Consultancy - Service Provider to Conduct a Rapid Assessment for 5 sectors in Lebanon in Response to the Crisis

Background

Lebanon continues to face an escalating crisis with widespread displacement and infrastructure damage due to ongoing conflict. Recent UN data highlights the displacement of over 1.2 million individuals, including those who fled both within Lebanon and abroad, significantly affecting both the southern and eastern regions of Lebanon, particularly in the South and Bekaa. The influx of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has placed severe strain on public services and sectors critical to Lebanon's economy, including hospitality, construction, agro-processing, garment and solid waste management. Several studies demonstrate that many affected individuals are resorting to negative coping strategies such as selling assets, reducing food consumption and sending children to work which aggravates decent work challenges including risks related to the achievement of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (FPRW), access to social protection and sustainable livelihoods. Hence, to develop recovery economic plans its pivotal to capture the most adequate situation-specific response for the five identified sectors, with the objective of designing entrepreneurship programs aiming at retaining jobs, raising productivity of MSMEs and building the business resilience against crisis in addition to determining the most pressing needs during and after the crisis. The present analysis will provide elements to support business continuity in the acute current situation but it will also inform strategies for potential support during a recovery phase.

Hospitality: The conflict has exacerbated an already fragile hospitality sector, which was still recovering from Lebanon's 2019 economic crisis. The decline in tourism—particularly a 23% drop in inbound travellers to Beirut in October 2024 compared to the previous year—coupled with operational challenges, has further strained the sector. Hotels face heightened pressure due to increased demand from displaced populations and a lack of skilled workers, undermining long-term viability.

Construction: Despite early signs of recovery in 2022-2023, the construction sector has faced a significant downturn in 2024. Yet, reconstruction of homes, businesses, and key infrastructure will be crucial in the post-crisis recovery. Following the announcement of ceasefire in November 2024, the public works and construction contractors' union declares a state of "reconstruction emergency". The sector presents a unique opportunity for job creation, but it will face immense challenges, including labor shortages, material costs, and regulatory barriers. Greening construction on the recovery will be an opportunity but it will remain a challenge to be address.

Solid waste management: Solid waste management is a key area of intervention in Lebanon, where the significant displacement across the country has exacerbated the waste crisis in concentrated areas.

In 2024, it was reported that less than 8% of wastes collected from households were treated, while over 40% are dumped. The environmental repercussions are severe, contributing to public health risks and lack of social stabilization. Therefore, addressing this challenge has short to medium term benefits on employment retention and long-term impact in economic recovery and  the creation of a sustainable waste management system across the country.

Agri-Food Sector: The Agri-food sector, Lebanon’s main economic driver, is facing severe disruptions in supply chains and labor dynamics. Agricultural regions in the South remain vulnerable to shelling, displacing agricultural workers and causing severe labour shortages.  This has left the sector ill-equipped to address the growing nationwide food shortages. The lack of manpower at both the enterprise and farm levels underscores the urgent need for targeted job retention schemes to support food security and stabilize the sector.

Garment Sector: In 2023, the textile sector accounted for 8% of the country’s GDP employing around 50,000 people. Meanwhile, the garment industry is struggling with reduced export capabilities and rising operational costs. The Lebanese Center for Policy Studies infers various recommendations to boost industrial productivity, which include: increasing technical assistance (i.e. vocational trainings), modernizing equipment and production methods, in addition to delivering managerial sessions for governmental officials to foster better regulatory and oversight practices.

Programme Objective

With funding from the European Union, the International Labour Organization (ILO) is implementing the ENABLE program to support Lebanon’s most vulnerable populations by fostering economic resilience through employment opportunities. The program focuses on improving the livelihoods of marginalized communities, reducing dependency on social assistance, and promoting social cohesion by addressing the labour market needs in crisis-affected sectors.

Assignment Objectives

The objective of this assignment is to produce a data-driven Insights and Intervention Report including recommendations that will inform strategic decisions for scaling up training programmes under ENABLE and other initiatives aimed at decent jobs for all. Overall, the report is expected to sharpen the focus of ILO interventions in Lebanon, identifying the highest potential and most feasible areas within the five selected sectors for project activities. It will include four components:

1. A rapid market assessment in five sectors looking at the crisis's current and projected impact on sector-specific market trends, in the hospitality, agri-food, construction, solid waste management and garment sectors. The assessment will look into key challenges and opportunities for the sector and their enterprises to grow and develop, generating decent jobs, identify the supporting functions along the value chain, key stakeholders and market actors- including those with capacity to drive change in the market. The study will also look into identify incitative measures enabling these companies to assuming new risks or looking for new markets. Due to the crisis situation, the market assessment will have a resilience approach and identify the track trends such as shifting markets, promoting business continuity measures, derisking measures ensuring companies can still operate in crisis situations.
2. A skills analysis focusing on the specific skills in demand in the five sectors for the identified occupations & a mapping of training providers and programmes / qualifications related to these occupations, their employment results and the existing quality assurance mechanisms, and identification of the gaps to be addressed in terms of new or improved programmes, new or improved training delivery approaches, new or improved assessment and certification processes, and new or improved quality assurance measures. This assessment will in particular review apprenticeships practices within the five sectors and how they can be improved.
3. Assessment on the bottlenecks and challenges preventing vulnerable communities to access labour market. This part of the study will focus on bottlenecks and challenges that prevent youth, IDPs, Persons with Disabilities and informal workers to access and benefit equally from trainings, and to access decent jobs. The analysis will also review how the conflict and current situation has impacted access to training and jobs.
4. A job quality review that will focus on working conditions for the identified occupations, including child labour risks, wages, social protection coverage, occupational safety and health at work– as well as required interventions that can be implemented to improve job quality jointly with productivity improvements.  

This four-part analysis will provide evidence based actionable recommendations and clear guidelines for targeted immediate, medium term and long-term interventions and incentives to tackle the underlying drivers of key issues in an inclusive, sustainable and scalable way, to improve  market dynamics, create more jobs, and promote a more inclusive labour market and better quality jobs. This study will specifically focus on areas heavily impacted by the conflict, particularly in the South, Beirut and Mount Lebanon regions.

Methodology

The contracted consultant is expected to conduct the following activities and deliver the below outputs:

• Kick-off coordination and consultations with the research team - The ILO team will lead a kick-off call with the project team and the selected consultant to set out and agree on the assignment scope, timeline, and expectations. During this call the consultant will propose a draft methodology based on relevant ILO methodologies to be commented upon and validated by the ILO team.
• Development of research tools - The consultant will then develop  qualitative research tools identified in the methodology, including detailed bibliography for literature review, lists of key informants (no less than 5 per sector) and  focus group discussions, including representatives of trade unions, and questionnaires, data analysis plans and outlines “skeletons” of the final report, agendas and participants for validation workshops.
• Field research and validation - The consultant will undertake interviews and research as planned, oversee data collection process and ensure implementation of quality control measures during data collection and data entry at all levels. The consultant will provide a documented summary of the literature reviews, interviews and surveys that will form the basis of a presentation for stakeholders in a validation workshop. The consultant will reflect on the feedback of the stakeholders and include them in the first draft of the report.
• Final report – The draft report will be concise, with a max of 60-70 pages in edited English. Annexes can be added. The report will articulate the purpose, methodology, analysis and research findings, as well as recommendations for targeted immediate, mid-term and long term interventions in the construction, agri-food, garment, solid waste management and hospitality sectors – that can make these sector to grow and facilitate access of targeted vulnerable populations to skills and decent work. The report will be written with user friendly vocabulary (no jargon), topic sentences for each paragraph, and clear articulation between these paragraphs. The draft report will benefit from ILO comments that will be incorporated in the final report.  

Supervision

The consultant will lead on this assignment under the overall supervision of the ENABLE Project Manager, and the direct supervision of ENABLE National Project Coordinator who will coordinate ILO guidance, feedback and inputs to be provided, included those from the DWT Enterprise Development Specialist, Senior Specialist- Employers' Activities, and those from the Senior Skills and Lifelong Learning Specialist for Skills Delivery, based in Geneva. Project 

Deliverables

Part I:  Deliverables for the 1^st part of the agreement will include a detailed workplan, updated methodology including the qualitative research tools developed in addition to an inception reportPart II: This part will include a stakeholder consultation summary and the list of hired & trained field workers

Part III: The final deliverable would be a comprehensive market assessment report of 60-70 pages

Payment Schedule

• 1^st payment: amounting to 30% of total payment upon the successful completion and delivery of Part I documents (a detailed work plan, methodology including research tools and inception report).
• 2^nd and final payment: final payment amounts to 70% of the total payment will be paid upon the satisfactory completion of the rapid market assessment and upon the submission and clearance of the stakeholder consultation summary and the final financial expenditure report along all deliverables, invoices and supporting documents deemed necessary by the project. The final payment will not exceed the difference between the total processed prepayments by ILO and the total approved expenses as reported in the final financial report.

Timeframe

 This contract will be implemented over a period of 56- 60 days (10 weeks) from the date of agreement signature, starting on 13 January, 2025 and ending by 27 March, 2025 as it will be divided into three phases. Applicants shall submit detailed versions of the workplan during the proposal submission phase.  

Requirements and Eligibility Criteria

The selected service provider should be a legally registered company with the below requirements (Individual applicants are not eligible to this call):

• A proven track record of 10–15 years of experience in conducting market assessments on Lebanon’s key productive sectors in Lebanon and its stakeholders – work experience in these industries would be an advantage (construction, agro-processing, solid waste management, garment and hospitality)
• Local presence and particular experience in conducting market assessments in Lebanon during conflict and recovery phases.
• The selected supplier should include professionals with academic/research experience, who will be responsible of conducting desk reviews, developing research tools and executing a field research (in-person or remotely)
• Experience in conducting qualitative research (interviews, focus group discussions, etc.) is essential.
• Have a strong track record of quality data collection, report writing and data management.
• Have access to a pool of good enumerators who can conduct the field work.
• Strong communication skills in Arabic and English both written and oral.

Submittals required

1. A proof of the company/Institution legal registration in Lebanon
2. Detailed technical proposal including suggested methodology and tools
3. Detailed budget
4. detailed versions of the workplan
5. Suggested list of personnel with CVs
6. List of similar experience
7. Sample of previously produced reports