INTERNATIONAL FORUM OF NATIONAL NGO PLATFORMS has floated a tender for Research Consultant - Role of NGOs and Networks. The project location is France and the tender is closing on 20 Sep 2019. The tender notice number is , while the TOT Ref Number is 35584240. Bidders can have further information about the Tender and can request the complete Tender document by Registering on the site.

Expired Tender

Procurement Summary

Country : France

Summary : Research Consultant - Role of NGOs and Networks

Deadline : 20 Sep 2019

Other Information

Notice Type : Tender

TOT Ref.No.: 35584240

Document Ref. No. :

Competition : ICB

Financier : Other Funding Agencies

Purchaser Ownership : -

Tender Value : Refer Document

Purchaser's Detail

Purchaser : INTERNATIONAL FORUM OF NATIONAL NGO PLATFORMS
14 passage Dubail, 75010 Paris,
France
Email :contact@forus-international.org
URL :http://forus-international.org

Tender Details

Tenders are invited for Research Consultant - Role of NGOs and Networks in Improving Safeguarding Policies and Practices in the International Development Sector.

Recruitment of a research consultant to write about the role of NGOs and networks in improving safeguarding policies and practices in the international development sector.

The consultant will be responsible for:

(1.1) A research phase, composed of literature review and interviews
(1.2) Attending a maximum of 5 webinars to exchange on the subject with Forus- members
(1.3) Writing an action-guided toolkit in implementing safeguarding policies in the NGO sector against different cultural backgrounds.
(2) Supporting Forus in the update of its own internal documents on safeguarding
Context & justification

Forus is an innovative global network empowering civil society for effective social change. It gathers 69 National NGO Platforms and 7 Regional Coalitions from Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Pacific. Forus plays a crucial role in structuring and strengthening national NGO platforms and regional coalitions. Forus is a member-led network and its capacity development activities are mainly based on peer exchange.

Keeping people safe is central to the missions of Civil Society Organisations in development and humanitarian work. It entails respecting and ensuring the safety, well-being and rights of the people we work with and for.

Issues of exploitation, abuse and all types of harassment remain within the aid and international development sector. Collective thinking and sharing experiences on safeguarding across members are vital to helping individual organisations, and the sector as a whole, to improve safeguarding policies and practices; and to address deeper long-term issues of power imbalance, gender and safety within our work culture.

Aware of these challenges, Forus, with the support of its British member BOND, organized in February 2019 a webinar on this issue attracting around 20 platforms worldwide. Following this success, Forus decided to create a working group to be a safe space through which Forus platforms can regularly convene, discuss, and share experiences on current safeguarding initiatives. The working group will be invited to contribute to all the steps of the creation of a toolkit to systematize the resources, debates, and information exchanged, guiding networks and organisations that would like to launch the conversation about work culture and protecting people.

Objective

The objective is to elaborate a toolkit on safeguarding to help ensure that organisations are equipped with adapted guidelines, resources and tools to prevent exploitation, abuse and harassment across the international development sector worldwide.

The elaboration will follow the different tasks described below. Besides developing a range of recommendations and case studies, the consultant will also provide an analysis on the challenges for CSOs in changing their work culture.

The guide will provide useful information to non-governmental organisations and networks that would like to have a complete overview on the changes that might be necessary in their organisations to ensure people are safe. The toolkit will be targeting both individual NGOs working nationally and internationally, but also national NGO platforms.

Consultant-s tasks

The toolkit will be established based on literature review and on the experiences shared by Forus members, via individual interviews or working group webinars. This same knowledge will be the basis to adapt Forus- internal documents.

1.1) "Research-capitalization"

The research work will rely on literature review as well as on the expertise, reflections and experiences of Forus members and members of members.

This research will be carried out on the basis of a compilation of:

Literature review of key studies carried and key resources produced to date about the different aspects of safeguarding around the world.
Literary review of the resources, tools and practices of Forus- national members (already available in a small online library).
A minimum of 15 interviews with Forus- members, members of members or partners (including donors) regarding their work and their recommendations on the subject
1.2) Participation in working group webinars

In July 2019, Forus had organized 3 webinars (2 in English and 1 in Spanish). Besides analysing the notes of previous webinars as a source for the research phase, the consultant will be required to join in all the webinars taking place during the 5 months of his/her work. A maximum of 5 webinars are foreseen for this period.

During the webinars, the consultant will listen to members- exchange, but also seek recommendations and inputs from the group. The consultant is also required to join one final webinar, to take place in May 2020, presenting the final version of the toolkit, that will be available in 3 languages (English, French and Spanish).

1.3) Development and drafting of the toolkit

The toolkit will be action guided, with clear steps and recommendations to the organisations, especially the ones that have not yet started their work on safeguarding. It will also present as many concrete case studies as possible, that might be relevant and useful for the reader.

The consultant will work closely with Forus- team and members in the different phases of the production of the toolkit. A small steering committee (already formed by BOND (UK) and CCIC (Canada)) will be formed within Forus- working group, in order to participate in the consultant selection, validate the format and framework of the toolkit (sections and content) as well as provide feedback to draft 1 and 2 of the text.

The toolkit will seek to be useful to individual CSOs as well as to network of CSOs. It will strive to answer most of, if not all, the questions below:

What is the scope of safeguarding / what does it cover and not / what are overlaps with other areas of an organization ?
What are the challenges regarding safeguarding amongst different cultural backgrounds / contexts?
What are the concrete first steps to advance as an organisation the conversation on safeguarding?
How are leadership and organisational culture important to safeguarding?
What is the role of the staff vs. the role of governance in safeguarding processes?
What are the sector standards relevant to safeguarding and how can my organisation work in line with them?
What are the necessary adaptations for existing codes of conduct / gender policies?
How to link safeguarding with wider work on accountability and inclusion?
How to undertake safer recruitment within an organisation?
How can organizations balance requirements for reporting with risk and reputation management?
What are the essential elements of a whistle blower mechanism? What are best practices for reporting on incidences of PSEA and how might risks be managed effectively?
How can organizations effectively balance a survivor-centred approach with due process in their response to PSEA?
How to identify the right indicators to measure safeguarding work?
How to work with external partners on safeguarding?
2) Support Forus in the elaboration of specific tools and documents

Considering the role of networks in sharing and promoting best practices regarding safeguarding, Forus is currently adapting its code of conduct and producing an position paper.

The consultant will be responsible for :

Providing feedback regarding the relevance and design of those 2 documents
Proposing elements of contents for these 2 documents, based on good practices identified during the research phase and his/her own knowledge.
Deliverables

The deliverables will be in English, in a Word format.

1 toolkit of around 15-20 pages
2 reviewed Forus documents (code of conduct & position paper).
Profile and qualifications of the consultant

Proven strong writing and communication skills
Proven knowledge of safeguarding policies, with a minimum 2-year experience in working with NGOs and networks active in Safeguarding
Preferably a postgraduate degree (PhD or MSc) in the field of research, development studies
Ability to work in a multicultural environment, with proven experience
Excellent level of written and spoken English and Spanish. French is a plus.
Experience in facilitating online meetings (preferably)
Provisional calendar

The consultant can work remotely and carry out online the different tasks mentioned above.

There will be between 15-20 days of work involved in total to deliver on the work specified above. The consultant will complete his/her work over a 5 month period (November 2019 - March 2020).

Consultants selection: Aug/Sept 2019
Selection of consultants: Oct 2019
Inception phase: Nov 2019
Participation on maximum 5 webinars on safeguarding (in English and Spanish). Between Nov 2019 and March 2020
Support Forus in the elaboration of specific tools and documents: Between Nov 2019 and March 2020
Research-capitalisation phase: Dec 2019 - Jan 2020
Writing phase for the production of the toolkit: Feb 2020
Final draft of the toolkit in English: February 2020

How to apply:
The application documents (in English) must be submitted no later than September 20 in electronic format to the following address: "recruitment AT forus-international.org" specifying “Toolkit on safeguarding” in the subject line.

The application file should include:

A complete Curriculum Vitae, including links to similar studies and previous work carried out
A minimum of 3 referees
A proposal for how the work would be carried out (maximum of 2 pages)
A detailed budget including fees and activity costs (with VAT if applicable)

Documents

 Tender Notice