International Consultant to develop a standardized toolkit on Gender Based Violence and Women’s Economic Empowerment integrated service model for responding to the urgent needs of survivors

Consultant Human Rights

Contract

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Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

The Ending Violence against Women (EVAW) programme focuses on prevention and response to violence against women, strengthening the legal framework, ensuring coordination among key stakeholders working on EVAW and preventing and reducing child marriage.

As part of the COVID 19 Response, UN Women Bangladesh is implementing a project titled, “Women and Girls at the Center of COVID-19 Prevention.” The Project aims to reduce the disproportionate gender-based risks and negative impact of COVID-19 on women, including those who are the most marginalized and in particularly vulnerable situations.

One of the Project component is to support adaptation of NGO-run GBV Shelters to safely operate in the context of COVID to continue to provide GBV services to survivors and other vulnerable women and provide them with the opportunity to build their economic resilience through economic empowerment activities. Furthermore, the Project focuses also on strengthening CSO monitoring networks for early warning and rapid response against increased violence against women and girls and marginalization of women in health and relief services, through development of tools for monitoring violations and provision of coordination and advocacy support as well as expanding its communication and advocacy work around GBV and WEE to properly raise awareness on COVID prevention.

In this context, UN Women, is planning to develop a standardized toolkit for a GBV- WEE integrated model shelter for use across local and national level actors to provide guidelines on multi sectorial services and what works to respond to violence for multi-purpose and GBV/WEE integrated shelters. UN Women has piloted the GBV-WEE integrated service model with Tarango, women’s shelter in Mirpur. The project aims to provide emergency accommodation and essential services to rehabilitate GBV survivors, single mothers, abandoned women and women in need of economic support. More specifically, the Project will result in 200 women having access to income opportunities coupled with support services including safe home accommodation along with psychosocial/legal/heath care/skill development/job placement support. Through the outreach activities of the adolescent girls’ club and numerous awareness raising session, community people will be made aware of different social issues frequently affecting women and girls, as well as receive some covid-19 prevention awareness and adaptability guidelines.

UN Women is seeking an international consultant to produce a standardized toolkit for the GBV-WEE integrated shelter, in alignment with the Essential services package for women and girls subject to violence. The final objective of the toolkit is to be used as a guidance by both government and NGO run safe spaces for women and girls.

An initial mapping of existing guidelines for GBV services was preliminarily conducted to identify gaps of knowledge relating to safe service delivery. The mapping revealed the need to develop detailed guideline for Cash based interventions for GBV survivors such as cash for work and Cash Grant components of the project. It indicated that there are adequate guidelines for primary medical care and psychosocial counselling service as the Health Sector Response to Gender-based Violence Protocol for Health Providers is a comprehensive guideline which is in use by several UN agencies and government services. The Health Protocol has information on various national policies and practices essential for establishing an integrated support to GBV survivors. It is the first ever national protocol for service providers, informs about aspects of GBV services under the various departments of DGHS. However, disability inclusion is not well highlighted in this Health Protocol and no Covi-19 prevention measures are mentioned as this was produced before the pandemic. So, we looked at other guidelines such as GBV and Disability-a Training Tool or Women and Young Persons with Disabilities where some guidelines on disability inclusion that currently exist. Some contextualized guidelines also exist for legal support services, produced by local NGO Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust. However, all the guidelines exist as separated documents and some have more relevance than others. UN Women is seeking to produce one toolkit with all components in it. This toolkit will contain the summary of existing guidelines, and introduce some new guidelines (for instance cash for work, cash grant interventions, self-defense training, literacy training, community outreach work, medical care, psychosocial counselling, legal services etc ) to be adopted by relevant actors.

The toolkit is expected to be composed of two key components:

• Guidance and lessons on what work for an integrated GBV- WEE integrated model/service
• Compendium of GBV services guidelines

The international consultant will be remotely supported by a national consultant who has conducted the mapping of existing resources/guidelines for current services in place. The national consultant will provide insights from the national perspective from time to time and support liaising with stakeholders for consultation and validation, when needed.

Objectives:

The toolkit would serve as a comprehensive manual to provide multi sectorial and 360 degrees support to women, from skills training to economic opportunities such as cash for work and cash grant, to GBV services such as medical, psychosocial and legal support, as well as increased awareness and empowerment through self-defense training and financial literacy course.

It should include specific directives for essential service providers including those for medical support, psychosocial support, legal and referral support, case management as well as cash for work interventions and other empowerment activities as mentioned above. GBV prevention and response should be inclusive of women’s economic emancipation, to reduce their dependency on partners who have the tendency to abuse women. Merging these two elements of economic advancement and GBV services, merged with other support services can create conducive conditions for women’s empowerment and enable her to become truly self-sufficient. Services must be provided responsibly, following ethical guidelines to ensure no one is made more vulnerable, and further risks of GBV are eliminated. Thus, the toolkit will serve as reference for quality assurance and compliance, as well as mainstream GBV response at local, sub-national and national levels.

International consultant will be directly supervised by UN Women Programme Specialist, Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW).

Duties and Responsibilities

Based on the already conducted mapping of available GBV services guidelines, a quality assessment of the GBV services guidelines must be carried out. Aim is to design one toolkit with all components of GBV response. The toolkit will contain the summary of existing guidelines, and where needed, introduce new guidelines (for instance for cash for work, and cash grant interventions) in the context of Bangladesh in line with international standards. A manual for toolkit’s application (with checklists to ensure compliance with ethical standards) should be included in the work which will take place under the overall guidance and supervision of the Programme Specialist - Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW). The International Consultant will undertake the following tasks:

• Draft a work plan to produce a toolkit on Gender Based Violence and Women’s Economic Empowerment integrated service model and include timelines.
• Develop research methodology; Develop research protocol, including of research objectives and questionnaires for each research component.
• Conduct Key Informant Interviews (KII) and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with UN Women partners to gain understanding of GBV-WEE integrated shelter model needs.
• Formulate synopsis from preliminary material and outline the various sections/components of the toolkit.
• Incorporate existing tools and add new tools (where necessary) to support each service such legal support, medical support, psychosocial counseling support, cash for work opportunities, cash voucher and grants, and other empowerment activities such as financial literacy training, self-defense training and community work/engagements, including ethical guidelines for these.
• Validation of toolkit with UNW partners
• Orient UN Women’s EVAW partner in Bangladesh on GBV services toolkit through an online meeting and retain feedback and recommendations for final version.
• Finalize toolkit for UN Women’s rollout among national and local stakeholders.
• Develop a COVID 19 Prevention strategy (as integral part of toolkit) by outlining measures that can be taken by GBV service providers and safe homes.

Expected deliverables.

Deliverables

No. of days

1. Draft a work plan with timelines to develop a standardized toolkit on Gender Based Violence and Women’s Economic Empowerment integrated service model

1 day

2. Develop research methodology; research protocol, including research objectives and questionnaires for each research component.

6 days

3. Formulate synopsis from preliminary material and outline the various sections/components of the toolkit

5 days

4. Incorporate existing tools and add new tools (where necessary such as for Cash for work and cash grant component) to support each service (medical, psychosocial, legal, economic empowerment activities) including ethical guidelines for these

3 days

5. Incorporate feedback from UNW and partners through online consultations

4 days

6. Validation of toolkit with UNW partners

6 days

7. Finalize toolkit for UN Women’s rollout among national and local stakeholders

3 days

8. Develop the Covid-19 prevention strategy (as integral part of toolkit) by outlining measures that can be taken by GBV service providers and safe homes

2 days

Payment Milestone Linked with deliverables:

Respective deliverables and documents will be reviewed by UN Women before processing any payment.

Payment schedule is as followings:

Deliverables

Target Dates

Payment milestones

1. Draft a work plan to produce a standardized toolkit for essential service providers including of timelines

Tentative date of completion 20 April 2021

50 % of the total contract amount shall be paid upon submission of deliverables from 01 to 05 and all acceptance and certified by the UN Women Bangladesh contract administrator

2. Develop research methodology; Develop research protocol, including of research objectives and questionnaires for each research component.

3. Formulate synopsis from preliminary material and outline the various sections/components of the toolkit

4. Incorporate existing tools and add new tools (where necessary) to support each service such as for providing legal support, medical support, psychosocial counseling support, cash for work opportunities, cash voucher and grants, and other empowerment activities such as financial literacy training, self-defense training and community work/engagements, including ethical guidelines for these

5. Incorporate feedback from UNW and partners through online consultations

6. Validation of toolkit with UNW partners

Tentative date of completion 30 May 2021

Remaining 50 % of the total contract amount shall be paid upon submission of deliverables from 06 to 08 and all acceptance and certified by the UN Women Bangladesh contract administrator

7. Finalize toolkit for UN Women’s rollout among national and local stakeholders

8. Develop the Covid-19 prevention strategy (as integral part of toolkit) by outlining measures that can be taken by GBV service providers and safe homes.

Duration of the assignment: 30 Days spread between March and May 2021

Duty station: Home based (No travel required, hence no DSA is applicable under this assignment)

Skills and Experience of the Consultant

The assignment is expected to be carried out by one international consultant. The international consultant will be working with a national consultant who will be mostly responsible to ensure contextualization of research methodology and linkages with partners and stakeholders at national level.

Supervision of contract and Performence Monitoring:

International consultant will be directly supervised by UN Women Programme Specialist, Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW).

Competencies

Functional Competencies

• Proven experience in developing research methodologies and protocols in the field of EVAW.
• Experience in developing evidence-based manuals and toolkit on GBV services
• Experience in planning and facilitating high- level consultations, training, and participatory design.
• Experience in conducting qualitative and quantitative research related to EVAW.
• Familiarity and knowledge of the Essential Service Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence.
• Previous professional experience with the United Nations, especially UN Women.
• Familiarity with the WHO Ethical standards.
• Previous experience in Bangladesh would be an asset.

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards.
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.
• Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in social sciences, public policy/administration, governance, gender studies or similar.

Expreince

• At least 08 years’ experience in issues related to gender equality and ending violence against women, and research.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, only and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the SSA in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages

Evaluation Method and Criteria: Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Cumulative analysis-

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant up on Cumulative Analysis/evaluation and determined as: 1. Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and 2. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation; Only candidates obtaining a minimum 70 mark in technical evaluation will be considered eligible for financial evaluation. Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points out of 100)

Criteria-01; Academic Qualification and diversification - Max Point 15 Criteria-02; Experience in the field of gender equality and violence against women - Max Point 20 Criteria-03; Proven experience in developing research methodologies and protocols in the field of EVAW- Max Point 25

Criteria-04; Previous professional experience with the United Nations, especially with UN Women- Max Point 15

Criteria-05; Familiarity and knowledge of the Essential Service Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence- Max Point 25

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points (70) will be considered as technically-qualified candidate.

Interested candidates will submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.

To be included as part of the proposal:

• A brief expression of interest: a brief narrative presenting your suitability for this assignment ·
• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from: http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment
• Sample work
• Financial proposal: Propose the daily fees in USD ( per date rate * 30 days).
• Sample of at least two relevant evaluation reports (mandatory)

Only applications including all items mentioned above will be considered.

NOTE: Documents required before contract signing:

UN Personal History Form; Full medical examination and Statement of Fitness to work and travel for consultants with travel involved. (This is not a requirement for RLA contracts); Security Certificate BSAFE: EN: https://agora.unicef.org/course/info.php?id=17891 Individual subscribers over 65 years of age are required to undergo a full medical examination including x-rays at their own cost and obtaining medical clearance from the UN Medical Director prior to taking up their assignment; Release letter in case the selected consultant is government official. Only applications will all items mentioned above will be considered

Note: The individual consultant who does not meet the above eligibility criteria shall not be considered for further evaluation. Necessary documentation must be submitted to substantiate the above eligibility criteria

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Added 3 years ago - Updated 3 years ago - Source: jobs.undp.org