Naseej: Strengthening National Prevention, Protection and Response Mechanisms to GBV in Lebanon (Phase II)

As a systemic and structural issue, gender equality requires a systemic and structural response. ABAAD, through this project, aims to “sew” together the multi-sectoral and interdisciplinary social and structural response mechanisms to Gender-Based Violence (GBV) by adopting a holistic and systemic approach. For this reason, this project was titled NASEEJ (the Arabic word for sewing). It operates through three different on-the-ground service structures: Mid-Way Houses (MWH), Women and Girls Safe Spaces (WGSS), and the Men’s Center (MC). On a broader scale, it works in three interconnected frameworks toward gender equality: direct/responsive service provision for individuals, responsive structural efforts, and proactive structural efforts. I. ABAAD Structures : MWH: ABAAD has maintained three safe shelters—also known as the Mid-Way House (MHW) for women, girls, and children at risk for or survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV)thus filling in a national gap for temporary safe housing. Available in three different governorates in Lebanon (North, Bekaa and Mount Lebanon), these anonymous safe houses aim to provide holistic services for the most vulnerable survivors of GBV yearly through case management which may entail psychotherapy, Clinical Management of Rape (CMR)/forensic health care, legal consultation and follow-up, among others as well as mental health services. The MWH in the North region is supported by this project. WGSS: The WGSS are safe spaces located across seven governorates and aim to provide mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services for GBV survivors, including case management and socioeconomic empowerment for women and girls, as well as Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights ( SRHR) and gender sensitization for men, women and youth and fostering social stability in its surrounding communities Men’s Center: To ensure a holistic approach to gender equality, ABAAD has continued and improved services related mainly to provision of gendered Mental Health (MH) services for men and boys within the Men Center. II. Project Framework : As ABAAD works on programmatic base rather than project base, NASEEJ II functions as a successor and a structured continuation of NASEEJ I, therefore capitalizing on the delivered outputs and outcomes realized in the previous phase of the project, which then directly feeds into the three main pillars of ABAAD’s strategy in achieving gender equality. Direct/responsive service provision: This framework allows ABAAD to respond directly to women and girl’s needs. Through this project, ABAAD has scaled up protective services at our MWH in the northern Governorate, five WGSSs, Men Centers and partner centers in addition to providing legal counseling and education sessions, psychosocial support (PSS) activities, and life skills training, as well as Clinical Management of Rape (CMR) and forensic services. To this end, this framework has improved the direct protective services in Lebanon for vulnerable women and girls by contributing/addressing recent funding cuts and donor fatigue in Lebanon. Structural response: this framework works on a broader level by responding to structural issues in Lebanon, such as the lack of gendered training for security officials, GBV front liners and media personnel, as well as lack of tools and education related to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for adolescents. During the reporting period, this project planned to fill those gaps by working directly with Internal Security Forces (ISF) on gender & SGBV sensitization, endorsed a mandatory service note on human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women, intends to conduct training of trainers (ToTs) for high-ranking security officials, as well as with media officials on gender sensitization specifically for the media on dealing with women and children survivors/at risk for sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Additionally, this project had developed a national Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) related to dealing with survivors/victims of SGBV in parallel to the development of a national GBV case management (CM) curriculum for case and social workers in Lebanon. In fact, NASEEJ II intends to launch the above mentioned tools in close collaboration with the concerned ministries. Moreover, the project in its second phase intends to widen its scope of work by collaborating with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) generally and the CERD specifically, to mainstream gender in the national educational curricula and thereby conduct a national situational analysis study on “HOW TO MAINSTREAM GENDER INTO EDUCATIONAL CURRICULUMS IN LEBANON “….. Proactive Structural Efforts: to complement the responsive efforts, ABAAD also employs proactive efforts in order to employ solutions at the grassroots level. This project has facilitated the implementation of a national media campaign (“16 Days of Activism” campaign on sexual assault awareness). In addition, the program contributed to the National Mental Health Program by mainstreaming gender issues in their campaign.