Request for Proposal (RFP) re. “Consultancy to produce Regional Protection Trends Guidance & Toolkit”

RFP Reference No.: RFP-RO02-001203.

1. Who is the Danish Refugee Council?

Founded in 1956, the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is a leading international NGO and one of the few with a specific expertise in forced displacement. Active in 40 countries with 9,000 employees and supported by 7,500 volunteers, DRC protects, advocates, and builds sustainable futures for refugees and other displacement affected people and communities. DRC works during displacement at all stages: In the acute crisis, in displacement, when settling and integrating in a new place, or upon return. DRC provides protection and life-saving humanitarian assistance; supports displaced persons in becoming self-reliant and included into hosting societies; and works with civil society and responsible authorities to promote protection of rights and peaceful coexistence.

DRC has been operating in the Middle East region for over a decade, running a combination of emergency, livelihood, protection and advocacy programs through Country Offices in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey with a Regional Office in Amman.

2. Purpose of the consultancy

The Danish Refugee Council, Middle East Regional Office, based in Jordan, seeks proposals from a consultant to develop a regional guidance and accompanying tools for producing periodic snapshots of protection trends across the operational areas covered by DRC in the Middle East. This consultancy is expected to be carried out remotely.

3. Background

DRC has been implementing protection programming in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, supporting adults and children in communities affected by conflict and displacement, including refugees, IDPs, host community members, and persons in mixed migration flows.

With strong operations at country level, to date, DRC has relied on country protection teams’ capacity to produce protection analysis for each of their contexts. At the regional level, however, there has been a gap in the capacity to carry out and document protection analysis in a structured and systematised way, which would enable to draw out common protection risks among the six countries that may require consistent, streamlined response approaches and more efficient sharing of technical expertise and resources.

DRC is now seeking to strengthen its protection analysis in the Middle East region through adopting a dedicated process for regular collection, analysis and dissemination of updates pertaining to the protection context in the region. Such regional updates will support continuous, context-specific protection analysis and will contribute to identifying contextual triggers for adjusting program design. In addition to supporting the strengthening of programmatic responses, they would also provide tangible information products to support communication, advocacy and fundraising, as well as coordination with protection stakeholders at the regional level.

4. Objective of the consultancy

The overall objective of the consultancy is to develop a regional guidance and accompanying tools for producing periodic snapshots of protection trends across the operational areas covered by DRC in the Middle East.

The Guidance & Toolkit should enable to capture, as a minimum, relevant contextual (political, socio-economic, demographic), legislative and policy developments; key protection risks common in the region and those unique to a specific context; trends related to durable solutions; distinct trends related to refugee and IDP contexts and populations in mixed migration flows; trends related to other population groups across age, gender and diversity spectrum as relevant to identified protection issues. The Guidance & Toolkit should also allow for comparison of trends overtime. Particular attention throughout the consultancy will be given to the linkages between protection and other sectors (particularly economic recovery). Finally, the Guidance & Toolkit should facilitate the inclusion of brief operational updates to reflect how DRC is responding to the identified protection trends.

The terminology and thematic structure of the Guidance & Toolkit should be in-line with the Results-Based Protection approach and with the Protection Analytical Framework (PAF) Concepts Matrix.

5. Scope of work and Methodology

The Consultant will be required to prepare a detailed methodology and work plan indicating how

the objectives of the project will be achieved, and the support required from DRC. The scope of work should be based on the following key tasks and deliverables:

1. Inception report outlining:

a) actions as part of the mapping and review process of the external and internal sources (incl. list of reviewed documents, interviews with key staff, etc.) and main outcomes of that process;

b) proposed outline of the Regional Protection Trends Guidance, incl. thematic components; sources, workflow, timeline and responsibilities for data collection and analysis at country and regional levels; corresponding tools to be used, adapted, or developed; covering all aspects mentioned under ‘Consultancy Objective’ above.

c) updated detailed work plan.

1. Validation workshop with DRC regional and country-level focal points to present draft Regional Protection Trends Guidance & Toolkit (incl. elements described in 1(b) above).
2. Final Regional Protection Trends Guidance document and associated resources (Toolkit), covering the elements described in 1(b) above.
3. Regional Protection Trends Update for 2022 (semi-annual or quarterly), based on the developed guidance and templates.

The final products will be reviewed for quality and final payment will be made upon submission of satisfactory deliverables.

Education:

Minimum. University degree in social sciences, sociology, law, psychology, anthropology, international relations, or similar fields

Experience:

Minimum 7 years previous experience in in humanitarian protection programming, including in conflict-related refugee and IDP contexts; preferably in the Middle East.