Plan International has been present in Lebanon since 2017 and has an operational and registered office since 2019. Following this progressively increasing presence in the country, a national strategy was drafted for the years 2020 to 2024, which mainly addresses children and youth with a focus on girls. It includes four programmes of intervention, namely protection, sexual and reproductive health and rights, education, as well as economic empowerment.
The implementation of the strategy is based on an aid localization approach whereby Plan International relies on local implementing partners in each area of intervention. As the situation in the country is particularly volatile and characterised by fast-paced evolutions, UNOCHA launched an Emergency Response Plan in early August 2021 with the aim to alleviate the suffering of targeted vulnerable populations, both host and refugee, and to avoid the degradation of inter and intra-community tensions.
The needs reflected in the response plan were identified through several existing nationwide assessments that provide insights on key socio-economic trends. In order to specify the needs of adolescents and youth, particularly girls and young women under this framework (and in line with the four key pillars of Plan International country strategy), Plan International Lebanon commissioned ITAR Consultants to carry out a detailed needs’ assessment and gender analysis to complement existing research with a focus on six specific geographic areas (Akkar, Tripoli, Arsal, Mount Lebanon, Beirut, and Saida).
A total of a total of 52 FGDs were conducted with 524 participants. Participants’ profiles varied according to nationality (Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian), age group (14-17 years old and 18-24 years old), location (Akkar, Arsal, Beirut, Mount Lebanon, South, and Tripoli), and gender.
The final report gathers information from adolescent girls and boys and young women and men on the issues they are facing, with a particular focus on education and livelihoods needs, as well as protection risks. Besides, it details recommendations from participants through a participatory approach by extracting the views and suggestions of participants in contributing to solutions at the local levels and engaging in community initiatives. It also included a gender analysis and presented comprehensive data on social norms and access to services. Accordingly, it sets the areas of priority response, along with a list of recommendations to guide future tailored, targeted, integrated and inclusive programming.
