer term. The impact will be measured by quantitative data (income generation, employment statistics) and qualitative measures via a programme of structured interviews with the participants undertaken at three monthly interviews throughout the 12 month funding period and over the following three years (2021-23). The record of those interviews will provide a resource for analysing the overall success of the project.

1. Tackling and alleviating poverty: The income generated from the sale of handcrafts will contribute towards poverty alleviation in Faynan and Gregira. It is difficult to estimate the extent and scale of what will be achieved, but the aim is to involve women from at least 20 different families into the cooperative. Visitor numbers to Faynan are increasing, with the opportunity to sell handicraft products to an estimated three thousand visitors to Faynan within 2021. Even small levels of additional income will make a substantial difference to the economic well-being of families in Faynan. The Women's Cooperative will keep detailed accounts of sales, income and expenditure, and the number of families benefiting from the income (this being an integral part of the Women's business training). This will be recorded by the project at the monthly intervals once the products are available during the project (most likely in Sept-December 2020), and at three monthly intervals over the longer term, along with structured interviews to assess the significance of the additional income to their livelihoods.

2. Empowerment: By providing training in handicraft techniques, business and management, the skills, confidence and self-esteem of the Bedouin women in Faynan will be enhanced. The project will provide an opportunity for the women to shape their own economic future, and to use the skills they acquire in other business enterprises. This will be measured via structured interviews with the women, undertaken at their time of their recruitment, at Milestones 1 and 2, and at the end of the funding period (December 2020). Structured interviews will continue at three monthly interviews over the longer term (2021-23).

3. Enhancing Gender equality: In the rural and conservative sectors of Jordanian society, women tend to have less autonomy, a lower social status and are sometimes perceived as having lower value to society. They are discriminated against in terms of work access, opportunities, payment and employment programs. Poverty is most severe among families headed by women, who fall significantly below the country's poverty line. The current employment opportunities in Faynan are biased towards men. Over the short term, gender equality will be enhanced by the employment opportunities and income streams made available to the women, while in the longer term the project aims is to make a measurable difference in the ambitions, aspirations and opportunities for the daughters of the Women who will be leading the cooperative.

4. Social cohesion: The Bedouin community of Faynan is divided into five tribes - the Azazma, Amarin, Saidiyin, Rashaydah and Manaja. Because of geographical distribution in the landscape, these tribes currently have different levels of access to employment at the hotel and in agriculture, this creating a degree of tension. The tribes also differ in terms of the types of knowledge and skills they contain, some being more business effective and others having more traditional skills. Following the Bedouin women's own request, the new cooperative will include women from all five tribes, enabling skills and knowledge to be shared and enhancing social cohesion throughout Faynan.

5. Enhanced cross-sector collaboration between Universities and NGOs using the outcomes from Arts & Humanities research for international development.