Consultant: Evidence-based need assessment

Evidence-based need assessment on Sharia Courts judicial administration of Violence Against Women’s & Girls’ cases in Palestine

1. Women’s Affair Technical Committee & Terre des hommes

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.
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.

2. Context & Programme framework

In Palestine, women and girls experience multiple layers of violence and discrimination and face conditions of oppression on two fronts: they live under occupation and within a society governed by patriarchal norms and attitudes. This implies the establishment of a generalized concept of gender inferiority that develops from early stages of life and solidifies through the social constructs and stereotypes that perpetuate the cycle of violence, their participation in the spheres of public life and decision-making in private life. Ultimately, this severely limits the exercise of women’s and girls’ rights. Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) is a socio-culturally rooted problem exacerbated by the footprint of the prolonged conflict, the impact on community/family structures and the difficulty of accessing to services, and deeply particular when tackling access to justice for women and girls survivors of violence.
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.
The project’s rationale works comprehensively and complementarily on: (ii) reinforcing the supply of justice collaborating with key justice stakeholders relevant to VAWG cases, aiming to have higher relevance to the security of women and girls in their communities and favourable ruling for VAWG cases (specifically: Sharia Courts), but also enhancing the capacities and agency of female justice actors to progressively play a more visible and recognized role in settling VAWG cases along with active participation and empowerment of the women and girls survivors within the justice system.
The first expected result (R1): “Access to Justice is improved for women and girls against VAWG from the community to the formal levels of justice” is intended, among others, to generate the following impacts: (i) improved recognition of VAWG survivors’ rights in justice proceedings (evidence generated on the administration of VAWG cases, increased rate of fair cases for VAWG, cases correctly charged in courts which in turns will enhance their reporting, and (ii) raising up the voices of female survivors vis a vis the formal and informal justice representatives to uncover their needs and challenges.
In particular, the set of activities foreseen in the project to work with Sharia Courts within Result 1 will look deeply at analyzing VAWG cases and proceedings adjudicated taking into consideration gender-responsive and child-centered approaches (what works, challenges and gaps, alignment with standards, organizational structure and needs, capacity building demands, etc.). To this end and under the project’s framework, WATC and Tdh will hire an experience and specialized local consultant to undertake the development of an evidence-based needs assessment regarding Sharia Court’s judicial proceedings related to VAWG cases.

3. Objective of the consultancy

The objective of this consultancy contract is to develop a high-quality evidence-based needs assessment on Sharia Court’s judicial proceedings related to VAWG cases, including practical recommendations and outline scheme for the ahead project activities with Sharia Court Representatives: Policy Dialogue &Training Programme and roundtable discussions/workshops with other justice key stakeholders and women and girls survivors.

4. Scope of the consultancy and deliverables

The scope of work and expected deliverables are the following:

1. Collect, review and analyse all the necessary documents to fully (i) substantiate all stages of proceedings re VAWG cases at Sharia Court machinery (ii) apply the Palestinian national legal/regulatory/policy frameworks, including gender and child protection international standards in the justice sector, best practices and successful proven models applicable to the consultancy’s topic. WATC and Tdh will support with the collection of key documents for this desk review stage as well as access to Sharia Court Representatives.
2. Carry out judicial processes staged mapping to clearly identify the VAWG cases pathways as well as roles and responsibilities of key actors and systems in place. This step should involve gathering direct feedback from justice professionals as well as from survivors that accessed justice, including when relevant case studies.
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 evidence-based need assessment. 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 evidence-based needs assessment as mentioned in Section 3 of the consultancy ToR herein. Rights-based, gender-responsive and child-centred approaches shall be highlighted throughout the draft document.
5. Facilitate one consultation workshop (organized with the support of WATC and Tdh) and present the draft evidence-based needs assessment to Sharia Court Representatives. Finalize the draft incorporating all the inputs gathered.
6. Produce a well-written and comprehensive final draft (in English). This final draft will be reviewed and validated by WATC and Tdh.

5. 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.

6. 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 December 2018 and 15th February 2019; with an estimated 35-40 working days. Final deliverable shall be delivered the 25th February 2019 at the latest.

جميع الحقوق محفوظة لموقع جوبس.

7. 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 and gender issues in the national context (Palestine) as a minimum.
- Proven sound experience on drafting similar deliverables related to gender & justice.
- Excellent written and speaking skills in English and in Arabic.
- Acquainted with the national legislation, international policy papers and documents related to the topic subject to consultancy, including key national plans.
- Demonstrated (providing concrete examples and when possible excerpts/samples) experiences and skills in preparation of training materials following need-assessments.

8. Application procedure

Interested consultants should submit a technical proposal in English including:

(i) 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).
(ii) Brief methodology and conceptual framework with expected deliverables and timelines, team composition, work plan, etc. (max. 3 pages).
(iii) 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%