Consultant: to develop a Status Report

TERMS OF REFERENCE – CONSULTANCY (RE-ADVERSTISED)

Status Report on current practices on Community-based Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms in Violence Against Women and Girls cases (West Bank, Palestine)

Women’s Affair Technical Committee (WATC) is a Palestinian feminist organization established in 1992 as a coalition of women’s grassroots committees, striving for the social, political and economic empowerment of women to achieve a democratic Palestinian society that ensures plurality, social justice and equality between men and women. WATC is a specialized actor in country in Gender Based Violence Programmes and it has been playing a crucial role at the legislative arena to enhance protective regulations for women and girls. 

Terre des hommes (Tdh) is a leading Swiss child-relief agency with a strong mandate worldwide on restorative juvenile justice, which accumulates over 40 years of experience in the Palestinian context. Tdh is a well-recognized actor in Palestine with a long and fruitful collaboration vis a vis justice stakeholders and national institutions on the policy, capacity building and specialized service provision components, chiefly. The Access to Justice Program has been implemented in Palestine since 2010 including a specific and unique component focused on informal justice.

Currently, WATC and Tdh are partners implementing the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women and Girls Project named: “Gender Justice to End Violence Against Women and Girls” where this consultancy is framed with.

Context  & Programme framework

Significant efforts have taken place to ensure that equality and access to justice as key components of the post-2015 international development agenda, subsequently confirmed by their inclusion in Goal 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals. This revives the longstanding debates around the role of customary and informal justice systems in programming justice sector reform, prompting questions about the best way to enhance collaboration with formal systems and, more importantly to ensure fulfillment of human rights.

In Palestine, while access to justice for women and girls is largely unguaranteed, past interventions in country have focused only on the supply of formal justice side alone dedicated to researching the system, providing legal counseling as part of SGBV multi-sectoral responses and building the capacity of formal justice actors. This often leaves unaddressed the traditional/informal justice mechanisms which deals with the majority of cases impacting women and girls and precisely those related to VAWG highly under-reported to the formal institutions in charge.

In order to contribute towards enhancing the female role within the justice system, the overall goal of the Project is to activate a solid responsive gender justice to address violence against women and girls in Palestine. Accordingly, the project’s rationale works comprehensively and complementarily on reinforcing the supply of justice collaborating with key justice stakeholders (both, formal and informal), changing entrenched negative attitudes and prompting pro-gender community and local justice norms and community-based alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.

Specific activities within the Project will look at issues traditionally settled in the informal and customary justice system including domestic violence, early and forced marriage, divorce and alimony, inheritance rights for women, etc. Through the scheme set forth in the Project (identification, research and knowledge building, engagement, awareness, capacity building and advocacy) it is expected that customary and informal justice actors will gain a clearer understanding of women rights, VAWG and their multi-negative effect for the community as a whole. This will enable stakeholders to identify the traditional approach to settling VAWG cases as a key issue of community conflict resolution and will encourage traditional leaders to shift their support towards women and girls. In addition this will progressively recognize the role of women as important justice actors in the settling of VAWG disputes. It is expected that in the medium-long term women and girls perceive more freedom to report cases without seeking permission from community leaders and more female have with a key role in VAWG community-based dispute resolution mechanism.

To this end and under the Project’s framework, WATC and Tdh are seeking to hire an experience and specialized local consultant to undertake the development of Status Report on current practices on Community-based Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms in VAWG cases, particularly in the targeted communities (West Bank) comprised within the Project.

Objective of the consultancy

The objective of this consultancy contract is to develop a high-quality Status Report on current practices on Community-based Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms in VAWG cases.

The consultant will focus on the communities targeted within the Project: Tulkarem (Atteel, Quffin); Jenin (Zbubah, Rumanneh); Bethlehem (Beit Fajjar, Diheisheh Refugee Camp) and Ramallah (Qalandia Village, Qalandia Refugee Camp). WATC and Tdh will provide access to customary and informal actors as well as community members involved in ADR mechanisms in the aforementioned communities. Additionally, existing Tdh documentation on informal and customary system in the West Bank will be shared with the selected consultant.

The aim of the Status Report subject to the consultancy contract herein is to map actors involved, roles, responsibilities and process of meditational/conciliation dynamics, to identify best practices, challenges and gaps, ADR outcomes, perceptions, alignment/adherence with women’s and girls’ rights, level of participation of the parties involved, etc. Case studies are expected to be included as part of the Report when relevant.

The Status Report will serve to enhance knowledge about community-based ADR in VAWG cases but also as the basis for designing specialized capacity building modules for informal and customary actors, with special focus on women settling VAWG disputes at the targeted communities. Hence, it is expected that the Report includes practical recommendations.

Scope of the consultancy and deliverables

The scope of work and expected deliverables are the following:

1. Desk review on the consultancy’s topic. WATC and Tdh will support with the collection of key documents for this desk review stage.
2. Focus Groups Discussions/Interviews with key actors and community members.
3. Based on the processes mentioned above and in consultation with WATC and Tdh teams, prepare a comprehensive list of contents to be included in the Status Report. The outline of the full document needs to be validated by WATC and Tdh prior to proceed with the following stages.
4. Draft specific, detailed and practical Status Report following Section 3 of the consultancy ToR herein.
5. Produce a well-written and comprehensive final draft (in English). This final draft will be reviewed and validated by WATC and Tdh.

Methodology

The consultant will strictly follow the work plan and the time schedule agreed with WATC and Tdh in undertaking the consultancy assignment.

An appropriate methodology will have to be determined by the consultant and submitted with the consultancy technical proposal. It will be reviewed by WATC and Tdh and adjust accordingly with the consultant if needed prior to the signature of the consultancy contract.

Timeframe

The consultant is expected to use own computer and other equipment required for the task.

The duration of the consultancy contract shall be for a maximum of two working months between 15th February 2019 and 15th April 2019; with an estimated 45 working days. Final deliverable shall be submitted on the 1st May 2019 at the latest.

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Profile of the consultant: qualifications and experience

• A post-graduate or equivalent qualification/degree in Law, Gender and Law, Criminology, Human rights, Political Science, Development Studies, Humanities or any other relevant discipline. Excellency level of expertise would be prioritized.
• At least 6-9 years of prior work experience in dealing with justice (specifically informal/customary) and gender issues in the national context (Palestine).
• Proven sound experience on drafting similar deliverables.
• Excellent written and speaking skills in English and in Arabic.
• Demonstrated (providing concrete examples and when possible excerpts/samples) experiences and skills in preparation of training materials.

Interested consultants should submit a technical proposal in English including:

• Profile of the lead consultant and of any other member of the team if any (max 1 page) explaining why he/she/they are the most suitable for the work base on relevant experience for this concrete consultancy (max. 1 page).
• Brief methodology and conceptual framework with expected deliverable scheme/outline and timelines, team composition, work plan, etc. (max. 3 pages).
• Recent CV(s).

All applications will be evaluated against the following criteria:

• Methodology and conceptual framework: 40%
• Proven previous experience and skills of the applicant(s): 30%
• Financial offer: 30%
• PLEASE Note that maximum budget available for this consultancy within the project is USD 4,000.

Full proposals should be physically handed to the following office no later than the 4th of February 2019 at 3:00 pm:

WATC’s offices - Radio Street, Awwad Center 2nd.floor, Ramallah. Contact phone: 972 2 2987783/4

Proposals that do not include all required documents won’t be assessed.

Only contact short-listed candidates will be contacted.