Consultant - Social Researcher

Background: Oxfam Great Britain (Oxfam GB) is a development, humanitarian and campaigning organization that works with others to find lasting solutions to poverty and suffering around the world. Women’s access to justice in the MENA region remains poor due to women’s low degree of legal literacy, prevalence of cultural attitudes, the patriarchal leanings of many male police officers, judges and lawyers, and relatively high legal fees. Under a three-year programme funded by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), Oxfam GB in Lebanon aims, with partners in Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Yemen, at improving the status and lives of women and girls in the Arab World so that they can voice and realise their rights, and become equal contributors in the development of their respective communities. Rationale of the baseline survey: In order to enable Oxfam GB and implementing partners to measure the changes and impact of the programmatic approaches and interventions, the base line data collection will be organised to triangulate and/or verify variables related to direct interventions as well as the policy work, which will allow at a later stage to measure the impact of the programme in achieving its goal - to contribute to just outcomes/verdicts for poor women which lead to reduced vulnerability and suffering in the Middle East and North Africa through improvement in quality of legal services for poor and vulnerable women in the region. Please note that questionnaires have already been developed. Data collection will be done by partners and data entry by a separate consultant Sample size: Sample size for each of the partners is as below: • 150 randomly selected women from target locations • 50 women having benefitted from legal support • 20 community leaders • Up to 20 court officials • Up to 20 lawyers Deliverables: • Two-day training for data collectors from partners in Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt • Sampling methodology for partners in Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt • Final report based on data collected and entered on a database Requirements: • Previous experience with social studies and baseline surveys • Previous experience in data collection • Good training and facilitation skills • Good analytical and writing skills Duration: The duration of the assignment is 12 days (8 hours per each working day as per Oxfam human resources policy), within the frame of November 2011. Two (2) days will be allocated for the training on data collection and ten (10) days for the development of the report. Consultancy fees: Budget for this assignment is 4,500 USD. Interested qualified candidates are requested to submit their resume, letter of interest and sample of study or report they produced, and state their availability for the duration of the assignment, to sbarakat@oxfam.org.uk by 10/11/2011.