Evaluator \ Consultant

Towards Social Cohesion in a Fragile Lebanon (TSL) is a new initiative co-led by Danmission and the Forum for Development, Culture, and Dialogue (FDCD). The project aims at build the capacity of Lebanese change agents and civil society actors, especially youth, to participate actively and lead in promoting social cohesion, peaceful coexistence, and democratization by engaging and strengthening Lebanese civil society activist and organizations. The focus of this project will be on Lebanese youth, who are perceived as the catalysts of change in Lebanon and who are particularly affected by the political, social, economic, security, and health crises in the country. The 3 year project began in 2021, and is in the beginning stages of project design, planning, and implementation.

The main objective of the project is Enhanced participation of youth and civil society in inclusive political and social reform processes at the local and national levels contributes to reducing vulnerabilities and to sustainable social cohesion in Lebanon.

In order to achieve this goal, the main outcomes of the program are:

Members of civil society organizations (CSOs) (primarily youth-based) throughout Lebanon promote and practice new social cohesion initiatives based on new knowledge and skills that contribute to a culture of shared sense of inclusive co-citizenship and peaceful living together.

1. Social actors/duty bearers, (community, political engaged, and religious leaders, private sector actors and institutions of democratic control), have used their voices and influence in new ways to reduce inequality and vulnerability in communities, including refugees and host communities throughout Lebanon.
2. FDCD and local CSOs uses new innovative knowledge, data, and skills to strengthen their organizational capacity to promoting the rights of the most vulnerable social groups based on scientific valid data

A key element of this project is an innovative capacity building component that pioneers two ways of developing simple rights holder surveys and online baseline studies for real time monitoring and evaluation that can enhance CSOs’ institutional capacity in working with inequalities, advocacy, monitoring, and learning on outcome levels. This will enable CSOs to make informed decisions on the strategic level based on scientifically, valid data, so that they are able to promote the rights of the most vulnerable social groups, including refugees and host communities more effectively.

This youth survey will serve as reference for the data collection and monitoring and evaluation process throughout the rest of the TSL program. It will assess Lebanese youths’ attitudes about political and public engagement, peacebuilding, and conflict resolution, as well as the general attitudes and perceptions of Lebanese youth and refugee communities living through the current crisis in Lebanon.

The youth survey is a key component to the first phase of the TSL project. As mentioned previously, real-time surveying and monitoring of the project is a key component of TSL. In order for this outcome to be realized, CSOs need access to scientifically valid data that can be used strategically to inform about inequalities among specific social groups and use this data in advocacy, monitoring and learning activities. This survey will generate one of the first sets of data to be utilized in this process, and will be supplemented by further studies and evaluations in later phases of the project.

This survey will provide an overview of youth in Lebanon today and their participation in public life. The main goal of the survey is to categorize barriers, challenges, and opportunities for youth to participate in decision making systems on local and national levels in Lebanon. Key areas of interest are listed below, with sample questions:

[ Civil Society Participation

• To what extent are youth involved in CSOs/CBOs, including: NGOs, religious groups, and Scouting programs
• Are youth interested in becoming more involved in these types of programs? Why are why not?
• What are the barriers to access for those who want to participate in public life?
• To what extent does participation and access differ based on social location (eg, geographic location, migrant status, socioeconomic status, etc)?
• How well did the project align with both FDCD’s strategic orientations and aspirations?

[ Political Participation

• To what extent are youth involved in political parties (including both established parties and post-October 17 secular parties)?
• What kind of contact do youth have with public officials or government representatives? Do they know how to contact their representatives, or who to go to with questions or grievances?
• To what extent do youth feel that their participation in public life can create change in Lebanon

[ Conflict resolution and extremism 

• How do youth approach or respond to interpersonal conflict in their communities? Do they feel that they have the tools to resolve conflict productively?
• What messaging are youth receiving from and about extremist or fundamentalist groups? To what extent are youth aware of or worried about the possibility of radicalization in their community?

[ Refugee/Host Community Dynamics

• What is the level of interaction between young members of refugee and host communities in Lebanon?
• What is the perception of each of these groups towards the other?
• What particular barriers to refugees face to involvement in public life, including involvement in CBOs? [ Economic Situation
• How has the economic crisis of the past two years impacted youth?
• How many youth are planning on leaving Lebanon if possible vs staying in Lebanon, and what are the factors that draw them to stay or leave? 

[ Gender Dynamics

• To what extent do youth know about SDG 5 and international gender equality standards?
• To what extent do youth know local Lebanese law about gender equality?
• How do the experiences of young women and girls in CBOs/CSOs/political groups differ from young men and boys’?

The key goal of this survey is to establish an understanding of the perception and attitudes of all youth in Lebanon today (not just those who will be involved directly in TSL). In order to do so, the evaluator will conduct a desk review of currently available statistics and information about youth involvement in CSOs and peacebuilding in Lebanon and work closely with FDCD and Danmission staff to create a survey to assess the areas identified by Danmission and FDCD as in need of further investigation. The primary methods will be:

1. Desk review: a review of recent situational analysis to sectors of Peace Building and Social Cohesion in Lebanon, as well as the current overall situation in Lebanon and its impact on youth

2. Consultations with FDCD and Danmission staff to identify target areas and create survey

3. Survey participant identification/selection: survey consultant will develop a method to gather a representative sample of about 400 youth that ensures equal participation based on (but not limited to): gender, geographic location, religious sect, host community/refugee status, and socioeconomic status.

4. Survey administration: surveys will be administered to youth across Lebanon. The survey consultant will be conducting the surveys and collating all data gathered. (Please note: Danmission will be processing data for reporting purposes, so only collected data is needed, not a full report).