THE LEBANESE ORGANISATION FOR STUDIES AND TRAINING
Vision, Mission, Values, Capacity, and Programs
Vision
Empower and engage people in Lebanon to live in dignity and peace based on the respect, protection, and fulfillment of Human Rights. Mission
Work with people, particularly women and youth to create a more developed and equitable society through reducing poverty, eliminating exclusion, and fo
stering a culture of peace. Values
As an organization, LOST is committed to sustainable development with the fulfilment of Human Rights. It has a responsibility to safeguard the people with whom it works based on the following values:
Mutual Respect: Recognizing the innate worth of people
Responsibility and Responsiveness: Being responsible for and responsive to the needs of people
Transparency and Rule of Law: Making rule of law customary and not leisure
Equality and Equity: Ensuring equal opportunity to everyone, irrespective of gender, religion, sect, disability, or age
Independence: Representing LOST’s ethics without an affiliation to any political or religious entity
Our values are applied in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993), and other international agreements which uphold the rights of all people including children and women. We are therefore committed to the protection of people from ‘all forms of physical or mental violence, injury and abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual violence’ as outlined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 48/104 of the Declaration of the Elimination of Violence against Women. The policy aims to ensure that all staff and representatives implement policies and procedures which prevent abuse as well as behavior that may be misinterpreted as leading to or constituting abuse. Organization Summary
Established in 1998, the Lebanese Organization for Studies and Training (LOST) focuses on developing the ultra-conservative and underdeveloped communities of the Republic of Lebanon socially, politically, and economically via versatile programs that build and enhance communal capacity, educate and train youth and women on matters of civic and intellectual nature, and engage them in civic affairs. The ultimate objective yet is creating a democratic and peaceful society where rule of law, justice, liberty and economic wellbeing are customary. LOST’s programming focuses on developing the intellectual capital of the local society via programs for youth, women, and children. Since its inception, LOST has managed over USD 20 Million in community development projects funded by numerous international organizations and government institutions including but not limited to the World Bank, UNICEF, UNDP, UNHCR, UNFPA, UNESCO, WFP, Embassies of The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Action Aid Denmark, GIZ (Germany), Danish Refugee Council (DRC), Mercy Corps, Italian Development Cooperation, Search for Common Grounds (SFCG), Canada Fund, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), GVC, Forum ZFD, OrientHelfer, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung(KAS), and Government of Bavaria among many others. Organizational Capacity and Management
LOST is headed by the Chairman of the Board of Directors who is the General Manager of the organization in charge of setting its vision and goals and also of overseeing the Board, and other personnel. The Board of Directors serves as an advisory role to the Executive Managers and is composed of seven members including the Vice-Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Research Director, Public Relations Director, Media Director, and External Affairs Director. The Board, along with the General Manager, oversees a team of nine branch coordinators, each of whom is in charge of leading a sub-regional branch of LOST. Currently, LOST operates nine sub-regional branches located in Bednayel, Chmestar, Brital, Bouday, Deir Al Ahmar, Chaat, Ersal, Ein, and Hermel, added to a center in Baalbeck which serves also as the headquarters of the organization. Each of LOST’s branches has a coordinator, administrative staff, and a fleet of trainers and field officers in various fields ranging from English language to Human Rights to Information Technology to Democratic Governance…
Strengths of the Organization
LOST prides itself primarily for the impact it is exerting on the Baalbeck-Hermel region, and for playing a leading role in lifting this region from the stagnancy of underdevelopment and ignorance to the springs of prosperity and enlightenment. In the accomplishment of this mission, LOST takes advantage of its strengths which it has been developing since its inception in 1997. These strengths are the following:
Experience of Organization: LOST is the most inveterate organization of its type in the Baalbeck-Hermel region dedicated to improving the lives of the locals socially, economically, and politically. This strength allows LOST to gain from the experience it has accumulated over the years in running projects successfully and in delivering quality education and services to the local population. Highly-Qualified Local Staff: LOST employs some of the brightest minds in the Baalbeck-Hermel region who are experienced in their fields of expertise and graduates from the top universities in Lebanon and some of the leading universities in the world. LOST staff’s primary strength is the training they receive from the leading international entities. This strength allows LOST to deliver high quality results to its stakeholders and to provide top-notch services to its target populations. LOST ensures that its employed staff are local and from areas in which they work. This guarantees the provision of the maximum possible job opportunities to those who are qualified and provides the added value of people working in their community for their community. Well-Established Network: LOST has a very-well established professional network in the region with partnerships with over 50 educational and research institutions, local governments and municipalities, Non-Governmental Organizations, public figures, government officials, and news media. This strength allows LOST to gain access to any resource which may be necessary to accomplish its objectives and carry out its plans. Reputation: LOST garners an impeccable reputation gained from years of delivering quality, transparency, and accountability results and services to the communities of Baalbeck-Hermel Region and in fulfilling its obligations to its stakeholders, including donors and target populations. This strength allows LOST to gain the respect of the public at large and of government officials, which facilitates its access to resources necessary to carry out its mission and execute its plans. Recognition by Government Institutions: LOST has been officially recognized by the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Lebanon, MEHE, MDSA, and by the United Nations Development Program as an accredited institution. This strength allows LOST gaining the trust of the Lebanese public and of major donors and institutions. Transparency: LOST is distinguished with its transparency with all the stakeholders and beneficiaries who are part of LOST projects, the donors, local authorities, and the community. LOST staff and management ensures that transparency is the core principal in which it operates. In addition, LOST adopts transparency as an internal policy within its staff and management including internal and external audits. Coordination: LOST coordinates sector and inter sector meetings to constantly keep updated and informed about the progress and well-being of operations. LOST also conducts regular meetings with the different UN agencies to maintain a high and updated level of coordination. In addition, LOST believes in benefiting the community therefore sharing data with sister organizations is routine done regularly. LOST also shares an activity info report on its website with all its stakeholders updating on its precise activities and beneficiaries served per month on a sector per sector. LOST’s Interventions for 2018-2020
This strategy aims at achieving the goals and objectives that directly targets marginalized groups and those below the poverty line. Therefore, it contributes to the empowerment of women and their participation in political and social life and the economic cycle, and aims to enhance the youth’s ability to earn a living and promote them as active citizens and positive catalysts. The strategy also tries to grant LOST the opportunity to support local partners (Local government and CSOs). Goal achievement is not done separately, but systematically and in accordance to a plan that bases on addressing several issues at the same time (Strategic Planning Issues-Based), and submitting a successful development model in order to achieve the desired objectives with the lowest cost, time and effort, and ensure the sustainability of human and natural resources. This plan represents a work program that aims to assess the dignity and security of the citizen and the prosperity of the nation and seeks through its strategy to change the reality for the better, invest the problems to create opportunities and take into account the available capabilities. The program will focus on three interrelated elements: governance, livelihood and peace, in addition to activating cooperation and humanitarian activities. Promote governance and involve people
A good governance provides the existence of stable circumstances resulting from its foundations between the citizen and the local authority, which results in effective social relations that contribute to enhancing the developmental roles of both citizens and decision makers. So that the relation between the citizen and the authority is in need to:
Educating and training citizens and groups (civil society) and activating their social relations in a productive development way. Empowering marginalized groups of individuals and groups to enhance participation and strengthen the ability to held accountability. Empowering public administrations and institutions to improve public services and optimize the use of resources to respond to people’s needs in a better way. Improving living conditions and developing economic capabilities
For the practical way of dealing with the human rights and the maintenance of a healthy society free from violence and delinquency, the economic capabilities of individuals must be improved as well as their living conditions. This will positively affect the society since the greater the capacity and income of an individual are, the greater the production in society is. So it’s fruitful to invest these capabilities by:
Training youth and encouraging them to work well and improve performance in order to create jobs. Developing professional and managerial capacities that are working and suitable for work in the productive sectors such as agriculture and tourism as well as craftsmen. Establishment or management of institutions by the organization to create jobs. Create additional jobs through securing sources of alternative energy programs and protecting water resources with wastewater treatment. Building and strengthening civil peace
Civil peace is an essential condition for providing an environment conducive to social development. It is also a key indicator in measuring development and progress. Therefore, implementing projects that contribute to the development of civil peace is necessary. For this, LOST works on:
Increasing capacity through conflict resolution training. Developing concepts of conflict’s causes and solutions and disseminating successful experiences. Communicating with decision-makers and training them (municipalities – Mukhtar – security forces). Developing local organizations and strengthening bonds among them to promote the concept of conflict resolution. Developing the workers’ capacities especially those dealing with conflicts and conducting field exercises. Life skills training in schools, universities and marginalized areas. Using the arts to spread the idea of civil peace. Using social networking sites in a positive way. Creating a social framework capable of solving conflicts and developing the capacities of the local committees and creating a network between them and the municipalities. Establishment of clubs for entertainment and civil peace. Establishment of projects to meet the needs of the conflicting parties. Activating cooperation and humanitarian activities
Human rights include moral principles or social norms that describe the development of human behavior as they are fundamental rights that cannot be infringed, due and unique to each person. For this, LOST should:
Expand services to include stateless persons and those who are not registered. Undertake awareness campaigns for women and activate their role in society within human rights. Sensitize both social groups and local authorities to promote the concept of human rights. Expand and develop the services provided to Lebanese and displaced Syrians in order to protect their rights to decent living and to enjoy social security. LOST’s Sectors
Environment:
Inspired by LOST’s sense of responsibility and awareness that human activities are having a dire impact on the environment, this sector works on environmental preservation that is central to increasing quality of human life and falls seamlessly into social development. Environment-based interventions include “Sorting from the source” initiatives, public awareness, waste management modalities, provision of environmental utilities to municipalities and CSOs, and large-scale afforestation in Baalbek-Hermel rural arid areas. In this sense, LOST embraces environment-friendly innovations such as the BioRock biological desludging system, which contributes to the prevention of pollution and health threats and diseases. SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
SDG 13: Climate Action
SDG 15: Life on Land
Water:
Starting from a firm commitment to the human right that entitles everyone to sufficient and clean water, LOST’s Water sector works on assisting and facilitating water provision and conservation, especially in the under-served rural areas of Baalbek-Hermel. Community level initiatives include creating drainage and irrigation canals to collect water and reduce waste, designing pipe networks, adopting and implementing modern and effective irrigation mechanisms. Moreover, humanitarian relief interventions take form of direct water trucking, with water being transported over long distances to people in areas with no permanent water points. SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
SDG 14: Life below water
Education:
The education sector at LOST has been running education programs for 20 consecutive years, through which children, youth, and adolescents were provided with learning, knowledge, and skills. LOST is a founding and current member of the MEHE sub-committee for education. LOST’s education sector provides various programs and services: Community Based ECE, Basic Numeracy & Literacy, Retention, Recreation and Homework Support programs, Teaching and learning material design, Awareness Raising & Outreach initiatives, School Rehabilitation, and School Transportation. It is worth mentioning that LOST is a main IELTS testing venue, CISCO-Authorized training provider, and TOEFL and SAT trainings destination. SDG 4: Quality Education
Social Stability:
LOST adopts a theory of change that building social cohesion should be based on responding to community needs, through which it uses diverse approaches to promote social stability in Baalbek-Hermel region. This sector works on detecting conflicts on both grassroots and surface levels and resolving them through interventions that raise awareness, mobilizes stakeholders, runs cross-sectarian meetings, carries out advocacy campaigns, in addition to other forms of dialogues and interactions. Several trainings for all arrays of the community are conducted, such as civic trainings, conflict resolution, municipal law, and team-building. In addition, community projects are implemented following needs assessments. SDG 5: Gender Equality
SDG 10: Reduced Inequality
SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
Livelihood:
Considered as the motor for countering the effects of unemployment, this sector focuses on increasing resilience of the local community through income generation. LOST utilizes capacity building and provision of vocational trainings, such as socio-economic intervention strategies to allow youth and marginalized to increase their livelihood resilience and generate income with dignity. Moreover, LOST focuses on conducting market analysis and linking demand to supply through the provision of market-based vocational trainings and business capital items, introducing new techniques and expertise into the market place, encouraging investments, and supporting start-up businesses. In addition, LOST promotes tourism in Baalbeck-Hermel area by supporting local festivals and agriculture through the introduction of the community farm. SDG: No Poverty
SDG 2: Zero Hunger
SDG 4: Quality Education
SDG 5: Gender Equality
SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
Health:
LOST works in this sector as an awareness entity that provides support orbiting government services. Initiatives in this direction include joining awareness campaigns organized by MOPH and UN, engaging in media campaigns, advocating for health care services provision and improvement. On the other hand, LOST’s Health sector partakes in rehabilitating PHCs and dispensaries, and helps in mapping and referring health cases. SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
Food Security:
Resulting from LOST’s belief and commitment to the human’s most basic right to nourishment, LOST relies on multiple services and sources to ensure everyone in Baalbeck-Hermel has access to adequate food. Services include 600 daily hot meals distributed to vulnerable families on a daily basis through the local field kitchen and food kits distributed to vulnerable families. These programs also coincide with Cash for Work programs supported by UN agencies. On the other hand, projects that aim at countering risks of malnutrition are implemented based on scientific methods and indicators. These tools, such as the Resilience Score and the Food Consumption Score among others highlight the most needy families and special cases, and ensure more support to the most needy. SDG 2: Zero Hunger
SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
SDG 10: Reduced Inequality
Humanitarian Aid:
This sector aims at relieving human suffering and maintaining human dignity through humanitarian initiatives based on provision of material, logistics, and humanitarian interventions. Forms of assistance include WASH-based services (water and desludging), hygiene promotion, winterization through provision of shelter materials and heating fuel, in addition to other NFIs like blankets and heating stoves. Additionally, clothing (through donations) are distributed to families in need along with other humanitarian assistance. LOST also provides legal assistance and educational services to refugees, as well as required sector-based services. SDG 2: Zero Hunger
SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
SDG 4: Quality Education
SDG 5: Gender Equality
SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
SDG 10: Reduced Inequality
Governance:
Based on LOST’s idea of supporting government forms and raising awareness on best government practices, this sector’s supporting services include rehabilitating service provision points and providing government employees with capacity building trainings. Moreover, it works on bridging gaps between government and citizens by building and spreading concepts of citizenship. Furthermore, this sector works on highlighting principles of democracy, promoting and advocating accountability, in addition to introducing principles of participatory budgeting and decision making. SDG 5: Gender Equality
SDG 10: Reduced Inequality
SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
Protection:
Being a firm believer of everyone’s right to safety, the protection sector is considered very critical in LOST’s context especially in the time of the Syrian refugee crisis. Stateless support programs are critical towards integration of vulnerable and susceptible individuals with no identity into the community. Trauma Healing workshops offered for both Lebanese and Syrian traumatized women is also one way to illustrate LOST’s commitment to enhancing people’s safety without discrimination. The organization has always been a huge advocate for vulnerable factions of society, which is reflected in LOST’s protection and anti-exploitation policies. Social networks and frontliners are extremely utilized to detect and refer low to high risk protection cases to LOST’s case management team, which provides them with full legal guidance and assistance or referral. SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 10: Reduced Inequality
SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
Women Empowerment:
By Lebanese law, women have most of their rights, but yet they practice very few due to the context of the surrounding area that can be very unjust and biased. As firm believers in women’s right to elaborate and recreate what it is that they can be, do, and accomplish, as well as their right to benefit from resources and income and improve their economic status, LOST operates on 4 critical levels to promote women empowerment in Baalbeck-Hermel: Food security and basic livelihood, psychological support and trauma remedy, life skills and social activism, and political empowerment and leadership. Those four pillars are supported across LOST programs, and act as a main focus of LOST’s values. SDG 1: No Poverty
SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
SDG 5: Gender Equality
SDG 10: Reduced Inequality
SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
SDG 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
Youth Empowerment:
Holding on to the belief that today’s youth is tomorrow’s future, LOST values the positive and energetic role and contributions of young people in promoting development and thus, focuses most of its interventions on them. LOST adopts UNICEF’s youth policy and is the direct supporter of the Baalbeck-Hermel youth forum. This forum presents a platform of communication and empowerment of youth and aims at preventing extremism, inducing employability, promoting the 12 core human skills, catalysing citizenship and mobilizing youth led initiatives, in addition to linking youth to developmental roles within local government forms. SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being
SDG 4: Quality Education
SDG 5: Gender Equality
SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 10: Reduced Inequality
SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
Departments
The central Headquarters in Baalbeck includes several units that look over and support the well flow of organizational process and project ex*****on, of which:
DM&E Unit: the Design, Monitoring, and Evaluation unit is in charge of proposal writing, primary budgeting, Creating M&E systems as well as monitoring and evaluating ongoing activities and reporting throughout the organization. T&C Unit: the Training and Curricula unit is in charge of all training of trainers and developing curricula regularly used in LOST projects as well as overseeing social studies and communal needs assessments. Finance Unit: in charge of budgeting, auditing, and accounting for all financial dealings such as financial reporting, staff salaries, and financial statements. HR Unit: Human resource unit, in charge of recruitment, staff Development, Staff monitoring, organization and distribution of human capacities. Procurement Unit: in charge of all purchase orders, term contracts with suppliers, as well as requests for tender. Logistics Unit: in charge of warehousing and transporting products to and from the locations required, also in charge of transporting employees to and from different LOST locations, and responsible for maintenance and equipment. LOST is also managing several offices and institutions:
ECC: Electronic and commercial center, a vocational institution which provides different majors to prepare students for future employment. EEB: Employability and Entrepreneurship Bureau provides detailed market studies and then links youth to apprenticeship and employment opportunities. They also are in charge of holding job and major fairs and ensuring that any job opportunities provided are professional and safe. LCEC: Lebanese Center for English and Computer provides teacher development courses (TDC) and different courses such as English, CISCO IT, and SAT and TOEFL preparation. LDO: Liaison and Development Office helps donors map local community needs, and builds capacities for municipalities, eventually linking municipalities to donors.
