Protection Risk Analysis Consultant

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Background:

IRC Lebanon’s Integrated Protection program includes three sub-streams: Protection and Rule of Law (ProL), Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE), and Child Protection (CP).

In 2025, IRC Lebanon conducted a Protection Risk Analysis (PRA) to identify the main protection risks facing affected populations and guide its programming and advocacy. Since then, the context has changed significantly. These changes affect the protection risks people face, who is most affected, and the capacities available to respond.

IRC Lebanon is therefore updating its PRA to ensure that its Country Program Strategy Action Plan (SAP), program design, and advocacy priorities respond to the current situation. The update will build on the 2025 PRA rather than start from scratch, covering the previous areas of Bekaa, North Lebanon, and Beirut and Mount Lebanon, as well as new areas in the South and Nabatieh.

Purpose and Objectives:

Purpose:

To update IRC Lebanon’s 2025 Protection Risk Analysis, using the Protection Analytical Framework (PAF), to identify the current priority protection risks facing affected populations in IRC’s areas of implementation and inform the SAP, program design, and advocacy priorities.

Specific Objectives:

• Identify the priority protection risks (threats, vulnerabilities, and capacities) across the ProL, WPE, and CP sub-streams, and analyze how they have changed since the 2025 PRA.
• Identify which groups are most affected by each risk, with particular attention to gender, age, disability, status (Lebanese IDPs, Lebanese returnees, and Syrian refugees), nationality, and location.
• Map existing capacities to prevent, reduce, and respond to these risks at the individual, community, institutional, and national levels, and identify the gaps between them.
• Build a shared understanding of protection risks among IRC teams and partners through a participatory analysis process.
• Produce practical, prioritized recommendations for IRC’s strategy, programming, and advocacy, including opportunities for integration with Health, Education/ECD, and Economic Recovery and Development (ERD).

The PRA will generally be guided by the following questions, which will be further refined during the kick-off phase:

• What are the priority protection risks facing affected populations in IRC’s areas of implementation, and how have they changed since 2025?
• Who is most affected by each risk, where, and why?
• How do these risks affect people’s safety, dignity, well-being, and access to services and rights, and how are people coping?
• What capacities exist to address these risks at the individual, community, and overall system levels? Where are the main capacity gaps, and what recommendations can strengthen these capacities through an integrated approach?
• What should IRC prioritize in its strategy, programming, and advocacy across ProL, WPE, and CP?

Scope of Work:

• Analytical Framework: The consultant will use the Global Protection Cluster’s Protection Analytical Framework (PAF), covering its four pillars: (1) context; (2) current threats to the population; (3) the effects of these threats on the population and people's capacities to cope; and (4) existing capacities to address the threats. The context analysis will consider political, security, economic, social, and environmental factors.
• Sub-streams: The analysis will cover Protection and Rule of Law (ProL), Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE), and Child Protection (CP), with input from Health, Education/ECD, and ERD to capture cross-sector risks and integration opportunities.
• Population Groups: The analysis will cover conflict-affected Lebanese populations (displaced, returned, and non-displaced), Syrian refugees, Palestine refugees in Lebanon (PRL), and Palestine refugees from Syria (PRS).
• Cross-cutting Lens: A gender-sensitive and intersectional approach will be applied to ensure that the distinct risks faced by women, girls, children, persons with disabilities (PWA), older persons, and other marginalized groups are adequately captured. Data will be disaggregated by sex, age, and disability.
• Geographic Scope: The analysis will cover Bekaa, Baalbeck, Hermel, North Lebanon, Beirut and Mount Lebanon, as well as the new areas of South Lebanon and Nabatieh.
• Period Covered: January 2025 to the present, using the 2025 PRA as the starting point.

Methodology and Deliverables per Phase:

The consultant will work closely with the IRC Lebanon Protection team throughout the assignment. The methodology will combine a review of secondary data, primary data collection, and participatory joint validation and analysis. The process is organized into seven phases. The final methodology, tools, and sample will be agreed upon with IRC during the inception phase.

Step 1: Inception and Planning

• Review the 2025 PRA and key background documents.
• Hold an inception meeting with the Deputy Director of Programs, Senior Integrated Protection Coordinator, ProL, WPE and CP Coordinators, MEAL, Protection Regional Technical Advisors, and other relevant Technical Advisors to agree on the objectives, key analysis questions, and geographic focus.
• Develop the methodology based on the PAF, including data collection tools (KII and FGD guides) and a data collection plan that is feasible given access constraints and the capacities of internal teams, partners, civil society actors, formal institutions (Government), and community groups, where they exist.
• Prepare a detailed work plan and timeline.

Step 2: Review of Internal Secondary Data

• With input from the technical teams, map and review IRC’s internal data sources, including protection monitoring, safety audits, aggregated caseload data from Comcare, CPIMS and GBVIMS, needs assessments, MEAL data, and contextual analyses.

Step 3: External Literature Review

• Conduct desk reviews to collect information from external secondary data available online, including reports from the Protection, GBV, and CP Working Groups, UN agencies, NGOs, and other coordination bodies.
• Bring together the findings from Phases 2 and 3 into emerging findings and a list of information gaps to explore through primary data collection.

Deliverable: Data source mapping and preliminary findings note, including information gaps.

Step 4: Key Informant Interviews (KIIs)

• Conduct approximately 10–15 KIIs with IRC staff, partner organizations, other protection actors, and, where relevant, local authorities and community leaders.
• Use the KIIs to fill information gaps, test emerging findings, and deepen the analysis of risks, affected groups, and capacities.

Step 5: Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with Community Members

• Where safe and feasible, conduct approximately 8–12 FGDs with community members in IRC’s areas of implementation.
• FGDs will focus on community perceptions of risks, coping strategies and capacities, and available support, rather than individual experiences of harm.

Deliverable: Summary of KII and FGD findings, with an anonymized list of consultations by type and location.

Step 6: Joint Analysis Workshop

Facilitate an in-person joint analysis workshop lasting one or two days with IRC technical teams, MEAL, program leadership, partners, and relevant external protection stakeholders to:

• Review and analyze the consolidated evidence from all sources.
• Identify and prioritize key protection risks, risk patterns, affected groups, contributing factors, and capacities.
• Agree on key messages and programmatic and advocacy recommendations.

Deliverable: Workshop risk prioritization and validation short report.

Step 7: Write-up

• Draft the PRA report based on all the evidence gathered throughout the different phases.
• Present the draft to IRC technical teams and leadership for review and revision, allowing for two or three rounds of revisions.
• Where safe and feasible, support IRC and partner staff in sharing key findings with participating communities, in line with IRC’s commitment to accountability to affected populations.
• Prepare a presentation slide deck summarizing the PRA results.

Deliverables: Draft PRA report, final PRA report, and presentation deck.

Assignment Timeline and Deliverables:

The assignment is expected to require approximately 30 working days. The estimated time allocation and corresponding deliverables are as follows:

• Inception Report – 2 Days (Step 1): Preparation of the inception report, including the methodology, key analysis questions, data collection tools, sampling approach, stakeholder map, and work plan.
• Data Source Mapping and Preliminary Findings Note – 7 Days (Steps 2–3): Review and mapping of internal and external data sources, preparation of preliminary findings, and identification of information gaps.
• Summary of KII and FGD Findings – 12 Days (Steps 4–5): Completion of primary data collection and preparation of a summary of KII and FGD findings, including an anonymized list of consultations by type and location.
• Draft PRA Report – 5 Days (Step 7): Preparation of the draft Protection Risk Analysis report.
• Final PRA Report – 2 Days (Step 7): Submission of the final PRA report (15–20 pages, excluding annexes), revised following the validation session.
• Presentation Deck, Two-Page External Brief, and Lessons-Learned Note – 1 Day (Step 7): Preparation of the presentation deck, a two-page external brief, and a lessons-learned note.
• Total Estimated Duration: 30 Working Days.
• The final report should be concise and follow the template provided by the team during the induction period.

Payment Rate and Schedule:

Following the successful completion of the first two steps, payments will be made in two installments:

• First Installment – 30–40%: Upon completion of the preparation deliverables, including the inception report, data source mapping, and preliminary findings note.
• Second Installment – 60–70%: Upon submission and approval of the final PRA report and presentation slide deck.

Requirements and Qualifications:

• Advanced degree in international law, human rights, social sciences, humanitarian affairs, or a related field.
• At least 8 years of experience in protection analysis, research, protection monitoring, or related humanitarian programming.
• Demonstrated experience in facilitating participatory protection analysis processes.
• Proven ability to synthesize primary and secondary data into actionable findings.
• Familiarity with protection analytical frameworks (e.g., PAF) and humanitarian protection standards.
• Strong facilitation, coordination, and communication skills.
• Excellent analytical writing skills, with the ability to produce concise and user-friendly reports.
• Experience working with IRC or similar international NGOs is preferred.
• Fluency in English and Arabic is required.

Professional Standards: All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding, Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation. IRC is committed to take all necessary preventive measures and create an environment where people feel safe, and to take all necessary actions and corrective measures when harm occurs. IRC builds teams of professionals who promote critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services to our clients.

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