Global Mapping of Responses by Cooperatives and Social and Solidarity Economy Organizations... Tender

Procurement Summary

Country : Switzerland

Summary : Global Mapping of Responses by Cooperatives and Social and Solidarity Economy Organizations to Forced Displacement

Deadline : 01 Apr 2019

Other Information

Notice Type : Tender

TOT Ref.No.: 31683146

Document Ref. No. :

Competition : ICB

Financier : International Labour Organization

Purchaser Ownership : -

Tender Value : Refer Document

Purchaser's Detail

Purchaser : INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION
4 route des Morillons, CH-1211, Genève 22, Switchboard: +41 (0) 22 799 6111, Fax: +41 (0) 22 798 8685
Switzerland
Email :coop@ilo.org, ilo@ilo.org
URL :www.ilo.org

Tender Details

Expression of Interest are invited for a Global Mapping of Responses by Cooperatives and Social and Solidarity Economy Organizations to Forced Displacement.

1. Context
The forced displacement crisis has increased in scale and complexity in recent years. According to UNHCR, there were about 68.5 million forcibly displaced persons in 2017, of whom about 24 million refugees and asylum-seekers. Overall men and women were almost equally represented in the population of concern[1]. Forced displacement is increasingly protracted and disproportionally affects children: one in two refugees worldwide is a child. The overwhelming majority of the forcibly displaced are hosted in developing countries with limited resources and capacities to respond to the situations - with substantive socioeconomic impacts on both refugees and host communities.

The impact of forced displacement is substantial both among those in displacement and hosting communities. Forcibly displaced persons face specific vulnerabilities, including loss of assets and psychological trauma, limited rights, lack of opportunities, a protection risk as well as a risk to be out of school, and a lack of planning horizon. Host communities, which tend to be among the poorest in their country, typically in lagging regions, have to pursue their own development efforts in an environment that has been transformed by a large inflow of newcomers. Economic opportunities and access to jobs as well as services, especially education and protective services, are key to a successful management of such situations - for both refugees and host communities.

Action is urgently needed to mitigate the plight of both forcibly displaced persons and hosting communities. Humanitarian assistance is critical, but insufficient when situations become protracted, and they need to be complemented by a development approach that is focused on the medium- and long-term socioeconomic dimensions of the crisis. This is in line with the global effort to “leave no-one behind” and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): refugees and their hosts are among the most vulnerable and ‘furthest behind- groups.

There is a window of opportunity for improving the management of the forced displacement crises. A new consensus has emerged - especially around the need for displaced persons and host communities to access enhanced economic opportunities, and for children on the move to have effective and inclusive access to protection and education. This consensus is reflected in the 2016 New York Declaration for Migrants and Refugees, in the governments- commitments made at the September 2016 Leaders- Summit, in the roll out of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF), and in the adoption of the Global Compact on Refugees. It is paralleled by regional and country-level efforts, in several areas including in the Middle East and North Africa region and in the Horn of Africa.

Significant international support is needed to enhance the education, protection, and economic opportunities available in areas affected by forced displacement - in partnership with the private sector and other stakeholders. Country-level efforts need to be complemented by regional and global action. Improved data needs to be made available and evidence needs to be further built on ‘what works- in such contexts that also embraces more vigilantly private sector solutions and crisis prevention. Most importantly, international organizations must build a new set of partnerships, which maximize synergies and leverage comparative advantages.

2. Partnership for Improving Prospects
In response to this context, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the World Bank, in collaboration with and supported by the Government of the Netherlands, are developing a joint and fully integrated approach to respond to the forced displacement situation in the Middle East and North Africa and the Horn of Africa by joining the partners- efforts to develop a new paradigm in responding to forced displacement crises through the involvement of development actors.

The Partnership aims to help transform the way governments and other stakeholders, including the private sector, respond to forced displacement crises - and in particular: (1) to enhance the enabling environment for the socio-economic inclusion of forcibly displaced persons (to mitigate their plight during years of exile and to best prepare them for their return); (2) to enhance access to education and child protection for vulnerable children on the move; and (3) to strengthen the resilience of host communities through inclusive socio-economic development that also benefits forcibly displaced persons.

The Partnership provides a platform for demonstrating the benefits of innovative approaches that can enhance impact on the ground - including, but not limited to, by fostering synergies across the engagement of partnering organizations. The Partnership encourages the participating institutions to create and test innovative approaches to forced displacement leveraging their respective comparative advantages.

The Partnership will provide a platform for mutual learning across all institutions, including to build “bridges” across thematic areas, to strengthen dialogue with host governments and other stakeholders, and to foster innovation. The partnership is expected to build on existing coordination arrangements between partnering organizations and leverage them as may be needed. Synergies are expected to strengthen strategic coordination, to ensure coherence in identifying priority activities and to seek opportunities for complementarity across individual programs. The Partnership also provides a platform to identify areas in which the institutions can effectively collaborate in joint endeavours to maximize impact on the ground and to collectively stimulate dialogue with other stakeholders, including host governments.

In this partnership, ILO brings significant expertise and experience in supporting enabling environments to underpin inclusive socio-economic growth and decent work, strengthen labour markets and promote access to improved working conditions and fundamental rights at work including through the involvement of its tripartite national constituents. The ILO stimulates labour market demand and immediate job creation through employment-intensive investment, local economic and business development, including cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy organizations, and promotion of specific value chains and market systems. It provides targeted support to labour market institutions, services and compliance and monitoring mechanisms that facilitate the integration of refugees into the labour market in accordance with its strong normative foundation of international labour standards. The ILO also brings expertise on technical and vocational education and training and on the recognition of prior learning for certifying the skills of refugees to better ensure access to the labour market, and methods for assessing labour market demand to provide the right skills to refugees needed by employers.

3.**Role of cooperatives in refugee response**
Across all the areas described above, cooperatives are being put to use by refugees and host communities at different stages of intervention from the start of the crisis to returning to rebuild their own countries. They step in providing direct assistance for refugees and delivering basic goods and services. Cooperatives can be set up specifically for refugees or the latter may join existing cooperatives in growth oriented sectors of the host country-s economy.

Cooperatives are enterprises that are based upon self-help and mutual aid. The most important feature of a cooperative is that people can join forces instead of trying to do it alone. There are many types of cooperatives engaging in services, marketing, financing, defending workers- or consumers- interests. Cooperatives create jobs, promote self-employment and access to a wide range of affordable services, including savings, loans, remittances, childcare, training, health care and many more. And last but not least, cooperative members share a feeling of ownership.

Box 1: What is a cooperative?

A cooperative is defined by the International Cooperative Alliance and the International Labour Organization as “an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise**”.**

What is social and solidarity economy?

The social and solidarity economy is a concept designating enterprises and organizations, in particular cooperatives, mutual benefit societies, associations, foundations and social enterprises, which have the specific feature of producing goods, services and knowledge while pursuing both economic and social aims and fostering solidarity.

Source: The ILO Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, 2002 (No. 193) & ILO Regional Conference on Social Economy, Africa-s Response to the Global Crisis, October 2009.

In a crisis situation, host country governments are often overwhelmed. Hence local community based solutions are needed. Starting a cooperative will not be a panacea solving all the problems, but it can make a significant contribution in helping refugees to escape poverty and find a job, while distributing resources on a fair base. Refugee camps and services in refugee camps can be run cooperatively, with the participation of refugees as members and decision makers. Refugee and host communities need to be informed of the benefits of cooperatives in creating economies of scale, ownership and control among members and cohesion across communities by refugee associations.

In many countries, including Bosnia, East Timor, El Salvador, Guatemala, Lebanon, Macedonia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sri Lanka and Nepal, cooperatives have played a critical role in post-conflict reconstruction by creating jobs for returning minorities and ex-combatants, rebuilding businesses and homes, giving refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) access to markets, and facilitating reconciliation and peace building.

Preliminary background research[2] undertaken for the ILO in 2015 provided some insights from the literature and incorporated reflections from a number of humanitarian and development aid organizations engaged in refugee crisis response. The study was intended to inform the ILO and its constituents in their refugee response strategies as to what kind of role cooperatives could play. It was also intended to provide the cooperative movement with inputs in coordinating their responses for augmenting the impact of their interventions.

One of the findings of this preliminary background study was that both the literature and those working with cooperatives saw the value of the integration of the cooperative model in more substantive ways into refugee response strategies. Other findings of the preliminary study included:

As people-centred businesses cooperatives provide access to goods and services that the refugees need and not always readily available through other means.

Different from economic migrants, refugees need integrated responses including livelihoods, health and child care services and psychological assistance. Cooperatives, especially social cooperatives, have developed integrated practices suited to refugee needs.

The nature of working collectively in a cooperative business helps advance agency and resilience among refugees.

The fact that cooperatives are well grounded in local communities, and devise a joint response to common needs makes it easier for them to be accepted by the host communities fostering inter-communal peace.

Based a review of cooperatives responding to refugee needs from around the world, the following pathways were identified in the preliminary study for cooperative engagement in refugee crises.

Cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy organizations in host communities recruiting refugees as employees (e.g. Swedish housing cooperatives[3], Lebanese agricultural cooperatives[4]);

Cooperatives other social and solidarity economy organizations in host communities providing a range of services including access to work permits, jobs, essential services and training with the active participation of refugees (e.g. Jordanian agricultural and multipurpose cooperatives[5], Italian social cooperatives[6]);

Refugees joining existing cooperatives in host communities as members (e.g. Turkish women artisanal cooperatives[7]);

Refugees forming refugee-only cooperatives in host communities for job creation and access to essential services and training, often with the support of development agencies (e.g. farmers- cooperative in the US[8], kindergarten cooperative in Morocco[9], dairy cooperative in Ethiopia[10], women artisanal cooperatives in oPt[11] and Bangladesh[12]);

Governments and support organizations procuring goods and services from local cooperatives and other producer organizations13; and

Returning refugees rebuilding their own communities (businesses, homes and infrastructure) through cooperatives to facilitate reconciliation, create jobs and access essential services and training (e.g. Northern Sri Lanka[15]).

4. Purpose and scope of work
As part of the programming process under the Dutch partnership, it was agreed that the ILO would undertake a study on cooperative and other social and solidarity economy organizations- responses to refugee crises. The overall objective of the assessment is to identify good practice, capture lessons learned and take note of potential areas of innovation by cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy organizations, with a view to enhancing their role in crisis response and promoting decent work for all.

The study will build on the preliminary background study that was produced for the ILO in 2015. It will:

Update the study with relevant information (relevant practices illustrating the responses of cooperatives and other similar organizations in forced displacement) especially in the countries of the Dutch partnership, namely Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia, and other relevant countries (e.g. oPt, Turkey, Italy, Thailand, Spain, Bangladesh, Germany, Canada).

Expand the scope of the study to include other social and solidarity economy organizations such as, among others, self-help groups, business associations and foundations.

Elaborate a section around the conduciveness of the policy environment, more specifically the relevant legislation, to refugee response through cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy enterprises.

Develop and categorize case studies related to refugee response by cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy enterprises and organizations interviews.

Conduct first hand interviews with the cooperatives and other similar social and solidarity economy organizations and supporting agencies identified, as well as desk review of relevant reports/publications.

Capture lessons learned from the processes and actions under taken by cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy organizations which reflects both positive experiences and outcomes, as well as those where further work is needed to achieve desirable outcomes.

Take note of innovative solutions that were considered without being implemented in order to create a repository of potential activities.

Identify the comparative advantages of the different international agencies involved in supporting cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy organizations in providing responses to forced displacement.

Provide operational insights into the elements that would facilitate the replication of similar initiatives in other contexts and now these could be brought to scale and made more autonomous and self-sufficient (e.g. legal reform, availability of relevant tools, accompanying support institutions, partnerships).

Provide recommendations for enhancing effectiveness of cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy organizations in providing responses to forced displacement.

5. Tasks and activities
As a first step, the report should be based on a secondary desk review of existing and relevant research and assessment publications and activities. The second step consists of email, skype or phone interviews which will help to reinforce the information obtained from the desk review or obtain new information. The interviews will be conducted with the Chief Technical Advisors and other relevant staff in ILO in its headquarters in Geneva and field offices (e.g. ILO Beirut, ILO Amman, ILO Cairo, ILO Dar Es Salaam, ILO Addis Ababa, ILO Ankara and ILO Jerusalem).

The consultant will be expected to also review the work of relevant international organizations, including through their websites, and also through direct interviews/communications with them, such as UNHCR, Danida, Danish Refugee Council, Norwegian Refugee Council, World Food Programme (WPF), bilateral cooperative development agencies (Coopermondo - Italy, DGRV - Germany, WeEffect - Sweden, Cooperatives UK, etc.).

6. Expected deliverables and timeframe
The total estimated number of days for this consultancy is 30 working days and will take place between 10 April and 17 June 2019. The consultant is expected to:

Produce an annotated outline of the report and proposed methodology with annexes of initial references, contact people/institutions by 29 April 2019.

Produce a first draft of the paper in English by 31 May 2019 based on materials and interviews.

Rework the draft taking into account the comments and suggestions received from the ILO;

Submit a final paper in English by 17 June 2019.

7. Qualifications, experience and competencies
The successful applicant will have the following qualifications:

Advanced degree in social sciences;

At least five years of experience conducting mixed methods research at both the national and international levels as part of a team and as an individual;

Familiarity with cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy organizations;

Experience working on/with migrant and refugee populations and exposure to development cooperation projects; and

Excellent analytical skills and demonstrated ability to write high quality documents in English.

[1] UNHCR Global Trends - Forced Displacement in 2017: https://www.unhcr.org/5b27be547.pdf

[2] Sanchez Bajo, C. 2016. “Cooperatives and Refugees”. Unpublished mimeo. See two page summary based on findings and recommendations here: https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/cooperatives/publications/WCMS_455734/lang--en/index.htm

[3] https://www.thenews.coop/124382/topic/development/co-ops-help-refugees-build-better-lives/

[4] http://www.lb.undp.org/content/dam/lebanon/docs/CrisisPreventionRecovery/PeaceBuilding/UNDP%20Conflict%20Analysis%20Report%20-%20Sahel%20Akkar%20En.pdf

[5] https://www.ilo.org/beirut/media-centre/fs/WCMS_493964/lang--en/index.htm

[6] http://www.cecop.coop/Labour-integration-of-refugees-the-cooperative-formula

[7] https://www.ilo.org/ankara/news/WCMS_618225/lang--en/index.htm; and https://www.ilo.org/ankara/news/WCMS_651140/lang--en/index.htm

[8] https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2018/03/07/cooperative-farm-refugees-joins-new-nonprofit-economy/

[9] https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2018/5/5af029f14/kindergarten-becomes-moroccos-first-refugee-cooperative.html

[10] https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2017/3/58b3f7d74/dairy-start-up-empowers-somali-women-refugees.html

[11] http://www.qalandia.org/

[12] https://thediplomat.com/2018/12/rohingya-women-stitch-their-lives-back-together/

[13] While this may not be seen as a direct service for refugees, procurement of goods and services from host community cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy organizations helps improve the resilience of these communities and can also create employment opportunities for refugees.

[14] https://www1.wfp.org/purchase-for-progress

[15] https://www.ilo.org/colombo/whatwedo/projects/WCMS_397563/lang--en/index.htm

How to apply:
Candidates interested in this consultancy are invited to submit a technical proposal (not exceeding 10 pages) which should include: i) CV of the person who will undertake the study; ii) presentation of the different tasks to be undertaken and timeframe; iii) suggested methodology; and iv) a financial proposal. At least one copy of a similar study developed under a previous contract should be included as annex (this will not be counted within the 10 pages limit). The email should be sent to coop@ilo.org by April 1, 2019 with “Coop Responses to Forced Displacement” as the subject line.

Documents

 Tender Notice