Research Consultancy on Women`s Meaningful Tender - 48634708

Procurement Summary

Country: Myanmar

Summary: Research Consultancy on Women`s Meaningful Participation in the Return and Resettlement Process

Deadline: 15 Jan 2021

Posting Date: 19 Dec 2020

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Notice Type: Tender

TOT Ref.No.: 48634708

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Competition: ICB

Financier: United Nations Secretariat

Purchaser Ownership: -

Tender Value: Refer Document

CPV Classification

73210000 - Research consultancy services
79419000 - Evaluation consultancy services

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Tender Details

Tenders are invited for Research Consultancy on Women`s Meaningful Participation in the Return and Resettlement Process in Kachin ( Myanmar).
ORGANISATIONAL BACKGROUND
Trócaire was established in 1973 as the overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland. Our vision is of “a just and peaceful world where people-s dignity is ensured and rights are respected; where basic needs are met and resources shared equitably; where people have control over their own lives and those in power act for the common good.” Trócaire Myanmar works in the areas of Resource Rights and Use (land rights), Durable Peace Programme, Women-s Empowerment including the prevention and response to Gender-Based-Violence and Humanitarian Preparedness and Response. Governance and human rights are integrated across all programmes.
CONTEXT:

Since the breakdown of the ceasefire in Kachin, Myanmar in 2011, there has been prolonged displacement of IDPs in Kachin and northern Shan States (NSS). There are over 100, 000 IDPs across 172 IDP sites, 37% of which are in non-government-controlled areas. As of 31 January 2020, there were 138 internally displaced people (IDP) sites in Kachin State alone, with a total of 97, 322 IDPs.[1] Years of protracted displacement, in crowded camps and limited access to secure and productive livelihoods have fuelled desires of IDPs to move out of the camps into some place they can call their home - whether in their places of origin or elsewhere.
There have been facilitated attempts to return, resettle, and locally integrate IDPs in Kachin since 2016. Without a sustained ceasefire and a functioning peace process, this creates high levels of risk for IDPs and increases their vulnerability. Frequent experiences of violence and death, especially of Gender-based Violence (GBV), were reported in relation to women attempting to return from the IDP camps to their villages to collect belongings or check on property they had left behind.[2] IDPs, particularly displaced women, must have the ability to return or relocate voluntarily, in safety and with dignity, and the chosen solutions should be feasible and sustainable with a view to sustaining long-term peace and development.
The impacts of return or resettlement can disproportionately affect women, as they are faced with more difficulties while coping with disruption to their families. This is particularly a concern if there is no mechanism or deliberate effort made to enable women-s meaningful participation and consultation throughout the return and resettlement (R&R) process. While Camp Management Committees (CMCs), heads of household, security actors, or authorities make the final decisions on R&R, each of these decision-making bodies are male-dominated[3] which may constraint women-s meaningful participation, decision-making and choices in the R&R process. In addition, traditional gender norms and biases that ascribe authority and space to men over women and a lack of acceptance of female leadership, as illustrated in the DPP 2019 Baseline Survey, further prevent women from participating meaningfully in R&R-related decisions. For example, in the go-and-see visits in return or new relocation sites or design of compensation and restoration packages, housing and construction, water and sanitation, etc., with potential negative implications for the overall success and sustainability of R&R programs.[4] Furthermore, an R&R process that ignores the specific needs and limitations that women, female youth[5] and elderly women face can increase gender inequalities, for example, by reducing women-s access to property or assets, or limiting their capacity to restore their livelihoods.
In recent years, the pace of the formal R&R process has increased. In 2019, the Kachin Humanitarian Concern Committee (a coalition of Kachin based civil society and religious groups) announced that it would begin to formally support the return and resettlement of more than 500 families either to their communities of origin or to new resettlement sites, in early 2020. In October 2019, the Government of Myanmar released a National Strategy on Resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons and Closure of IDP Camps (NSRCC), with the objective of ‘closing IDP camps and creating conditions that enable former residents in IDP camps to resume their normal lives in safety and dignity and without further dependency-. The UN Core Team has also developed a concept note on “Durable solutions for internally displaced persons in Kachin State, possible areas of cooperation between the UN and the Government of Myanmar, ” which was submitted to the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement in September 2019.
RESEARCH PURPOSE:

2020 marks the 20th anniversary of the ground breaking UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) — the first resolution to link women-s experiences of conflict to the international peace and security agenda. It focuses on the disproportionate impact of conflict on women and girls and calls for their meaningful participation and engagement in conflict transformation, peacebuilding as well as during the resettlement, rehabilitation, recovery and reintegration processes.
Trócaire, with support of the European Union (EU), has been implementing the Durable Peace Programme (DPP) that aims to contribute to lasting peace, security, stability and sustainable development in the conflict-affected states of Kachin and northern Shan. Under DPP, Trócaire works toward operationalizing and implementing WPS-focused programming that centres on building a network of WPS focal points across Kachin and northern Shan States and raises diverse women-s voices at different levels and within different processes such as Return and Resettlement. While women-s participation and engagement are central to the DPP, cutting across the entire programme, supporting women-s meaningful participation in critical leadership and decision-making bodies, for example in Return and Resettlement Committees, is specifically articulated in Specific Outcome (SO) One on Durable Solutions and Community Resilience and SO Four on Gender Equity and Prevention of Gender-based Violence (GBV).
Throughout the history of Myanmar-s protracted conflicts and prolonged peace process, women and women rights organizations (WROs) have always been at the centre of conflict transformation and played an important role in peace and recovery processes such as R&R and COVID-19 pandemic, as illustrated in the recent DPP Policy Paper, entitled ‘Listening to Women Peacebuilders-. At the same time, however, it is concerning that these efforts often remain under-acknowledged and women face barriers to participating in decision-making processes and leadership structures.[6] It is all the more stark in the R&R process where women face extremely limited opportunities to influence decision-making as the R&R leadership structures, such as government, security actors, camp management committees (CMC) and faith-based organisations, are male-dominated.[7] Hence, women-s gender-specific needs and priorities often get overlooked.
As the R&R process is currently gathering positive momentum in Kachin, understanding the nature and extent of women, female youth and elderly women`s meaningful participation[8] in the R&R process is essential and timely, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325. An initial desk review of the literature available online illustrate that little is known about this critical topic. Aside from a few assessments and reports that have primarily or exclusively focused on gendered perspectives on R&R, there has hitherto been very little published work on women`s meaningful participation in the R&R process. Based on this literature gap, Trócaire plans to commission a study that will shed light on women, female youth and elderly women-s meaningful participation and contribution to the R&R process in Kachin. Towards this end, the study aims to specifically look into the hopes, aspirations and expectations of women, female youth and elderly women from the R&R process in Kachin and how they define ‘meaningful participation-, identify the barriers and enabling factors and look at how conflict or displacement changed gender dynamics and gender norms, which may in itself be a barrier or enabler to women-s participation.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND QUESTIONS:

The proposed research study will build on the existing briefs and papers[9] in an attempt to answer the following research questions:
· What are the hopes, aspirations and expectations of women, female youth and elderly women from the R&R process? How do they express social cohesion/peacebuilding elements of R&R?
· Are women, female youth and elderly women represented in the R&R process and its related structures and decision-making?
· What role do women, female youth and elderly women play in the R&R process, what role do they want to play and whether and/or how do they participate in the R&R decision-making?
· How do women, female youth and elderly women define “meaningful participation, ” and how they want/wish to participate in the R&R process? What spaces/resources, confidence-building, gender norm-changing, time commitments, etc. do they need for meaningful participation?
· What are the barriers and enabling factors for the participation of women, female youth and elderly women in the R&R process? Are they able to overcome these barriers? If so, how?
· How has conflict/displacement changed gender dynamics and gender norms, which may in itself be a barrier/enabler to women-s participation? How to enhance meaningful participation of women, female youth and elderly women in the R&R process? Who are the key influencers/ “champions” who can be leveraged to encourage women-s participation?
The research will examine the impact of R&R process on women and the extent to which women are

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