EXPANDING LEBANON’S LABOR FORCE (ELLF)TORS FOR GENDER ANALYSIS CONSULTANT At CORUS International

Background:

The USAID-funded “WGDP: Expanding Women Labor Force in Lebanon (WGDP:EWLFL): Opportunities for Women” activity aims to support women entrepreneurs as catalysts for positive change in business as well as in their families and communities, with gender-appropriate and gender-specific interventions. Its goal is that Lebanese women become effective catalysts of entrepreneurial development for their businesses and families in a time of economic crisis. The WGDP: EWLFL Program provides a gender-focused, tailored, externally accredited certification to the women entrepreneurs of USAID’s private sector development programs in Lebanon, some of whom may not have access to higher education or other formal certification programs to demonstrate their knowledge and gain external corroboration for their businesses in the market. ELLF will carry out complementary activities to improve the enabling business environment and link the women to business opportunities that stimulate their resilience capacities

The Program will accomplish these ambitious objectives in a time of economic collapse and freefall. In this way, the services are both crisis-contextualized, and gender-contextualized and youth contextualized. It makes use of Lutheran World Relief (LWR’s) extensive women’s economic empowerment frameworks and toolkits and links the gender component to ongoing USAID investments in Lebanon to achieve its targets.

The Activity will identify and intake women entrepreneurs from the pipeline of USAID-funded programs throughout Lebanon, specifically the LINQ , LIFE , MENA II and its successor LII, and LED projects, as well as the forthcoming ARE and TIF projects. They will be women entrepreneurs with at least some entrepreneurial experience. This WGDP: EWLFL Program will target women entrepreneurs from all ages and from all regions of Lebanon, including those referred by the pipeline of beneficiaries from other USAID projects.

.

Objectives:

The main objective of this assignment is to generate information on gender gaps as well as needs, constraints and opportunities of women and men in the labor market among the project target population as evidence-based data to develop and implement an effective WGDP: EWLFL project.

Specifically, the gender analysis is expected to inform the development of an effective WGDP: EWLFL project implementation leading to inclusive economic growth in Lebanon, through enabling Lebanese women to become effective catalysts of entrepreneurial development for their businesses and families in a time of economic crisis. The gender analysis will also inform the major challenges and barriers Lebanese women and girls face due to traditional gender roles and limited opportunities and access to income generating activities. Additionally, the gender analysis will highlight the socio-economic violence again women and structural barriers entrepreneurs in Lebanon. This analysis is expected to recommend actions and activities which would specifically :

• Strengthen competitive business development services for Lebanese women entrepreneurs;

• Improve enabling environment and safe work for women’s entrepreneurship; and

• Improve resilience capacities of Lebanese women-led enterprises

Scope of Work:

The study will cover the same geographical areas which other partner IPs are active in across Lebanon, and from which the WGDP: EWLFL beneficiaries are selected. A list of areas will be provided at a later stage.

Specifically the analysis will aim to :

· Identify and understand the constrains and challenges for women entrepreneurs in Lebanon through a gender analysis of structural national elements (socio-economic, legal, financial, etc) and recognize prevailing SGBV factors in the business arena along with an examination of related project documents and data already available at LWR, resulting in recommendations to address identified challenges and limitations.

In order to achieve the objectives, the Consultant is expected to conduct a gender analysis to:

1. Reflect, as relevant, in the analysis as well as in the formulation of final recommendations, information collected by the project team (to be shared with the consultant) about women entrepreneurs to be participating in year one, and overall characteristics of industries in which they operate.
2. Complete a socioeconomic analysis of the business environment in Lebanon to give insights on:

a. The broad business enabling environment and the specific impact/effect of this environment to women entrepreneurs

b. The major GBV factors for women entrepreneurs

c. The problems and opportunities in the current state of linkages and interactions between women entrepreneurs and different stakeholders at multiple levels – micro, meso, and macro.

d. The barrier to access the entrepreneurial opportunities for women based upon the country context and traditional gender norms and values

e.

Gender Analysis:

The Gender Analysis should cover the five domains of USAID gender analysis framework namely:

1- Access to assets – The different levels of access, use, ownership, and control of tangible and intangible assets that may promote or hinder women entrepreneurs’ business success, such as: Land; Labor; Capital; Equipment; Credit; Information; Social Networks; Groups; Kinship relationship, gender socialization

2- Practices and participation – Business practices and norms as well as economic participation may vary between women and men and may provide a picture of what men and women can do, how they can spend their time, where they can go.

3- Beliefs and perceptions – Beliefs and perceptions shape expectations about appropriate roles for men and women and may have effects on what women entrepreneurs are allowed to do, to learn, and to meet, and traditional practices which lead to GBV

4- Laws policies and institutions – Institutions (formal and informal laws, policies, regulations, etc) could mediate women’s and men’s economic opportunities and include (but not limited to) issues regarding: Ownership and inheritance rights; Due process; Employment opportunities; Wages

5- Patterns of power relations and decision making- The ability of women and men to decide, influence, and exercise control over material, human, intellectual, and financial resources, in the family, community, and country namely: The capacity to vote and run for office at all levels of government; Represented in senior level decision-making positions; Exercise voice in decisions made by public, private, and civil society organizations.

Issues of power and gender based violence often cross-cut the other domains of gender analysis as well.

Key Tasks:

The overall study is comprised of the following key tasks:

1. Carry out a desk review to:

a. Review available background data, including sex-disaggregated demographic information and social and economic indicators of the project districts, and gender issues related to targeted sectors and access to financial, market, information and ICT services in the target districts (where available).

b. Review of project-related documents to assess to what extent efforts were made on promoting gender equality in the project areas (e.g. Was gender analysis carried out in partner IPs? To what extent the IPs have addressed the needs and constraints of women and men in the target areas? To what extent has the project ensured equal and fair participation and representation, and distribution of resources to women and men in the project? To what extent project has provided awareness and orientation to enabling and safe work environment?

c. Reflect in the analysis input and feedback from selected women entrepreneurs as deemed feasible and relevant. Data could be collected virtually from these selected women entrepreneurs.

Deliverables:

The consultant will deliver:

1- An inception report describing the methodology of the study and proposed tools

2- A draft report with a PPT with initial findings and a presentation with the final report.

3- A final report. After revising the draft based on the comments received from EWLFL, the final report should contain identified gender-based constraints related, but not limited, to the areas outlined under the SOW section above and based on the 5 domains of the gender analysis above, to provide practical recommendations so the program can design interventions that respond to, accommodate, or overcome the constraints identified.

4- If feasible, the identified constraints be grouped by economic area and practical recommendations be made by industries of relevance to the project’s target groups.

5- Provide action oriented recommendations and suggestions to respond to and to address the identified constraints and challengens.

Duration of the Assignment:

The period of assignment will be 15 LOE days within 3 months calendar months from the date of the kickoff meeting. **

Administration, Reporting and Coordination:

The Consultant will report to the Deputy Programs Director / Lebanon of the LWR Lebanon office. Under her overall supervision, the consultant will liaise with the Gender Specialist of the WGDP: EWLFL Team which is primarily responsible for technical backstopping on the proposed study.

The consultant is expected to submit a first draft report at the end of week 8 and a final report with PPT at the end of week 11.

Qualifications and Experience:

The consultant must have the following experience and skills to be able to perform the tasks of the TOR:

• A Masters degree or higher in Gender, Social Studies, Economics, Anthropology, or a related field.

• Minimum 5 years of research experience to develop gender monitoring plans or

Strategies, conducting in-depth Gender analysis for projects preferably on women economic empowerment

• Demonstrated ability to write high quality, methodologically sound, analytical

papers in English

• Good communication skills and ability to liaise properly with technical and administrative staff of international organizations.

• Ability to liaise properly with senior officials of the government and social partners.

• Previous expertise working on USAID funded projects in Lebanon is an asset

· Exposure to value and principles of the thematic issue areas of USAID as well as

sensitivity to gender, SGBV factors/ issues, disadvantaged groups and diversity.

• Have a good working knowledge of the quantitative and qualitative performance evaluation methods and programming strategies commonly used in empowering women in the labor market

• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and Arabic.