Voice Consultancy: Gender Assessment

    Terms of Reference Gender sensitive assessment of Syrian men and women in Lebanon Syrian Voice and Accountability Project Oxfam Lebanon Programme Background: In partnership with civil society organisations and with funding from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Norwegian Ministry for Foreign Affairs (NMFA), Oxfam GB is implementing the Syrian Voice and Accountability (SVA) project that aims to empower people affected by the Syria crisis in Jordan and Lebanon, by upholding their rights, ensuring their real concerns reach decision makers, and encouraging decision makers to be more responsive to their needs. The project is being implemented in Jordan and Lebanon, together with ABAAD – Resource Centre for Gender Equality (Lebanon), Jordan Women Union (Jordan) and the Noor Al-Hussein Foundation (Jordan). The project was launched in July 2013, and will finish in March 2016.   The Voice project was designed to respond to the pressing issues faced by Syrian refugees and their host communities in Lebanon and Jordan. It not only sought to improve the access of Syrian women and men to information, skills and services but to also support them to engage in constructive dialogue with key stakeholders and duty bearers on issues pertaining to their rights and entitlements. The project emphasizes the role of Syrian CSOs working on women’s issues as advocates for Syrian refugees, with a special focus on women’s issues. SVA was developed as a visionary project to build the resilience of Syrian refugees to withstand shocks whilst advocating for a change in the narrative surrounding Syrian refugees.   Now that the project comes to an end, it is envisioned to assess, with a gendered perspective, whether Syrian men and women refugees perceive any changes in their lives since the start of the Syrian crisis, to understand better whether they have experienced challenges; and whether they have developed any coping strategies to address these changes and challenges.    Oxfam’s protection activities carried out with refugees have confirmed that they have experienced changes in their lives and consequently gender roles.  For instance, refugee women would seek remunerated work when the family’s income was insufficient, in particular in rural areas. Based on the principle of participatory research, the gender assessment is meant to voice the refugees’ perception on these changes and possible challenges, through their own words since they arrived to Lebanon.   Purpose: To determine whether Syrian men and women refugees have experienced any challenges throughout their lives since their arrival in Lebanon. The gender assessment is meant to understand how Syrian men and women refugees perceive these challenges with a focus on the possible shift in gender roles within the household and community settings.     The information collected will be used to adapt and/or develop Oxfam’s programmatic strategy and interventions taking into consideration the findings of this assessment to better meet the specific gendered needs of refugees (Syrian and Palestinian Refugees from Syria alike)       Methodology and Process This assessment will use a purely qualitative methodology in order to enable a better articulation of the perspectives of the refugees, in line of the purpose of the gender assessment described above.   An end line study will be conducted alongside this assessment, so the consultant would have to coordinate its research with the the end line consultant to avoid assessment fatigue and risk of duplicating data collection.   The consultant shall carry out the group discussions in Arabic language and be fluent in English (both writing and speaking).   The consultant shall have experience in carrying out purely qualitative research with refugee communities, on the field, with a gender perspective. This person shall also know the ethical standards of Protection (as per ICRC standards).   Ethical standards The consultant shall abide by Oxfam’s ethical standards and ICRC Protection standards, in meeting the highest ethical and risk management standards when developing the gender assessment tools and when collecting the data from the given target group.      Target group 30 beneficiaries of the project VOICE from Tripoli, Bar Elias (Beqaa) and Tyre (Buss camp).  In view of the deadlines, the consultant shall organise a series of focus group discussions in these areas of implementation, in small groups of 2 to 3 persons. The sampling and selection of individuals shall be done in close collaboration with VOICE team.                                               Deliverables: In close collaboration with the members of the Voice team: -          Development of the gender assessment tools (data collection); -          Organisation and leading of the focus group discussions   -          Analysis of data and presentation of initial results in a first draft report by March 4 for review by the Voice team. This shall include: Transcripts of the discussions in English   A description of the assessment– background, methodology Key findings of the assessment, with an analysis Key programme implications -          The final Gender assessment report by March 9 for final review by Voice team.   Timeline: Oxfam is expecting the completion of the consultancy tasks as described in this ToR over a maximum period of 4 weeks starting as soon as possible and no later than 15 February 2016 and ending on 15 March 2016 at the latest. Applicants are kindly requested to indicate in their offers the actual required number of days and the financial rates and their availability.     Management of the consultant: The consultant will be contracted and managed by the Voice Project Officer. Oxfam will provide support for in-country facilitation, transportation, in addition to ensuring Oxfam staff time in support of the research – particularly existing protection staff and relevant technical advisers.     Oxfam is seeking a consultant, or team of consultants, to undertake the research. Fees, methodology and timelines should be submitted as part of a proposal (maximum 4 pages) to Oxfam by interested parties, including CVs and relevant experience.   Proposals including all the information described above are to be submitted by 8 February 2016. The selection of the consultant shall be done on a rolling basis.    Interviews will take place on 10 February.  Candidates should be available to start this consultancy no later than 15 February 2016.