Analysis of Available Resources related to Life skills Packages for Adolescent Girls – including marginalized ones

1. Purpose of consultancy

Lebanon is hosting an estimated 1.5 (registered and non-registered) Syrian refugees, which represent more than 30% of the population, making Lebanon the country with the highest per capita host of refugees in the world. After seven years of conflict and protracted displacement, poor living conditions coupled with increasing inter-communities tensions triggered serious protection concerns, including Gender-Based Violence (GBV). Refugees, both men and women, face an unbearable level of stress that may lead them to abuse of power and violence within the household. Those who do not have the means and opportunities to support themselves and their families in times of crisis are also at higher risk of adopting negative coping mechanisms, such as survival and sex trafficking, child labour, and early and forced marriage. This has devastating consequences on survivors’ health, including Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) and emotional well-being, among others.

Marginalized refugee girls are especially at risk of GBV, such as being married early, which directly threatens their health and well-being. Marriage is often followed by pregnancy, even if a girl is not yet physically or mentally ready. A pregnancy can have immediate and lasting consequences for a girl’s health, education and income-earning potential. The risk of maternal death for mothers under 15 in low- and middle-income countries is double that of older females; and this younger group faces significantly higher rates of obstetric fistulae than their older peers . A study carried out in the Bekaa in 2016 showed that in vulnerable areas, up to 47% of the surveyed Syrian refugee women between 20 and 24 years were married before the age of 18. The same study reported a rate of early pregnancy among 15 to 17 year-old girls of more than 61% . Moreover, adolescent girls at risk of getting married and married girls who are not empowered are likely to miss out on many economic and social opportunities for participating to development, which contributes to create a devastating vicious circle.

Thus empowerment is paramount to contribute to marginalized girls’ well-being, to secure their future and to ultimately achieve sustainable development goals. This can be best achieved through adapted life skills programmes, which build girls’ health, social and economic assets. "Life skills" are defined as psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. Social assets can comprise the access to a designated safe space; a life skills education; having a mentor, a network of friends, and group membership; and possessing personal documentation. Economic assets entail for instance financial literacy training; the access to a personal savings account; links to education and/or literacy and numeracy training; and links to skills training and/or job placement. Health assets concern health information; and access to a quality, essential healthcare package, via a visit to a health center or from a health worker .

 Since the beginning of the Syrian influx to Lebanon, UNFPA partnered with different national and international specialized actors, including NGOs and universities, to adequately empower women and girls from both refugee and local communities through life skills programming . Numerous other life skills packages have also been developed by UNFPA (at country, regional and global levels) as well as by different organizations in Lebanon during the past years, in response to the needs faced by refugee women and girls. This constitutes an important set of resources to tap on in order to adequately tackle marginalized girls’ needs and empower them. However there is a lack of harmonization between the different resources developed on the one hand in the past and a risk of duplication in programming and interventions on the other hand. Moreover, many of those resources (including the ones developed by UNFPA) do not systematically address the three types of assets (social, economic and health) described above. Therefore, there is a need to develop a plan to harmonize practices and have a full-fledged package focusing on adolescent girls’ empowerment (including marginalized ones) through life skills development, based on the assessment of existing resources/programmes.

In this frame, the purpose of this consultancy is to enhance national capacities for reinforcing adolescent girls’ – including marginalized – development of their social, economic, and health assets through generation of evidence and knowledge.

1. Scope of work

Under the supervision of UNFPA, the objectives of the consultancy are twofold:

1. Analyse the existing resources, tools and practices related to life skills programmes for marginalized women and girls, including programmes to build girls’ health, social and economic assets;
2. Provide recommendations to develop a plan to harmonize practices and have a full-fledged life skills package focusing on marginalized girls’ empowerment through the development of their social, economic and health assets.

To achieve the objectives of this consultancy, the following tasks will be carried out:

• Develop a detailed timeline for the consultancy in collaboration with UNFPA;
• Carry out a comprehensive literature analysis of existing resources, tools and practices at global, regional and country levels on practices related to life skills programmes for marginalized women and girls, including programmes to build girls’ health, social and economic assets;
• Meet with relevant stakeholders to assess their experience, priorities and take their recommendations in order to harmonize practices and have a full-fledged life skills package focusing on marginalized girls’ empowerment. The following stakeholders are suggested:

• Bilateral meetings with 3-4 UN Agencies;
• 1 Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with 4-6 NGOs having experience in life skills programming (incl. social workers);
• 1 FGD with peer educators from vulnerable communities;
• 1 FGD with adolescent girls (incl. marginalized ones).

• Draft a report including recommendations for a harmonization plan to have a full-fledged life skills package focusing on marginalized girls’ empowerment through the development of their social, economic and health assets

Content of report

The report will be prepared in English and will consist of approximately 20 pages - excluding the annexes - with proposed parts as follows (to be further discussed with the consultant):

• Background and rational
• Methodology
• Findings at global, regional, country levels
• Boxes with good practices/lessons learned
• Recommendations for the harmonization plan
• Bibliography
• List of Annexes (among which the guides)

1. Duration and working schedule

The assignment should be concluded within a maximum of 10 weeks from the signing of the contract.

1. Place where services are to be delivered

Lebanon

1. Delivery dates and how work will be delivered (e.g. electronic, hard copy etc.)

Deliverables

Timeline

• Folder containing all analysed materials/tools (Google doc link)
• Interview guide (soft copy)
• Focus group discussion guide (soft copy)
• Schedule of meetings/consultations (soft copy)

Week 3

• Summary of consultative process (soft copy)
• Draft report with recommendations for harmonization plan (soft copy)

Week 7

• Final report incl. recommendations for harmonization plan – English (soft copy)
• PPT presentation summarizing the report incl. recommendations - English (soft copy)
• Executive summary (3-4 pages) – Arabic (soft copy)

Week 10

1. Monitoring and progress control, including reporting requirements, periodicity format and deadline

Detailed deliverables

• The consultant shall deliver the following:
• A folder containing all analysed materials/tools (Google doc link);
• An interview guide with key questions to address UN Agencies;
• A focus group discussion guide to support the interaction with NGOs, peer educators and adolescent girls;
• A PPT presentation summarizing the content of the report to be delivered in a technical meeting;
• An executive summary (3-4 pages) outlining the main findings and recommendations to support the dissemination;
• A final report incl. recommendations for harmonization plan (soft copy).

1. Supervisory arrangements

The assignment will be carried out under supervision of UNFPA, who shall provide the following support to the consultancy:

• Related documents, material, reports, etc.
• Facilitation of meetings with relevant partners and stakeholders
• Review and provision of comments/inputs on guides, reports, etc.

1. Expected travel

Within Lebanon

1. Required expertise, qualifications and competencies, including language requirements

• Advanced University degree in social/development sciences or other related areas with previous work experience and considerable skills in analysis, report writing and field work;
• At least 5 years’ experience in research, youth and gender in a displacement context, with a special focus on the MENA region, and familiarity with life skills programming;
• Proven experience in leading field focus group discussions and interviews on issues such as youth empowerment and gender;
• Good knowledge of humanitarian contexts and familiarity with humanitarian related resources and material;
• Excellent analytical and drafting skills;
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to establish effective and working relations with other stakeholders;
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills in Arabic and English.