Consultant, Certified gender auditor to perform a gender audit for an institution.

About the Program:  

LLWB, in partnership with UK embassy is leading on a project that aims to facilitate and increase female representation on Board of Syndicates, Universities, Board of Organizations and Public Institutions in Lebanon, promoting gender equality and diversity in decision-making positions.  

In this iteration of the program LLWB will conduct gender audits of 4 institutions be ministries and public institution, after the gender audit, develop gender action plans for the ministries and or public institutions and lead on training of the stakeholders of these institutions on issues related to gender mainstreaming, equality, diversity and inclusion. 

Participating institutions will identify best practices and gaps in policies, knowledge and practice for gender mainstreaming at various levels. The institutions will develop a gender-sensitive action plan. The participatory methodology will help identify needs for capacity building in gender at the levels of individuals and the organization, be it a ministry or a public institution  

The project will also, later, mentor women selected from these institutions to be members of boards as per LLWB flagship journey of supporting women in boards of institutions.  

 The project will also support selected women from each institution to receive 2 certifications of graduation recognized internationally: the Board Diversity Program and the Corporate Directors Program. 

Scope of Consultancy:  

LLWB is seeking short-term expert consultant to conduct a participatory gender audit for ministries and or public institution in Lebanon to establish a baseline on gender mainstreaming. The gender audit will seek to promote learning on individual and organizational levels on how to practically and effectively mainstream gender in the policies, procedures, programs, content production, and structures of the participating organizations. 

LLWB is looking to recruit consultants who are certified Gender expert from ITC ILO and have experience with public institutions and or ministries to Conduct a gender audit for public institution in Lebanon.  

The participatory gender audit aims to integrate a gender perspective into the institution's policies, practices and programs. It is an effective tool for promoting adult learning on an individual level as well as on the organisational level. It guarantees that a gender approach is being developed in a self-reflective approach to consolidate gender equality, non-discriminatory and inclusive values at the different levels of the organisation’s structure, the policies and programs, the knowledge production (research), the internal procedures, written and customary, and the language used in the different  communication tools used by the institution. 

The report of the gender audit must include a set of practical and impactful recommendations to address and implement the results and findings of the gender audit in the ministry and or public administration on the short term and long term. Based on the report, and additionally a gender action plan will be developed for the institution.  

This will include as per the ILO method:  

• Inception report outlining methodology and work plan of the consultancy assignment 
• Organize and attend meetings for the audit report with LLWB and with the selected institution focal points and interviewees and or participants. 
• Lead on the desk review, which will analyze documents (policies, budgets, codes, guidelines, emails, and internal and external products) produced by the partner organization that will be audited from a gender perspective. 
• Prepare lead, and conduct a survey with all relevant stakeholders (Institution staff + their collaborators as per Gender audit needs) to feed into a first general diagnosis that will cover all activities and sectors of work of the organization in terms of gender equality and gender mainstreaming at different levels (strategic, financial, operational, communication or organizational (HR, organizational culture).​ 
• Conduct at least 5 Semi-structured key informant interviews with relevant stakeholders in the ministry or public institution to explore more in detail and in a qualitative approach the survey outcomes, identifying gaps, best practices, and ways for improvement in addressing gender in a transformative way. Attention will be given to proper representation in these interviews.  
• Conduct On-site visits to the Institution premises to meet with the management, staff and stakeholders and assess their gender approach and potential gaps in situ, by the gender auditor. These will include interviews and the organization of one or two focus groups and/or a participatory workshop to test the first findings and gather further inputs and contributions that will feed into the final findings of the diagnosis report and the recommendations.​ 
• Prepare a gender audit report and present it to the institution and LLWB with clear methodology, and recommendations on how to develop success stories and areas of improvement  
• On a second phase based on gender audit report recommendations  
• The consultant will Draft a gender Action plan Based on the findings and the recommendations of the PGA report with clear impact recommendations (this process can start during the onsite workshop and/or focus groups) to be validated and included in the final report.​ 
• Present final report and action plan  to LLWB and ministry or public institution.  
• Once the final report is complete, the findings will be presented to the institution by the consultant in the presence of LLWB. 
• Final presentation and validation of gender action plan will be presented by consultant to ministry and public administration.  

Timeline:  
The gender experts are to submit a time frame for implementing the gender audit for the participating partner organizations and action plans within the period of August 2025 – September 2025, the audit validation could be led on mid-October 2025 at the latest. 

Required Qualifications:  

Applicants must hold a degree in social sciences, socio-economic sciences, gender studies, or any other relevant field. Preferably, trained in and holding ILO certification in Participatory Gender Audits. The following qualifications are required; 

• At least five years of work experience in conducting gender audits and/or related DEI organizational assessments. 
• Relevant experience with Ministries and Public Institutions in the arenas of organizational development, raising safeguarding and accountability standards. 
• Experience in facilitating participatory gender audits and drafting impactful gender action plans is mandatory. 
• Please scan and add your ITC ILO Certification in PGA and clearly define in the cover letter your experience in leading participatory gender audits. Fluency in Arabic is necessary,  
• In presence in Lebanon to perform the audit is mandatory, Availability to work and to be agile as per the institutions calendar and needs. .  
• Ability to produce a well-written a gender audit report with clear contextualisation, highligthing best practices and areas of development in English and in Arabic is required.  
• Ability to produce a clear Impactful gender action plan with structured recommendations on short , medium and long term is mandatory 
• Ability to communicate easily with high-level public-sector representatives is needed 

LLWB will select the consultant that is the most suitable for the assignment and is immediately available for the time span of the project, considering the proposal submitted by the applicant, experience with public institutions and public sector institutions cost and availability. 

Deliverables:  

Inception report outlining methodology and work plan of the consultancy assignment, the inception report and time frame should be presented and prepared with the gender focal points appointed from institutions and LLWB.  

• Conducting the gender audit within the agreed framework and timeframe with the participating institution. 
• A draft gender audit report for the institution to be shared with the targeted institution and LLWB for feedback and comments. 
• Full report on the process conducted for each institution: including the inception report, the methodology used with the tools used (KIIS, Questionnaire, FGD and workshop tool in English and Arabic)  
• Presentation of findings for the targeted institutions and LLWB, the session to be organized in close collaboration with the focal points appointed by the institution.  
• A final report and clear gender action plan for each institution including main findings with supporting evidence, and clear and impactful recommendations. Each report shall make clear recommendations for performance improvement along with proposed framework and action plans to address the areas of improvement with clear activities and way forward that could be implemented by the institution. The final gender action plan should be presented by the consultant to the institution in a session organized in close collaboration with them.   
• With this call for proposal, LLWB requests interested consultant to express their interest and send a cover letter with clear commitment to perform the audit, and draft the action plan with the institution, the auditor needs to send a financial proposal covering all the above deliverables and ensure that MOF certification is needed (The lump sum should include all Transporation, noting that most of the public institutions/ministries are located in Beirut and Mount Lebanon and communication fees). Note: Failing to provide these documents will lead to a deduction of the withholding tax (8.5%) as per the Lebanese Law.