Skills Development Long-Term Senior Expert

Expertise France is a French public agency created on 1^st January 2015 after the merger of 5 public agencies under the tutelage of the French Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economy and Finance with a strong inter- ministerial vocation. Expertise France offers project engineering and technical assistance by developing and implementing international cooperation actions worldwide. EF operates in various fields of development and institutional cooperation including safety and security reform, post-crisis/ stability, public health, human rights, strengthening of institutions and NGOs and governance. Carrying out large-scale, multi-stakeholder projects, EF can ensure the cooperation between individuals, teams and institutions with very different statuses, cultures and specialties. Besides, EF has acquired a sound experience in administrative and financial management of large-scale international projects and is accredited by the European Union for the management of delegated Community funds.

Context

The Middle East is currently experiencing a profound crisis. The conflicts in Syria and Iraq are both a reflection and a transmitter of this crisis, with growing potential to further destabilise neighbouring countries and the wider region. These crises have resulted in a humanitarian disaster affecting more than 13.5 million people who were forced to flee their homes from Syria, and more than 17 million people in need of humanitarian aid (12.2 in Syria and 5.2 in Iraq).

Lebanon is now home to the largest number of Syrian refugees per capita relative to its total population, putting a severe strain on the country’s fragile infrastructures, economy, and security. The population of Lebanon was estimated at about 4.8 million (including almost half a million Palestinian refugees) in 2013. Even though Lebanon has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, up to date it has taken in about a fourth of its own population. According to UNHCR, in September 2016 about 1,017,433 persons from Syria were registered as refugees in Lebanon. In the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan 2017- 2020 (2018 update) (LCRP), the total number of people living in Lebanon is estimated at 5.9 million, with 3.3 million people in need. Among the Syrian refugee population in Lebanon, which today comprises over 1.5 million people.

Background information on Qudra Specific Objective 3

’Qudra – Resilience for Syrian refugees, IDPs and host communities in response to the Syrian and Iraqi crises’ is a regional action financed by the EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis, the  Madad‘ Fund and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), seeking to strengthen the resilience of Syrian refugees, IDPs and host communities in response to the Syrian and Iraqi crises.  The programme launched in June 2016, is being jointly implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Expertise France (EF) and Spanish Agency for International Development (AECID) in programme partner countries of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and North Iraq.

In Lebanon, Expertise France ensures the consistency and the implementation of the Specific Objective 3 of Qudra. The project seeks to improve social stability between communities in Lebanon through a comprehensive and local approach of protection for children and adults, and skills development sessions. To do so, activities will revolve around four pillars: (i) support to Social Development Centers (SDCs) of the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA), (ii) Skills Development sessions for adults and youth, (iv) protection activities and (v) campaigns and communication activities. Expertise France will work within the framework of the LCRP in close partnership with Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA). The programme will be implemented in the SDCs of the MoSA and if needed in annexes that might be developed during the project’s lifespan. Expertise France will select local NGOs as partners to implement the activities, these NGOs will hire the necessary staff and implement the activities following a precise programme drafted with the MoSA.

Skills Development activities

This sub-module seeks to provide skills development sessions and capacity building activities to Lebanese and Syrian women, men and youth, in order to increase their capacity to both contribute to their self-development and become constructive members of society. The sectors will be selected in accordance with Lebanese law). The Skills Development sessions should not exceed 2 months and should be organised in the SDCs (and their annexes when needed) (tbc). 

Expertise France is looking for a senior expert in Skills Development to fine-tune the activities of the Qudra So3 programme already designed within the framework of LCRP, and follow-up on the technical implementation.

Description of the Tasks:

In coordination with the Expertise France Programme Manager and under the supervision of the Programme Director, the expert will:

Main tasks:

• Contribute to fine-tune project activities to ensure the complete coherence with MoSA strategy, policies  the Lebanon Crisis Response Plan (LCRP), and Qudra global framework;
• Develop the curricula of the activities as well as guidelines of implementation. For this task, the senior expert will work together with several national experts for each of the  targeted sectors
• Develop the referral mechanism to formal TVET and contribute to build a network of TVET organisations;
• Develop an apprenticeship programme guidelines and contribute to build the network of companies/firms that will welcome the apprentices;
• Ensure the smooth implementation of the skills development activities in coordination with the programme manager, the SDC staff and  partner local NGOs;
• Enable the NGO and SDC Staffto build their capacities in the framework of the programmes;

Others related tasks:

• Develop innovative way to conduct skills development sessions;
• Monitor and adjust if needed be the guidelines and templates based on what is currently being used by NGOs, INGOs & UN agencies in Lebanon, ensuring complete confidentiality of beneficiaries ,
• Evaluate and adjust where needed, the skills development indicators created to monitor the project efficiency;
• Set up the quality indicators for the activities ;
• Mobilise and support the recruitment of short term expertise on specific fields linked to the different sessions;
• Develop an overview of actors (national and international) providing  Skills development sessions;
• Monitor evolution in the sectors and provide analysis on regulations and good practices;