Himaya Daeem Aataa

Reported amount

$114,895

Contribution type

financial

Flow type

Standard

Donor

UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women

Recipient agency

Himaya Daeem Aataa

Destination

Lebanon

Plan

Unspecified

Sector

Protection - Gender-Based Violence

Decision date

01 Nov 2024

First reported

01 Apr 2025

Reference

27_42089

Multi-Sector - GBV Programming In Lebanon, both Lebanese and Syrian, confront significant challenges, discrimination, and violent abuse across various facets of their lives. These issues stem from deeply ingrained social and cultural practices and persist in individual attitudes and beliefs. According to a UNDP report, gender bias in the region is considerably higher than the global average, influencing both males and females (UNDP, 2020). These societal norms significantly impact women's roles as active contributors to the community, hindering their ability to achieve freedom from violence and independence, including financial autonomy. As highlighted in a report by KAFA (2020), 53% of all cases of GBV in Lebanon are linked to economic duress and the financial dependency of women. This creates a circle wherein the absence of women's economic participation amplifies GBV against them, simultaneously limiting their access to GBV services due to financial constraints. In a context of political and economic crisis, compounded by the lingering effects of the Syrian crisis, Lebanon grapples with one of the highest economic gender gaps globally, coupled with one of the lowest rates of women's participation in the labor market, as indicated by the World Economic Forum Gender Gap report (2020). Women in the country face economic violence and financial dependency, exacerbated by the compounding crises of the collapsing economy, financial system, political instability, societal disintegration, and the refugee crisis. The absence of governmental support, fragile social protection, and a lack of comprehensive women empowerment interventions contribute to the deterioration of the status of Lebanese women (FSF, 2022). A partnership has been created to design and implement this project between 3 Women Led Organizations(WLOs), HIMAYA DAEEM AATAA(HDA) Farah Social Foundation(FSF) and Sawa (SAWA for Development and Aid), the latter being also a refugee-led organization. The proposed project aims at addressing violence against economically marginalized Syrian Refugees and Lebanese women and girls affected by the Lebanese crisis in Central Bekaa/Bar elias, Taanayel, Zahle, Taalabaya ; North/ Tripoli- Zgharta-Mina-Tebbeneh-Jabal Mohsen; Akkar/Sahel akkar, Halba; Mount Lebanon/Chouf, Aley, Baabda ;Beirut/Beirut through gender transformation and economic empowerment interventions, which will decrease the violence against women and girls. The project, for a total cost of 600,000 USD, will be targeting 300 economically marginalized, Lebanese and Syrian, GBV survivors or at risk of GBV. The vulnerability selection criteria are as follow: handicapped, widowed, single mothers, people with disabilities (PWD) and women heading their household who will be receiving vocational trainings and 4000 persons from the communities where the project is implemented will receive sensitization on GBV and women’s rights. The vocational training topics will be based on the results of the gender-sensitive labor market assessment conducted at the beginning of each cycle as well as a consultation with the targeted groups of women. Gender transformation approaches aim at working with groups that integrate women and men to address gender roles, norms and power relations; this approach has a crucial effectiveness in similar complex contexts such as the Lebanese one. Integrating men in this specific intervention (translated into awareness sessions in the proposed activities) will have higher efficiency than working solely with women and will fundamentally change the gender relationships in highly patriarchal contexts such as the Lebanese context. On the other hand, empowering women economically will significantly strengthen economic outcomes, decrease violence by taking them out of the home for periods of time and support the livelihoods of women; in which will result in increasing the economic accessibility, and increasing the accessibility to GBV services among women. Accordingly, creating job opportunities for women through engaging them in the private market a nd ensuring fair wages to foster financial independence and sustained decrease of violence against them. This project seeks to empower women and girls in both Lebanese and Syrian communities across five key regions: North Lebanon, Akkar, Bekaa, Beirut and Mount Lebanon. While the direct target are women economically marginalized, Lebanese and Syrian, GBV survivor or at risk of GBV., our project will also impact husbands, daughters, sons and men within their families as they will be a part of the circle of change; we will design the sessions to highlight women's economic rights, aiming to increase their opportunities to access markets and sustain their livelihoods. In addition, 7% of the target population includes people with disabilities, ensuring an inclusive approach to empowerment. By doing so, we aim to diminish discrimination, cultivate a supportive environment, hence improve prevention of VAW through a multi-pronged approach that tackles social norms and behaviors, increase women’s access to skills and resources, and improve their interpersonal skills