Emerging promising practices from integrating GBV prevention into economic empowerment initiatives in Lebanon
By Sawsan Nourallah, National Gender Analyst, UNDP Lebanon
Gender inequalities in a multilayered crisis
Lebanon is facing a multilayered crisis marked by an economic and financial crisis, the COVID19 outbreak, a deadly explosion causing extensive damage to Beirut, and the continuous impact of the decade long Syria crisis. This has exacerbated pre-existing gender inequalities and discrimination preventing women and girls from realizing their human rights and intensifying their marginalization. Women are mainly found in informal and part time work with poor social protection and few benefits; as such, they are bearing the heaviest brunt of job losses, and are more likely to return to the labor force with lower wages than before.[1] Women also remain under-represented in the decision-making processes. Additionally, women continue to face increased gender-based violence (GBV) risks in the private and public spheres.[2]
Evidence from research[3] shows that women’s economic empowerment (WEE) can contribute to both decreasing and increasing risks of GBV and domestic violence. This is summarized below:
Women’s Economic Empowerment
In collaboration with partners such ABAAD and ACTED, UNDP in Lebanon has been at the forefront of tackling gender inequalities, with a focus on integrating GBV prevention strategies into WEE programming. Our initiative adapts globally evidence-based GBV prevention models for Syrian refugees and Lebanese host communities to address underlying social norms perpetuating gender inequality and power imbalances. It aims at shifting behaviors and attitudes at the individual, relationships, and structural levels through building knowledge, skills, and confidence, as well as strengthening community activism against GBV.
This initiative is part of a global project ‘Ending GBV and Achieving the SDGs’ with pilot support in seven countries: Bhutan, Indonesia, Moldova, Peru, Uganda, Iraq, and Lebanon. In order to take this work forward, we have taken an integration approach throughout the project cycle, and a number of promising practices emerging in each phase are described below.
1. Design Phase:
- Conduct gender analysis and GBV risk assessment: It is important to understand the context including assessing GBV risks to ensure the programme’s strategies are informed by women’s realities. Our WEE project design was informed by a gendered value chain study investigating gendered power relations and dynamics at household, marketplace, and community levels; gendered vulnerabilities; gender division of labour; gender social norms; and the legal framework. The study’s findings were used in developing appropriate and context-responsive project strategies which take the needs of women into account, do not harm women, and challenge gender imbalances to enhance the likelihood of strong and sustainable results.
- Adopt an integrative and holistic approach to recruitment: Experience and expertise in GBV programming was a core consideration in recruiting key project staff. In addition, in the project’s call for proposals, a clear reference to GBV prevention and the intersectional elements between WEE and GBV was included, and the proposal evaluation criteria included assessment of GBV considerations and commitment to regular GBV risk analysis and mitigation. In selecting partner organizations, UNDP encouraged consortium arrangements in which partners’ expertise is leveraged to fully support women’s economic participation and preventing GBV. As a result, a consortium led by ACTED, in partnership with ESDU, DOT and ABAAD was selected for implementing this pilot approach in Lebanon.
2. Implementation Phase:
- Enhance communication and collaboration between WEE and GBV practitioners: Practitioners engaged in women’s economic empowerment need to be better prepared to assess GBV risks and handle situations of GBV among participants in their programs. In Lebanon, ABAAD provided information on the prevalence and acceptance of GBV, insights on links between WEE processes and GBV, GBV risk mitigation training, and information on local referral systems.
- Map GBV safety risks and referral pathways: To avoid any unintended harm, it has been crucial to map potential GBV risks facing women involved in the WEE project at the household, community, and market levels. While recruiting women for the WEE project, the individual assessment included questions related to GBV risks or safety concerns. Based on the key risks identified, a risk mitigation plan was developed and is revisited regularly. GBV survivors or women at-risk of GBV were referred to other relevant services.
- Enhance women’s leadership and agency: For women to claim economic rights and decision-making, it is necessary for WEE projects to go beyond providing economic resources and technical skills training. Psychosocial support activities to strengthen women’s agency, bargaining power, address power dynamics at the workplace, and household decision-making are crucial. Our WEE project has worked closely with women to build gender equality, change perceptions about the acceptability of GBV, and supporting women to act as agents of change. For example, a woman participating in the initiative said: “The training empowered me to demand my rights and boosted my self-confidence while dealing with my husband and other community members. I am now more demanding of my husband’s assistance in the household”.
- Invest in women’s social networking: It is important to create safe and women-only spaces for women to discuss challenges, share expertise and advice, and learn about local services and risks mitigation measures. In Lebanon, this also help strengthen women’s collective action and power in markets through enabling their participation and leadership in cooperatives and business networks.
- Work with men: Women’s economic empowerment and effective GBV prevention requires engaging men for support, buy-in, and addressing potential resistance or backlash. Our intervention has engaged men directly involved in women’s lives (including intimate partners, co-workers, managers, community members, and municipal officials) to transform gender norms, reflect on how men use their power, promote healthy relationship skills, and build support for women’s empowerment and participation. A man participating with his wife in a series of gender-transformative sessions to build non-violent and healthy relationships said: “I became more understanding towards women’s role outside the household and also more sensitive towards my wife’s needs and rights to be active in the society and economy. Both of us have learnt how to improve our communication skills”.
- Institutionalize gender and GBV Prevention: To ensure an enabling environment that promotes gender equality and challenges GBV, it is necessary to work with those who have power in the community. For this reason, we have worked with municipalities to enhance capacities for integrating gender, with emphasis on WEE and GBV prevention, within policy, service provision and budget. Municipal officers have been engaged in a series of participatory gender trainings to develop knowledge, skills, attitudes, and commitments to take actions promoting gender equality and violence rejection.
3- Monitoring and Evaluation Phase:
- Integrate monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning (MEAL) as integral to project processes and outcomes: MEAL systems implemented throughout the programming have sought to capture the extent to which the integration of GBV prevention has contributed to women’s economic empowerment. In addition, these systems also monitor potential negative impacts, unexpected outcomes, and resistance. For this project, the MEAL system also explores how and why changes in power relations happen by monitoring shifts in various forms of power (power within, power with, power to, power over), and how lasting social change happens.
- Develop multi-dimensional tools: The project team developed evaluation tools that combine information from a variety of sources and indicators related to WEE and GBV, as follows:
Supporting WEE enables women to increase their decision-making and assume new roles at the household, economic and societal levels, while challenging existing power relations and gender norms. Failure to integrate GBV prevention into economic empowerment interventions would increase the social and economic challenges that women already face and jeopardize any intended benefits of WEE. For this reason, it is important for WEE practitioners not to only integrate GBV into their programming, but to understand the links between GBV and WEE in their local contexts and be responsive to women’s needs and realities, knowing that there is no “one-size-fits all” approach.
[1] Salti, N. and Mezher, N. 2020. Women on the verge of an economic breakdown: Assessing the differential impacts of economic crisis on women in Lebanon. UN Women.
[2] Gender Based Violence Annual Report 2020, UNFPA Lebanon.
[3] Women’s economic empowerment and domestic violence: Links and lessons for practitioners working with intersectional approaches, Oxfam.
