Region:Asia Pacific
Current UN Women Plan Period Afghanisthan:2018-2022
World Bank Income Classification:Low Income
The World Bank classifies economies for analytical purposes into four income groups: low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high income. For this purpose it uses gross national income (GNI) per capita data in U.S. dollars, converted from local currency using the World Bank Atlas method, which is applied to smooth exchange rate fluctuations.
Least Developed Country:Yes
Since 1971, the United Nations has recognized LDCs as a category of States that are deemed highly disadvantaged in their development process, for structural, historical and also geographical reasons. Three criteria are used: per capita income, human assets, and economic vulnerability.
Gender Inequality Index:0.575
GII is a composite metric of gender inequality using three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment and the labour market. A low GII value indicates low inequality between women and men, and vice-versa.
Gender Development Index:0.723
GDI measures gender inequalities in achievement in three basic dimensions of human development: health, education, and command over economic resources.
Population:209,497,025
Source of population data: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022). World Population Prospects: The 2022 Revision
Male:19,976,265 (9.5%)
Female:189,520,760 (90.5%)
outcome XM-DAC-41146-LBN_D_2.3
National authorities, private sector and CSOs are engaged in and actively support gender equality and women’s economic empowerment and protection
During the reporting period, a total of 6076 vulnerable women and girls in Lebanon – refugees and Lebanese nationals, enhanced their skills, increased their income and reported feeling safer and more protected. This was achieved through the provision of livelihood opportunities, combined with protection services – with an emphasis on investing in opportunities within Lebanon’s productive sectors. In addition, the draft Government of Lebanon Social Protection Strategy, a first of its type, is more inclusive and gender responsive as a result of targeted technical assistance from UN Women. The strategy notably includes links between SP and welfare services, including gender-based violence, an emphasis on childcare services, capacity building and gender responsive budgeting. Of those supported through UN Women’s programme, 63% increased their household income and 24% decreased household debt despite the harsh external environment. 95% of women enhanced their motivation to participate in paid work and their confidence and skillsets to find work opportunities. 12% of participants found employment after participating in the training and cash-for-work programme, despite the contraction of the economy. UN Women also assisted in mobilizing a social enterprise, that was equipped and trained to produce menstrual pads in sustainable way and employ women in production. Through this, 100,000 pads (10,000 packs) of menstrual pads were produced and then sold or distributed, alleviating the difficulties that women in Lebanon face to purchase affordable and good-quality period products. Moreover, evidence throughout the program demonstrate that interventions contributed to women’s increased knowledge on GBV, greater sense of safety in public spaces and the workplace and improved mental health outcomes. Within the private sector, five additional companies were engaged in actively supporting gender equality through signing and implementing elements of the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), with support from UN Women, adding up to a total of 22 WEPs signatories in Lebanon. The five additional WEPs signatories committed to push forward gender equality objectives within their companies, with two companies beginning to develop action plans to revise their internal policies in order to make them more gender sensitive.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-LBN_D_4.1
The Women, Peace and Security Agenda is implemented through an enabling environment that supports women's participation in conflict prevention
During the reporting period, significant progress was made to support an enabling environment for the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. Support to the National Commission for Lebanese Women (NCLW) continued, who are leading on monitoring and reporting on NAP implementation. Operationally, UN Women directly implemented key parts of the NAP, in collaboration with government and civil society partners. At the national level, a Lebanese Women’s Peacebuilding Network was formed, and an inception meeting held to agree on its mandate and purpose. At the community level, local female mediation networks continued to work with local leaders to address local tensions. Initiatives include setting up a mediation office in the municipality of Qana, scaling up awareness raising in schools on tolerance and co-existence, and using tools of alternative dispute resolution to address issues of tensions related to access to fuel and waste management. The work of these networks are complimented by ongoing work to deal with Lebanon’s violent past. Female led inter-generational dialogues are taking place across the country, in an effort to address and build understanding of Lebanon’s past. This has included work with Lebanese and Palestinian communities to address Lebanon’s past and seek pathways for healing. As part of this, women’s experiences during the civil war are documented and narrated to the public, and cross community dialogue sessions are structured around them. To ensure concrete support to address ongoing issues related to the civil war is provided alongside these dialogue initiatives, UN Women supported 1671 women affected by the Lebanese civil war and/or members of the families of the disappeared to access psychological wellbeing service and legal aid. At the institutional level, UN Women worked to bring women’s narratives of the civil war into private school curriculums, building from a study on gendered crimes during Lebanon’s civil war. Nationally, UN Women continues to facilitate a two-track dialogue process with the most senior women with traditional and emerging political parties. This is part of long-term dialogue work and aims at developing substantive ideas and options for addressing Lebanon’s instability. Through six local women’s rights organization funded through WPHF, 1437 Women increased the level of their participation in the response and recovery from the Beirut port Explosion. The six grantees empowered women from diverse groups, including LBTIQ, members of local civil society, elderly women, community members, socio-economic vulnerable groups, sex workers, young women among others.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-LBN_D_6.1
Governments and civil society support progress on implementation of normative and policy frameworks, and work together to drive forward legislative change and reform
In the lead up to the 2022 election in Lebanon, UN Women developed and begin implementing a comprehensive strategy to support women’s political representation. This included bespoke campaign support to four hundred and fifty (450) female potential candidates, who improved their political knowledge, while securing media partnerships to spotlight the role of women candidates in the political and democratic systems and to address issues of violence against women in Lebanon’s elections. Of the women who ran for office, 70% benefited from UN Women Lebanon’s support. Of those that won, 50% of the first-time female MPs had benefited from UN Women Lebanon’s support. In addition, in 2021, UN Women continued to support national authorities and civil society to call for, and develop, gender responsive legislative options. Following UN Women’s support to the 2020 passage of the anti-sexual harassment law, work that was led by the NCLW, AUB and others, UN Women collaborated with the American University of Beirut to work with employers to adopt anti-SH policies in their workplaces. Technical drafting workshops with private sector HR representatives were hosted, and one example of impact is that the HOLDAL Group realigned and developed measures and guidance to prevent and address workplace sexual harassment. In addition, UN Women worked with NCLW, UNDP, Members of Parliament and other actors to push forward advocacy around the adoption of Temporary Special Measures, particularly gender quotas, in electoral processes. Specifically, UN Women funded NCLW to develop a gender quota proposal, which was – amongst others, submitted to Parliament for debate. UN Women also funded the Lebanon Feminist Platform (52 NGOs) to echo calls for the application of a gender quota, contributing to t a debate on the quota being hosted in Parliament. Continued work was undertaken in support of advocacy for a unified personal status law (UPSL). While a UPSL is a long-term objective, the current personal status law system underpins gender inequality in Lebanon, and continued advocacy for its reform is necessary to ensure it remains a key demand of political actors.Showing 1 - 3 of 3
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References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).
References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).