LEBANON: Mashreq Gender Facility

Technical and Operational Officer Consultancy

BACKGROUND

Gender equality is smart economics, contributing to poverty reduction, strengthening resilience and boosting shared prosperity. Empowering women and girls has an intrinsic value and is instrumental to achieve more inclusive institutions, sound policies, and effective development outcomes.

In the Mashreq countries of Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon important gains have been made in women’s access to education and health, but persistent challenges remain in women’s economic opportunities. In the Mashreq countries, around 1 in 5 women work and less than 5% of firms are led by a woman. Legally, there are certain restrictions related to areas and tasks in which women can work in all three countries. Women also have less access to formal financial services. Furthermore, countries are faced with context-specific problems, especially in the face of fragility and conflict.

Increased female economic participation would contribute to inclusive growth, and to help grow the middle class. Closing the gender gap in labor force participation rates by 25 percent can boost GDP (PPP terms) by 9 percent in Lebanon, 10 percent in Jordan and 11 percent in Iraq (ILO 2018).

The Mashreq Gender Facility, launched on January 19, 2019 in Beirut, Lebanon, provides technical assistance to the Mashreq countries to enhance women’s economic opportunities as a catalyst towards more inclusive, sustainable, and peaceful societies, where economic growth benefits all. Through collaboration with private sector, civil society and development partners, the Facility supports government-led efforts, country level priorities and strategic regional activities that: (i) Strengthen the enabling environment for relevant stakeholders to effectively identify and address constraints to women’s economic participation; and, (b) Improve women’s access to economic opportunities.

The Facility supports country level activities guided by government developed Action Plans. Activities of the 5-year Facility (2019-2024) are further detailed in shorter term country level work plans. The Lebanon MGF Country work plan includes activities under the following pillars:

• Enabling environment: legal constraints; HR policies & practices; national strategies.
• Understanding constraints to economic activity: evidence base on labor market outcomes, childcare demand & supply.
• Entrepreneurship and private sector employment: workforce gender diversity; early stage female entrepreneurs’ access to training, knowledge, innovative solutions and market
• Communication and behavior change: behavioral science-informed communications/outreach campaign on women’s work.  

OBJECTIVE & TASKS

The main objective of the consultancy is to provide technical and operational support to the National Coordinator to ensure effective implementation of the Mashreq Gender Facility work plan in Lebanon. The selected Consultant will work closely with both government and World Bank Group team members responsible for the Mashreq Gender program (see organizational chart in Annex A), on the tasks and produce the deliverables outlined below.

Tasks and Deliverables

The Consultant will support the following minimum set of activities and deliverables:

• Country Work Program Implementation. Support the coordination if the implementation of the country work program. Manage the day to day activities and ensure proper follow up with all external and internal stakeholders. Ensure specific deliverables are delivered in line with a detailed timeline and fulfilling quality standards related to activities and implementation arrangements with concerned Government stakeholders, including government focal points at designated ministries, private sector, CSOs, academia, UN agencies and others as required by the activity. Collaborate and liaise internally in the World Bank Group to leverage specific and needed expertise and engage as needed with colleagues working directly on the project, such as the legal consultant, behavioral change specialist, private sector specialist, IFC gender specialists. The consultant will be expected to lead meetings in the absence of the team leader and/or as needed with stakeholders. 
• Operational support. Support recruitment processes by drafting terms of references (TORs), identifying potential technical experts and firms, following up on internal procurement processes as needed, reviewing and evaluating response for proposals from firms based on TORs and identified criteria, etc.
• Administrative support. Perform administrative tasks as needed, such as drafting minutes of meetings, sending follow up emails, organizing meetings, prepare presentations, ensure appropriate documentation, update data base, contact lists, manage share drives of different activities, among others. Closely monitor the budget of activities and update as required.
• Monitoring, Reporting and Communications. Identify and support the development of results stories. Provide inputs to the quarterly MGF Newsletters and other regional and country-specific communications products that require inputs from the Lebanon work program for the regional and global reporting and outreach activities. Develop and maintain a monitoring framework for the MGF Lebanon work program, based on the approved work plan. Provide inputs to MGF Steering Committee activities. The consultant will assist in drafting concept notes, implementation plans, summary reports, newsletter/blog updates and editing documents related to the work plan.
• Country Work Program. The consultant will develop the workplan for phase 3 of the MGF in line ensuring a continuation of thematic activities of phase 2 that generates short-term results in line with 5-year year vision of the Women’s Economic Empowerment Action Plan (WEEAP). It will identify specific activities and tasks that have a clear link to the theory of change. The workplan will include with indicators, targets, indicative actions. Each task will then include specific deliverables, detailed timeline, roles & responsibilities, proposed implementation arrangements, collaboration from the World Bank Group, indicative budget.
• Topic management. Keep abreast of national initiatives related to women economic empowerment with the public and private sector, academia, CSOs, chamber of commerce, syndicates among others, to identify potential synergies. The consultant will attend workshop and events related to women economic empowerment as needed.

While working directly with the National Coordinator, the selected consultant will also coordinate closely with the World Bank Team Leader and provide him/her with weekly updates on the development of the Action Plan and the Work Plan.

CONSULTANT QUALIFICATIONS

• Master’s degree in Economic or Social Sciences.
• At least 5 years of experience of analytical and/or programmatic work on social issues, preferable gender, in Lebanon is required.
• Demonstrated experience in planning and programming of development initiatives (project management related tasks).
• Demonstrated strong understanding of gender related matters in Lebanon and proven record in timely delivery of outputs (analytical reports/texts, managerial/programmatic reports, and similar outputs) with high quality.
• Demonstrated strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to work effectively in a team and strong communication skills and ability to liaise with government officials, World Bank teams and other stakeholders effectively.
• Dedicated to meeting commitments and observing deadlines, persistent when faced with difficult problems or challenges; ability to multitask, remain calm and focused in stressful situations.
• Ability to tailor language, tone, style and format to match the audience, demonstrate openness in sharing information and keeping people informed, motivate others.
• Experience working with the government, private sector and/or previous work with the World Bank or other international and donor organization, especially on gender related matters, is highly desirable.
• Willingness and ability to travel within Lebanon and to attend all discussion and meetings related to the tasks and deliverables in this ToR.
• Proficiency in written and spoken English and Arabic required, French is an advantage.

ADMINISTRATIVE ARRANGEMENTS AND REMUNERATION

The duration of the initial Consultancy is 50 days, spanning over the period October 31, 2022, to June 30, 2023, with possibility of an extension in terms of number of days and duration based on performance and availability of funds. Remuneration for this Short-Term Consultancy will be determined based on the candidate’s experience and the Terms of Reference.

In the day-to-day activities, the consultant will work closely with the National Coordinator of the Mashreq Gender Facility, and liaise with the World Bank Team and other persons in the Lebanon MGF team. Final reporting responsibility is to the WBG team leader(s).

The World Bank reserves the right to shorten and/or terminate the contract and/or suspend payments if the consultant does not fill the commitments, or if the project is cancelled.

VI. SELECTION METHOD

Please submit your cover letter and CV to Angela Elzir Assy aelzir@worldbank.org by Friday October 7, cob.

An individual will be selected in accordance with process stipulated in Section V of “Selection and Employment of Consultants under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits & Grants by World Bank Borrowers (January 2011) (Revised July 2014).