Call for Applications for Youth-Led CSOs and NGOs to Participate in Gender Equality & Positive Masculinity Training's, Participatory Gender Research and Media for Social Change Workshops Read More at: https://www.daleel-madani.org/civil-society-directory

Brief Background

Despite the various efforts made in Lebanon to achieve gender equality and end violence against women and girls (VAWG), the situation remains troubling. In 2019, Lebanon ranked 145^th out of 153 countries in the world on the World Economic Forum’s global gender gap index and ranked 14^th among the 19 MENA countries.

Patriarchal social structures and practices, as well as communities’ lack of awareness of women’s rights, limit women’s access to economic resources and leadership positions in the political and social spheres, while simultaneously codifying discrimination in public policy. Furthermore, traditional social images of male superiority and power imbalances still foster attitudes and behaviors that sustain gender inequality, violence, and discrimination.

Project Description

Search for Common Ground (Search), in partnership with ABAAD - Resource Center for Gender Equality (ABAAD), are implementing the Partners for Justice Project (April 2020 – December 2021) in Lebanon. This project will help reduce violence against women and girls in Lebanon by transforming men’s and women’s, boys’ and girls’ attitudes towards patriarchal norms that define masculinities, and addressing the root causes of VAWG in public and private spheres.

This will be met through the following specific objectives (SO):

• SO1: Empowering men and boys to positively engage and work with women and become allies and champions of gender equality and prevention of violence against women and girls.
• SO2: Promote a shift in communities’ attitudes in target areas around the permissibility of, and assumptions related to, violence against women and girls.

The project covers the following geographical areas of focus: North, Mount-Lebanon, Beirut, Bekaa and the South.

A series of workshops with youth and media stakeholders, as well as youth led-research on gender and masculinity, will embed gender sensitivity skills and positive masculinities within individuals and civil society organizations, who will be able to draw upon these skills in the future. These activities will feed into the design of a national advocacy and awareness campaign that is locally rooted and thus relevant to rural and urban contexts in Lebanon. The campaign will promote positive narratives of masculinity and raise awareness about VAWG to a wider public audience.

About ABAAD - Resource Center for Gender Equality

ABAAD is a non-profit, non-politically affiliated, non-religious civil association that aims to achieve gender equality as an essential condition to sustainable social and economic development in the MENA region. ABAAD seeks to promote women's equality and participation through policy development, legal reform, and gender mainstreaming, engaging men, eliminating discrimination, and advancing and empowering women to participate effectively and fully in their communities. ABAAD also seeks to support and collaborate with civil society organizations that are involved in gender equality programs and advocacy campaigns.

About Search for Common Ground Lebanon

Search for Common Ground (Search) is a non-governmental organization working to transform the way the world deals with conflict. We have acquired over 35 years of experience in peacebuilding and are based in over 30 countries around the world. Search first worked in Lebanon in 1996, addressing multiple issues arising within Lebanon's diverse society. In each project we seek to engage all stakeholders to work together to address shared challenges and develop joint solutions.

Impact on the Community

The project will look for full and holistic inclusion of communities by supporting different local organizations from different areas all around Lebanon. Empowering youth and civil society actors through development of capacities will allow for increased social engagement and responsibility.

Through this project, men will deconstruct and change their own attitudes around the socially built norms of masculinity that push them to play the role of “protector” and “controller” of women and girls in the public and private space, as well as understand and embrace the role they can play in shifting communities’ attitudes toward the permissibility of, and assumptions related to VAWG.