The EU-funded Project “Promotion of Social Dialogue in Lebanon” aims to enhance the capacity of the Government of Lebanon and the Lebanese Social Partners and Civil Society to be promoters of Social Dialogue in order to strengthen social protection and improve and enforce labour legislation.
This project is funded by the European Union under the “Social Justice Programme” (SJP), which is comprised of eight projects. The SJP programme’s objective is to advocate for democracy, human rights and social justice in Lebanon, promoting good governance and gender equality at its core. Overall, the SJP programme supports the strengthening of the institutional framework for the protection of human rights and the development of democratic governance in Lebanon
The specific purpose of the Technical Assistance Contract between the EU and GOPA Consultants is to increase the capacities of the Ministry of Labour and Tripartite Social Partners to be promoters of social dialogue.
Three results have to be achieved in order to reach the purpose:
The main beneficiary of the project is the Ministry of Labour (MoL), especially the “Professions and Trade Unions Department” and the “Labour Inspection, Prevention and Safety Department” of the MoL.
Technical Assistance is provided by a consortium consisting of GOPA Consultants (Germany) as the lead firm and EPTISA (Spain).
Other beneficiaries and partners of the project are the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the National Employment Office (NEO), Employer Organizations, Trade Unions, Civil Society Organisations and other relevant stakeholders involved in Social Dialogue.
The purpose of this TOR is to define the tasks and responsibilities of a Senior Non Key Expert (SNKE) to support ECOSOC in conducting a labour market study, focussing on unemployment, and the organisation of an event to disseminate results of the study at ECOSOC premises.
In close collaboration with the Team Leader (TL) and ECOSOC and supported by a team of Junior Non Key Experts, the technical services will be delivered by the SNKE for a period of up to 29 (twenty-nine) working days.
1. Background of the Study
The Lebanese labour market faces a number of serious problems. In addition to pre-existing economic difficulties, the Syrian conflict also had a noticeable negative impact on the labour market in Lebanon.
Labour market data in Lebanon is mostly scarce, incomplete, outdated and sometimes even contradictory. Nevertheless, it is commonly agreed that the Lebanese labour market is characterized mainly by
There are an estimated 1,616,740 young people in Lebanon today out of a resident population of around 5.9 million individuals. Approximately 27.4% of Lebanon’s total resident population is youth (aged 15-29). Both skilled and unskilled youth struggle to transition out of school and find employment in the crowded labour market, taking an average of 10 and 16 months respectively to find their first job. A large percentage of female youth do not enter the labour force or exit very early and become economically inactive, especially in periphery areas. Youth unemployment is high in Lebanon at 20.6% for that age 15 to 24. There is a low contribution of women in the labour force despite a recent slow rising trend. Rates of unemployment are worse for women and more educated individuals[1]
The informal sector is quite large, constituting almost half of the workforce (World Bank, 2015).
Lebanon also suffers from a mismatch of skills, a high influx of foreign workers and a large number of skilled Lebanese people seeking and obtaining employment abroad. The large skill gap remains the main obstacle preventing economic growth and job creation (UNDP, 2016).
According to a World Bank report, the current economic growth is not sufficient in order to adsorb the rising number of people, seeking employment. It is estimated, that within the next 10 years, every year more than 20.000 additional persons will enter the Lebanese labor market. Lebanon needs to create five to six times more new jobs than it is currently the case (about 3800 new jobs per year) in order to absorb the 20,000 yearly labor market entrants (Robalino & Sayed, 2012).
There is a shift to the low-skill sector with a small wage increment between primary, secondary and tertiary education, and a low return on education, further stimulating the brain drain phenomenon. According to a World Bank study, 41 percent of wage earners perform jobs that are not in their scope of education and skills. Moreover, employers claim that employees lack certain skills and technical abilities that are needed to perform their jobs.
In light of the above and according to its designated role, the Economic and Social Council in Lebanon has a major role to play in assessing the existing situation and in adopting a set of recommendations to contribute to solve the problems.
[1] Spotlight on youth in Lebanon, UNDP 2016
2. Objectives of the assignment of the SNKE and of the Study
The overall objective of the assignment of a SNKE is to support ECOSOC in carrying out a labour market study, focusing on unemployment in Lebanon and to implement a dissemination event (“Unemployment Forum”) to present the findings and recommendations of the study to all members of the Economic and Social Council and to other relevant stakeholders for conclusions and adoption of recommendations at policy level.
This study is to build mainly upon existing studies and reports in order to create a comprehensive description and understanding of the Lebanese labor market and the various productive sectors and to propose a set of recommendations how to reduce unemployment.
The main deliverable of the assignment is a document in English, composed of an introduction, at least three chapters, benchmarking, conclusions and a set of recommendations. In addition, an “Unemployment Forum” will be organized at the premises of ECOSOC to present the findings and recommendations of the study to all members of the Economic and Social Council and to other relevant stakeholders for conclusions and adoption of recommendations at policy level
The study will undertake an in-depth analysis of existing studies regarding the Lebanese labour market and the problem of unemployment in Lebanon, and derive strategies and recommendations. The analyses shall provide a comprehensive understanding of the Lebanese labour market, current and projected trends in the productive sectors related to employment, as well as challenges and opportunities for the reduction of unemployment rate.
The study should facilitate the continuous policy dialogue and improve the participation of all stakeholders in this process. In particular, the study should:
3. Methodology and scope of work
The SNKE will act as the lead responsible researcher for the unemployment study. Since the quality of the study will depend not only on the analysis of existing studies, but also on the quality of the outcomes of the field work, the SNKE will put a special focus on the preparations for the field work as well as on supervision, follow up and quality control of the field work.
In close collaboration with the Team Leader (TL), the responsible person from ECOSOC and supported by Junior Non Key Experts, the following technical services will be delivered by the SNKE for a period of up to 29 (Twenty-Nine) working days.
The assignment consists of 4 (four) Tasks.
Task 1: Development of the methodology, approach, structure and design for the labour market analysis, focusing on unemployment
The SNKE will develop a clear methodology (format, approach, outputs) for labor market analyses incorporating feedback from stakeholder consultations. The format shall serve as point of departure for conducting the unemployment analysis as well as serve as a reference for ECOSOC regarding future analyses of the labor market
This task includes the following steps:
Task 2: Conducting analyses of the Lebanese Labour Market and on Unemployment in Lebanon
The SNKE will conduct an analysis of the Lebanese Labour market and the problem of unemployment according to the developed methodology (see Task 1), mainly focusing, but not limited to the analysis and assessment of key sources of secondary data:
This task includes the following steps:
Task 3: Finalize labour market /unemployment analyses and benchmarking
The SNKE will finalize the labour market / unemployment analyses and derive strategies, how to tackle the problem of unemployment, taking into account suggestions and insights from stakeholder interviews; produce the final report which includes an executive summary, and practical recommendations as a basis for targeted interventions by labour market stakeholders, e.g. including a matrix indicating priority areas for public and private sector intervention
This task includes the following steps:
Task 4: Design, facilitate and document a dissemination event at ECOSOC
The SNKE will organize and implement an “Unemployment Forum” at the premises of ECOSOC to present the findings and recommendations of the study to all members of the Economic and Social Council and to other relevant stakeholders for conclusions and adoption of recommendations at policy level.
This task includes the following steps:
Write a short report about the Unemployment Forum
4. Deliverables
The deliverables of the SNKE are as follows:
5. Time line and working days (up to 29 wd for SNKE)
Works shall be implemented in the period from January 2019 until the end of the project.
In order to deliver all the services requested, in total up to 29 (twenty nine) working days are foreseen for the SNKE
6. Language
In principle, all documents and reports have to be provided in English. The dissemination workshop has to be prepared and conducted in Arabic.
A selection of documents or outputs (if needed) will be translated from English to Arabic (or vice versa) by the Project
7. Qualification and Experience of the Experts
Qualification and key competences:
Professional experience:
Interested individuals will submit their application by email, to: [email protected] [1]
including:
روابط
[1] mailto:[email protected]