Plan International - Country Strategy for 2024 – 2029

1. Background Information on Plan International

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organization that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And its girls who are most affected. Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children. We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge. We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 75 years and are now active in more than 70 countries. 

Read more about Plan International's Global Strategy: 100 Million Reasons at https://plan-international.org/strategy

2. Rationale and purpose of the consultancy

Plan International has been working in Lebanon since 2016, with an operational office established in Beirut in January 2017. Throughout the country, the organization works in partnership with community-based, local, national and international organizations to strengthen capacities, to transform the life of refugee and Lebanese girls and their families in the country and address their needs, by working at the nexus of humanitarian and development efforts to promote children’s rights and gender equality.

Currently, Plan International Lebanon is implementing more than 10 projects under child protection, gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health and rights, education, youth economic empowerment and participation, with a special focus on addressing child labor and child marriage. The organization currently consists of one Country Office in Beirut and one field office in Zahle and has 60 staff in programs and operations.

As Plan International Lebanon’s existing Country Strategy 2019-2024 is ending in June 2024, the strategy needs to be revised to facilitate the development of new strategy aligning with Plan Internationals Global Strategy “Girls Standing Strong”. Therefore, Plan is seeking a qualified and eligible consultant/consultancy firm to facilitate the development of new Country Strategy 2024-2029.

The overall purpose of the consultancy is to conduct a participatory review and reflection of the current country strategy with emphasis on PIL’s theories of change, to determine our relevance and impact in challenging issues faced by girls and young women and accordingly which would lead to the development of a new country strategy.

The overall goal of the current Country Strategy is that children, adolescents and youth, particularly adolescent girls and young women, are empowered to raise their voice to claim their rights to protection and tackle gender inequality.

To meet this goal, Plan International Lebanon has been working on four strategic choices with following outcomes:

Outcome 1:  Girls and boys, and young women and men are protected from violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation, including child labour, CEFM and other types of GBV.

Outcome 2:  Adolescents and youth in all their diversity have control over their own bodies and make informed decisions about their reproductive and sexual choices

Outcome 3:  Girls and boys, and young women and men have access to gender-responsive, safe, inclusive and quality learning opportunities, in line with national strategies, enabling them to achieve a better economic well-being and life

Outcome 4: Young adults particularly young women, have increased access to decent work of their choosing, be it waged or self-employed.

The new Country Strategy 2024-2029 will serve as the overall guiding document for Plan International Lebanon’s programmatic response, operations, resourcing and priorities for the next five years, and will respond to Lebanon’s dynamic social, environmental and policy landscape and changing context including policy frameworks, and it will also inform PIL’s long-term programmatic approaches, including advocacy, campaigns and influencing, partnerships and funding strategies to achieve impact at large scale given the expected changes in the local, regional and international humanitarian and development context, while taking into consideration the continuing fluid situation and conflict in neighboring Syria.

3.Methodology

The new Country Strategy will be built on PIL’s programming (development and humanitarian), partnerships and influencing work in the last 5 years and must be based on a solid analysis of the root causes of gender, social, economic injustice in Lebanon. In addition to results and recommendations from internal and regional meetings and discussions held over the past period.

Accordingly, the consultant will propose a mix of methods they deem appropriate given the scope of the work. The review and strategy development must employ a participatory, collaborative methodology that will produce a strategy owned by the Plan International Lebanon country team and our partners which must 1) include a comprehensive Country Situation Analysis from a gendered children’s rights perspective for the purpose of guiding strategic priorities for Plan International, 2) Define Plan Lebanon’s organizational and operative model, which will inform the partnership modalities, working approaches, resource mobilization and funding strategies, 3) Outline a strategic response for the  upcoming five years, following a gender transformative approach, relevant to the national context, aligned with the global strategy framework, the international mandates and the government’s policies in topics of interest for Plan including programme frameworks for each sector (key objective, outcomes, key interventions and estimated targets), 4) Design a general monitoring framework for accountability and knowledge management in the new strategic plan.

The activities sample will include but not limited to:

• Carrying out a comprehensive context analysis using an intersectional perspective, a gender analysis and rights-based approach including key aspects of the social, cultural, political, economic and legal environment that have a major influence on children’s rights and equality for girls, the major gaps and needs with an analysis of root causes and effects. In addition to the situation of civil society organizations in Lebanon, accompanied by an analysis of the donor landscape and funding opportunities for the coming years. This analysis must be carried out on a national and local level and will take into consideration any potential threats that are natural or man-made, particularly in the fragile context of Lebanese politics and security situation, and in view of the ever-changing conflict in Syria.

• Desk review of Plan International Lebanon’s work over the last 5 years. The secondary research should be from a diverse range of reliable/reputable sources and the primary data collection must form the basis of the review. Data collection must be ethical, conflict-sensitive, participatory, and gender responsive aimed at the equal participation of girls and boys, women and men, young people and marginalized groups in the consultation process. Gender, intersectionality and conflict sensitivity must be explicitly considered in the context analysis.

In additional to the national-level strategies, plans and resources collected by the consultant, , PIL will be providing the following documents: PIL’s existing Country Strategy (2019-2024), annual reports, assessments, studies, and project evaluations, PIL’s programmatic approaches and technical documents, Influencing Strategy, Gender and Inclusion Global Policy and Business Development strategy, Plan’s Global Strategy (2022-2027), Global Approach to Programme and Influence, Building Better Partnerships, as well as relevant Plan International standards and guidelines that might be useful.

• Conducting participatory and extensive consultations with Plan International Lebanon staff involving all departments, in addition to the Regional Office, relevant National Offices and Global Hub experts, along with field visits to Plan International field office in Zahle and project locations (Baalback-Hermel, Tripoli, Saida, Tyre) for consultations with partners and programme participants

• Conducting consultations with strategic stakeholders including such as Relevant Government Ministries, UN agencies, peer INGOs in Lebanon, and existing working groups and coordination fora, youth, feminists and women’s rights’ advocates and organizations.
• Conduct an internal strategy workshop to present all gathered data from the consultations and analysis and facilitate the exercise of setting priorities for the country office.
• Facilitate an internal workshop focusing on the development of the results framework (goal, outcomes, indicators, key interventions and estimated targets) and Plan International Lebanon will be responsible for the write up of this section in the country strategy, and not the consultant.

The CS must be aligned and respond to the current norms, standards and the changes in the civil rights norms and the organizational, strategic, corporative and regional changes within Plan International globally, regionally and at Lebanon level, thus a variety of frameworks and policies will be shared with the consultant. Also, the CS has to respond to the significant changes in the international development agenda, the current normative human rights and the regional and national response plans which the consultant should be aware of.

4.  Scope of work and Expectations for Deliverables

1. Within 15 days of signing the contract, the consultant should submit an Inception Report that clearly outlines the strategy development and consultation process, the desk review and the key documents which would be considered, the tools, and a timeline with specific deadlines for each action. Formal approval from Plan is required before proceeding with next steps.
2. Facilitate a participatory strategy review process and consultations (internally-staff and externally- relevant stakeholders) using various facilitation tools (e.g., PESTLE and SWOT) and lead the country team and partners, and other stakeholders through the strategy development process, assessing the overall country context and identifying strategic focus areas, objectives, and means of implementation.
3. Develop inclusive, conflict-sensitive and gender-transformative Country Strategy (2024 – 2029) that upholds the rights, integrity and aspirations of girls and young women, while considering importance of young men and boy’s engagement. The country strategy document should be a well-written, professional 30-35-page document (template to be provided by Plan) that can be easily comprehended, that emerges from broader consultations and learning from the experience of the current Country Strategy, responds to the country context/needs, clearly linked to the Global Strategy and is based on a collaborative, gender- and conflict-sensitive analysis of root causes of gender inequality and social injustice in Lebanon and presents the needed resources (financial and human) to deliver the CS.
4. Develop a strategy brief (one pager) highlighting the Plan International’s overall programme and its TOC and produce a clear PowerPoint Presentations (PPT) which will present the new proposed Country Strategy which the consultant will present it to Plan International Lebanon’s Country team at the end of the consultancy. The two documents must be clear, concise, and follow Plan International’s branding guidelines.

5.  Timeline 

The selected consultant should complete the assignment between mid-November 2023 and March 2024.  Kindly refer to the table in the attached TOR on the right for timelines deliverables.

6.Ethical and Safeguarding and PSHEA Responsibilities

The consultant must declare any Conflict of Interest with Plan, employees or other stakeholders, as part of their proposal.

Plan International Lebanon has committed its overriding framework to protect children and programme participants who come into contact with Plan International employees, volunteers, partner organizations and individuals, including consultants, who are working on behalf of Plan International. The consultant has a duty to uphold the principles of the Global Safeguarding Policy: Say Yes! To keeping children and program participants safe and protected, and the Preventing Sexual Harassment, Exploitation, and Abuse (PSHEA) Policy during their engagement with Plan International, apply safeguarding and PSHEA standards at anytime and anywhere. The consultant has the responsibility to display high standards of professional behaviour at all times, treat all children and program participants with dignity and respect, create and maintain an environment that prevents abuse and exploitation of children and program participants, retain and respect the privacy, dignity, and confidentiality of survivors, and report any concerns to [email protected], or to +961 70 121 765.

The consultant should also include statements in the proposal on how they will ensure ethics and safeguarding of children and programme participants during the commencement of the assignment and during the field work when relevant to the role. The consultant should also specify other ethical protocols to be followed during the due course of the consultancy.

The consultant must apply a rights-based and do no harm approach and is required to agree, sign and adhere to Plan International’s Non-Staff Code of Conduct and Safeguarding and PSHEA Policies, along with the consultancy contract, and attend the safeguarding and PSHEA policies brief, among others.

7.   Expected qualifications of consultant

The consultant should have the following qualifications and experiences:

• Minimum 7 years’ experiences in strategy development (preferably for rights-based international development and humanitarian organizations) in Lebanon and similar contexts.
• Minimum Master’s Degree in in social sciences or humanities (development studies, political science, or sociology)
• Significant experience in conducting qualitative research, including reviews and evaluations
• Background and experience in gender and inclusion, protection from violence, education, SRHR, livelihoods and youth programming.
• Excellent analytical skills and experience in gender analysis, context analysis, political economy and power analysis
• Experience working with vulnerable groups, including refugees and children
• Good understanding of Lebanon context and relevant experiences in the humanitarian-development nexus approach
• Excellent command of written and spoken Arabic and English, with demonstrated competency in producing high-quality and well-written documents, in clear, concise and correct language
• Ability to communicate effectively to a range of different stakeholders
• Ability to independently travel, mobilize and coordinate with key stakeholders

8. Submission of offers

Interested firms shall submit to Plan International Lebanon a technical and financial proposal.

 The technical proposal must include:

• CV of the individual/ individuals who will be involved during the process entailing relevant experience, including three contactable references of organizations with whom similar assignments were conducted in the last 3 years.
• A brief on the consultant’s interest in and suitability for the consultancy, track record on developed country and/or programmes strategies, understanding of purpose and methodology
• Writing sample (preferably a strategy) that the firm has written
• Any other relevant documents
• Based on the above table and the number of days assigned for each deliverable, the financial proposal must include an appropriate breakdown of costs including a more detailed timeline with daily fees and number of hours spent on the different tasks, in addition to any other miscellaneous costs

9. Evaluation of offers

Shortlisted consultants may be invited to discuss their proposals in more detail at Plan’s discretion.

Plan International, at its sole discretion, will select the successful supplier.

Plan international shall be free to:

• Accept the whole, or part only, of any submission
• Accept none of the proposals
• Republish the TOR

Plan International reserves the right to keep confidential the circumstances that have been considered for the selection of the offers.

Part of the evaluation process may include a presentation from the supplier.

Value for money is very important to Plan International, as every additional USD saved is money that we can use on our humanitarian and development work throughout the world.

Plan International may award multiple contracts and all contracts will be non-exclusive.

10. Contract & Payment terms

If there is a change or additional deliverables during the contract period, an addendum to the contract must be agreed and signed.  The change/additional deliverables must be in line with the initial scope of the consultancy.

As per Lebanese Law, a 7.5% Non-resident tax will be deducted (withheld) when/if the provider fails to provide the Second Party with the Ministry of Finance registration number (MOF) related to the profession documented with copy of the MOF certificate.

The contract amount will be paid in three installments. The first installment of 25% of the contract amount will be paid immediately after signing the contract. The second installment of 35% will be paid after Plan sending the feedback on draft 2 and the final installment of 40% after accomplishing all the task with satisfactory output including the strategy PPT and brief.

Please note that, if successful, Plan International’s standard terms of payment are 30 days after the end of the month of receipt of invoice, or after acceptance of the Goods/Services/Works, if later.

11. Plan International’s Ethical & Environmental Statement

The supplier should establish environmental standards and good practices that follow the principles of ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems, and to ensure compliance with environmental legislation

   12.  Clarifications

The onus is on the invited individual/companies to ensure that its offer is complete and meets Plan International’s requirements. Failure to comply may lead to the offer being rejected. Please therefore ensure that you read this document carefully and answer fully all questions asked.

For any queries, please send your questions to [email protected]