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Best Practices on Tackling the SDGs

Project: “Equality for Everyone: Gender Reform from Grassroots to Government”

The AiW completed the project: “Equality for Everyone: Gender Reform from Grassroots to Government” funded by the United States – Middle East Partnership Initiative (U.S-MEPI)’s which aimed at promoting universal parental leave and progressive childcare policies among Lebanese working parents as an entry point to achieving greater gender equality in Lebanon, while also promoting access to healthcare to disadvantaged women to overcome caregiving burdens. This innovative project targets parental leave policies within the private and public sectors, with a focus on policy change on the national level. The project also targets LAU as a pilot project for policy change regarding parental leave policies.

Within the context of this project, the AiW produced a policy brief detailing the importance of improving parental leave policies in Lebanon on the national level as well as several other research papers for the purpose of motivating the private companies to improve their own parental leave policies. In addition, the AiW and the National Commission for Lebanese Women (NCLW) prepared, secured proper signatures, and submitted to the Lebanese Parliament a draft law for the purpose of amending the labor law to include better parental leave policies. Furthermore, the AiW launched a national advocacy campaign in order to raise awareness among Lebanese men and women about the importance of parental leave in improving the status of women in the workplace and to pressure decision-makers in Lebanon to adopt the draft law.

You can check the documents created under this project through the below links:

You can also check the videos related to the national advocacy campaign through the below links:

You can also check the events that the AiW organized within the context of this project through the below links:

The AiW held on 16 December 2021 a closing event for the “Equality for Everyone: Gender Reform from Grassroots to Government” project.

For more information about the closing event and LAU President Dr. Michel Mawad’s announcement regarding parental leave policies, check out this link.

SOE Collaboration with Synopsys Gains Momentum

Forging ahead with an academic partnership, SOE Dean Michel Khoury and ECE Department Chair Dani Tannir recently met with Synopsys VP of Engineering Weikai Sun along with SiliconCedars founder Paul Tauk. The collaboration with Synopsys, a leading company in the electronic design automation of integrated circuits, will include assistance to the school’s programs through software tools, research and senior project support, in addition to potential internship and employment opportunities for students.

Collaboration with Unilever Opens Doors for Business Students

The Adnan Kassar School of Business has initiated a new collaboration with multinational giant, Unilever, on a senior marketing course project that would help expose students to the fast-moving consumer goods industry and earn valuable internships. The partnership follows similar opportunities available to LAU students across the board. The company had previously worked closely with LAU on several projects, among which the student-led national Case Competition.  

International Collaborations Continue

With more than 50 partner institutions across the world, LAU fosters and seeks out exchange and training opportunities for its faculty, students and staff. Recently, an LAU delegation visited Freie University of Berlin for an Erasmus+-funded mobility to exchange expertise and explore possibilities for collaboration. The group included Drs. Brigette Wex, Hussein F. Hassan, Hussein Hassan and Elias Akoury from the Natural Sciences Department, Dina Abdul Rahman from OIS and Joanna Fayad from AiW.

LAU and NYU Tisch Collaborate on Theatrical Production

Dr. Lina Abyad’s timely play, Amrika, was performed in New York by LAU and Tisch students.

For six weeks this spring, five LAU performing arts students took advantage of a golden opportunity to workshop and stage performances of Associate Professor of Theater Lina Abyad’s play Amrika with NYU Tisch School of the Arts, widely considered to be one of the leading arts schools in the world.

The play was performed five times April 22–30 as part of Tisch Drama Stage’s Festival of Voices, curated by NYU professor Catherine Coray, each time to enthusiastic audiences.

The festival features productions by Arab and Arab-American playwrights performed by undergraduate students.

During their stay in New York, LAU students Naré Kurkjian, Aya Layl Tarabey, Jennifer Yammine, Dona Attalah and Sally Jaber were paired with five NYU students to work on the script and the production in general. The students worked long hours memorizing their lines and rehearsing.

All expressed their gratitude for the opportunity they were afforded.

Written by Dr. Abyad, and told in a series of vignettes, Amrika recounts the lives of Lebanese women immigrants to New York City in the late 19th century. The women arrived on the heels of the closing of Lebanon’s silk factories, which precipitated an economic crisis in the country.

In their new home they found work, brought over their families, and eventually flourished: “The stories that we tell in this play include widows, ambitious young wives and newlyweds who left their spouses behind,” says Abyad. “They often made the painful discovery that America’s streets weren’t always paved with gold.”  

The women portrayed include novelist Afifa Karam, who also wrote books denouncing child marriage and domestic rape and violence; jewelry designer Marie Azeez El-Khoury who ran the successful 5th Avenue store The Little Shop of T Azeez; and Syrian feminist Hanna Kasbani Kourani, who attended the 1894 World’s Congress of Representative Women.

Nadya Mikdashi, Assistant Vice President for Development at LAU’s New York academic center, which hosted the students, notes how timely the production was: “This was a great opportunity for our students to learn from the best and to work on a production from script to performance. It was particularly poignant given the material, since Lebanon is once again experiencing an economic crisis and emigration. This was also a positive experience that showed them there is a world full of hope out there.”

Dr. Abyad says she enjoyed the experience and “it was especially satisfying having talented LAU students staging my play.” 

For LAU President Michel E. Mawad, this collaboration was a perfect illustration of the advantages of having a presence in New York City. “I hope this is the first of many such efforts as it reinforces our ethos as a forward-thinking global university,” he said. On another note, he added, “in the midst of this historic crisis [afflicting Lebanon], the sheer talent and dedication shown by our students is truly inspiring — it is what moves us to persevere and to uphold our standards of education, more than ever.”

The play was made possible by the support it received from generous donors, namely Nour Theater, Mr. and Mrs. Raff and Loretta Ellis, Mr. Carlos Abou Jaoude, Association Philippe Jabre, Drs. Mahmud and Lina Kreidie, as well as The President’s Fund.

All those involved remarked on the success of this international collaboration and how it has given a new generation of LAU performing arts alums the opportunity to develop their craft professionally. The play also filled in historical gaps by telling the hitherto unsung story of a group of remarkably courageous Lebanese and Syrian women.

Until May 18, members of the LAU community can purchase $5 tickets to stream performances of Amrika online at the NYU portal.

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LAU and Boise State University Collaborate on Virtual Exchange Program

Lebanese and US students collaborate on innovative solutions, overcoming communication challenges.

Students from LAU and Boise State University (BSU) embarked on a virtual exchange program funded by the US Embassy in Lebanon, turning difficulties into co-created, innovative solutions.

Through Flipgrid, an educational video app, 71 students worked on three projects aimed to engender cross-cultural dialog. The first of these projects was an ice-breaker activity whereby the students designed a new product/service for a grocery store. In the second, the students had to develop solutions to a problem that they imagined their cross-cultural counterparts were experiencing and then refined those innovative solutions by carefully listening to their counterparts’ comments.

In yet another project they had to work collaboratively to identify the strategic differentiators for a company addressing one of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

“When the students suddenly understood that a nine-hour difference translates into a 24-hour communication cycle, I got a lot of push-back,” said Dr. Jordan Srour, associate professor of operations management at the Adnan Kassar School of Business, who worked on designing the course. “One student even asked: whose crazy idea was this?”

One interesting solution, explained Dr. Srour, was a set of fire poles with embedded sensor technology and sprinklers that simultaneously alerted to and mitigated the spread of wildfires. “This project stuck in my mind as wildfires became a point around which the team members could really understand each other,” she said.

Another project that stood out was one developed in an individual assignment, allowing BSU students to safely return to in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. LAU students developed an app – using BSU logos – that allows students to select a location on campus and then identify the route that takes them through the least crowded and most recently cleaned areas to ensure their safety.

“I was totally shocked,” said Dr. Srour, “as LAU students independently worked on a problem inspired by their conversations with BSU students. With the many problems happening in Lebanon, these students chose to focus their efforts on a problem related to their BSU counterparts.”

The experience has taught the students what no textbook can: how to listen.

“Of course, the technology has facilitated the communication, but the class’s major strength was the fundamentals of what it is to be a human with a problem that needs solving,” explained Dr. Srour. 

“Apart from the nine hours’ time difference and some power cuts faced along the way, I found the program really engaging,” said senior student in information technology management Abdelrahman Ghalayini, “as it gave me a better idea of what it means to work with different cultures and time zones.”

But what he appreciated the most, he noted, was the chance to work with a university abroad and interact with students from different backgrounds. “This helped me expand my knowledge and come up with new ideas that led to completing the project.”

The course also helped improve the students’ critical skills.

“We had to come up with creative, data-driven, and interesting ideas throughout the semester, especially in the collaborative projects with BSU students,” said second-year student Mariam Tahsaldar, who is minoring in data analytics.

“I was happy that they learned more about Lebanon since they did not even know that we spoke English in the first place,” she added.  “I also got to learn more about their country and vice versa.”

Moving beyond intellectual capital and pedagogical innovation, the project embraces the ideal of a university without borders.

“The collaboration with Boise aligns with all three pillars of LAU’s strategic plan,” said Dr. Srour. “I love the fact that we partnered with BSU and not a school in a well-known location like New York or California. It is so important for our students to learn that ‘global’ is an all-encompassing word – not just reserved for the world’s major cities.”

Projecting beyond that, she hopes to see LAU engage even more in virtual exchange experiences across the curriculum.

“One potential future for this modality would be in terms of language learning,” she said. “How wonderful would it be for LAU students to support BSU students in learning Arabic virtually?”

Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Information Technology and Operations Management Department Manal Yunis underlined the vital importance of such programs.

“Nowadays, internationalization is key to success,” said Dr. Yunis. “To be and to stay competitive, universities seeking high ranking levels set a variety of plans, one of which is investing in cross-cultural partnerships with other higher education institutions for research and teaching purposes.”

At the teaching level, she added, developing collaborative activities with international higher education institutions can yield transformative results with high impact. “Besides enhancing students’ engagement levels, such partnerships can help students build global perspectives in life and professional decisions, and can also prepare them for careers in a global and diversified economy.”

Furthermore, she noted, course partnerships foster a positive attitude toward the other culture and its people, which can with time help students eliminate wrong preconceptions, develop flexibility and cultural intelligence skills.

LAU students Abdelrahman Ghalayini and Elie Abou Issa, along with three students from BSU received the top award at BSU’s College School of Business and Economics Challenge (COBE) Innovation Challenge for their idea to convert waste energy from roadways to electricity using vertical turbines.

Other SDG-targeted projects on which LAU students collaborated with their BSU counterparts took the international prizes and were selected as the Dean’s Choice as well as the Judges’ Recognition Award.

Gender in Development and Humanitarian Assistance (GDHA) Certificate

Overview

In collaboration with The Arab Institute for Women (AIW) at the Lebanese American University (LAU), the Gender in Development and Humanitarian Assistance (GDHA) Certificate is a continuing education program designed for students, practitioners, and policymakers. The program addresses gender issues in development and humanitarian settings. GDHA innovatively incorporates academic knowledge with high-level expertise to create a new standard in gender education for development and humanitarian professionals. The standards are in-line with internationally-recognized practices. Moreover, the program builds local capacity to address local issues, building a cadre of motivated professionals in the Arab region.

Content

The program involves an active learning approach with practical workshops. It also emphasizes reflective and collaborative learning. Participants may choose to take individual courses or to complete the full set. Upon completion of all ten courses, participants receive a certificate.

Objectives

  • Address the full range of gender issues in development and humanitarian contexts
  • Build Arab capacity to address Arab development and humanitarian challenges
  • Provide technical, marketable skills in gender programming to address gender inequalities
  • Establish foundational knowledge in global and regional best practices on gender equality and women’s rights

Contact us

Email: joanna.fayad@lau.edu.lb

Phone: +961 1 786 456, ext. 1106

Project: Violence Counts! Strengthening Arab Regional Capacity to Collect Data on Violence against Women

The AiW, in partnership with the Global Women’s Institute (GWI) at the George Washington University, received a grant in December 2020 funded by UN Women and the World Health Organization for the purpose of building the capacity of Arab experts to collect data on violence against women (VAW). Though quality, reliable data on VAW is essential for developing policies and interventions to achieve gender equality, a substantial gap remains in the collection of prevalence data on VAW in regions across the world, particularly in the Arab States. This gap is due to stigma regarding VAW, underreporting, lack of reporting mechanisms, difficulty accessing justice for survivors, lack of services and support, and other factors. This gap is also due in part to the technical capacity required to collect these prevalence data in accordance with global, methodological, ethical, and safety standards.

The AiW and GWI developed a training curriculum and implemented a pilot training within the context of this grant for the purpose of building the technical capacity of a selected number of Arab experts to collect these prevalence data on VAW. A secondary goal of this program is to widen the currently limited pool of researchers who can collect these data in a high-quality and ethical way. This will ensure that there is a wider base of Arab experts who are able to undertake data collection on VAW. Data is critical in strengthening prevention and response, and so The AiW aims to integrate this training curriculum within its sustainable development projects.

Project: Security Forces Training

The AiW, in collaboration with ACE, also secured a grant from the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) for a customized certificate focused on specific courses from the GDHA certificate. The three courses requested by the ICMPD focus on issues related to Women, Peace and Security, specifically the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR 1325), national action plans, and gender mainstreaming. Fifteen participants from the Lebanese security sector, including officers from the Internal Security Forces, the General Security, and the Lebanese Armed Forces received the training. Courses started on January 11, 2021 and ended on April 29, 2021. As part of the program, participants presented projects that they had prepared which all advocated for the implementation of institutional amendments to ensure that gender sensitive policies are set throughout the security sector.

Capacity Building for Law Enforcement Personnel on Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response

IWSAW has launched a new project that focuses on building the capacity of law enforcement personnel to identify, prevent and respond appropriately to gender-based violence (GBV), and to increase gender awareness and equality within the security sector itself.

The full program, funded by the Dutch Embassy, is expected to last for two years and will entail in-depth training for female and male Lebanese security personnel on:

  • Integrating gender perspectives into the provision of security service;
  • Increasing women’s representation and participation in the security sector, international and national legal frameworks, policies, and procedures in cases of GBV;
  • Overcoming challenges to gender equality and GBV prevention and response in the Lebanese context.

IWSAW strongly believes that a critical component of prevention and response to GBV is to work with security service providers alongside medical, legal and psychosocial personnel to ensure that survivors have access to the best possible care and support, and to reduce the risk of GBV.

Fostering a culture of intolerance towards GBV within the security apparatus can increase a sense of institutional responsibility, reduce societal perceptions of impunity, strengthen accountability, and promote positive attitudes towards gender equality both within the security forces and the population.

The training program was developed into two main phases as it took off. Throughout the years, different NGOs and UN agencies in Lebanon had been conducting trainings and workshops on the same matter.

During phase I, IWSAW conducted preparatory meetings with the concerned representatives at the General Security (GS) and the Internal Security Forces (ISF) to gather information on the training needs, challenges, and attitudes of the ISF and GS members. The findings helped draft the curriculum of the comprehensive training program which IWSAW agreed on with the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities, the directors of the ISF and GS, and heads of units within these directorates. In order to move towards the implementation of this curriculum, the program was tested with 10 students from the ISF Academy in Aramoun whereby the curriculum committee was able to gather suggestions to make the necessary changes to the curriculum.

The second phase of the program included the implementation of the training. A total of 35 officers, including men and women from the ISF and GS were trained. The sessions were given in Arabic by a pool of instructors which consisted of LAU faculty and experienced professionals from the field. The sessions were evaluated through post-test evaluations at the end of each one to assess their level of understanding and knowledge acquired. Moreover, the training material was compiled into a manual and distributed to all relevant security sector institutions to be integrated into the institutions’ training curriculum of the newly recruited security personnel.

Phase II ended with an interactive round table with other organizations working on the same matter in order to share lessons and carve out a future pathway for coordination, referral, and cooperation. At the roundtable, representatives from the NGOs shared their experiences about their involvements in trainings with security officers and discussed the following issues: lessons learned from the training projects with security personnel, sustainability of the training projects, and cooperation among NGOs involved in trainings in order to avoid duplication, and some recommendations regarding future training projects.

In light of the success of this training program, a comprehensive summary of the project and its goals, along with other articles related to gender-based violence and the police was published in a special issue of Al-Raida journal. Finally, thirteen best performing trainees were awarded by the Institute with a scholarship for the Continuing Education (CE) certificate “Gender in Development and Humanitarian Assistance” (GDHA), which is the only one of its kind in the region. The purpose of the GDHA certificate is to enhance the integration of and engagement with gender issues within humanitarian and development programs and policies in the Arab world. It is a 10-module program which includes three main themes: Gender Integration in Development, Gender-Based Violence, and Gender and Conflict which addresses the Women, Peace, and Security agenda.