Terms of Reference – PROSPECTS project: Promotion, inclusion, and protection of refugees and host communities in the gig economy

1. Background

A global digital transformation is underway, but its impacts on jobs and skills vary across countries, economic sectors, and population segments. Promoting digital development strategies has become a key priority for many countries given the potential to expand digitally enabled work opportunities. Lebanon is no exception as web-based job opportunities could ease the strain on the labour market, which is characterised by an oversupply of labour force and high unemployment rates, especially amongst marginalized groups of the population. The transition to a digital economy is being explored as a potential strategy for the country’s recovery. For example, the 2022 Digital Transformation Strategy of Lebanon is oriented to support a digitalization of the economy.

The online gig economy has experienced significant growth in Lebanon, encompassing various non-standard forms of work, including on-demand work, self-employed and platform-based labour. Digital labour platforms have penetrated various economic activities, in particular, the delivery and taxi driving sectors. Due to the relatively low level of skills required to enter these occupations, vulnerable Lebanese and refugees use platform work in these sectors as a means of subsistence at a time where the labour market offers insufficient decent work opportunities.

Lebanon has the highest per capita refugee population in the world, with some 1.5 million Syrian refugees and 11,645 refugees of other nationalities (UNHCR, 2023). Access to the labour market is restricted for refugees in Lebanon, increasing informal work amongst this population and creating legal ambiguity in terms of employment status determination for those working on digital labour platforms, including in the delivery and taxi sectors. Informal and undeclared work especially characterizes Syrian citizens and refugees, 95 per cent of whom are affected by informal and undeclared work in Lebanon (ILO, 2021).

In parallel, the Lebanese labour market has consistently failed to provide sufficient decent formal work opportunities for its own citizens – a problem that preceded the refugee crisis, but which was amplified by it. After a series of economic turmoil that started in 2019 and which coincided with the COVID pandemic, Lebanon’s economy and its private sector suffered severe damage that further shrunk their ability to create formal jobs. In this context of diminishing job prospects, labour platforms offered a notable alternative for many workers in Lebanon – even if the work they offered remained informal and outside of the protections of the labour law.

To shed light on the different aspects of the business environment and prevailing working conditions in the delivery sector, both for Lebanese workers and refugees, the ILO conducted a survey in 2019, which was followed by two resurveys in 2020 and 2021 to understand the impact of COVID-19 as well as the currency devaluation. The survey helped to establish the broader dynamics at play and understand the influence of platforms on the future of work in Lebanon, simultaneously grasping the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on delivery workers in both delivery platforms and traditional forms of delivery work.

The ILO is planning to continue work in this area by applying an updated version of the 2021 survey. The aim is to make meaningful comparisons to 2021 data and identifying emerging trends in the delivery sector. The new survey will be designed to also capture data on Syrian refugees and Syrian citizens working on delivery platforms. This research is conducted by the ILO Regional Office for the Arab States and the PROSPECTS Opportunity Fund Project – Promotion, inclusion and protection of refugees and host communities in the gig economy, funded by the Kingdom of The Netherlands.

2. Scope of work

The service provider will design and apply a questionnaire on a sample of 200 delivery workers in Lebanon (providing, if necessary, its own additional sampling). The provider will submit data in the specific format required by the ILO for subsequent data processing and interpretation.

More specifically, the service provider is expected to carry out the following:

1. Questionnaire development: The service provider will design a questionnaire of approximately 40 questions, based on the 2021 ILO survey, in collaboration with the ILO team to capture information on the current situation in Lebanon in the delivery sector. The questionnaire will include specific questions relevant to the identification of refugees in the sample and experiences of Syrian population in Lebanon (both, refugees and citizens) and also refugees from other nationalities.
2. Pilot testing of the questionnaire: The service provider will conduct pilot tests of the questionnaire to see the feasibility and access to workers. Following the pilot testing, the questionnaire is to be reviewed with the specialists at the ILO and finalized based on the outcomes of the pilot survey. In parallel, the questionnaire will be programmed in KobotoolBox software by the ILO which will be deployed on tablets/smart phones/computers and will be tested before the launch of the final survey.
3. Translation of the questionnaire: The service provider will translate the questionnaire into Arabic once it is programmed in the KobotoolBox software.
4. Field implementation: The service provider will conduct the survey of the workers through telephone or mobile interviews and collect both quantitative and qualitative information. The final sample should reach at least 200 workers of the delivery sector in Lebanon, including at least 30% of Syrian refugee respondents. The ILO will provide the respondent contacts from the 2021 survey, however, additional sampling might be required on the part of the service provider to reach the desired number of respondents.
5. Submission of data: The survey data should be provided to the ILO in a specific format (to be communicated later) for subsequent processing and analysis, and should include the contact information of respondents in the final sample.

3. Timeframe

The assignment is expected to start on 1 February 2024 and end on 30 April 2024.

4. Roles, reporting, and specific clauses

The service provider will report to Zulum Avila, Specialist on Employment Strategies in Digital Economy, Jad Yassin, National Technical Officer and Uma Rani, Senior Research Economist.

Throughout the course of this assignment, the service provider will remain in regular exchange with the ILO for coordination and follow-up.

All data and information received from the ILO for the purpose of this assignment are to be treated confidentially and are only to be used in connection with the execution of these Terms of Reference.

All outputs, including the information collected, the final datasets, and the contact information for respondents in the final sample, are property of the ILO.