Call for Application - Recruitment of a National Consultant to Support in the Skills Profiling of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon

Since the fall of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024, an estimated 356,200 Syrians have crossed back into Syria from neighboring countries in the region, with projections indicating that 400,000 more may return by the end of the year. It is estimated that 30% of these returnees come from Lebanon. Meanwhile, Lebanon has also seen new arrivals, with reports indicating that 90,500 people have entered Akkar, Baalbek and North Bekaa. These complex demographic shifts continue to influence the labour market and broader socio-economic landscape.

Many of the Syrian returnees were previously engaged in Lebanon’s informal economy, meaning that their departure creates both opportunities and disruptions within certain sectors, such as agriculture, construction, and services, where Syrian refugees have historically formed a significant part of the workforce.

In response to these developments, ILO, in close coordination with UNHCR Syria has recently conducted a rapid skills profiling assessment of Syrian returnees in selected geographic areas in Syria as a pilot. The assessment report will be finalized soon; and will provide an understanding of the profile of Syrians who are returning and inform programming inside Syria both in terms of skills development and job matching. By the same token, the ILO, under the PROSPECTS programme and in close collaboration with UNHCR Lebanon will conduct skills assessment of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, including those who intend to return and who plan to remain for the time being. Using a similar tool to the one used in Syria with adaptation to the target group in Lebanon, this assessment will provide a better understanding of the skills profile of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and will make recommendations for linking them to skills and livelihoods opportunities in Lebanon. The assessment can also be used to inform possible referrals for those who intend to return to employment opportunities inside Syria. A similar assessment will soon be conducted by the ILO under the PROSPECTS programme in Jordan.

The ILO developed an individual survey skills assessment tool and will conduct a training for enumerators identified by UNHCR based in 19 Community Development Centers (CDCs) in Beirut and Mount Lebanon (BML), North and Bekaa. Following this training, the data collection will be launched at the end of April.

Against this backdrop, the ILO is seeking to hire a national consultant to support the data analysis and cleaning. S/He will also create data illustration and draft the final skills profiling assessment report in its final form ready for publication. and key activities.

Objective

The assignment objective is to support the skills profiling for Syrian refugees in Lebanon through providing supervision and support in the data collection process, cleaning of the collected data, create data illustration and draft the final skills profiling assessment report in its final form ready for publication.

Assignment Key Activities

This assignment will include the following key activities:

1. Prepare and submit the inception report including the implementation plan and suggested dates.
2. To make him/herself available to collaborate with all partners related to the project, whether public, private, non-governmental or UN entities.
3. Consolidate and gather all raw data forms into one folder and submit it to the ILO.
4. Clean all the raw data forms and consolidate all clean ones in a folder and submit it to the ILO.
5. Classify the data into 2 main sets – the individuals who plan to return to Syria now, within 6 months and within 12 months
6. Develop a final assessment report listing all the findings of the assessment and providing recommendations for specific skills sets amongst Syrians in Lebanon for potential employment opportunities split by industrial sectors. Specific recommendations will be made in relation to those who intend to return.
7. Prepare a PowerPoint presentation (using Power BI) that will be used in a validation meeting on the assessment report mentioned in point 6 above and participate in the meeting in person or virtually.
8. Edit the report mentioned in point 6 above based on feedback from the validation meeting and/or the ILO technical officer and provide to the ILO a final edited version for publishing along with a short executive summary with infographics and diagrams using Power BI.

Eligibility

To be considered as an eligible candidate, the national consultant should have the following qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in statistics, economics, business administration or related fields.
• At least 7 years of experience in the field of assessments, data collection, research and data analysis.
• Proven previous experience in a similar assignment.
• Good understanding of the Lebanese context and particularly the recent demographic movements.
• Excellent reporting skills.
• Strong communication and inter-personal skills.
• Fluency in written English and Arabic.