UN Women Transparency Portal

Region:Asia Pacific Current UN Women Plan Period Afghanisthan:2018-2022

World Bank Income Classification:Low Income

Least Developed Country:Yes

Gender Inequality Index:0.575

Gender Development Index:0.723

Population:209,497,025 Male:19,976,265 (9.5%) Female:189,520,760 (90.5%)

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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

This outcome was achieved. Civil society organizations, private sector and national authorities actively supported women’s economic empowerment and protection. Operationally, UN Women reached 13,322 people (11,202 direct and 2,120 indirect), addressing issues of food security and protection in Lebanon. Of these, 9,260 vulnerable women and girls in Lebanon – Lebanese, Syrians, Palestinians, and other nationalities, enhanced their skills, increased their income, and accessed protection services and goods. Of the 11,202 supported, 1,031 women (767 Lebanese, 217 Syrian, 46 Palestinian and one other nationality) increased their skills to help them enter the workforce, 471 women (268 Lebanese, 153 Syrian, 45 Palestinian, and 5 other nationalities) accessed the labor market. An estimated 2,120 family members of these women indirectly benefitted from increased income of the women workers. An endline survey of this work showed that 100% (target 80%) of women improved their self-confidence in work capabilities through participation in the programme and 98% felt that the programme improved their skills applicable to work opportunities. Of these, 100% increased their income security and, despite the challenging socio-economic environment in Lebanon, 27.13% percent found had employment opportunities at the end of the programme, exceeding the target of 15%. Twenty (20) women received vocational start-up kits to enable them to continue work after their training period. Through the opportunities generated through cash for work interventions, 2,319 people received 26,061 hot meals, 150 women in areas affected by the Beirut blast received PPE kits for COVID-19 prevention, and 150 women in Tripoli received hygiene kits that contained menstrual pads produced by women supported by UN Women. Furthermore, 7,001 women received protection services and increased awareness on GBV and PSEA through outreach. This was made possible through UN Women’s partnerships with non-governmental organizations, and the mobilization of the private sector to support and engage in women’s economic empowerment and protection. A survey showed that 99% of beneficiaries increased their sense of wellbeing at the end of the protection intervention as opposed to wellbeing at case intake. An estimated 1,047,388 women engaged with the GBV and PSEA awareness campaigning done through UN Women partner KAFA. Within the private sector, eighteen additional companies committed to gender equality practices in their companies by signing the WEPs, following training and support from UN Women, reaching a total of 38 WEPs signatories in Lebanon. UN Women support the WEPs signatories in revising their internal policies, this included Anti-Harassment as well as Diversity and Inclusion Policies. Institutionally, UN Women partnered with the Ministry of Social Affairs (MOSA) and the Ministry of Finance to support women’s economic empowerment and protection. Five hundred and five (505) staff from MOSA working on the National Poverty Targeting Programme (NPTP), Lebanon’s largest social protection programme, have increased capacity on (1) gender equality and social inclusion; (2) gender-based violence (GBV) principles and concepts; and (3) safe identification and referral pathways of GBV cases, as a result of UN Women’s support. This was achieved through trainings conducted jointly by UN Women and WFP. Overall, 98% of the attendees agreed that the training allowed them to gain new skills and knowledge in gender, social inclusion and GBV that will be useful to improve their work. There was also a significant increase in the average knowledge of attendees in gender and social inclusion, GBV, referrals and safety and security measures. While the average score earned by trainees in the pre-training evaluation ranged between 3.2 and 3.6 in these four indicators, it increased considerably to a range of 4.5 and 4.7 (out of 5), as reported in the post-training evaluation. Furthermore, national authorities and others use data generated by UN Women to advocate for gender-responsive policies in the government. UN Women launched papers on gender-responsive taxation and gender-responsive procurement; UN Women published a gender analysis highlighting the voices of women in the agriculture and agri-food sectors and a legislative review of the legal framework governing women in these sectors. A study on sexual harassment and transportation in Tripoli was also completed and used in negotiations with the taxi syndicate in Tripoli around women’s safe usage. These papers were produced to serve as advocacy tools that national authorities and others can use to promote gender-responsive policies.

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

This outcome was achieved. During 2022, government, the UN and civil society continued to implement the NAP 1325, generating important results for Lebanon. With the NAP ending in 2023, it is estimated by the National Commission for Lebanese Women that 90% of interventions in the 1325 NAP that have been implemented or are on track (75 % implemented and 15 % on track). In achieving this, UN Women supported the NCLW to roll out NAP implementation, coordination and monitoring structures, while directly implementing elements of the NAP, including creating a national mediation platform and implementing mediation, dialogue and peacebuilding actions at the national and community level. Through UN Women support, eighteen Lebanese women peacebuilders and mediators strengthened their efforts to address conflict and promote dialogue and reconciliation at the community level – leading cross community dialogues on the past. 260 women from across Lebanon conducted more than 20 mediation and peacebuilding actions at community level on de-escalating conflict and dealing with the past. Targeted women mediators and peacebuilders report improved levels of tolerance and acceptance amongst each other, upgraded skills, and a stronger commitment to promoting peace and reconciliation in their communities. UN Women, in partnership with the Government of Switzerland, established a women’s national peacebuilding network in Lebanon - a commitment under Lebanon’s National Action Plan 2019-2023 on UNSCR 1325. The network will be launched publicly in May 2023. Through 16 local women’s rights organization funded through WPHF, more than 2000 Women increased the level of their participation in recovery and peacebuilding processes. The 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

This outcome was achieved. In 2022, more women participated in political processes and the women’s movement further expanded and strengthened its advocacy efforts and collaboration. In 2022, a voters elected a record number of eight women to parliament, representing a 33 per cent increase from the previous six female MPs, while representing an overall percentage increase in female MPs from 4.6 per cent to 6.4 per cent. For the first time in Lebanon’s history, two elected female MPs ran on purely feminist platforms. Furthermore, a record number of women ran for elections, with 157 women submitting their candidacy, and 118 making it to electoral lists. Through UN Women’s support, 450 women improved their political knowledge to participate in the 2022 electoral cycle on party lists, while securing media partnership to spotlight the role of 15 women candidates in the political and democratic systems. Of the women who submitted their candidacy for parliamentary elections, more than 65 per cent benefitted fully or partially from support provided by UN Women, and more than 50 per cent of women who made electoral lists benefitted from support provided by UN Women. Moreover, 90 per cent of women who received an in-depth training package from the project ran for elections. Two of the eight women elected benefited significantly from UN Women support. The women’s movement in the country, a vital building block for stability, strengthened significantly and women accessed more spaces of tolerance and understanding through UN Women’s interventions. In support of a stronger and more coherent feminist movement in Lebanon, the Lebanon Feminist Civil Society Platform (herein, Feminist Platform) expanded and solidified its purpose as a key convening and advocacy space for feminist actors in Lebanon, by endorsing a roadmap for action and an organisational structure. It focused its advocacy efforts on issues of women’s political representation, including advocating for a gender quota – which was introduced in Parliament and debated in plenary – a first for Lebanon – but did not pass and remains in committee. The Feminist Platform identified a list of critical gender commitments, grounded in Lebanon’s international normative commitments, that parties and candidates should uphold in the 2022 parliamentary elections and lobbied potential candidates to adopt it as part of their electoral programmes. Furthermore, the Feminist Platform issued six statements on women’s rights in the context of participation in elections. Further, the National Commission for Lebanese Women (NCLW) embraced the strategic focus of the Feminist Platform. Specifically, NCLW publicly supported advocacy and calls by the Feminist Platform for the implementation of a gender quota and brought these joint concerns to the sixty-sixth (66th) session of the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2022. This support by NCLW demonstrates the influential role played by the Feminist Platform and its potential to contribute constructively to inclusive sustainable development in Lebanon.

outcome XM-DAC-41146-LBN_O_1

Enhanced coordination, coherence and accountability of the UN system for commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment

This output was achieved, during 2022 the UN in Lebanon enhanced their commitment to GEWE. All UN-led frameworks/response plans developed in 2022 in Lebanon prioritized gender equality and the improvement of outcomes for women and girls across humanitarian and development interventions. These include three national level response plans in Lebanon include: the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan 2022 (LCRP), and the Emergency Response Plan (ERP). For example, GEWE is visible mainstreamed throughout over 85% of the UNSDCF outcomes, including one outcome that specifically targets women participation. In the LCRP, gender equality is mainstreamed in 90% of the sectoral operational response plans (9 out of 10), 70% of which score a 4 on the gender marker. In the ERP, gender equality is prioritized across the humanitarian plan’s three strategic objectives and gender is mainstreamed across in 100% (8 out of 8) of the sectoral operational response plans. This was a result of UN Women’s leadership, technical expertise, coordination work and capacity to mobilize strategic partnerships. UN Women conducted gender analysis of the largest national surveys in the country, including: the Labour Force and Household Survey with ILO and the Central Administration of Statistics; the Multi-Sectoral Needs Assessment (MSNA) with OCHA and REACH; and the Vulnerability Assessment for Syrian refugee with UNHCR, WFP, and UNICEF. With this data, UN Women worked with the gender focal points from the GWG to ensure all sector strategies or pillar chapters across the three plans describe the diverse impact of women and girls and include different approaches to address gender equality in their strategies or response plans. One concrete example includes the WASH sector prioritizing female menstrual hygiene through making it a sector objective and increase funding, in response to rising period poverty across the country. Contributing to the gender responsiveness of the implementation, UN Women strengthened the capacity of 1,271 humanitarian and development personnel (81% female, and 19% male, ranging from frontliners to head of agencies) on diverse gender equality issues, over a total of 61training sessions. Over 96% of participants reported that they gained new knowledge and skills on diverse gender issues that will be useful in their work. Of the 1240 trained, 41 gender specialists partook in advanced gender trainings of trainers, equipped them to facilitate more trainings (the impact and results from the gender cascade trainings are still being assessed). From the last gender TOT, 83.3% of participants reported learning new information about gender issues that will help them in their humanitarian work, and 78% said they feel confident and prepared to train their colleagues on GiHA.

outcome XM-DAC-41146-LBN_O_2

Increased engagement of partners in support of UN-Women’s mandate

This output was achieved. In 2022, partners increased their engagement in support of UN Women’s mandate. This was a result of UN Women increasing the number of partners and quality of support they provided on gender equality and women’s empowerment through its coordination mandate. UN Women increased attention to and action towards gender equality issues across the humanitarian, development and peace nexus, with efforts centralize in the Gender Working Group (GWG). In 2022, the GWG expanded its organizational memberships to a total of 70 organizations, an increase of 40% from the end of 2021, when the group opened its membership to non-UN agency members; in additional 15 member states and development cooperations are engaged in the GWG in an observatory status. UN Women expanded its CSO networks by strengthening the UN Women hosted Feminist Platform, a coalition of 52 civil society organizations working on women’s rights issues In Lebanon. This included representative from the Platform meeting with Prime Minister Mikati to demand stronger representation of women in the cabinet formation. UN Women scaled-up up advocacy on gender priorities within Lebanon’s reform process, through its government partners, namely the NCLW. In addition, UN Women increased its engagement of donors, partners, as well as the public through communications and advocacy campaigns. UN Women Lebanon’s Twitter followers increased from 4652 to 6220. One example is the Vote Equal Campaign that engaged 14 international partners to raise awareness on the importance of women’s political participation. The campaign generated 2.5 million impressions and reached 750000 social media users.

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The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.
References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).

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