Lebanon Reports
 | Freedom of Religion and Belief in LebanonSearch for Common Ground (Search) has been privileged to work with our partners in Lebanon, Sri Lanka, and Uzbekistan over the past three years to build interreligious freedom roundtables to enable advocacy for Freedom of Religion and Belief (FoRB) in target countries. The Lebanon roundtable became known as […] |
| Water as a Tool for Diffusing Socio-Political TensionThis report captures findings from the study on “Water as a Tool for Diffusing Socio-Political Tension” implemented by Search in partnership with the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut (AUB-IFI). The project is funded by The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) from May 2021 to May 2022 in Lebanon and published on UNICEF website. The project’s overall goal was to further understand how water can be a tool for diffusing socio-political tension through identifying hotspots in Lebanon with high water-related stress, water related conflict risk, community-level resilience factors, points of division, key influencers, possible champions, and social connectors. This study has utilised a mapping exercise that identified conflict hotspots and target communities for project implementation in addition to the social network experiment (SNA) to explore the interactions and roles of key stakeholders in water and conflict management in the identified two cazas (Baalbek and West Bekaa). Furthermore, 19 focus group discussions with 143 community members were conducted. Findings from the SNA and FGDs highlighted the key actors across themes and aspects of conflict resolution and water management. Municipalities were identified as major players that are most frequently contacted for conflict resolution, especially when it comes to water-related conflict. Local mayors, in particular, were engaged by community members across all FGD participant communities. Important families, local religious authorities and political groups also appear to have a large stake in existing conflict resolution networks, though trust in these actors varied from community to community. The influence of international NGOs and IGOs such as UNICEF, EU and UNDP exists prominently in conflict resolution networks as well, however it is overtaken by local NGOs and regional and national authorities when it comes to water conflicts. Conversely, community members have little to no influence or engagement with knowledge exchange networks, meaning the varying degrees of local response initiatives and community development projects are rarely known outside of residents who directly participate in them. A list of project recommendations were proposed for implementing conflict-sensitive water projects with peacebuilding components. |
| Baseline study – Toward a Gender-Equitable societyThis report captures findings from the baseline study of the project “Toward a Gender-Equitable Society” implemented by Search for Common Ground (Search) and ABAAD-Resource Center for Gender Equality (ABAAD). The project is funded by UK-Aid under the Jo Cox Memorial Fund in Lebanon. The expected impact of the project is to “contribute to an enabling environment in which social norms around gender based violence (GBV) will be shifted and access to safe and quality prevention and response services will be increased.” The project aims to achieve this impact with a two-pronged complementary approach (project outcome): 1) Increasing access to quality GBV prevention and response services, and 2) enhancing the capacity of Lebanese TV/film media to produce gender and GBV-sensitive media products. A number of key findings emerged from the baseline study. First and foremost, widely shared and deeply held social norms and beliefs that justify sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) and blame victims contribute to protecting perpetrators, preventing victims from seeking help, and perpetuating and normalizing violence. A lack of understanding of the concept of sexual consent emerged as a disturbing finding that likely also contributes to the perpetration of sexual violence. Nevertheless, in recent years, there has been significant progress in positively shifting social norms related to SGBV and breaking the taboo of speaking openly about SGBV, particularly among younger generations. This progress is due in large part to the dedicated efforts of women’s rights organizations and activists and their willingness and ability to embrace and innovate within new forms of communication, such as social media platforms. Regarding the provision of services for SGBV survivors, challenges are less centered around the number of services available and more centered around sociocultural and structural obstacles that discourage survivors from accessing services. In general, mainstream TV and film productions in Lebanon feature highly stereotyped versions of both men and women. In particular, female characters are often portrayed as accessories to the male character’s life and character development. Several recommendations for civil society organizations (CSOs) working on gender equality were formulated from the key findings and conclusions. |
| Participatory, Youth-Led Gender and Masculinities ResearchThis report captures findings from the Youth-Led Research of the project “Partners for Justice”, funded by Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL). This project was implemented by Search, in partnership with ABAAD – Resource Center for Gender Equality from September 2019 to December 2021 with a cost extension until September 2022 in five districts in Lebanon: Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Bekaa, North and South. The overall goal of the project is to reduce violence against women and girls in Lebanon by achieving the following two objectives 1) Empower men and boys to work with women to become allies and champions of gender equality and prevention of violence against women and girls; and (2) Promote a shift in communities’ attitudes in target areas around the permissibility of, and assumptions related to violence against women and girls. This study aims to understand the Lebanese community’s attitudes and beliefs towards gender and masculinity in support of Search’s upcoming national advocacy and awareness media campaign. The study has utilized Search’s Youth-Led Research Methodology, which engages youth from local communities in culturally sensitive research and Search’s Listening and Learning Toolkit. 30 youth leaders representing 16 local Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Lebanon engaged in the research design, implementation, analysis and reporting under the supervision of an external consultant and three research assistants. The Youth-Led Research highlights the lack of general knowledge and differentiation between important concepts. For example, a prevalent misunderstanding relate to sex and gender and how the two distinct was frequently observed in the five communities. A high percentage of participants considered sex and gender to be the same, confused them with sexual orientation, or knew what sex was but provided inaccurate definitions of gender. Additionally, Religion was a common theme that participants mentioned as a key factor shaping their beliefs. Participants likely got confused when attempting to disentangle religion from the patriarchal system. The findings of this study confirm what previous literature has indicated: that toxic masculinity negatively impacts men and boys. Men interviewed in the study were beginning to notice this within themselves and Lebanon as a whole. It was noted that the community’s intolerance towards VAWG was significantly higher than their concern towards toxic masculinities and gender inequality. This was also commonly observed in the Lebanese community, especially in intervention campaigns that primarily targeted VAWG but rarely discussed the underlying issues of masculinity or gender equality. Thus, a continuing embrace of patriarchal values in Lebanon is rooted in society at different levels simultaneously — within the community’s cognitive misunderstandings of sex, gender, and sexuality, as well as more emotional ties and fears related to a traditional culture of shame and honor. |
| DRL – Baseline StudyThis report captures findings from the baseline study of the project “Partners for Justice,” implemented by Search in partnership with Abaad. The project was funded by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Affairs, United States Department of State (DRL) and implemented from September 2019 to December 2021 overall Lebanon. The project aimed to reduce Violence Against Women and Girls in Lebanon by addressing its root causes and transforming men’s and women’s, boys’ and girls’ attitudes towards patriarchal norms that define masculinity in public and private spheres. This report from the baseline ensures contextual relevance and efficient project design, and guides the project’s monitoring plan of important indicators by providing measurable performance benchmarks. The findings on research capacities highlighted that all of the project participants have at least some basic knowledge on research methodology and practices and are eager to apply it to gender and masculinity research on behalf of their organizations. Overall, the majority of project participants reported previous experience with NGO work that often included awareness raising activities in their communities as well as national campaigns and touched on topics related to VAWG. |
| 2020 SFCG Conflict Analysis ReportThis report captures findings from a Conflict Analysis and Power Dynamics in Lebanon of the project “Fostering Social Stability Through Strategic Communications,” implemented by Search in partnership with three organizations. The project was funded by “Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF)” and implemented from June 2019 to March 2021 in Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Akkar, North, West and Central Bekaa, and Baalbek-El Hermel. The project aimed to reduce tensions at a local level amongst and between host communities and refugees in Lebanon. This goal was supported by two major objectives: (1) To increase collaboration and positive interaction through dialogue and joint activities between refugees and host communities, and (2) Shift the public perceptions towards greater trust and respect in targeted communities across Lebanon. The study finds that the majority of all participants involved in the study were unable to identify local peacebuilders and conflict resolution mechanisms. Those that can be identified were often perceived as partisan, politicized and/or inaccessible to all groups, particularly non-Lebanese and those without strong socio-economic standing in their communities. Different areas cited very different triggers of tensions within the community including economic tensions, host/refugee tensions, political tensions, and religious/sectarian tensions. Violence is seen as a solution by a substantial number of the population, particularly in Baalbeck-Hermel and Mount Lebanon. |
| Building Cohesion in conflict affected communitiesThis report captures findings from a retrospective research study of two peacebuilding projects implemented by Search for Common Ground, FURSA project and the Better Together project funded by European Union. “FURSA” project was implemented by Search from January 2017 to 2018 in two governorates in Lebanon: Akkar and Bekaa. “Better Together: A youth-led approach to peaceful coexistence” project was implemented from 2014 to 2016 in North Bekaa and South. Both projects explored the positive and negative gendered effects of peacebuilding project initiatives implemented by Search on Lebanese adolescents’ development trajectories in the short and medium term. The research explored two key domains of adolescents’ experiences: (1) psychosocial well-being and (2) voice and agency. The psychosocial capability domain is concerned with adolescents’ sense of self and ability to set their own goals and demonstrate resilience in the face of setbacks. The study highlighted that adolescent girls and boys reported that these projects implemented by Search had positive short- and medium-term effects on their psychosocial well-being, voice and agency and (to some extent on their education and employability. |