Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls, the empowerment of women, and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments to gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action worldwide. It provides solid and coherent leadership supporting Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Lebanon’s economic and financial crisis is described by the World Bank as one of the worst crises globally, possibly among the top three since the mid-nineteenth century. Extreme poverty has quadrupled from 8% in 2019 to 34% of the total population in 2021. The first Lebanon Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) held in September 2022 projected that, between January and April 2023, about 2.26 million people, corresponding to 42 per cent of the analysed population, are expected to face high levels of food insecurity IPC Phase 3 (Crisis) or above, impacted by a further deterioration of the economic situation and depreciation of the Lebanese Pound (LBP), protracted inflation, and soaring international prices. The analysis estimated that 354,000 individuals (7 per cent) are expected to face acute emergency food insecurity (IPC Phase 4), and 1.91 million (36 per cent) are expected to be in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis). Specifically, 1.46 million Lebanese residents (38 per cent of the resident population) and 0.80 million Syrian refugees (53 per cent of the total number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon) are projected in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis) or above. The current crisis hits both women and men; however, across Lebanese refugee and migrant worker populations, there are more women among the most food insecure, the elderly, the unemployed, and survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) than men.

In the current context of Lebanon, inequalities are deepening – with levels of unpaid care work for women increasing and women leaving the labour market in numbers higher than men. Women face additional barriers related to social norms, legal constraints, and market failures, including limited access to social protection, affordable and adequate childcare, safe public transportation, harassment, and equal access to the workplace. In response to the crisis, more Syrian women, who predominantly work in agriculture, have joined the labour force over time but face the highest rate of unemployment of any group. Still, Syrian refugee men are six times more likely to be working compared to Syrian refugee women: women: 59% of men were employed compared to only 9% of women. On the other hand, Lebanese women have left the labour force due to the economic crisis, as their labour force participation decreased from 30% in 2018 to 23% in 2022. Labour force participation of Lebanese men remains three times higher than that of Lebanese women, though the crisis also impacted men’s economic participation. Syrian women earn far less than Lebanese women on average, and Syrian female-headed households earn 39% less than Syrian male-headed households.

From this comes the urgent need to strengthen the gender responsiveness, social inclusion and protection dimensions of the social protection programmes and cash-based interventions (CBIs), as well as the resilience programs being rolled out in Lebanon targeting host and refugee communities and, more specifically, through WFP`s programming. Social protection schemes and CBIs should programmatically seek to adopt agendas that mainstream gender into their programmes through gender and social inclusion mainstreaming and capacity building. Here, there is scope for UN Women to support the development and strengthening of such policies, projects, programmes and modalities and provide technical support to national and international stakeholders and their partners to oversee their implementation.

Duties and Responsibilities

Reporting to the WEE Programme Manager, the Gender and Social Inclusion Local Researcher will lead the data collection and analysis of two research pieces, the aim of which is to support the gender responsiveness of WFP`s resilience activities and social assistance being provided for MoSA`s National Poverty Targeting Program (NPTP).

Research Piece 1- Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) of WFP`s Resilience Activities, Sustainable Childcare, and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) Responsive Programming
Per the parameters established in the inception report that UN Women will provide, the researcher will carry out the following in support of the research being undertaken:

1) Primary data collection
Conducting data collection utilizing the tools and sampling to be provided by UN Women:

• 250 individuals for short questionnaires
• 236 individuals for 19 focus group discussions
• Interviews with 10 formal and informal childcare providers
• Interviews with 10 SGBV service providers

2) Coordination with lead researcher
Regular coordination with the lead researcher on:

• Utilizing the data collection tools
• Sampling of beneficiaries for data collection
• Quality control of data collected.

Research Piece 2- Research on the food, nutrition and health needs of vulnerable groups of NPTP beneficiaries: women and girls of reproductive age, women heads of households, elderly women and persons with disabilities.
Per the parameters established in the inception report that UN Women will provide, the researcher will carry out the following:

1) Revision of quantitative data analysis results (provided by UN Women)

• Review the quantitative data collection results provided by UN Women. WFP will administer data collection activities, and UN Women will receive the data analysis results based on a defined analysis plan.

2) Development of a qualitative data collection tool

• Develop qualitative data collection tools for focus group discussions and key informant interviews with women and persons with disabilities or their caretakers based on the research objectives and the quantitative data collection results.

3) Qualitative data collection

• Conduct ten focus group discussions with women and 10 Key Informant Interviews with persons with disabilities and their caretakers.
• Translate, transcribe, and clean up qualitative interviews.

4) Data analysis

• Conduct comprehensive data analysis for the quantitative and qualitative data results.

5) Write up of report and presentation of findings.

• Write up and presentation of the initial draft of the report.
• Revise the draft report based on UN Women, WFP, and MoSA feedback and produce a finalised version.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:
https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:

• Excellent analytical and research skills;
• Strong understanding of and commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment and its policy implications;
• Excellent writing skills;
• Excellent organizational skills;
• Strong knowledge and use of computer office tools and statistical software;
• Demonstrated ability to work in a team and in a cooperative and productive fashion both with internal and external colleagues;
• Ability to work under pressure on multiple projects whilst maintaining high-quality and timeliness.
• Self-management;
• Continuous Learning and awareness of political sensitivity.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in human rights, gender, international relations, international development, international law or other social science fields is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with four additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience gender related research, with a focus on social assistance and/or protection.
• Experience related to GESI and social protection.
• Experience in conducting complex qualitative and quantitative research, and policy analysis.
• Computer skills, statistics, internet communication and command of MS Office
• Experience working with the UN is an asset; and
• Experience working in Lebanon is an asset.

Languages:

• Fluency in Arabic and English is required.

Application:

Interested Individual Consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• Personal CV and P11 form (P11 can be downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc)
• A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page)
• Managers may ask (ad hoc) for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, such as reports, presentations, publications, campaigns, or other materials.

The above-mentioned documents should be merged in a standalone file including all them, since the online application submission does only permit to upload one file per application. Incomplete submission can be a ground for disqualification.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)