Building civil society organisations’ (CSO) capacity to deliver social stability projects in West Beqaa, Zahle, and Upper Chouf project

​​​​International Alert Lebanon is implementing the “building CSO’s capacity to deliver social stability projects in West Beqaa, Zahle, and Upper Chouf” project in partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) within the framework of “Strengthening Agriculture, local Communities and small and medium Enterprises (ACE)” programme with the financial support of the German Federal Ministry for economic cooperation and development (BMZ).

1) Project Background

The social stability context in Lebanon has rapidly deteriorated with the continuing economic crisis, political tension between power holders, and the lack of an agreed recovery plan. All these factors have impacted inter-community relations (UNDP/ARK, May 2022) where 80.5% of Lebanese and Syrian respondents defined these relations in Beqaa as negative or very negative. CSOs are the main actors that support inter-community dialogue and community engagement. Many organizations are struggling to cope with compound crises. However, in this context, a focus on humanitarian aid or development often takes precedence over social stability, while the need for conflict and gender sensitivity becomes even more pronounced. As many donors look to increase localisation, not all civil society organisations, particularly at the local level, have the technical or financial capacity to deliver high-quality projects sustainably. Consequently, providing support to local organisations and considering longer-term project funding combined with capacity strengthening are needed to ensure the sustainability of CSO work.

2) Project objective:

Improved horizontal social stability in target communities through a greater capacity of CSOs to conduct conflict-sensitive activities that further social stability.

3) Objectives:

International Alert’s intervention aims to support CSOs in West Beqaa, the Upper Chouf areas, and Zahle to strengthen social stability in the respective communities. Participant CSOs will:

• Receive training on conflict and social stability as well as on how they can integrate conflict sensitivity and gender sensitivity within their projects. Furthermore, training sessions will be combined with coaching to address organisational development needs.
• Receive training including coaching on strategic planning, enhancing financial management, HR management, procurement, accountability, child safeguarding, advocacy, and communication, based on the organisation’s capacity assessment.
• Receive coaching on the design and implementation of initiatives aiming to enhance social stability, pending the granting of funds to applying CSOs.
• Participate in reflection, learning, and story-telling sessions supported by Alert to capture the results of the initiatives and consolidate learning on how to work on social stability and conflict-sensitive initiatives in the future.

4) Selection Criteria:

• Registered civil society organisations with ongoing projects or projects implemented in the past 2 years in the target areas (West Beqaa, Zahle, and Upper Chouf).
• Previous experience with institutional donors. Alert will be seeking CSOs with different levels of experience in this regard, to allow peer-to-peer learning.
• Previous experience working with diverse target groups, especially those with a focus on youth, women, people with disabilities, or other marginalised groups.
• Commitment to the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Demonstrated interest in and capacity to work on social stability and strengthening inter-community relations.
• Demonstrated presence of financial systems (annual report or a financial report).
• Commitment to participate in the programme; Willing to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the period of the project.

5) Timeframe:

Between 14-18 months starting February 2023.