Empowering Adolescent Girls & Boys to Claim Their Rights to Protection and Gender Equality SUMMARY 
Plan International Nederland in partnership with local NGO Rene Moawad Foundation are working since January 2018 to build a protective environment for adolescent girls and boys in North Lebanon. This action focuses on providing empowering and tailored services for adolescents such as life skills, education support and case management. 
In Lebanon, adolescent boys and girls from refugee (Syrian, Palestinian, Iraqi) and host communities face significant risks such as child labour and child marriage. To address this, a protective environment is created for these adolescents through critical tailored support to navigate this adolescent transition period which holds physical, emotional, social and behavioural changes, coupled with the upheaval that follows displacement. With a strong focus on gender equality and GBV in all project components, Plan uses specific strategies to reach adolescent girls and provides mobile services to homebound girls unable to access community centres. The situation for Syrian refugees in Lebanon is dire: family savings are depleted and humanitarian aid is not sufficient to cover rent and costs of food, health and other basic needs. Syrian refugees have very limited opportunities for self-reliance, as their rights to work in Lebanon are significantly constrained. Syrians report that while living in exile in Lebanon, they experience social and economic exclusion, high levels of discrimination and a sense of insecurity. 
The Syria crisis continues to have a devastating impact on Syrian children. The displacement situation has severely undermined parents’ and families’ ability to care for and protect children; financial desperation leads parents to resort to negative coping strategies. Coping mechanisms directly affecting children included restricting children’s access to education, early child marriage, resorting to child labour and begging. The movement of children away from families is widespread. Refugee boys move away from their families to work and find work whilst refugee girls are moving away doing domestic work, or for early marriage or to live with other relatives. 
Syrian boys and girls in their adolescence (between the age of 11 and 18 years) form a particularly vulnerable group. Due to the harsh conditions and poverty, adolescent boys and girls are more likely to drop out of school and experience violence, abuse, and exploitation such as child labour (mainly for boys), child marriage (mainly for girls), and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) . Additionally, adolescents (girls and boys) often fall between cracks of humanitarian services such as education, health and protection services, as they neither ‘fit’ in targeted services for children, nor in those for adults. The project follows the ecological model and the global CPiE Results Framework that centers children in the middle of different environmental support systems, e.g. family, community, services, society, policy & legislation (see figure). This project focuses mainly on adolescents, their caregivers and community-based support mechanisms (e.g youth groups, religious and community leaders, the CBO) and local services.

By promoting an empowering and protective environment for adolescent girls and boys, this project aims to address protection concerns affecting Syrian refugee, Lebanese and other nationality adolescents in North Lebanon. At-risk girls and boys are being empowered to enjoy their rights and promote gender equality through recreational and social activities, as well through life skills training generating positive knowledge, skills on protection issues, including CP, GBV, gender equality and sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR). 

Parents and caregivers of at-risk adolescent children will be made aware of child protection risks and available services, and supported to take actions to prevent and respond to child protection violations including child marriage and child labour. Key figures in the community such as cultural and religious leaders, members of CBOs, youth activists and other influencers will be trained to support this initiative through awareness raising and community-based sensitization to prevent and respond to child protection concerns including child marriage and child labour. 

A limited number of adolescent girls and boys in high risk and their families will be directly supported with case management to access needed services including education and/or economic incentives to prevent and respond to child marriage, child labour and other forms of gender based violence and exploitation.