A Participatory Gender Approach for Lebanon Using the CLA Approach

To be able to grasp women’s status and gender issues in the country, USAID/Lebanon needed to have gender-specific data in hand. Given the lack of sex-disaggregated data at the national level, USAID/Lebanon commissioned Social Impact (SI) in 2018 to conduct a country-wide, multi-sectoral Gender Assessment. The Gender Assessment was performed using a rolling CLA approach, which was facilitated by an effective internal and external collaboration that resulted in engaging USAID/L, partners, and stakeholders in all phases of the assessment, starting from the design all the way to the analysis. Pause-and-reflect sessions were useful in disseminating the recommendations and their integration in ongoing activities. Technical Advisory Group meetings were held around identified key gender gaps in the financial sector to adapt existing activities, design new mainstreaming strategies and implementation tools for effective women inclusion in USAID-funded activities. The CLA approach used for the gender assessment paid off. In effect, this has been a rolling CLA with one event leading to additional CLA gender-sensitive events. The assessment resulted in the development of various CLA measures; the entire process led to an increased knowledge of gender gaps with the provision of nationwide and multi-sectoral, gender-sensitive data. Thanks to the involvement of stakeholders, USAID/L and Lebanon now have a baseline on where we stand with gender indicators. This new information will be useful to inform new development programing and strategies.