Research Specialist Consultancy: Gender and Market Assessment for Female Engagement

Request for Proposal

 Research Specialist Consultancy: Gender and Market Assessment for Female Engagement

RFP/BEY/22/05

FOR

DANISH REFUGEE COUNCIL (LEBANON)

The Danish Refugee Council assists refugees and internally displaced persons across the globe: we provide emergency aid and facilitate access to rights. We work in conflict-affected areas, along displacement routes, and in the countries where refugees settle. In cooperation with local communities, we strive for responsible and durable solutions.

The Danish Refugee Council founded in Denmark in 1956, and has since grown to become an international humanitarian organization with more than 7,000 staff and 8,000 volunteers. Our vision is a dignified life for all displaced. All of our efforts are based on our value compass: humanity, respect, independence and neutrality, participation, and honesty and transparency.

DRC is currently operating protection and economic recovery programming in Lebanon, focusing on refugees and vulnerable members of the host community in rural and urban settings. The protection activities include GBV, CP and PwSN case management, GBV prevention, PSS, legal aid, Individual Protection Assistance, awareness raising and information dissemination, and evidence generation. DRC has offices in 3 governorates, including Beirut, Akkar, and Beqaa.  For further information about DRC, please refer to our website: https://drc.ngo/

Consultancy:

The program “Gender based violence innovation program: Advancing economic empowerment of GBV survivors in humanitarian settings through evidence and localized action for gender-transformative change” is implemented in partnership between the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) guided by an Interagency Global Reference Group consisting of sector experts, including representatives of place-based women’s organizations.

The goal of the program is to generate evidence on how Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Economic Recovery (EcRec) integrated programming can support the humanitarian community with evidence-based program models that effectively advance economic empowerment of GBV survivors, by addressing gender inequality as a root cause of GBV and women’s economic marginalization in displacement settings. The objective of the research is to build a broad evidence-base and outline a gender-transformative and localized approach to integrated GBV/EcRec programming. Outlining a gender transformation programming is of global relevance to the humanitarian community, as the program could be implemented in different types of conflict-affected humanitarian emergencies and displacement contexts, including Lebanon.

The outcomes expected during the three-year program period, spanning 2021-24, include:

• Establishment of cross-sectoral Local Anchor Groups of stakeholders engaged in gender-transformative action in the areas of implementation
• Research and documentation of existing integrated GBV-EcRec gender-transformative program models and monitoring systems
• Piloting, evaluating, and disseminating a gender-transformative theory of change method and localized practical approach to integrated GBV-EcRec programming in humanitarian settings
• Adjust and further integrate existing GBV and EcRec programs and MEAL systems in line with localized theory of change (TOC) method

DRC is seeking to appoint a Research Specialist Consultancy Firm -Gender and Market Assessment for Female Engagement for the following:

The objective of the Research Specialist role is to conduct a gender and market assessment as part of this broader research project. The gender and market assessment will be informed by DRC’s existing market assessments and will be used to inform the design of a novel integrated programming more tailored to economically empower survivors of Gender-based violence (GBV).

The objective of the Gender and Market Assessment is to gather information and evidence specific to the context in Lebanon to inform the design of the GBV-EcRec program model.

Specifically, the assessment aims to gather information about:

(1) the available economic opportunities in the markets of interest for women, in terms of wage employment or self-employment

 (2) How to increase access to and participation both in terms of market usage and labor market by women survivors of GBV (primary population), and women and girls at risk of GBV who are refugees and members of the host population

 (3) To identify the barriers for GBV survivors and how to mitigate barriers to use the market and to join the labor market.

The assessment shall include, but not be limited to, the following sectors: agriculture, agri-food industry, construction, chemicals and chemical-free, environment, and services. (The final selection of sectors will be coordinated upon the results from the market assessments of 2022 concluded by the EcRec department and relevant findings from the literature review).