News

The youth and sports parliamentary commission held yesterday a meeting to study the report prepared by Hicham Abu Jawdeh about the role of parliamentary commissions in creating job opportunities to Lebanese youth. The meeting was concluded by the adoption of a work methodology pursuant to the report.
The commission announced that the next meeting will be held on Thursday 24th of October, and will tackle the role of the National Employment Office (NEO), challenges which the office face, and ways develop and reinforce its work, particularly since his office, according to regulations, is responsible for developing public policies concerning the labor market and for creating new job opportunities in Lebanon.
It should be noted that the youth and sports parliamentary commission started working on preparing the above mentioned report, last June, in collaboration with UNDP, and had since organized a number of workshops in collaboration with the Parliament, and with the participation of heads and members of youth organisations. The final report was released last September.
Source: Al-Nahar 11 October 2013

The National Commission for Lebanese Women (NCLW) opened, within the framework of its collaboration with the Al Walid Bin Talal humanitarian foundation, two new women training centers located within the municipalities of Shayya7h and Sheba2a.  The launch of the two centers was announced during an event marking the exchange of a memorandum of understanding between the three parties which was organised at the NCLW main training center in Baabda.  This opening constitute in fact the third stage in the process which has involved the setting up of the NCLW main training center in Baabda followed by the set up of training centers in Kaytah – Akkar, Ras Baalbak and Jezzine. The former centers will soon be followed by the opening of a new centre in B3aqleen
The setting up of these centers aims to increase the opportunities for women's training and empowerment, strengthen their capacities especially in rural areas and so as to support the development of local communities.
The vice president of the Al Walid bin Tala Humanitarian Foundation, former Minister Leila Al Solh, highlighted during her opening speech the plight of rural areas particularly given the increasing influx of displaced population from Syria and its negative impact on Lebanese communities in general and on rural communities in particular. She emphasized the lack of serious response from government to this issue and its failure in dealing with its responsibilities whilst throwing it on local municipalities.  Al Solh asked whether it is fair to leave the municipalities with the entire responsibility of taking care of the displaced and addressing their need instead of pooling efforts to follow up on the needs of citizens in these areas.  She noted the contradictions in the government's statements calling for empowerment and building women's capacity at a time when women in these rural areas are being replaced in agricultural and industrial work by foreigners (!?).
The vice president of the NCLW, Ms Randa Berri, noted, for her part, that the purpose of women’s economic, social, political and legal empowerment is not to take rights away from men but to invest in untapped human resources which communities need to improve and to strengthen social and national security and in order to achieve full citizenship.
Source: Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Nahar 10 October 2013

Lebanese Association for Rural Development (LARD) organised in collaboration with the Jumeh coordination body of the Future movement and the Lebanese Red Cross a training workshop in first aid for women focusing on how to deal with household accidents.  The training which was organised last Tuesday in Darat Minyara, Al-Jumeh - Akkar, sought to upgrade the cultural and social knowledge and capacity of women to deal with emergency accidents at home, was attended by a number of women from the region and was conducted under the supervision of the representative of the Lebanese Red Cross, Yola al Sarraf.
The training is part of a series of workshops which are being organised by LARD and addressing various subjects related to the training of women in Akkar and in such fields as creativity, production, health awareness, social interaction as well as engaging in the modernisation and development process within local communities.
Source: Al-Nahar 10 October 2013

The “Daily Star” newspaper published a report yesterday dealing with the widespread and provocative adverts promoting the idea of women as objects of violence, sexual aggression and mindless commodities, while highlighting the personal views on this matter expressed by selected designers working in international and national advertising agencies.
At first, the report pointed out to several examples of objectifying women that can be found in numerous advertisements and marketing campaigns commissioned by economic sectors , such as nightclubs, nut and confectionary companies, fashion industry, etc… These advertisements, according to the report, can be easily seen everywhere in street billboards and in social media. Nevertheless, some of the interviewed advertisers declined the responsibility and even regretted producing objectionable or distasteful material; arguing that often they are just complying and promoting the vision of their clients.
Claude El Khal, creative director for M&C Saatchi in the Middle East and North Africa, told “The Daily Star”, that in final instance, he is answerable only to his clients and as such his policy is not to argue with them, even if the concept is contrary to his own beliefs.
From his part, Marc Daou, chief operating officer at the Rizk Group, another leading Lebanese advertising firm with operations throughout the region, stated that there is in the industry an over-reliance on stereotypes and on a shock approach in an effort to attract consumers, while acknowledging that there are no ethical standards for working in this industry.
For his part, and while attempting to clarify the shock factor, Jad Melki, director of the Media Studies department at the American University of Beirut, said that the consumer reaches a point where the shock factor ceases to have any effect and thus become normal, adding that while sexism in advertising is a worldwide phenomena, it is worse in Lebanon because of the lack of regulation, watchdogs and weak public awareness. Melki warned against children, especially girls, growing up with such visual messages which force them to value their looks, bodies, hair, the way they are dressed up, instead of valuing other elements in their personality that make them "human". He concluded by saying that such advertisements not only affect women’s own emotional well-being, but also have the potential to affect their physical health, noting that increased awareness through school programs and denouncing companies that indulge in such practices, may be the best solution to combat sexism in advertising.
Source: The Daily Star 9 October 2013

The Arab Association for Freedom and Equality launched in collaboration with Abaad the new gender and sexuality resources centre during a celebration held last Monday in Beirut.  The centre seeks to compile and produce resources related to gender and equality and MENA region and to disseminate them through a website available in both English and Arabic gsrc-mena.org.
The website already includes more than 1000 resources in its database categorised per country and type of documents (academic publications, reports, studies, laws, booklets, campaigns) and which are available in English, Arabic and French.
The director of the centre, Nour Nasr, noted in her celebration address that the centre will seek to compile resources and studies that have been produced in the region so that it becomes available to those interested and especially via coordination between various similar centers, associations and individuals. She added that the project has started mapping and analysing the existing resources and identifying geographical and thematic gaps. She also presented the key activities of the project namely developing a map of resources, research and analysis, gathering research resources, documenting case studies and various initiatives, activities and researches on gender and sexuality, disseminating these and producing a newsletter as well as archiving the resources online.
Source: Al-Safir, Al-Nahar 8 October 2013

USEK University hosted earlier this week 30 different institutions involved in the various sectors of industry, engineering, media, agriculture, and ICT, and within the framework of an orientation workshop entitled "working together".  The workshop was organised by the Office of Quality Assurance and institutional efficiency, in collaboration with the Faculties of Social Sciences, Engineering, Food and Agriculture as well as the USEK employment office and sought to review the programmes offered by the University and to provide the necessary guidance to senior students as well as training to assist them in integrating the local, regional and international job markets.
The workshop started with the showing of a documentary film about the university following which the Deans of the Faculties of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Sciences and Engineering explained the various programmes offered by their respective faculties.  The event also included work group discussions to evaluate the engineering and ICT programmes offered by the University.
Source: Al-Mustaqbal 8 October 2013

National Commission for Lebanese Women (NCLW) launched last Monday, in collaboration with the Office of the Higher Commissioner for Human Rights for the MENA region and UNFPA a training programme on gender concepts and on ways of mainstreaming gender in programmes as well as within organisations. The training programme will include a number of topics such as the key gender concepts, gender and development, gender and organisational analysis, gender responsive budgeting, international human rights framework, international development cooperation, and communication skills, and is expected to target members and workers in the NCLW, and also members of the inter-ministerial gender network.  The programme will be implemented through six training sessions and will stretch between November and December 2013.
Source: Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Safir 8 October 2013

The Union of Municipalities of Bint Jbeil Caza launched last monday a new project in collaboration with Jihad al Bina2 and Kafalat.  The project which was launched during an event held at the Bint Jbeil municipality seeks to provide loans to set up small projects in villages in the region with the aim of improving the economic and livelihood conditions of residents of the region particularly young people and those seeking to find jobs in order to support their livelihoods and help them steadfast in their villages.
Source: Al-Safir 8 October 2013