Research Consultant

The impact of the Syrian refugee influx to Lebanon can still be felt on various aspects of the Lebanese life. As the crisis enters its 9^th year, the international community of humanitarian actors continues delivering relevant services to boost the prospects of Syrian refugees and host communities in livelihoods, protection, access to education, health and other sectors.

Specifically, international and local actors, over the years, have produced various assessments of the impact of the Syrian crisis on Lebanon and specifically, among livelihoods actors, on the Lebanese economy. These studies ranged from assessments at the local level to more macro-economic studies reflecting the health of the Lebanese economy across various metrics: GDP growth, unemployment, access to capital, etc…

Funded by the German development bank, KfW, under the project: Regrowth II: Supporting durable socio-economic resilience for Syrian refugee and host communities in Lebanon, the IRC’s Economic Recovery and Development Unit delivers livelihoods support to vulnerable populations, refugee and host communities, aligned with the local market’s needs and in compliance with the Lebanese laws, regulations and the UNDP-MoSA-led Livelihoods Working Group’s guidelines.

The IRC’s ERD unit delivers skills building activities, supports vulnerable populations in seeking safe and decent employment and facilitates access to capital and proper business management to entrepreneurs. The IRC delivers all of these services with a protection lens and ensures that its programming and cash support is delivered in a Do No Harm approach.

The IRC also contributes to advancing learning on livelihoods programming in crisis-affected contexts. Previously, the IRC produced business climate studies on the markets in Akkar, Mount Lebanon, Beirut and North Lebanon and has performed analyses on the effect of trainings on the economic wellbeing of vulnerable populations. With continued support from KfW, the IRC will continue driving forward learning on livelihoods and the dynamics of the economy as they impact the day to day of vulnerable populations.

In this spirit, in November 2019, the IRC met with key staff from the Ministry of Economy & Trade’s (MoET) SME Unit and registered the interest that the ministry showed in consolidating the various research products produced in Lebanon, following the Syrian refugees’ influx, in an attempt to synthesize in a useful presentation the essence of those studies. Scholars, researchers, livelihoods and development practitioners wishing to produce research on the Lebanese economy will be supported in quickly identifying key terms, dates and geographic scope of studies to facilitate their access to secondary and contextual data. The IRC will be making available a database-friendly file (the major deliverable of these terms) and will trust that MoET would secure the necessary support from relevant ministries to upload the finished research product onto its online portal.

OBJECTIVES & DELIVERABLES:

• Collect the various economy-focused research products produced about Lebanon from 2011 – 2019.
• Identify the various, common economic metrics that will serve as search criteria for future users of the database.
• Identify the main organizations leading on economic research in the past 10 years (2011- 2019) and decide on whether KIIs are needed with the relevant organizations, should additional information, not publically available, be in need of collection.
• Generate a basic list of research that will be further probed for economic criteria and metric. This list will be shared with MoET prior to its conversion into a database-friendly file.
• Generate a database-friendly file, guidance on the format of the file will be given by MoET but an Excel file will be quite likely the format, which will then be uploaded by MoET on their portal.
• Following the compilation of the list, generate a list of research questions of potential interest to MoET to purse, taking into account the knowledge gaps that still surround the Lebanese economy.
• Present the findings to the concerned resource persons from the Ministry of Economy & Trade.

METHODOLOGY

The compilation of the available research products will mostly be done over the Internet, with possible KIIs or face-to-face interviews should publications not be available or if the consultant’s knowledge and search lead him / her to requiring more data.

A kick off meeting between the consultant, the IRC and the MoET will help clarify expectations, format and layout of the various deliverables. A focal point from IRC will be regularly checking-in with the consultant to ensure that the work is moving on track.

Ideally, the consultant should work in a chronological order and work sideways in classifying the research products according to the above-identified metrics and criteria.

In the event where support is needed in logistics, the IRC will provide the relevant support.

TIMELINE

March – May 2020 for up to 25 days of effort with approximate days needed initially as follows:

• Kick off meeting with MoET and IRC (1 day)
• Collection and compilation of online research (17 – 21 days)
• KIIs – planning, interviews, note-taking (2-3 days)
• Drafting a database-friendly file with the relevant criteria and metrics in collaboration with the relevant ministry uploading the data online (1 day)
• Generating a recommended list of research questions for MoET – possible appointment with MoET to guide the drafting (.5 days)
• Presentation of findings to MoET (.5 days)

Total: Up to 25 days