Call for Proposals: ‘Dare to Care’ Regional Program (Egypt)

Deadline: 04-Aug-2024

UN Women is pleased to announce the ‘Dare to Care’ Regional Program in Egypt.

In October 2023, UN Women in the Arab States region initiated the implementation of an exciting and unique three-year regional program entitled ‘Dare to Care’ (DTC) aiming to transform patriarchal social norms and masculinities, with a focus on Morocco, Egypt, and Jordan. This regional program aims to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment using the involvement of men and boys in unpaid care and household responsibilities as an entry point. The program is also meant to contribute to shifting discriminatory social norms and breaking stereotypes that impede women’s participation in paid employment and the public sphere.

The ‘Dare to Care’ regional program is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the German International Development Cooperation Agency (GIZ), and the Basque Country’s International Development Cooperation Agency. It works towards the achievement of the following three outcomes:

• Outcome 1: Societies across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region demonstrate an increased involvement of men and boys in caregiving and household responsibilities and more empowerment of women and girls;
• Outcome 2: Key institutions effectively transform patriarchal masculinities and social norms, with a focus on advancing caregiving and household responsibilities of men and boys and the economic empowerment of women and girls;
• Outcome 3: More men and boys can take their share in caregiving and household responsibilities with more enabling laws and policies that promote their caregiving and household responsibilities, and paternity leave.

This CfP aims to identify a local Implementing Partner (IP) in Egypt to implement the Dare to Care Manual activities under outcome one of the ‘Dare to Care’ program in one target community. This Community-Based Organization (CBO) or Civil Society Organization (CSO) will be directly responsible for situational scoping, gaining buy-in, and building collaborations with contributors, government officials, and authorities on the local, subnational, and national levels. More significantly, the implementing partner, under overall guidance from UN Women Regional Office for the Arab States and in consultation with UN Women’s Egypt Country Office, will identify a target community within a clear geographical area within which the intervention model will be implemented, and a thorough mapping of actors and stakeholders as well as an analysis of the socio-economic status of the target community.

The selected IP is expected to have experience in the subject matter of masculinities, gender equality, women’s economic empowerment, and engaging men and boys in gender equality action. The IP should also have demonstrated knowledge and understanding of the local community and the socio-economic context of Egypt. This experience and knowledge will be employed to identify the geographical area and the community to be targeted by the intervention through a scoping process and producing a detailed description and data of the socio-economic demographics of the target community. This will include the identification of key influencers and presenting a methodology for building buy-in.

While implementing partners will be expected to have a level of gender competency and operational capacity to manage community programs, more specific subject matter competencies will be supported by UN Women, at regional and country levels, as well as through a Regional Community of Practice. Such capacity-building activities will include:

• Gender Equality Approach, principles and tools
• Cultural sensitivity and contextual social negotiations
• Positive masculinities and the role of men and boys in gender equality
• Technical skills, such as reporting and M&E

Funding Information

• The budget range for this proposal should be 10,000,000 EGP – 12,467,000 EGP (Min. – Max.)

Timeframe

• Start date and end date for completion of required services/results
  • This is a two-year implementation project. The implementation period of the five phases of the ‘Dare to Care’ model is 2 years. The project is expected to commence on 15 August. Final reporting to be submitted up to two months after completion of the project.

Required Services/Results

• The selected Implementing Partner will implement the two-year intervention model The Dare to Care Manual: A Model to Engage Men and Boys in Unpaid Care and Household Responsibilities in Communities from the Arab Region in one target community and through the model’s five phases (full description and details of activities are in the model manual). The IP is also expected to cooperate with UN Women’s Regional Office for the Arab States and the UN Women’s Egypt Country Office to ensure proper management of the project, and to contribute to its monitoring and evaluation. This includes participation in the Regional Community of Practice coordinated by UN Women’s Regional Office in which the IP is expected to become member and participate by sharing results, lessons learned, etc.
• The work phases of the project as laid out in the model manual are as follows:
  • Phase 0: Onboarding and staffing: 
    • The selected IP is expected to provide staff members to the project (full-time or part-time). Those will include 1) a Dare to Care Project Manager, 2) an M&E specialist as well as admin, finance, and HR support (which could be integrated into the existing administrative structure of the organization). The staffing process as well as onboarding with UN Women is expected to take place ahead of the commencement of phase 1.
    • Phase 0 duration: up to 8 weeks
  • Phase 1: Scoping of implementation area and buy-in from the target community. 
    • This entails:
      • Detailed description and data of the socio-economic demographics of the target community.
      • Identification of key influencers in the area and presenting a methodology of building buy-in to reduce barriers to implementation.
      • Strategy to navigate the legal and institutional frameworks that would affect implementation.
      • Develop a methodology for incentivizing community members and key influencers to participate actively and positively in the intervention.
      • Implementing Partner and UN Women will take into consideration the conclusions of the IMAGES study in Egypt on levels of acceptance and positive/negative attitudes within different geographical areas in the country to balance the “need” with the expectations of success.
    • Phase 1 duration: up to 8 weeks
  • Phase 2: Recruitment and capacity building for ‘Community Animators’: 
    • IP will recruit 10 – 12 Community Animators and equip them with the required knowledge, capacity, and tools with entry points to community mobilizing. This will include gender and masculinities training, orientation on community engagement and family identification, and journaling and documentation.
    • Phase 2 duration: up to 10 weeks
  • Phase 3: Formation of community clusters: 
    • The IP will formulate three to four parallel community clusters -each cluster to contain 10- 12 families- within the lifetime of the project, each to be supported and managed by 2-4 community animators. The IP, through the community animators, will engage families through regular visits and activities at the family and cluster levels.
    • Phase 3 duration: 6-8 weeks
  • Phase 4: Engagement of community clusters:
    • This is the main and longest phase of the intervention, where community participants who make up community clusters are engaged in activities and social actions that present healthy relationships and promote men’s unpaid care work. In this phase, the IP, through the community animators, will have a significant role in ensuring participants remain engaged and motivated, and in documenting progress and milestones.
    • This phase will include knowledge building and learning for community members, audits of unpaid domestic work, goal setting and behavior change, community challenges, and learning camps.
    • Phase 4 duration: 24-26 weeks
  • Phase 5: Community scale-up 
    • The project needs to expand and involve larger numbers of the community by creating new cohorts of community clusters and implementing new action projects. This will be based on the principle of peer influencing through the utilization of community members from phase 4 as activists and mobilizers of action and promoters of change. At the end of phase 5, six to eight new community clusters would have been engaged and organized to implement new action projects.
    • Phase 5 duration: 36 weeks

Competencies

• Technical/functional competencies required 
  • Demonstrated experience in work around gender equality, masculinities, engaging men and boys, and women’s economic empowerment.
  • A CBO or CSO that has strong connections to local communities with a proven track record of community engagement initiatives and projects.
  • Strong financial management and administration structure with a capacity to recruit new employees, manage large budgets, provide training and capacity-building activities, and manage data and knowledge products.
  • Strong secure record-keeping and data management ability.
  • A well-structured governance system (e.g., board of directors/trustees, well-defined organogram, well-defined management, and administration roles, etc.)
  • Capacity to conduct qualitative and statistical contextual analysis.
  • Complies with full registration and legal requirements of the Government of Egypt.
• Other competencies, which while not required, can be an asset for the performance of services 
  • Established relationship and presence within a particular local community that is potentially a good fit with the ‘Dare to Care’ model.
  • A CBO/CSO with a strong youth and/or women mandate.
  • Experience in initiatives related to engaging men and boys in gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.
  • Experience in initiatives related to men and boys’ participation in unpaid care work.
  • CBO/CSO with internal policies and practices that support male allyship and work/life balance to facilitate staff in their unpaid care work duties, such as parental leaves, flexible work arrangements, childcare provision, gender oriented code of conduct, etc.

For more information, visit UN Women.