Project profile — Mashreq Gender Facility - Lebanon

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) gender constraints to women’s full participation in society in Lebanon are identified and addressed; and (2) women’s access to economic opportunities in the Mashreq are improved through the implementation of country-level action plans.

Results achieved as of January 2022 include: (1) six members of Lebanon’s parliament approved and signed a law project amending several articles of the Labour Code. including new provisions for maternity, paternity and family care leaves as well as breastfeeding, childcare and equal work for equal value; (2) published a report about women`s status in Lebanon, presenting a detailed data-driven analysis of women’s access to economic opportunities, human capital accumulation and the ability to act; (3) 35 people participated in a webinar on the business benefits of applying anti-sexual-harassment policies in the workplace; (4) 87 business advisors and 156 women-led businesses completed the Crisis Management Training Program that matched each business with an advisor for one-on-one coaching sessions in Lebanon; (5) finished a market study that mapped the entrepreneurship space for women, explored regional and international demand trends and developed an action plan to increase export opportunities; (6) got advisory services from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) about women’s employment for two Lebanese private sector firms; (7) selected and gave technical help to three Lebanese start-up businesses to develop business plans that support women in agriculture through information and communications technology-based solutions; (8) finished a gender-sensitization training for five Lebanese incubators and accelerators; (9) provided an investment-readiness training for 33 women entrepreneurs; (10) selected a cohort of ten leading private sector firms in Lebanon; and (11) delivered three round-table talks to share findings of a Lebanese child care assessment report with stakeholders from across government, civil society, academia and the private sector.