Call for Proposals: Engage Men and Boys in Unpaid Care and Household Responsibilities in Jordan

Deadline: 13-Jul-24

UN Women has announced a call for proposals to support the involvement of men and boys in unpaid care and household responsibilities in Jordan.

In October 2023, UN Women in the Arab States region initiated the implementation of a three-year regional program entitled ‘Dare to Care’ (DTC) aiming to promote positive gender norms for gender equality and women’s empowerment 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 to address women’s double burden as one of the main hurdles that impede their economic participation. Thus, the program is 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 Programme 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 addressing social norms on unpaid care work in the region.

This call for proposal seeks to partner with a CSO/CBO under Outcome 1 of the Programme (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.) The overall objective of this project is: “Targeted communities evidence progress towards social norms change for the participation of men and boys in caregiving and household responsibilities and the empowerment of women and girls.”

Further, the project of this Partnership Agreement is expected to achieve the following results (indicators and targets) of the ‘Dare to Care’ Regional Programme:

• Reduction of the gender gap in time spent on unpaid care and domestic work by men and women from target communities through the implementation of the community-based model. Target: 60 minutes
• The extent to which the social norms change model in target communities contributes to increasing gender equality and women’s economic empowerment (qualitative indicator).
• Increase in percentage of populations from target communities with improved attitudes towards gender equality, namely: 1) Involvement of men in caregiving and household responsibilities; 2) Women’s participation in the labor market; 3) Women’s participation in public decision-making; and 4) The belief that gender based violence is never justified (disaggregated by sex, age, location).
• Increase in the percentage of populations in target communities who believe that other males should participate in caregiving and household responsibilities (disaggregated by sex, age, and location).
• Decreased percentage of males in target communities who believe that others will judge them negatively if they participate in caregiving and household responsibilities (by age, and location).

The above results will be achieved through implementing the social norms change 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’ (UN Women 2023) which was developed and produced to guide the implementation of the community engagement component of the first outcome of the ‘Dare to Care’ program. The intervention model aims to promote male engagement in domestic and family unpaid care work, which would also contribute to reducing the burden on women and increase women’s participation in the workforce. More information can be shared with interested applicants

This call for proposal aims to identify a local Responsible Partner (RP) in Jordan 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, sub-national, and national levels. More significantly, the implementing partner, under overall guidance from UN Women’s Jordan Country Office and in consultation with the UN Women Regional office for the Arab States, 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.

Funding Information

• The budget range for this proposal should be ($260,000-300,000) (JOD 184,080-212,400).

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.

Services Required/Results 

• The selected Responsible 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 in Jordan and through the model’s five phases (full description and details of activities are in the model manual). The RP is also expected to cooperate with the UN Women Regional Office for the Arab States and the UN Women’s 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 RP is expected to become a member and participate by sharing results, lessons learned, etc.
• Outcome 1: a local community demonstrate an increased involvement of men and boys in caregiving and household responsibilities and more empowerment of women and girls in Jordan
• Output 1.1: UN Women Community evidence-based approach to achieve progress towards social norms change for the participation of men and boys in caregiving and household responsibilities and the empowerment of women and girls is initiated.
  • Phase 1: Scope implementation area and buy-in from the target community. This entails:
    • Provide detailed description and data of the socio-economic demographics of the target community.
    • Identify key influencers in the area and presenting a methodology for building buy-in to reduce barriers to implementation.
    • Strategize to navigate the legal and institutional frameworks and requirement that would affect implementation on the local and central levels.
    • Develop a methodology for incentivizing community members and key influencers to participate actively and positively in the intervention.
    • Phase 1 duration: up to 8 weeks
  • Phase 2: Recruit and build the capacity of ‘Community Animators’ to implement UN Women community based approach 
    • 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 equality training, orientation on community engagement and family identification, and journaling and documentation. Remuneration of Community Animators will be costed as part of the project’s budget.
    • Phase 2 duration: up to 10 weeks
  • Phase 3: Formulate community clusters, where UN Women community based approach will be piloted: 
    • 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.
    • Engage local households through regular visits and activities at the family and cluster levels through community animators.
    • Phase 3 duration: 6-8 weeks
• Output 1.2: The selected local community is engaged to achieve progress towards social norms change for the participation of men and boys in caregiving and household responsibilities and the empowerment of women and girls using UN Women approach
  • Phase 4: Implement UN Women community based approach through the engagement of community clusters in the selected local community:
    • Engage community clusters in activities and social actions that present healthy relationships and promote men’s participation in unpaid care work.
    • Raise the awareness and knowledge of community members concerning positive social norms and practices that support women’s economic participation.
    • In this phase, the RP, 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: Scale up the implementation of UN Women community based approach to achieve progress towards social norms change for the participation of men and boys in caregiving and household responsibilities and the empowerment of women and girls 
    • Expand and involve larger numbers of the community members by creating new cohorts of community clusters and implementing new action projects.
    • Apply principle of peer influencing through the utilization of community members from phase 4 as activists and mobilizers of action and promoters of change.
    • by 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.
  • UN Women Jordan seeks to partner with a local or national non-governmental organization (NGO) registered in Jordan to carry out the activities listed in this CfP. It is possible to apply for this or responsible parties can subcontract with others. Proponents may use the services of sub-contractors or sub-partners to partially perform the work except if the proponent is providing grant-making work. The proponent’s Technical Proposal shall indicate clearly if the proponent is intending to use sub-contractors or sub-partners and their names. If it is not possible to include the names of sub-partners and sub-contractors in the proposal, the names must be submitted to UN Women as soon as possible.  The partner(s) (and any subcontracting parties) must have the following technical and functional competencies:
    • Reputation of Organization and Staff: 
      • Documented successful track record (for newly formed organizations, the personnel to be assigned to the UN Women project should have a proven track record of five years in the subject field).
      • A proven commitment to results (able to provide records of successful projects).
      • Proven credibility in terms of working towards gender equality, women’s empowerment, civic engagement and leadership in protracted crisis context.
    • General Organizational Capability: 
      • Ability to convene a wide range of stakeholders, generating trust through participatory methods that ensures inclusivity and equal involvement of all parties concerned.
      • Track record of working with local authorities and actors, civil society, UN, and other multilateral or bilateral actors.
      • Record and evidence of organizational culture of accountability, such as a written code of conduct, measures on anticorruption, protection against sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment policy.
      • A track record of delivering quality and timely project results, as well as communicating on any challenges or delays.
      • Ability to seek alternative ways to carry out activities in order to avoid risks.
    • Organizational expertise in the area of specified program: 
      • Evidence on previous experience in successful management of projects of the same nature and similar to the Oasis centers. Track record on delivering activities focusing on empowerment initiatives for women.
      • Strong proven evidence in providing the above-mentioned services for women and girls with diverse ages, disabilities, socio-economical, educational, cultural and geographical backgrounds, skills and ambitions.
      • Proven compliance and capacities to implement according to the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) minimum standards on GBV in emergencies, protection, protection against sexual exploitation and abuse, accountability to affected populations, child protection and core humanitarian principles.
    • Accountability and Financial Control: 
      • A functioning internal control framework and process to deliver quality and timely project results.
      • Strong monitoring and evaluation mechanism.
      • 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 Transformative Approach, principles and tools
        • Cultural sensitivity and contextual social negotiations
        • Promoting positive role of men and boys in gender justice
        • Technical skills, such as reporting and M&E
    • In the selection of partners, the following competencies will be considered:
      • Soundness of technical competency described in the approach to the outcome/outputs as described in the Terms of Reference for the Call for Proposals.
      • Capacity to deliver expected results: Governance and management competency, and financial and administrative competency.
      • The selected RP is expected to provide staff members to the project:
        • Full time Project Manager
        • M&E specialist
        • Part time Finance Associate
        • Part time programme Admin.
  • The staffing process as well as onboarding with UN Women is expected to take place ahead of the commencement of phase 1.
• Other competencies, which while not required, can be an asset for the performance of services.

For more information, visit UN Women.