Researcher Services Procurement Announcement

Consultancy: Research on factors**facilitating**/impeding humanitarian access to people in need in Donetsk and Luhansk NGCA and ways of making the advocacy for the improved access more efficient

Background

People in Need (PIN) is a Czech NGO operating in 20 countries worldwide and implementing programmes in Ukraine since 2003 with a focus on human rights and civil society development. PIN has been responding to the humanitarian crisis related to armed conflict in the east of the country (Donetsk and Luhansk regions) since August 2014. PIN has been implementing projects aimed at civil society engagement and development of the conflict-affected communities in the context of the ongoing decentralization reform, as well as reforms in the medical, social and educational spheres.

Since 2017 PIN has been leading ACCESS Consortium (People in Need, ACTED/REACH, HelpAge International, Medicos del Mundo and Right to Protection) implementing ACCESS Project: Provision of multi-sectoral humanitarian assistance to conflict-affected populations in Eastern Ukraine. Advocacy is one of the components of this Project and it is aimed, in particular, at improvement of humanitarian access to NGCA, where two partners of the Consortium (PIN and MdM) have been implementing humanitarian activities under the Project.

Objective and Scope of the Consultancy

Full and unimpeded humanitarian access, bases on humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence, has been a fundamental principle of the IHL and a prerequisite to effective humanitarian action, especially in situations of armed conflict. Parties to the conflict have an obligation to facilitate access for humanitarian actors to people in need. At the same time, such an access on the territories not controlled by the Ukrainian Government (NGCA) remains one of the key challenges for non-government humanitarian actors in eastern Ukraine. It has been severely restricted since 2015, and despite some positive cases remains highly unpredictable with a certain deteriorating trend. While some donors prioritize NGCA in humanitarian response, and humanitarian organizations, both officially present and not present in NGCA, have maintained delivery of humanitarian programmes on the territories controlled by the de facto authorities (directly or through locally based implementing NGOs), response to the critical needs of the population remains far below the required scale according to the UN OCHA estimations.

Needs-based programming informed by assessed and verifiable evidence of needs, as well as independent identification of beneficiaries guided by clearly defined verifiable vulnerability criteria have been complicated in NGCA.

Circumstances that hinder humanitarian actors in delivering assistance to the NGCAs are related, in particular, to bureaucratic impediments (registration for a 6-month period with the criteria and procedure that are not fully clear and cohesive for humanitarian actors) and programme monitoring (very limited access to the beneficiaries with regard to their needs assessment and monitoring of the conduct of the aid delivery and its impact; risks of liability for beneficiaries for contacts with humanitarian actors). Such impediments prevent operational environment of the aid community to be fully advantageous in NGCA and, in this way, obscure international humanitarian law and prevent the full realisation of the core humanitarian principles.

Advocacy for better humanitarian access by humanitarian NGOs has been an extremely sensitive issue, brining risks of possible problems with aid delivery to the beneficiaries and refusal in (re-)accreditation in NGCA. Assessment of the situation and planning of advocacy efforts being very complicated, an extremely careful and meticulous approach towards mapping of stakeholders and implementation of advocacy initiatives is required, restricted rather to closed-door events and focus on possible influencers able to convey somehow advocacy messages to the de facto and Russian authorities.

The idea of the current research is to undertake efforts to identify key factors/criteria in the recent conflict history of Ukraine that have facilitated and/or impeded humanitarian access of (I)NGOs to Ukraine NGCA, as well as key influencers, at the international level in particular, able to efficiently forward advocacy messages to the de facto authorities on the need to improve humanitarian access. It would allow to develop approaches to navigate opportunities for an improved humanitarian access in non-government-controlled areas for (I)NGOs.

The research aims to cover the following topics:

(i) Mapping of internal decision makers and influencers (with a small analysis of their powers) in Ukraine NGCA on the legislation and policy in the field of humanitarian aid and access, including accreditation procedure, needs assessment and monitoring of the humanitarian assistance, as well as relevant influencers in Ukraine GCA (based rather on open sources, including public speeches and statements, official documents and decisions). The possible risks of humanitarian actors’ engagement with the Russian and de facto authorities should be considered as well in the research. It should include as well mapping of international stakeholders, policy/security forums that can influence on the humanitarian situation in NGCA.

(ii) Context and trend analysis of the situation in Ukraine NGCA (both Luhansk and Donetsk NGCA):

a). how and when the legislation and policy on humanitarian access have changed since 2014 and what specific factors influenced such changes (political events in Russia, Ukraine and other countries, progress or failure in peace negotiations, activities of NGOs (present or willing to be present in Ukraine NGCA) in Ukraine, Russia and other countries, etc.);

b). opportunities for international advocacy, high-level in particular (UN Security Council/ EU Foreign Affairs Council, within the Czech Presidency in EU Council), aimed at improvement of the humanitarian access in Ukraine NGCA (main targets and their powers);

c). criteria that favor adoption of positive decisions on (re-) accreditation of non-government humanitarian actors, as well as criteria that triggered refusals in registration or revocations of their registration, with an analysis on how those decisions could be connected with political events in NGCA, Ukraine, Russia, region and in the world (a guidance on patterns);

d) standards that are applied by the de facto authorities while they assess the needs of the conflict-affected populations under their control; how effective is this assessment and if it goes along with the assessments of the international community (UN OCHA, UNHCR, ICRC); if, presumably, their assessments don’t comply with the international standards, are there any opportunities to influence on the Ukraine NGCA needs assessment system by making it more efficient and, in such a way, to improve provision of support to the affected populations; if there are any ways of conveying a persuasive message to the de facto authorities on the improvement of their need’s assessment procedures (according to the approaches of Russia, they think that humanitarian aid should be provided only upon requests of the country/territory where there are affected people in need).

(iii) Comparative analysis. The research should study the situation with humanitarian access in other NGCAs close to Ukraine’s situation by its context (Transdniestria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, to a certain extent Syria), elaborating on similarities between these territories and Ukraine NGCA as regards humanitarian access, as well as the lessons learned and best practices that can be taken into consideration and applied in the Ukrainian context.

(iv) Evidence-based recommendations on what can be done by the humanitarian (I)NGOs and the international community to promote an improved operational environment for humanitarian actors in Ukraine NGCA and to ease access of the vulnerable conflict-affected people to humanitarian aid;

Consultancy tasks

The consultancy will include the following tasks, indicated with their tentative deadline:

1. Development / finetuning of research methodology in close cooperation with PIN team;

2. Desk review (mapping, context and trend analysis of the issues mentioned above);

3. Analysis on the role of high-level decision-making humanitarian and security bodies in improving humanitarian access to NGCA

4. Comparative analysis based on experience/best practices of other countries in conflict (close to Ukraine by context);

5. Drafting of report, including specific recommendations on (I)NGOs’ advocacy for better humanitarian access, and integrating first round of comments from PIN team and partners;

6. Final debriefing & integrating final comments from PIN team;

7. Finalisation of the report and its translation into Ukrainian.

Expected Deliverables

1. Report of the research covering the following main structure (or other suggested structure): (i) introduction, summary of literature review and methodology; (ii) Desk review (context and trend analysis of the humanitarian access in Ukraine NGCA, mapping of stakeholders); (iii) Comparative analysis; (iv) Recommendations for the humanitarian actors on efficient advocacy aimed at improvement of humanitarian access for (I)NGOs.

2. Debriefing workshop with PIN to present the research findings and its recommendations, before finalization of the report.

Ethical and consultancy management

Ethical principles: all exchange with PIN staff, external experts (NGOs, etc.) and authorities on the matter of humanitarian access to Ukrainian NGCA and for the objectives of the consultancy must be conducted with utmost ethical principles, including informed consent, anonymity and confidentiality (if necessary), and safeguarding, in line with international principles on the matter and of PIN’s Code of Conduct and relevant policies. Considering sensitive nature of the research’s topic, in communication with the mentioned above actors PIN should not be mentioned, only ACCESS Consortium.

Audience and ownership of data and deliverables: Audience of the consultancy outputs will be with the ACCESS Consortium and its partners (People in Need, ACTED/REACH, HelpAge International, Medicos del Mundo and Right to Protection), their donors and similar stakeholders, international organizations and humanitarian NGOs. Information shared by the ACCESS Consortium with the selected consultant and all data collected during the consultancy remains confidential and to be used exclusively for the objectives of the consultancy. The ACCESS Consortium retains ownership over deliverables produced as a result of the consultancy.

Timeline and duration

The proposed consultancy is planned to cover two months below mentioned period:

Start of the consultancy: March 11, 2022 at the latest.

End of the consultancy: May 11, 2022 at the latest.

Logistics

The proposed consultancy will be conducted remotely and in-person with possible meetings and travel to selected localities (previously agreed with PIN’s commissioning manager).

The in-person activities, when planning to have face-to-face meetings, must be organised in line with PIN Ukraine’s Security rules as well as Standard Operating Procedure – Operational Guidelines during COVID-19 and receive prior agreement of the commissioning manager.

Qualification requirements

Technical specialisation and sound knowledge of the topic(s) being addressed, evidenced by:

• Academic qualifications of the applicant: Master’s degree or higher education in social sciences, sociology, political sciences, law, multi-disciplinary research, or other relevant fields (25%);

• Additional technical qualifications of the applicant (e.g. trainings etc) on topics of crisis research methodologies, IHL, conflict studies, or other relevant fields (5%);

Professional experience: 5+years’ experience of developing and conducting research on similar or relevant topics, evidenced by:

• Track record of research projects and assignments completed on similar or relevant topics and including quantitative and qualitative data analysis with recommendations (20%);

• Track record of publications on similar or relevant topics (10%);

• Track record of field research in Ukraine on similar or relevant topics (10%)

• Brief suggested methodological plan and structure (one-page maximum) for the present consultancy (20%).

Experience in activities related to humanitarian access and humanitarian aid, as well as in field work in the conflict-affected areas.

Solid understanding of community participation models, gender, social inclusion and social cohesion issues, and conflict-sensitive approach;

Proven ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure;

Proven excellent facilitation and interpersonal skills, and full adherence to research ethical standards;

Ukrainian and Russian with excellent command of English;

Competitive financial offer (with daily fee and possible associated costs), account taken of the timeline and suggested methodology (10%).