Social Stability/Gender expert

Strengthening gender mainstreaming in social stability activities in Lebanon

1. Background

The Social Stability Sector (SoST) under the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan (LCRP) offers regular and in-depth conflict analysis to inform the programming of all partners but does not specifically assess gender-specific drivers of conflict and does not identify opportunities for strengthening social stability from a gender perspective. The tension monitoring system is a highly relevant and effective source of timely data collection and analysis. While it includes gender disaggregated data on social tensions, regional tension monitoring taskforces do not explicitly address tensions from a gender perspective. Local dialogue groups, municipal committees and women’s networks lack channels to feed their analysis into sector-wide analytical reports and briefs. The integration of a gender lens to the tensions analysis at all levels can help identify shifting dynamics and inform programming that prevents GBV, ensures greater inclusion of women and girls in decision-making and social stability efforts and seizes opportunities for organising around women’s rights and mitigating social tensions related to gender norms and perceptions within and across communities.

Building on local capacities for context analysis and community-based assistance, this project will identify existing resources and practices for gender-sensitive conflict analysis and programming and develop guidance and tailored training to mainstream gender in social stability activities.

Alert is funded by UNDP to meet the following objectives:

• Support organisations working on social stability to increase their understanding of gender-specific drivers of social tensions and enhance their capacity to plan and implement gender-sensitive interventions that strengthen social stability.
• Strengthen the tension monitoring system through developing gender analysis tools to integrate gender sensitivity and equality analysis into existing mechanisms.
• Strengthen the capacities of 300 LCRP social stability partners and CSOs to design and implement gender-sensitive and conflict-sensitive programmes and projects. This will be achieved through the following outputs:

1. Objective of the assignment

1. Conduct a mapping of SoST actors. Conduct a mapping of initiatives related to conflict analysis, conflict sensitivity, and gender that were implemented in Lebanon by the social stability sector’s members and local organisations as well as women’s rights organisations and networks.
2. Develop an analysis of gaps and opportunities that will feed into strengthening the tension monitoring system.
3. Facilitate a workshop to present the analysis at a workshop of SoST actors and develop a strategy on gender integration in Social Stability activities for SoST sector partners and CSOs, collaborating with Alert on workshop agenda. The strategy will focus on how to strengthen women and girls’ participation in SoST activities in Lebanon.
4. Conduct reflection sessions to support the development of a checklist for mainstreaming gender into the work of SoST actors.
5. Assist the International Alert team in creating training materials that address the integration of gender considerations into social stability activities.

1. Timing and duration

The contract will run from mid-February to mid-May.

It is estimated that the contract will take 47 days:

• Mapping – 15 days.
• Analysis and report – 5 days.
• Workshop preparation and facilitation – 7days.
• Reflection sessions – 10 days.
• Training materials 10 days.

1. Methodology 

1. Conduct a mapping of SoST actors.

• Conduct key informant interviews.
• Organise consultation meetings with the SoSt sector’s members and local organisations at the beginning of the project through 5 focus group discussions conducted on the regional levels to introduce this project and its action plan.
• Prepare a set of guiding questions on which we will depend during the mapping exercise.
• Conduct a mapping of initiatives using different data collection methods such as desk review, observation of task force meetings, and review of context analyses conducted by local committees, working groups, or networks, including the women peacebuilders' network (a network established by UN Women and supported by Alert, which has been trained to use a gender early warning system tool).

1. Develop an analysis of gaps and opportunities for strengthening gender analysis in tension monitoring and conflict sensitivity support.
2. Facilitate a workshop to present the analysis at a workshop of SoST actors, and develop a strategy on gender integration in Social Stability activities for SoST sector partners and CSOs, collaborating with Alert on workshop agenda. The strategy will focus on how to strengthen women and girls’ participation in SoST activities in Lebanon.

• Develop a set of recommendations that will feed into the development of a strategy on gender and conflict sensitivity to be implemented by the SoST members. The strategy will focus in particular on how to mainstream gender in the context analyses and will include a clear action plan on how to strengthen women and girls’ participation in SoST activities and conflict analysis.

1. Conduct reflection sessions to support the development of a checklist for mainstreaming gender into the work of SoST actors.

• Organising up to 3 online reflection meetings in different regions with International Alert women’s networks who piloted the Gender Early Warning system to identify questions, relevant processes for connecting locally led analysis to nationwide monitoring and analysis of social tensions; and lessons learnt of gender-sensitive programming for social stability.
• Organising up to 5 reflection meetings with one of the regional taskforces to develop and refine a list of questions for capturing gender dynamics in regional tension monitoring.

5. Assist the International Alert team in creating training materials that address the integration of gender considerations into social stability activities.

Support the International Alert team in developing a training package tailored to the specific needs of Lebanon, focusing on gender and conflict analysis, as well as integrating gender considerations into activities aimed at mitigating conflict.

1. Deliverables

• Guiding questions and mapping workplan
• Mapping report analysing gaps and opportunities and identifying entry points for strengthening gender analysis in tension monitoring and conflict sensitivity support.
• Presentation of report to give at workshop -

• Workshop agenda
• Recommendations from workshop for mainstreaming gender into work of SoST members and a clear strategy
• Training materials.

All deliverables are to be presented in draft format and at a meeting for Alert and partner staff, before being finalised). All deliverables and data of the evaluation will be owned by Alert and may be used for both internal and external reporting and communications.

1. Required skills and experience.

We are seeking an external consultant to conduct the assignment. The consultant will be accompanied by an Alert staff member from the Lebanon programme, who is highly experienced in conflict sensitivity approaches and in peacebuilding programming.

 The Consultant will be:

• Possess expertise in social stability and gender issues, with demonstrated ability to integrate gender considerations into social stability initiatives.
• Familiar with the social stability sector in Lebanon.
• Well versed in research methods.
• Experienced facilitator.
• Fluent in Arabic and English, both spoken and written.
• An excellent communicator.