Deadline: 7 May 2020
UN Women is issuing a Call for Proposals (CfP) for a civil society organization, with experience in implementation of rehabilitation projects for women victims of violence and/or human trafficking, to offer expertise to central and local authorities, as well as other CSOs on adopting and implementing effective models/schemes for socio-economic integration of Gender Based-Violence against Women (GB-VAW) survivors.
In Albania, UN Women provides technical assistance to national partners (governmental and non-governmental institutions) on the implementation of existing international and national commitments to women’s rights and gender equality. Currently, a UN Joint Programme “Ending Violence against Women” (UNJP on EVAW) funded by Government of Sweden is being implemented by UNDP, UN Women and UNFPA in partnership with Albanian Government.
The Joint Programme is in line with Output 2.5 of the UN’s Programme of Cooperation for Sustainable Development (PoCSD) with the Government of Albania (GoA) and aims at: (i) strengthening the normative and accountability framework related to gender-based violence; (ii) improving institutional practices, services and coordination for survivors of violence; and (iii) challenging norms pertaining to violence against women at the state, community and individual levels.
These results aim at bringing institutional and behavioural change in preventing and responding to gender-based violence, thereby contributing to freeing women and girls from all forms of violence and from the threat of such violence. In this context, provision of general support services to women survivor of violence is an essential condition to break the cycle of violence. Women who experience domestic and other forms of violence need a number of services that would facilitate their recovery from violence, including, when necessary, legal and psychological counselling, financial assistance, housing, education, training and assistance in finding employment.
Funding Information
- The budget range for this proposal should be 9,000,000 ALL Min. – 10,000,000 ALL Max.
- Timeframe: 19 months from 1 June 2020 to December 2021
Description of required services/results
- The responsible party is expected to:
- Conduct a desk review/research about successful models of integration of women victims of violence at the national and international levels, including similar integration programs for women victims of trafficking and draw a set of recommendations for a model that could be applied in the Albanian context.
- Identify at least four municipalities and establish contacts with local government authorities, particularly members of Local Coordinated Referral Mechanisms as well as local civil society organisations, which offer services for women victims of violence in the respective municipalities.
- Support selected municipalities to develop socio-economic integration plans/schemes for women victims of domestic and all other forms of violence.
- Provide mentoring, training and other forms of support to local authorities and civil society organization to pilot the implementation of socio-economic plans within a specified timeframe.
- Monitor closely the implementation of the plans (including allocation of specific budgets) and collaborate with the Ministry of Health and Social Protection to develop recommendations for a possible scale-up of this initiative in other municipalities of Albania.
- In supporting the development and implementation of socio-economic integration plans, the Responsible Party should ensure that:
- The plans go beyond the emergency support to women victims of violence such as protection, immediate medical assistance and emergency shelter and should include: long-term medical assistance if needed; assessment and psycho-social counselling; support and legal assistance; assistance to register and attend schooling or professional training; social activities; mentoring; counselling and support for employment; support for housing like subsidizing the rent and support for long term accommodation through including VAW&DV survivors in social housing program; information on available services in the community and respective contact information; employment programs aiming to create jobs; assistance and support for the children of the victims of violence; and monitoring and ongoing follow up of the beneficiaries of the program.
- The socio-economic plans/schemes should at a minimum include:
- general framework with services that the local government and other actors can provide to women victims of violence and details on how these services will be delivered;
- identification of actors/authorities from different sectors responsible for the provision of these services
- costing and adequate budgeting for different services included in the plan (the responsible party should advocate with local authorities to ensure adequate budgets for implementation and explore different forms of funding possibilities for the implementation of integration schemes beyond the duration of this project to ensure sustainability).
- Instructions/guidelines on how to tailor the application of this plan to specific needs of different women victims of violence.
- The responsible party should collaborate with local authorities to engage private sector in the implementation of the plan, including through donation schemes and in particular to expand employment opportunities for women victims of violence.
- The socio-economic plans/schemes need to take into consideration and address the needs of women from disadvantaged communities, including Roma and Egyptian Women, women with disabilities, women from the LBT community who usually face more challenges in accessing services available for women victims of violence.
- The reintegration plans should be developed and implemented in close collaboration with local civil society organizations, which already offer services to women victims of violence such as emergency shelter, legal aid and psycho-social counselling in order to ensure that women they are supporting in emergency situation are referred to local referral mechanisms and benefit from the rehabilitation plans.
- The Responsible Party should identify prior to the implementation of the project, local or other CSOs, which will serve as Implementing Partners, to deliver these services in respective municipalities and enter into Partnership Agreements, in which the responsibilities and activities of other CSOs are clearly identified, and the respective funding is provided to carry out those activities as identified in the partnership agreement.
- The partnership between the Responsible Party and Implementing Partners should be established prior to the application process; relevant information about the Implementing Partners, including their area of work, their capacities and geographic coverage should be part of the project proposal.
Competencies
Proponent must demonstrate experience in implementing programmes on gender equality and empowerment of women through an organizational resume of past implementing experience of related projects and areas of expertise.
Qualifications of the key personnel of the responsible party and implementing partners:
- The team composition is expected to include at least an overall team leader and staff members.
- Minimum qualifications of the team leader:
- Master’s degree or equivalent in gender studies, development studies and/or other social science related areas relevant for the assignment.
- Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in the field of gender equality, and end of violence against women,
- Minimum of 5 years of experience working in provision of specialized or general support services to women victims of gender-based violence, or rehabilitation services to women victims of trafficking;
- Previous collaboration experience with public providers of support services for women victims of gender-based violence or women victims of trafficking;
- Language proficiency in both written and oral English and Albanian
Minimum qualifications of the team key personnel/experts
- Master’s degree or equivalent in gender studies, development studies and/or other social science related areas relevant for the assignment.
- Minimum of 3 years of professional experience in the field of gender equality and end of violence against women;
- Minimum of 3 years of experience working in provision of specialized or general support services to women victims of gender-based violence, or rehabilitation services to women victims of trafficking;
- Previous collaboration experience with public providers of support services for women victims of gender-based violence or women victims of trafficking.
- Language proficiency in both written and oral English and Albanian
Minimum qualifications of the team key personnel/experts of Implementing Partners
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in gender studies, development studies and/or other social science related areas relevant for the assignment; Master’s degree is an asset;
- Minimum of 3 years of professional experience in the field of gender equality and end of violence against women;
- Minimum of 3 years of experience working in provision of specialized or general support services to women victims of gender-based violence, or rehabilitation services to women victims of trafficking;
- Previous collaboration experience with public providers of support services for women victims of gender-based violence or women victims of trafficking.
- Language proficiency in both written and oral English and Albania
Criteria
UN-Women is soliciting proposals from Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). Women’s organizations or entities are highly encouraged to apply, including CSO with long experience as service providers on VAW&DV
For more information, visit https://www.un.org.al/employment-and-procurement/unwomen-call-proposal-support-municipalities-analysing-and-adopting-new