Consultant for Gender-sensitive conflict analysis

OBJECTIVE

Alert aims to recruit a gender, peace, and conflict expert who would conduct a GSCA in Tripoli and Baalback to improve understanding of the gendered conflict drivers and dynamics in the targeted areas. The GSCA will further be used to inform the development of an approach and methodology for dialogue and mediation interventions with community women groups, taking into account intergenerational divides and different experiences in the Lebanese civil war as well as to inform the development of gender-sensitive early warning systems for women community networks.

ACTIVITIES

This consultancy work will include a literature review on gendered conflict issues and dynamics in Lebanon (with a focus on Tripoli and Baalback) that are implicated by the Lebanese civil war, the development of research methodology and tools, guiding a team of data collectors who will perform KIIs and FGDs, and writing up the analysis report. The candidate may apply as lead researcher or with a team of data collectors.

TIMEFRAME

Activities will be conducted between July and October 2021:

• Literature review: 3 days
• Development of research methodology and tools, including incorporating Alert feedback: 3 days
• Induction workshop to data collectors on research methodology and tools and regular check-in meetings during data collection: 3 days
• Data collection in Tripoli and Baalback: number of days to be specified based on research methodology but would range between 15 and 25 days in both geographic areas. (To be included in the proposal only if lead researcher is applying with a team of data collectors).
• Analysis report write-up and incorporation of Alert’s revision: 6 days
• Participation in one or two debrief meetings: 1 day
• Final report: 2 days

DELIVERABLES

• Development of research methodology and tools in accordance with Alert and UN Women guidelines. Alert will translate all tools to Arabic.
• Review of secondary data (desk review) including of academic and grey literature (news articles, Social Media etc.)
• FGDs and KIIs as necessary with community members and key informants such as municipality representatives, security actors (LAF, ISF), CSOs/CBOs, and specialised activists (gender, legal, political, economic…).
• GCSA report with two sections – one on Tripoli and another on Baalback – by fourth week of September 2021 (first draft). We anticipate the report to be approximately 30 pages long (15 pages for Tripoli and 15 pages for Baalback). The full report should include an executive summary and bibliography/ references.
• Participation in one to two short briefing meetings including Alert, UN Women, and/or the UK embassy in Beirut.
• Final report including all feedback incorporated within one week’s time after the briefing meetings in October 2021.

Alert will retain final editorial rights on the commissioned piece. This includes professional copyediting and translation into Arabic. Should Alert deem it necessary, it reserves the right to commission additional inputs, reviews, or revisions, as needed to ensure the quality and relevance of the work.

The International Alert Lebanon Team will work closely with the consultants (the GSCA consultant and the data collectors, number of which to be determined depending on the research methodology) to support in data collection, analysis, drawing conclusions and recommendations, especially where there are data gaps due to limited timeframe. International Alert’s Global Gender Team and UN Women team in Lebanon will also feed into the development of the methodology, conflict analysis, and advising on the programmatic recommendations for dialogue and mediation. It is anticipated therefore that this phase of the research will involve more of a “co-development” approach.

KEY POINTS FOR ANALYSIS

The gender sensitive conflict analysis is expected to be framed around and include the five elements below and develop a contextualised, nuanced, and enhanced understanding of the following:

1. Understanding the ways in which gender interacts with conflict and power dynamics and how it plays out to inform and interact with local peace processes (i.e. including dialogue and mediation) in Tripoli and Baalback and identifying gendered conflict drivers, their causes, and effects. This needs to be done by applying the below approaches to gender:
   1. Comprehensive - examining femininities, masculinities and other gender identities;
   2. Relational - examining how the relations between gender identities co-construct expectations on each other and define power relations; and
   3. Intersectional - examining how gender interacts with other social identity markers such as age, class, ethnic caste, sexual orientation, rural/urban location, disability, marital status and so on interact with gender to create different positions of power, agency but also of needs and vulnerability.

1. Understanding the space and opportunities for intergenerational and cross-community dialogue and mediation with women at the community level:
   1. Identify and map key peace actors and key conflict actors in Tripoli and Baalback including different stakeholders such as public institutions, local authorities, women and activist groups, political parties, private sector, etc.
   2. Impact of lived and transmitted experiences from the Lebanese civil war on women and young women’s role in conflict dynamics and local peacebuilding in Tripoli and Baalback.
   3. Impact of prevalent political conditions and civil society activism during post-civil war period until 2019 on women and young women’s role in conflict dynamics and local peacebuilding in Tripoli and Baalback.
   4. Impact of the political dynamics since the October 2019 protests (that are highlighted in Alert’s published context analyses and that include outlooks and triggers for evolving and/or realignment of positions of traditional, emerging and nascent political parties and groups) on women and young women’s role in conflict dynamics and local peacebuilding in Tripoli and Baalback.
   5. The gendered implications of COVID-19 on spaces for dialogue (physical spaces, in person engagement) and horizontal and vertical relationships.

1. Understanding the intersections between local development issues in each of Tripoli and Baalback (e.g. engagement in local political and civic processes and activism, participation in economic activities and income generation, environmental issues, etc.) and conflicts and/or cross-community tensions.
2. Identifying challenges and opportunities for intergenerational and cross-community dialogue and conflict mediation work with women and young women in Tripoli and Baalback.

1. Provide concrete and practical programmatic recommendations that identify entry points for local dialogue processes including 1) establishing local dialogue and mediation platforms for women and young women in Tripoli and Baalback; 2) increasing the role of local women networks in community peace actions and initiatives, and 3) developing a bottom-up approach that informs the national WPS Agenda in Lebanon (to be triangulated with research conducted by Alert on prospects for establishing local peacebuilding networks in Bekaa and Tripoli).