LED Quarterly Report, FY18-Q1

The project began in 2018 and is implemented by Chemonics International Inc. The project's main goal is to create employment opportunities in Lebanon through the buyer-led approach, a methodology that involves working with private sector entities to create jobs. In the first quarter of FY18, LED's core technical team spent significant time discussing the buyer-led approach with stakeholders in Lebanon. To aid in this endeavor, Chemonics home office director Tracy Shanks conducted a nearly two-week in-country assignment to orient the LED team on how the approach works and offer best practices from her experience implementing the methodology in other countries. Additionally, Chemonics home office director Craig Saltzer conducted a one-week in-country assignment to help the LED team develop solicitation documents for a competitive procurement to select LED's three remaining business promotion partners. LED's first quarter focused on completing eight initial contract deliverables, all of which were completed and submitted on time. These deliverables included the Staffing Plan, 1st Annual Work Plan, Security Plan, Subcontracts Management Plan, Grants Manual, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Plan, Communications and Outreach Plan, and a Level of Effort (LOE) tracker. The Staffing Plan outlined LED's staffing structure, including detailed reporting lines for the Chief of Party, operations and finance team, competitiveness team, business promotion partners, communications team, MEL team, and home-office project management unit. The 1st Annual Work Plan was developed by the Chief of Party with input from the technical team and project management unit. The plan outlines LED's approach for meeting the project goal of employment creation and its three supporting objectives. The plan emphasizes actions that will be taken during the first year, but also outlines some aspects of the LED approach that cut across years. The work plan ties together other plans and deliverables into a coherent framework. LED also conducted site visits to understand the security landscape in the country, met with local security counterparts and stakeholders, including U.S. Embassy security personnel, and met with LED's incident management team. These strategies were compiled in the Security Plan, which identified threats and vulnerabilities, determined the project's security risk, and developed risk mitigation strategies for the project. The plan also trained the Safety and Security Focal Point, a long-term staff member, in the security policies and procedures outlined in the plan. In addition, LED developed the Subcontracts Management Plan, which outlines how LED intends to manage a variety of subcontractors and outlines the approach to select and manage business promotion partners and other subcontractors that will deliver technical assistance. The plan was prepared by the LED project management unit with input from the Chief of Party. LED also drafted the Grants Manual, which was developed by Chemonics home office grants specialist with input from the LED team. The manual outlines best practices from other USAID projects and corporate institutional knowledge to develop the grants manual. The completed grants manual and templates will help the LED grants team to use and manage the grants fund moving forward. The Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Plan was developed by Chemonics home office MEL specialist with input and assistance of the Chief of Party, MEL director, and other MEL staff. The plan lays the groundwork and structure for LED's monitoring, evaluation, and learning efforts moving forward. It includes assessing reporting needs for the MEL program and recommending procedures that integrate MEL into technical activities and management of the project. LED also developed the Communications and Outreach Plan, which was developed by the LED Communications and Outreach Director with input from the Chief of Party. The plan sets out the communications framework for the LED project and will serve as a guide for communications throughout the life of the project.