Consultant: Scoping Study
Deadline:Location: GlobalOrganization: ARROW
The Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW)– on behalf of the Strategic Partnership Right Here, Right Now – is looking for a consultant to conduct a scoping on national platforms and relevant key organizations to promote young people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights and their meaningful participation in Pakistan and Indonesia.
(1 January 2016 – 30 March 2016)
Deadline for submission: 10 November 2015
Generic Terms of Reference
The Strategic Partnership Right Here, Right Now (RHRN) – Scoping Studies – Phase I
Introduction and Background
The Strategic Partnership Right Here, Right Now between Rutgers, The Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre for Women (ARROW), CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality (CHOICE), dance4life, Hivos, The International Planned Parenthood Federation Africa Region (IPPFAR), Latin American and Caribbean Women’s Health Network (LACWHN) and the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs addresses the limited protection and respect and the hindered fulfilment of the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) of young people in 10 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America and in 1 sub region, the Caribbean.
Based on an analysis of the underlying causes of this problem, the partnership strives for the protection, respect and fulfilment of young people’s SRHR, including girls, young women and young lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT). Specific attention is given to: freedom from stigma, discrimination and violence; access to comprehensive youth-friendly services; access to comprehensive information; and space for young people’s voices.
Advocacy is at the basis of how we expect desired change to happen in a particular context. We believe that a more inclusive collaboration of CSOs in national SRHR advocacy platforms will strengthen our advocacy for SRHR. This in combination with strengthened capacity of civil society, and in particular young people, to advocate for the development and implementation of progressive SRHR policies and hold its government accountable.
Young people’s SRHR including girls, young women and young lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT) remains an issue to be addressed in both Pakistan and Indonesia.
Pakistan is home to over 184 million people in 2013, making it the 6th most populous country in the world (UNDP Pakistan, 2013). Of this, approximately one-third are adolescents and young people (Population Reference Bureau, 2013). These young people of Pakistan continue to face many hurdles in realizing their sexual and reproductive health and rights, including limited access to SRH information and services. This often results in the lack of knowledge over matters that could improve their physical and emotional well-being, a right that is inherently theirs. Low levels of knowledge of sexual and reproductive matters have led to the low uptake of contraception, high adolescent pregnancy rates, and the spread of STIs such as HIV, among young people. The situation is further aggravated for marginalized young people who are victims of the ‘deteriorating socio-economic factors’, such as casualties of economic crises, war or conflict, poverty, and domestic violence (WPF Pakistan, 2013). Young Pakistani women, in particular, are at a grave disadvantage; their lack of education and awareness of SRHR, coupled with the dominant patriarchal ideology in the country, has resulted in various violations of their sexual and reproductive rights and poor health status.
Indonesia an archipelago, of approximately 17 000 islands, has a population of 239 million people (2010 Census). Indonesia is the fourth biggest population, comprises at around 240 million people (IDHS 2012), 49.79 % of whom live in urban area, and 50.21 live in rural area (Center of Bureau Statistic website, 2014). Key issues pertaining to young people’s SRHR include teenage pregnancies, lack of reproductive health information and services to young people.
This document presents the Terms of Reference for a scoping study in Pakistan and Indonesia which will inform the Strategic Partnership Right Here, Right Now on existing and potential collaboration among organisations working in the field of advocacy and young people’s SRHR. It will further capture important lessons learned to inform the further development of dynamic national platforms promoting young people’s SRHR.
Scope of Consultancy
The Strategic Partnership Right Here, Right Now aims to strengthen cooperation between different complementary types of CSOs, including youth-led, youth-serving, advocacy oriented and CSOs involved in programme implementation that advocate for complementary issues such as SRHR HIV, LGBT, human rights, children’s rights, health, education, safe abortion, women’s empowerment and men’s engagement. How and to what extent the cooperation can be strengthened depends on the specific challenges in a country. The goal of this scoping study is to guide the Strategic Partnership Right Here, Right Now in the start-up process in Pakistan and Indonesia and help to identify CSOs, including youth-led and youth serving organisations and existing networks as potential members of the national platforms and to be informed on important lessons learned around strengthen cooperation within civil society on advocacy for young people’s SRHR.
The scoping will have to provide concrete entry-points for developing a national advocacy platform on young people’s SRHR, as it will give insights in the challenges, success and the local dynamics in the cooperation between organizations and networks.
While we already know many networks and organizations, this scoping is expected to provide the Partnership with a baseline of interested and eligible CSOs and will inform both the strategy of strengthening capacity for advocacy and the strategy on advocacy for SRHR and young people
Objectives: In Pakistan and Indonesia the scoping will:
- Briefly map laws, policies and programmes relating to young people, adolescents, LGBT in the respective country and the current ongoing work in the area of young people SRHR.
- Map relevant, existing and new forms of cooperation within civil society (such as networks, working groups) based on pre-defined criteria (Annex 1) that can promote an inclusive, progressive SRHR youth agenda;
- Identify the existing main challenges and lessons learned concerning cooperation in that particular country.
- Provide strategic recommendations on what could be opportunities for increasing cooperation on young people’s SRHR including abortion and LGBT, as well as advocacy issues and opportunities which would benefit from more concerted advocacy.
In the scoping, the minimum requirements for potential partners and the guiding principles of national platforms (Annex 1) should be considered as crucial elements for the final recommendations.
Guiding questions to be considered
- What are the pressing policy issues and advocacy opportunities in the field of SRHR and young people for organizations to work?
- What are existing relevant advocacy organizations in the field of SRHR, including youth-led and youth-serving organizations, what are their strengths and weaknesses?;
- What are the existing forms of cooperation between SRHR movements and broader civil society movements and organizations? For example human rights, children rights, health, HIV/AIDS, SOGI and LGBT, education, youth? Are there any opportunities for strengthening cooperation for youth SRHR advocacy and meaningfully involve young people?
- What are the underlying causes of fragmentation in civil society to work on SRHR?; What are supporting factors?
Qualifications of Consultant
The consultant needs to possess the following qualifications:
- Be able to draw on their extensive experience in the country / countries, in order to survey and review current literature and undertake extensive consultations with key stakeholders.
- Progressive stance on sexual and reproductive health and rights, specifically young people’s sexual rights and diversity
- In-depth understanding of and experience in advocacy and the sensitive issues of SRHR
- In-depth knowledge/ experience with networks and platforms (functionality, dynamics, etc) and social movement building
- Strong analytical skills demonstrated through research and analysis.
- Understanding of and work experience in meaningful youth participation
- Understanding of the role and contribution of (generating) public support in the field of advocacy
- Experience in scoping exercises on sensitive topics
- Strong writing skills with ability to present findings in a style that is accessible to readers
Output and deliverables
- Prepare and submit a work plan with a clear description of a youth-inclusive methodological framework to be applied for the scoping study.
- After approval conduct the assessment.
- Conduct analysis and prepare report: The report should:
- Be submitted in English / Spanish
- Not be longer than 25 pages maximum – excluding Annex
- Follow the outline as indicated in Annex 2
- Include an executive summary
- A draft report will be shared with ARROW and RHRN Programme Team for feedback.
- After feedback a final report is to be prepared provide concrete recommendations to the RHRN Partnership and its members.
Support from REGIONAL NETWORK
The consultant will be provided with a briefing package of documents (or links to documents and databases) that contains additional resources. Next to this a list of potential advocacy partners with contact details will be provided by members of the Partnership.
Remuneration: The contract offers competitive market rates used in the non-profit sector.
Time frame / potential timeline
- TOR approved and distributed: 15 October 2015
- Proposals received by 12 November 2015
- Proposal selected by 22 November 2015
- Steering Committee of the Partnership informed before end of November 2015
- Selected proposal detailed work plan and budget received by: 10 December 2015
- Contract signed by end of December 2015
- Final report no later than end of March 2016
Logistics: You will be working on a day to day base with the ARROW and will be held accountable to the Steering Committee of the Strategic Partnership Right Here, Right Now.
Annex 1 Minimum requirements for potential partners and platforms
In the scoping study, the following minimum requirements for potential partners and the guiding principles of national platforms should be considered as crucial elements for the final recommendations. A checklist or benchmarking tool for the potential partners to be filled in is recommended.
Minimum requirements / standards for potential partners
There are a number of minimum requirements for recommending potential partners that are linked to our core values. Recommended partners should:
- Have a human-rights based approach
- Promote inclusivity, for example in relation to meaningful youth participation, LGBT and gender
- Have a level of legitimacy of their advocacy; organizations have a constituency for feedback and accountability with their communities
- Have a track-record on national (and possible regional and international) advocacy
- Have a progressive stand on SRHR with specific attention for abortion and LGBTQ
- Be willing to share experiences at national and international levels (for example negotiations at regional and international level)
- Demonstrated ability to cooperate with others and willingness to actively participate to the values and aims of the RHRN platform, actions .
Guiding Principles for recommendations of national platforms
In addition, the RHRN partnership has identified a number of principles that will guide the strengthening and/ or development of national platforms. These are the minimum criteria that platforms should be willing to commit to:
- Be progressive and inclusive, both in terms of membership and willingness to work on sensitive issues
- Inclusion of youth-led organizations and promotion of youth leadership
- Young people are meaningfully involved in the governance: youth-led and youth-serving organizations are equal partners in the highest decision-making bodies of the platform
- Inclusivity of (young) LGBT organizations in national platforms. If not possible, platforms should be willing to participate in value clarification and capacity strengthening in relation to LGBT inclusivity.
- Be able to generate public support for SRHR issues of young people.
- Be able to also reach out to the grass root level to learn about and take along youth SRHR issues from the grass roots and feedback to the grass root level.
- Stimulate youth organizations to reflect the diversity of youth, including gender diversity, young LGBT, youth with disabilities, youth living in remote areas and out-of-school youth.
- Key characteristics of platforms include flexible; inclusive; legitimate; mutual trust and joint understanding; ownership; focus on advocacy; result-oriented.
- National platforms will build as much as possible on existing forms of cooperation. We will not strive for institutionalization of these platforms, as we do not want to create new structures, unless the national platform wishes it.
- A platform should be owned by the organizations and networks in that particular country and it is up to them to decide who can join (provided they adhere to the minimum standards) and how it seeks funding for its activities.
- A platform could in principle decide to include government and multilateral agencies, when these are considered as key allies in the advocacy or play an important role in coordinating work on a particular theme on the condition that the civil society identity (critical/independent) can be maintained and the advocacy aims can be pursued.
- Platform need to have demonstrated effectiveness and impact of their work.
Annex 2. Example Overview Report
- Acknowledgements
- Acronyms
- Terms
- Executive summary
Chapter I Context
1.1 SRHR situation of young people in Country X
- Laws, policies and programmes related to young people, adolescents and LGBT
- Current ongoing work in the area of young people SRHR
1.2 Objectives scoping study
Chapter II Methodology
2.1 Youth-sensitive and youth- inclusive methodologies
2.2 Limitations and challenges
2.3 Lessons learned (for other scoping studies)
Chapter III Organizations and networks within the SRHR community
Include graph on overview of mapping of stakeholders with strengths and weaknesses
Chapter IV Looking beyond the usual suspects: relevant organizations and networks outside the SRHR community
Chapter V Existing forms of cooperation and major gaps
Chapter VI Major challenges to engagement and cooperation
Chapter VII Conclusions
Chapter VIII Recommendations
8.1` Strategic recommendations for advocacy issues needing more concerted efforts
8.2 Opportunities for increasing cooperation for young people’s SRHR
8.2.1 Strategic recommendations for sustainability and viability
8.2.2 Operational recommendations on implementing partners (pro/con)
8.2.2 Operational recommendations on platforms to work with
How to apply:ARROW – as member of the RHRN Partnership – will solicit proposals.You can express your interest before 12 November 2015 to arrow@arrow.org.my with a cc to azura@arrow.org.my and sai@arrow.org.my Interested candidates are required to submit a technical proposal explaining how this assignment will be approached. Proposals should include:
- an explanation of the methodology to be used for collecting the required information;
- a work plan for the suggested activities;
- a preliminary budget with number of days required, daily fees and total budget.
Please include in the Annexes:
- Cover letter, CV, including relevant experience(s) and personal profile(s)
- Provide a sample list of relevant of research and analyses in the area of civil society and advocacy
- Availability in the period January – March 2016
Proposals should indicate how the scoping including the methodology framework will ensure that young people are involved in a meaningful way in the whole process, ie. being consulted, involved in the identification of eligible organizations and that cooperation with young people is sought actively approach .ARROW will select the best proposal in consultation with the members of the Strategic Partnership Right Here, Right Now. The selection of consultants is aimed for 22 November 2015. The selected candidate will be requested to submit a detailed budget and timeline.Scoping should be for a maximum of 25 consultant days for each of the countries in the three regions (Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean). Scoping includes desk literature review on policies and the CSO movements, scoping visits to the country and district where necessary. The study would also include interviews (by phone, Skype) with experts.External consultant or an (affiliative) member of the Strategic Partnership Right Here, Right Now can submit proposals.
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