Background

Lebanon is facing currently a multi-layered and unprecedented crisis at various interrelated levels marked by the political deadlock, economic and financial crisis, COVID19 outbreak, a deadly explosion causing damage to third Beirut, and continuous impacts of a 11-year long Syria crisis. According to ESCWA, the multidimensional poverty rate in Lebanon has nearly doubled from 42% in 2019, to 82% in 2021. Extreme multidimensional poverty affected 40% of the poor population in 2021, equivalent to 34% of the population at large[1]. The changing political, economic, and social climates continue to exacerbate pre-existing gender inequalities and discrimination while preventing women and girls from exercising their human rights and intensifying their poverty and marginalization.

Although Lebanon has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1997, substantive reservations on certain aspects of the convention remain unresolved. In particular, Lebanon maintains reservations to Article 9(2) (equal rights with respect to nationality of children), Article 16(1)(c), (d), (f), and (g) (equality in marriage and family relations), and Article 29(1) (administration of the Convention and arbitration in the event of a dispute). According to the 2021 World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index Report, Lebanon ranks 139 out of 156 countries as one of the highest gender gaps in the world. In particular, Lebanon ranked 139 on the economic participation subindex, 113 on educational attainment, 82 on health and survival and 112 on political empowerment. Unlike men, Lebanese women are deterred from passing their nationality to their children or to a foreign spouse. While the foreign spouses of Lebanese men can obtain citizenship after one year, the children of Lebanese women married to foreigners continue to suffer from the absence of basic economic, social and civil rights. Moreover, personal status issues are under the jurisdiction of Lebanon’s 18 religious laws and courts, and a civil personal status law does not exist in spite of women’s rights organizations’ efforts. Women do not only face gender discrimination in issues related to marriage, divorce, alimony, child custody and inheritance, but also face inequalities among each other as their rights are depending on the rulings of different sects. Despite obtaining the right to vote in 1952 and a vibrant feminist movement, women remain grossly under-represented in political life and excluded from decision-making processes. Out of 77 Lebanese governments formed since the independence in 1943, only 9 cabinets have included women starting year 2005. Although women outnumber men as university graduates, they represent only a quarter of the country’s active labour force. According to the World Bank figures, indicators for women in the economy in Lebanon are mostly half that of global averages, with female labour force participation at 23% compared to the global average of 50%. Furthermore, level of female entrepreneurship is low, with only 17% of women reported as self-employed and only 4% of firms in the country with female top managers, in comparison to the already low global average of 19%.

Mandated to enhance gender-mainstreaming and overseeing the implementation of CEDAW and the 1995 Beijing Declaration, the National Commission for Lebanese Women (NCLW) has developed the National Strategy for Women in Lebanon (2011-2020) in 2012, and the National Action Plan in 2013. The development process was conducted in collaboration ministries, public institutions and civil society organizations. Despite the continuous discoursed commitment of the Lebanese Government to improve the participation of women in the economic, financial, social and political areas, gender-mainstreaming was not adopted effectively adopted in ministries and public institutions.

Duties and Responsibilities

The assignment, as mentioned earlier, involves the participatory development of UNDP Lebanon gender equality strategy and action plan 2022-2025. The following specific tasks are to be carried out:

Task 1: Conduct Comprehensive Desk Review and Develop Inception Report

1. Contact with UNDP team to clarify expectations for the GES development process and ensure common understanding on the ToR.
2. Conduct a comprehensive desk review of key documents and relevant secondary data sources. The desk review is expected to provide contextual information / situational analysis on gender context in Lebanon and UNDP’s current status / position regarding the implementation of the previous GES. It will also will identify data gaps and inform the scope of the field work. The desk review will include but not limited to:

• UNDP Lebanon Gender Equality Strategy (developed in 2016 and updated in 2019).
• Country Programme Document
• UNDP Strategic Plan 2022-2025
• Findings from Gender Sensemaking
• The Global Gender Equality Strategy (2022-2025) as soon as it is ready if within the timeframe of this assignment
• Gender Seal Action Plan 2022
• Evaluations reports
• Existing reports on gender equality in Lebanon developed by other actors such as UN agencies, World Banks, European Union, INGOs, etc.

1. Develop in consultation with UNDP a proposal for the GES development process including:

• Key existing knowledge or assumptions to be tested; priority areas for the gathering of new information, and research questions.
• Detailed methodology including sampling parameters and proposed data collection methods.
•  List of proposed stakeholders to be consulted.
•  Assignment workplan with clear milestones.

Task 2: Lead on External Consultations

This task involves leading managing and facilitating the consultations / dialogues with external stakeholders to collectively identify upcoming trends and challenges for gender equality, common goals and ways of working together over the next four years.  External consultations are expected to engage actors, organizations and institutions with a regional/national remit who either directly or indirectly work on gender equality issues, or have the ability to influence gender equality outcomes in Lebanon. Stakeholder groups will include representatives from civil society organizations, women’s rights organizations, governments and UNCTs.

Task 3: Lead on Internal Consultations

The phase consists of internal collaborative consultations with UNDP personnel including senior managers, programmatic units, project managers / coordinators, communication and operational units. The internal consultations should be linked to UNDP’s previous experience working on gender equality issues and to major findings from consultations with external stakeholders. The internal consultations are expected to:

• Generate lessons learned through the implementation of the previous gender equality strategy.

• Reflect on good practices, challenges, needs and areas of improvement based on previous and ongoing gender-mainstreaming efforts.
• Prioritize key entry points for promoting gender equality in different thematic and operational areas, and identify accordingly anticipated challenges and opportunities.
• Building on national priorities emerging from external consultations, identify key entry points and road maps for strengthening the integration of gender equality into UNDP's work.

Task 4:  Lead on Analysis Workshop with Gender Focal Team and Develop GES

The findings and recommendations from the desk review and consultations will be presented to the Gender Focal Team to set and agree on main priority areas and principles that will help guide the development of the Gender Equality Strategy for UNDP Lebanon.

The strategy will focus on delineating  UNDP commitment to: (a) strengthen interventions to tackle structural challenges that accelerate gender equality and women’s empowerment rather than engaging primarily in programmes focused on women as beneficiaries; (b) strengthen the integration of gender equality into UNDP work on environment, energy and crisis response and recovery; (c) better align UNDP programming with both corporate messaging and national priorities related gender equality and women’s empowerment; and (d) build upon institutional mechanisms for gender mainstreaming such as the Gender Equality Seal and the gender marker which provide measurable standards and incentives to drive progress.

Task 5: Lead on Validation Meeting and Finalize the Gender Equality Strategy & Action Plan

A validation meeting will be held with UNDP staff to present the strategy’s objectives, main pillars, and actions. Feedback and recommendations will be used for refining and finalizing the gender equality strategy. 

Competencies

Excellent knowledge of English and fluent in Arabic.

Required Skills and Experience

I. Academic Qualifications:

At least Bachelor’s degree in gender studies, sociology, social work, development studies or other field related social sciences.

II. Years of experience:

Minimum of five years of relevant professional work experience in conducting gender related work.

III. Technical experience:

• Demonstrated deep understanding of the gender equality landscape in Lebanon (key actors,
• processes, policies etc);
• 3 years’ Experience in gender mainstreaming, gender analysis and using the Gender Maker tool.
• 4 years’ experience and expertise in research and qualitative research methods in gender programming including experience in conducting qualitative interviews;
• Familiarity with WROs, CSOs and networks in Lebanon;
• Demonstrated experience producing high-quality research reports in English in engaging and simple language;

Note :

The application must include all of the following Mandatory documents:- Please refer to the link : https://procurement-notices.undp.org/  to reach the above documents

1. P11,
2. Technical Proposal,
3. Annex 3 (Offerors Letter) and
4. Financial proposal