GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL MECHANISM ADVISER

Introduction: 

In recent years, Lebanon has become the country with the highest refugee per capita in the world. Officially, there are more than 1.5 million registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon, a third of which are school going aged children. In 2013, the Government of Lebanon opened a second-shift in its public education system to cater for the enormous numbers of refugee students. In 2017/2018, non-Lebanese students outnumbered Lebanese students in the public education system. The responsibility for educating all these students resides with the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) who, alongside external donors, launched the Reaching All Children with Education II (RACE II) programme in 2016.

The World Bank (WB) and Government of Lebanon (GoL), especially the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE), designed Support to RACE II (S2R2) to deliver on significant parts of RACE II as the strategy relates to the formal education sector. S2R2 is designed to complement other work developed to support RACE II, such as activities planned and implemented with UNICEF, UNHCR and UNESCO.

DFID Lebanon’s contribution to the education sector includes £86.6 million to the multi-donor trust fund as well as the provision of a technical assistance team to MEHE. Since March 2018, a three-year technical assistance project has been implemented by Oxford Policy Management to support MEHE’s priority areas. The TA team will support the GoL to deliver the immediate objectives of the S2R2 programme while building the capacity, systems and processes which will underpin a medium-term sector development strategy.

BACKGROUND:

MEHE hosts a hotline which receives school level complaints that require acceptance, logging, direction to relevant decision-makers, resolution and follow-up. The varied nature of these complaints means that many directorates and units within the MEHE are routinely involved in assessing and answering. Complaints of a major nature are dealt with by HE the Minister of Education and appropriate committees while the Directorate of General Education implements the response to grievances.

The existing hotline is not the only avenue for school level complaints. In addition, various MEHE officials handle walk-ins, faxes, and letters, as well as communication through personal channels. At the same time, the hotline is not currently supported by an information system to record complaints and their nature, or to track follow up and resolution.

The solution to this problem is the design and implementation of a Grievance Redressal Mechanism (GRM) to strengthen its case management and guarantee confidentiality in handling complaints/issues as they arise.  Special attention will be paid to grievances associated with discrimination, sexual harassment, gender-based violence and bullying in schools through the introduction of a secure, confidential and easily accessible system to report these cases and ensure follow up.

The GRM will expand on, and organize the current complaints hotline system in MEHE, building customer service standards and approaches to dealing with cases into the new structure

INDICATIVE OUTPUTS: 

Gather global evidence of best practice

• Find comparable GRMs which address the same core problem from the education sector or other related fields

• Deliver options paper on potential approaches

Scope of existing grievances and channels

This role will support the Grievance Redressal Officer to:

• Map all current grievance complaint channels, including where they are received, the types of complaints and who currently addresses each type of complaint

• Undertake a needs assessment for the GRM and make recommendations on the management and structure of this new function

Project management

This role will support the Grievance Redressal Officer to:

• Develop a medium-term action plan for the development of the GRM System, for inclusion in MEHE’s broader action plans under S2R2. This will include an assessment of all resources needed to develop and rollout the GRM

• Alongside relevant MEHE officials, develop quality assurance processes for the GRM

• Alongside relevant MEHE officials, develop a communications plan to ensure the GRM are widely publicized in schools and communities, emphasizing confidentiality.

Locate the GRM within MEHE/identify suitable personnel

• In collaboration with existing MEHE structures, set up a single point within the Ministry that is responsible for receiving all complaints, regardless of the topic.
• Outline a recruitment strategy and specify the required profiles for additional staff

Design and manage GRM workflow

This role will support the Grievance Redressal Officer to design a comprehensive workflow which ensures complaints are forwarded to the appropriate members of staff, are followed up in a timely manner, and that all actions are logged formally.

• Validate system design and workflow with the Director General

Digital information system

This role will support the Grievance Redressal Officer to decide upon a suitable digital information system. This Customer Relationship Management systems will allow those responsible for answering calls, and those responsible for following up on complaints, to store and share data required to manage the GRM. It will include:

• Assessing suitability of existing Customer Relationship Management systems on the market

• Deciding whether adaptation of existing software is more appropriate or whether a MEHE-specific solution is required

• Generating system specifications, such as system analytics to readily identify patterns and trends in the type and location of complaints

• Guidelines/service level agreements/KPIs to monitor system performance, such as the speed with which complaints are resolved.

Build Capacity

The GRM will be implemented by trained civil servants in relevant positions within MEHE. The GRM Adviser will support the development of documentation and training modules for these civil servants on:

• Customer service principles, such as how to interact with callers and how to balance information gathering while respecting confidentiality;

• Management of complaint logs, including categorization and coordination with those staff responsible for following up on complaints;

• Following up to ensure complaints have been resolved, and files closed;

• Reporting on the incidence and nature of complaints, as well as resolution times and outcomes on a periodic basis; and

• Basic conflict resolution training to ensure awareness and capacity to deal with tensions that may arise between groups.

PROFILE AND SKILLS:

• Advanced degree in field related to customer service sector

• A qualification or substantial formal experience in customer service sector, including in system design, staff training, implementation and evaluation

• Experience working with call centres and/or customer response software

• Experience working with grievances of a confidential/sensitive nature, such as discrimination, sexual harassment, gender-based violence and bullying would be preferable

• Strong logical/process engineering skills

• Knowledge of the current structure and challenges facing the education system in Lebanon;

• Strong leadership skills and team management abilities;

• Strong inter-personal skills and the ability to guide/mentor other staff

• Strong public presentation and communication skills in Arabic, and either English or French