Project: “Supporting Women on Board of Syndicates, Universities, and Boards of Organizations”

We at AiW are partnering with the Lebanese League for Women in Business on the project, SUPPORTING WOMEN ON BOARD OF SYNDICATES, Universities, and Boards of Organizations, Phase 2, funded by the UK Embassy (FCDO). This project is designed to advance gender equality, diversity, and inclusion within universities with the aim to train women to hold board and leadership positions in any institution. The project entails a needs assessment on gender equity and women on boards where a Gender Action Plan to support women on boards and in decision-making roles will be put in place. Along with that, a training program for women on diverse topics including gender equality, leadership, communication, and others will be administered. After that 5 women will be selected to become certified directors through specialized training. This will be followed by a communications campaign to support women running for leadership positions.

As part of this project, and as per the commitment letter signed between LAU/AiW and LLWB, we agreed to undertake a Gender Audit Assessment. We at LAU are pioneers in this regard where the Arab Institute for Women wrote the first gender equality plan in 2017. After that we worked closely and in partnership with the office of Title IX and several entities at LAU to launch the 2022 Gender Equity Plan (GEP) which analyzed gender equity across the institution and formulated a first set of recommendations to improve LAU’s goals in this regard. The last iteration of it was presented at a public event in June 2024.

In light of this long heritage of advancing gender equality and to complement this initiative, the AiW in partnership with the Office of Title IX will be launching an ILO-certified Participatory Gender Audit (PGA) that aims at assessing, on the basis of ILO standards, the level of Gender equality in the institution and to further embedding and mainstreaming gender in its policies, practices and operational culture.  Conducted by an external consultant/gender auditor, the PGA will assist LAU staff, faculty, and students to assess and strengthen their understanding of how to integrate gender issues in their day- to-day work.  

The findings of the audit will be mainly drawn from LAU stakeholders’ own perceptions and recommendations on the way forward, based on a Desk review of existing policies, documents and products, as well as interviews and Focus Group Discussions with a range of relevant stakeholders at LAU. The findings will report on good practices already underway and identify areas for improvement together with recommendations.