Governance Advisor – IGOR GIZ LB

Band: 4

Governance Advisor – IGOR

Job Profile

1. Required qualifications, competences and experience

Formal Education

• Master’s Degree in Political Science, Economics, Public Policy, International Relations, Law, Sociology or a related Social Science field.

Professional Experience

• 7 years of relevant professional experience in international development, public policy, governance or related fields.
• 5 years of experience working on good governance, reforms, public policy analysis, anti-corruption, public finance or related topics in Lebanon and/or the MENA region.
• Proven experience in policy analysis, research and production of analytical outputs (e.g. policy briefs, reports, background papers) for different audiences (technical, political, public).
• Experience in working with or within think tanks, research institutions, universities, media platforms or civil society organisations on evidence-based policy work.

Other knowledge, additional competences

• Arabic native speaker, excellent command of English (spoken and written), French is considered an asset.
• Strong analytical and writing skills, an ability to summarise complex issues clearly and concisely for different target groups.
• Solid understanding of Lebanon’s political economy, governance and reform landscape, including knowledge key institutions and stakeholders and reform strategies.
• Proven ability to conduct and/or assess qualitative research and to work with data in a structured way.
• Strong networking skills and ability to build and maintain professional relationships with a wide range of stakeholders (public sector, civil society, academia, international partners).
• High degree of political and cultural sensitivity, good judgement and ability to work in a conflict-sensitive manner.
• Excellent time management skills and ability to organise a daily workload by priorities; must be able to meet deadlines in a fast-paced, quickly changing environment.
• Commitment to gender equality and inclusion in governance and reform processes.
• Ability and willingness to travel inside Lebanon as needed by the project.
• Understanding of gender-sensitive governance and ability to integrate gender considerations into political and reform analysis.
• Strong ethical standards, with proven ability to handle politically sensitive information confidentially and impartially.
• Good working knowledge of ITC technologies and related software (e.g. MS Outlook, MS Office, MS Excel, MS Power Point)

2. Major Responsibilities

In your role, you support the implementation of the project with a focus on (i) advising on approaches to strengthen local knowledge production (think tanks, research institutions and academia), and (ii) monitoring and analysing political, economic, financial, governance and justice-sector developments relevant to the GIZ IGOR project’s reform, good governance and anti-corruption portfolio.

You translate your analysis into concise products for different target groups (e.g. stand-up briefs, background notes, trend analyses) and feed them into the strategic steering of GIZ IGOR and the wider GIZ governance portfolio. In parallel, you help design, steer and technically backstop cooperation with knowledge partners, ensuring that their outputs inform both GIZ programming and public debate.

While anchored under the third component of the GIZ IGOR project (see project description above), the analytical work of this position provides cross-cutting benefits to the other components by informing risk management, reform sequencing, strategic steering, and activity alignment across the IGOR project.

Additionally, you are required to perform tasks assigned to you by your line manager where required.

The responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Monitoring and analysis of developments in local and international politics, governance, economics, finance and justice that are relevant to reforms, good governance and anti-corruption and integrity in Lebanon.
• Translates political and reform developments into actionable insights to support evidence-based oversight by Civil Society.
• Developing and maintaining structured instruments for tracking reform processes (e.g. by checking existing reform monitors, dashboards, trackers on key legislation and policy measures).
• Ensures that research and analytical work is shared across GIZ IGOR components to support coherence, reduce duplication, and enhance project-wide responsiveness to political and governance developments.
• Advising on technical approaches and methodologies to support local think tanks, academic institutions and knowledge producers collaborating with GIZ IGOR.
• Steering and technically backstopping cooperation arrangements (e.g. contracts and grant agreements) with implementing partners producing analytical and policy-relevant outputs.
• Contributing to mapping and analysis of the good governance and reform sector, including sector strategies, donor engagements, funding trends and funding gaps.
• Proactively contributing to a positive, collaborative and appreciative team environment and ensuring strong linkages between your portfolio and other GIZ IGOR components.
• Contributing to team-internal learning and growth, sharing lessons learnt and analysis through proper knowledge management with the GIZ IGOR team, the Governance Cluster and GIZ Lebanon as a whole.

3. Tasks

The position holder:

• Systematically monitors and analyses developments in Lebanese and international politics, governance, public finance, justice and related reform processes that are relevant to GIZ IGOR’s work on good governance, transparency and anti-corruption, and prepares analytical summaries and updates..
• Applies conflict-sensitive approaches when analysing the political environment, ensuring neutrality, confidentiality and awareness of Lebanon’s highly polarised context.
• Maintains and continuously expands a professional network with relevant stakeholders in the governance and reform field (e.g. public institutions, civil society, think tanks, universities, research institutes, media platforms, international organisations) to gather information and insights for analytical purposes.
• Participates in technical exchange and coordination meetings with GIZ IGOR project partners and to the head of project and the project team to align IGOR’s activities with and make them complementary to other actors’ contributions.
• Conducts continuous mapping of the good governance and reform sector in Lebanon, including donor interventions, programmes, funding volumes and identified gaps; maintains an up-to-date overview and shares it within GIZ and relevant coordination fora.
• Prepares concise and target group-specific analytical products (e.g. daily/weekly stand-up briefs, monthly or thematic analyses, background notes, talking points, risk and opportunity assessments, policy digests)
• Contributes to the conceptualisation, design and steering of cooperation with think tanks, research institutions, academic partners and media platforms (e.g. Reform Monitors, research series, policy brief programmes, evidence-based public debates).
• Supports partners in delivering high-quality outputs by contributing to research design, methodologies, data use, and presentation of findings, ensuring all products are evidence-based, accessible, and politically sensitive.
• Supports the preparation, steering and technical backstopping of contracts and grant agreements with implementing partners (e.g. think tanks, research centres, NGOs), in close cooperation with the responsible project staff and GIZ admin/finance colleagues.
• Contributing to context-sensitive partner management in line with GIZ rules and regulations and in close coordination with the head of project GIZ management.
• Contributes to project monitoring and reporting by providing analytical inputs to results-based monitoring, progress reports, success stories and communication materials.
• Supports the preparation of briefings and documentation for high-level meetings and missions.
• Performs other duties and tasks as assigned by the line manager that are consistent with the overall scope of the position.

Project Description: “Support to Inclusive Governance and Reform Processes: *

Lebanon is facing an unprecedented crisis characterized by political stagnation, economic collapse, and social tensions. Corruption is deeply entrenched at all levels of governance, eroding public trust and undermining institutional efficiency. Civil society plays a crucial role in addressing the crisis by voicing grievances and promoting social participation but faces significant challenges, including limited resources, brain drain, and insufficient cooperation with government agencies. International organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund, have tied their support programs to long-overdue reforms in governance and anti-corruption. The recent "grey listing" by the Financial Action Task Force for deficiencies in combating money laundering and terrorist financing has added further pressure for reform. While Lebanon has adopted some reform plans and strategies, substantial deficits in their implementation persist. Overall, governance suffers from a pronounced lack of accountability, transparency, and performance, which continues to deteriorate the state-citizen relations. This has created an urgent need to address systemic weaknesses and rebuild trust between citizens and institutions.

In response, the project "Supporting Inclusive Governance and Reform Processes in Lebanon" aims to strengthen governance by enhancing accountability, transparency, participatory decision-making, municipal performance management, and civil society. It focuses on building the capacities of key governmental bodies at the national level, such as the Lebanese National Anti-Corruption Commission and the Public Procurement Authority, as well as at the local level by promoting participatory governance in selected municipalities. Civil society actors and journalists are empowered through training in investigative journalism, evidence-based reporting, and transparency mechanisms, thereby enhancing their oversight role and ability to hold the government accountable.