Lebanon : Fighting gender inequality in Lebanon by promoting economic autonomy

For many years, Expertise France has been orking with its Lebanese partners for the economic development of the country and to support public policies. In Lebanon, the agency conducts projects in the fields of democratic, economic and financial governance, social cohesion, health, security and sustainable economic development. In the context of regional instability, and in the face of the multidimensional crisis that the country is currently experiencing, the agency provides constant support to the Lebanese population.

Expertise France acts within the framework of the important support that the community of development partners, and particularly France, notably the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), and the European Union, are providing to Lebanon. The international community has called on the Lebanese authorities to undertake far-reaching and ambitious reforms, particularly in terms of transparency, economic and financial sustainability, the fight against corruption and the independence of the judiciary.

The EU4WE project was launched in October 2019, as Lebanon faced a major social, economic, and financial crisis, subsequently accentuated by the Covid-19 pandemic. It aims to empower Lebanese women to create their own economic opportunities in a more equal society.

EU4WE aimed to empower Lebanese women in order to fight domestic violence in a sustainable way and to support institutional mechanisms working on equality issues in order to better take into account gender in public policies.

Tuesday 28th March, the European Union For Women Empowerment project (EU4WE) closing ceremony was successfully held in Beirut. The event presented the achievements and results of this EU-funded project, and recognized the contribution of its partners in promoting women's empowerment Lebanon.

Women economic empowerment for lebanon project (WEEL)

The Lebanese economy needs more than ever a productive private sector capable of driving economic recovery, create jobs, and support a fragile balance of payment by producing local goods and services, increasing exports and diversify export markets.

As part of the European Union for Women Empowerment Project in Lebanon, Expertise France, in partnership with Berytech , provided women-led or women-owned MSMEs and startups with grants ranging between €15,000 and €50,000 to strengthen and grow their businesses despite the challenging political, economic, and social environment in Lebanon.

The project was based on the recommendations derived from a market study conducted under EU4WE to explore and capture the structural challenges for women’s economic participation in Lebanon but also the specific difficulties resulting from the economic, political, and health crises the country is facing, to better understand the kind of support that could help them grow. The study provided recommendations based on examples and lessons learnt from projects and programs in support of women entrepreneurs, with a running business or in the process of creating one, and in response to the issues raised by the Lebanese women entrepreneurs interviewed.

18 (12 MSMEs and 8 Startups) women owned/led businesses were supported with grants raging between EUR 15K and EUR 40K for capital investment (machinery, equipment, raw material) and technical assistance (capacity building, consultancies, marketing services etc.).

A variety of business sectors were concerned (agriculture, agrifood, manufacturing, logistics, ICT, education, entertainment, furniture design, recruitment services, travel and tourism, fashion) in different regions across Lebanon (Beirut, Mount Lebanon, North Lebanon, South Lebanon).

All of those actions contributed to a high-level Impact :

• sustaining and creating jobs, converting to green energy,
• ensuring the injection of the hard currency into the Lebanese economy by exporting goods or services,
• increasing revenues and market shares,
• sustainability workshop allowing women entrepreneurs to acquire the best practices to embed sustainability component into their corporate culture and business model.

The emergency fund

Following the catastrophic Beirut Post explosion on the 4th of August 2020, Expertise France partnered with Berytech, through the European Union funding, to support 30 women-led businesses affected by the blast. The selected participants benefited from a two-month intensive training program, including capacity-building sessions and group coaching, in addition to financial support in the form of grants.

Access to Justice for survivors of domestic violence

A legal taskforce composed of 47 lawyers was created under EU4WE in an effort to enhance the survivors’ access to justice. The creation of this task force was based on the strategic litigation trainings for domestic violence conducted under the Project in October and November 2021.

The curriculum of the legal strategic litigation training for domestic violence was based on the comparative legal study developed by the EU4WE to survey and analyze jurisprudence of Judges of Urgent Matters and jurisprudence of religious courts in matters of divorce, custody, etc. containing elements of domestic violence. To bridge gaps identified and enhance access to justice, the comparative legal study provided easily implementable recommendations under applicable Lebanese laws, under international conventions adopted by Lebanon, as well as under international best practices.

The trainings were conducted over 4 different sessions with 4 different groups of attorneys (one session for each denomination. Each session consisted of a three-day training focusing on the psychological aspects of domestic violence, the Lebanese law 293/2014 and on religious laws pertaining to domestic violence to enhance access to justice and outcome of cases, and on international conventions and Human Rights treaties, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and other, and interrelation with Lebanese laws.

Support to the Lebanon National Gender Observatory (LNGO)

In order to provide evidence-based information and recommendations to policymakers to ensure the up taking of the principle of equality and non-discrimination in law and practice, the EU4WE project supported the elaboration of a two-year action plan for LNGO, in collaboration with the National Commission of Lebanese Women (NCLW). In addition, the project provided technical expertise to the LNGO to develop appropriate methodological tools for the development of indicators related to women economic and physical autonomy, as well as decision making, to allow the integration of gender equality into all policies and to ministries and institutions to improve policies and inform gender sensitive decision-making.