CALL FOR INTEREST - SHABAKE 2 - IN THE CONTEXT OF RAPID RESPONSE MECHANISM FOR THE CRISIS IN LEBANON

shabake 2 Project’s presentation

The multiple crises that have impacted Lebanon for several years have led to a serious deterioration in the standard of living of the population and increased the risks of economic, social and political instability in the country. With the onset of the Syrian crisis in March 2011, over one million people had to seek refuge in Lebanon. This influx of refugees has had significant human, social, economic and political repercussions and has weakened the structures of assistance to fragile populations. The last two years have been marked by the collapse of the economy, the October 2019 protests, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Beirut Port blast. Lebanon constitutes a unique case as a host country, further facing the devastating impact of the unprecedented economic, financial, social and health crises of the last two years.

Local NGOs play an essential role in crisis contexts in Lebanon, through their proximity to the most vulnerable populations and their presence in the most affected areas of the country. Their activities contribute to improving access to basic services in a context of saturation of public services. They also play a key role in strengthening social cohesion with the growing risk of community tensions. Promoting their role and strengthening their capacities remains a major lever for the sustainability of crisis response actions in the country and has been representing a key objective for the SHABAKE project implemented in Lebanon by Expertise France since 2019.

The second phase of the project, “SHABAKE 2” pursues the same aims regarding building the capacities of local NGOs to respond to the series of crises affecting Lebanon, based on three components. One of the components, the rapid response component, funded by the Crisis and Support Centre (CDCS) of the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE), is included in the SHABAKE  2 project in order to allow local NGOs to implement early recovery projects and respond to emergencies through accessing grants for implementing early recovery projects.

For a lasting impact, the SHABAKE project will particularly promote (i) NGOs’ collaboration with municipalities and (ii) overarching cooperation among technically-sound NGOs to ensure better learning and dialogue on ways for reducing vulnerabilities, upon the implementation of the emergency response projects.

1. 1. Program objectives and priorities

The overall objective of the SHABAKE 2 project covered by this call for projects is to support social cohesion, peace and stability and promote gender equality by engaging civil society organizations to play a vital role in crisis management and to provide sustainable support to vulnerable host communities and Syrian refugees.

The sectors covered by this rapid response mechanism fall under the “early recovery” thematic. Following the UNDP definition of early recovery, “it is an integrated, inclusive, and coordinated approach to gradually turn the dividends of humanitarian action into sustainable crisis recovery, resilience building and development opportunities”[1].

The partnership, between EF and NGOs, will cover sectors complementary to humanitarian approaches aiming to provide immediate relief with medium-term sustainability.

The call for interest aims to form a list of eligible organisations able to implement projects answering to a crisis, called “Rapid Response Mechanism” (RRM).

The establishment of the mechanism aims to allow a fast procedural process in terms of contract signature and intervention implementation.

The RRM is composed of two types of response system, allowing to answer different type of crisis: the protracted crisis, and newly arising emergencies.

1. The mechanism for protracted crisis covers, responses to the economic and governance crisis, including interventions to cover growing and ongoing needs resulting from the economic collapse, job market strains and livelihood, basic needs and services provision, unmet blast recovery needs etc. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, but will be reviewed and selected at the beginning of each month.
2. Newly arising emergencies: upon the rise of new emergencies, the donor will be able to give orientations to convey the funding towards a specific sector.  This could include the follow-up of emergencies such as explosion, localised conflicts, war, political-related crisis (elections related emergencies, localised violence, etc.), damages to infrastructures, etc. The roster will be made aware of the possibility of sending specific applications for those newly arising emergencies. Applications will be accepted, reviewed and selected on a rolling basis.

For NGOs making the RRM roster, they will be eligible to apply for the two types of grants.

Types of Grants:

• grants for action.
• grants to establish the action. These grants are set to encourage NGOs to form consolidated initiatives with local public authorities and can be obtained in addition to “grants for action”.. The type of actions that can be funded are the following: needs assessment, or a joint analysis of a situation. Those studies will then serve to propose a specific action. They will be eligible if they are jointly co-led by an NGO and a local public authority(ies). The details on those type of funding will be presented at a later stage of the RRM grant award process.

The NGOs who are later selected to receive a grant will be involved in Component 3 activities of Shabake 2, especially in the aid localization promotion and within the Communities of Practices. The objective is to facilitate the coordination and exchange of good practices among the rapid response mechanism grantees, and with the other NGOs implementing a grant awarded through  SHABAKE 2 project.

Duration

The planned initial duration of a project may not be less than 3 months or exceed 6 months.

Sectors or themes

The sectors covered by the implemented grants could include, but not limited to:

• Food security
• Support to income generation activities: Micro and Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME), rehabilitation, refurbishment or financial support, TVET and small grants, support for agricultural services and inputs, cash for work, etc.
• Improving the access to basic services: rehabilitation of small infrastructures in communities, shelter, business assets and equipment, water/irrigation/electricity facilities, schools), debris management, etc.

Several crosscutting principles will be considered for all projects: gender, environment, local approach.

All applicants must adhere to transparency, accountability and a do no harm approach.