Economic Fragile Settings Consultant

Overview

Amongst CARE International’s key imperatives in our mission is putting people it serves first through implementing cutting edge programming in areas it operates. CARE International in Lebanon (CIL), has been mainly responding to the Syria crisis, but now shifting to a new strategic direction. At this stage it is of the utmost importance that we start exploring more effective business models, but also organizational structures that would support our programmatic operations to deliver services to those in need.

CARE International presence in Lebanon stems from 2006, and recently it has been relaunched in 2013 to support Syrian refugees that were displaced in Lebanon from crisis. Over the course of 7 years, it has supported over half a million beneficiaries by providing protection, livelihoods, and through humanitarian programming such as shelter, WASH, and the distribution of food and non-food items.

Currently, CARE International presence is consolidated in the North, and Mount Lebanon. We also have a smaller presence in Tyre, South Lebanon as part of the WASH EC funded Consortium. The main program sectors that CARE Lebanon is working in are; Protection with particular emphasizes on Gender, Economic Empowerment and Humanitarian Response.

CARE Lebanon has scaled up rapidly over the past few years and today it has just about 70 staff members, with about 15 different local/international organization partners. 90% of the team is composed of national staff with a symbolic number of international members.

Objectives

The overall purpose of this assignment is to review the current economic empowerment “state of programming” CARE and partners are applying in the current context in Lebanon.  This not to say the assignment is to come up with a strategy for CARE alone, but rather recommend changes to current approaches and suggest what to add based on the change in the current context in the country.

The review will cover programmatic approaches for economic empowerment given the recent changes in the context. In particular the assignment should examine the question of what approaches lead to increasing livelihoods and are both relevant and feasible given the near economic collapse in the country? What are the opportunities and some best practices where 'business as usual' is not possible? What are the bottlenecks and challenges that CARE faces in fragile contexts and how can these be overcome? Specific questions to guide this examination include, but are not limited to the following:

Investigate and propose best approaches (social safety nets, poverty graduation, possible value chain approaches, alternative local production) when the country will incur high levels of stagflation and a devaluation of its currency. This also includes investigate approaches providing emergency livelihood support while building long term adaptation capabilities (dual track approaches)

With an ongoing debate on the concept of fragility and fragile contexts, where fragility is widely recognized as a multi-dimensional challenge, what are the implications for livelihoods of vulnerable populations 

What are the particular livelihood challenges that youth, women, refugees, and other groups face in fragile contexts? What should CARE do to address these challenges and what is the comparative advantage in such context? How does CARE currently apply various concepts of fragility?

How do we seek to influence the behavior and actions of others to respond to taking action in a severe economic crisis?

Specifically, to what extent CARE deliberately building civil society capacity (leadership, institutional arrangements and multi-stakeholder platforms, technical knowledge and accountability) for livelihood crisis response in national structures

How does the crisis affect CSOs, and how will it affect service provision at local level.? How could CARE programming could sustainably support local initiatives?

How can CARE in Lebanon support the development or fit its programming into the larger national response plan/strategy?

What different approaches are most promising for reaching “hard-to-reach” communities (geographic, insecurity, besieged areas) and most at risk and vulnerable populations? 

Deliverables & Timeline:

Under the supervision of Program director, economic empowerment coordinator, the MEAL manager, the Consultant will deliver the products and services set out below.

Summary of deliverables, details are set below: 

1) Develop an inception paper on work methodology.

2) Conduct a review of recent literature and produce written reports on programming in fragile contexts and operational guidance.

3) Map situation analysis report and program initiative led by non-governmental and/or governmental organizations in light of the recent financial crisis

4) Design and conduct a participatory workshop with local actors (ngos, universities, think tanks, and government) to present findings and formulate a position paper.

5) Develop a position paper with key advocacy points and gaps in services and approaches to be used for external use.

Other functions may be identified as part of the conceptualization and consultation process.

Consultant Profile

At least   5-10  years of relevant experience, especially at NGOs, academic organizations, standard-setting bodies, public agencies focused on economic empowerment, local economic development, food security and livelihoods, or socio-economic development in fragile contexts.

Master’s/PHD degree in one or several of the following areas: economics, social science, development studies field is preferable.

Conducted similar assignments or has done research in microeconomics or local market systems

Knowledge of Lebanon socio-economic context is an added value

Competencies

Extensive experience interacting with and relating to gender professionals and international stakeholders at senior level.

Team player with strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to build strong internal relationships and networks.

Motivated self-starter who enjoys working in a collaborative and international environment

PSEA and Child Safeguarding

CARE International in Lebanon is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

CARE International in Lebanon and its employees and stakeholders abide by the CARE International Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) and Child Safeguarding Policies.