WYPS Program - Women, Peace and Security Trainer

About the Program

Search and the National Commission for Lebanese Women (NCLW) are implementing a four-year regional program called “Women, Youth, Peace and Security” (WYPS). The program’s overall goal is to strengthen the meaningful and enduring participation of women and youth in advancing inclusive peace and security in the Levant and Yemen. To do this, the program aims to: 1) consolidate women's rights organizations’ (WROs) and youth-focused/youth-led organizations’ (YFOs/YLOs) strategic engagement and influence in municipal and national peace and reconciliation processes; 2) motivate key sub-national and national institutions to strengthen inclusive policies and standards facilitating inclusive youth and women’s participation in peace and security; and 3) promote shifts in social norms around women and youth’s meaningful inclusion in peace and security at all levels, including stronger alliances with men and boys.

Under the project, Search and the NCLW established a network of 20 local CSOs including WROs and YFOs/YLOs during the program kick-off meeting held in May 2023, for which a series of capacity-building trainings and workshops will be organized. Under this call for application and proposals, we are recruiting for a training expert on Women, Peace and Security, and its pursuit in Lebanon.

Consultancy Summary

It is now recognised that conflict prevention, recovery and peacebuilding cannot succeed if half the population is excluded. Conflict prevention, peace agreements, post-conflict reconstruction, and governance is more effective when women are involved and when their needs and priorities are taken into account. Documents such as the UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security (1325, 1820, 1888, 1889 and 1960) outline concrete actions to be taken by the international community and respective Member States to address women, peace and security issues. These include actions to increase women’s participation at all levels of conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and peacekeeping initiatives; the protection of women and girls during armed conflict; and the prevention of gender-based violence.

While normative global, regional and national frameworks have increasingly been developed over the last decade, the comprehensive implementation of the resolutions remains the greatest challenge. Conflict prevention, peace negotiations, peacekeeping missions and conflict resolution mechanisms often ignore women’s voices and fail to address the needs of women.

Under this consultancy, the trainer is expected to prepare training materials, deliver a multi-day training to 20+ CSO representatives on WPS (see detailed training objectives below), with the overall goal to empower those organisations to understand WPS as a global priority, understand global WPS frameworks, how they are reflected / implemented in Lebanon, and critically engage in the advancement of WPS in Lebanon, at community level.

S/he/they will be under the direct supervision of Search’s Project Manager, and NCLW’s Project Coordinator.

Goals and Objectives of the Consultancy

The goal of the training is to support the WROs and YFO/YLOs in developing the needed knowledge and skills to strengthen the organization’s technical capacities to manage and grow their work and impact in women-focused programming. The training should be able to support their efforts in implementing project activities and designing advocacy initiatives.

More specifically, the trainer is expected to 1) provide participants with an understanding of how a gender lens is critical to all elements of peacebuilding, conflict resolution and recovery work, initiatives and policy; 2) outline the normative framework around women’s rights and peacebuilding, security sector governance, approaches to transitional justice, security policy making and awareness raising on women’s and gender issues; 3) take a critical look at the implementation of the women, peace and security resolutions, including gaps that that make a comprehensive, realistic and effective response to gender, peace and security issues challenging globally; and 4) provide participants with a critical overview of how women, peace and security is being pursued and implemented in Lebanon, including an introduction on the NAP.

The training sessions will be delivered in Arabic but all reporting to the Search team and NCLW team should be in English.

Expected learning outcomes

By the end of the training, participants should be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of how security and peace are inherently gendered;
• Critically analyse the concepts, theories and approaches relating to WPS;
• Demonstrate an understanding of international and national frameworks and action plans related to WPS (UN resolutions, Lebanon NAP, etc);
• Reflect and strategise on the role of CSOs in WPS, and their contribution to national and international strategies; and
• Reflect on and advance the localisation of international and national strategies to their target communities.

Expected deliverables

• Training modules and agenda: including any power point presentations, handouts, pre and post-test and additional resources to be shared with the trainees to be submitted to the Search team and NCLW team at least two weeks before the proposed start date of the training;
• Training session;
• Provide a comprehensive final trainer report that should highlight achievements, challenges, lessons learned, and recommendations (the template will be shared with the trainer by the Search team and is to be submitted within one week of the end of the training).

Timeline

The training/workshop is expected to be delivered in-person, in Beirut, in September 2023. The number of days dedicated to the training/workshop is up to 2 days.

Required Profile

Search is looking for independent consultants/trainers to apply for this opportunity with the following profiles:

• 3 to 5 years of experience training in the topic proposed;
• Proficiency in English and Arabic;
• Experience in training design, planning, interactive delivery, facilitation, and monitoring;
• Comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the local context in Lebanon;

• Experience in working with international organizations and/or public institutions, especially in Lebanon;

• Solid communication and facilitation skills;
• Knowledge of local contexts, cultural awareness, and conflict- and gender-sensitivity skills;
• Ability to work with people from various social and professional backgrounds and at all levels; and
• Knowledge of Women, Peace, and Security.

Preferable but not required:

• A degree in the topic/s proposed or closely related;