External Research Expert within Regional Project: “Men and Boys as Partners in Promoting Gender Equ

About local organization

The mission of ACT for SOCIETY Center is to enhance the healthy lifestyles and stimulate the sustainable development of society. Our work consists on advocating for human rights issues, democracy, promoting culture, connecting youth, stimulating the active participation of young people in social life and decision-making processes, both in the local and national level.

Our NGO has been operating many years in promoting active participation of young people in their communities and help them be the change makers for the issues concerning them. Also, we have experience in implementing projects in high schools and specific communities, where we have shown our self to be capable on helping young people create positive culture in schools and/or communities and build connections with each – other. Also, referring to our previous and current projects, it is obvious that our methodology and way of working is focused on research and prevention policy.

ACT for SOCIETY Center is a partner in the project "Men and Boys as Partners in Promoting Gender Equality and prevention of Youth Extremism and Violence in the Balkans", implemented by CARE International in Balkans and supported by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and OAK Foundation. We became a partner in the project since November 2017 and are now starting the second year of the project. This year we have created our youth club to initiate the project and test the program, our youth club, specifically called “Be a Man Club” had weekly meetings that were used to train them into becoming effective peer educators and leaders. In the second year of the project we plan on accrediting and scaling up the Program Y. Although, one of the focus points of this project that is of high importance for the interested applicants the Development and Implementation of “Program Y+”. During this period we have also researched and done community mapping in different locations. A Program Y Plus model will be developed in the selected community based on the baseline research. From this program we expect on directly reaching 150 youngsters, 50 parents and 75 community members.

Background

The Men and Boys as Partners in Promoting Gender Equality and prevention of Youth Extremism and Violence in the Balkans or Young Men Initiative II (YMI II) project builds upon CARE´s comprehensive and programmatic effort to fight interpersonal and gender based violence (GBV) as well as to improve gender equality in the region and address preventative issues related to youth extremism and violence.

The project objective is to enable positive and peaceful societies for young people in Serbia, Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, that support gender equality and decrease interpersonal violence and its extremism.

The project’s specific objective is to improve Youth NGOs and government capacities to integrate Program Youth - Life Skills Educational Curriculum in the current educational and youth policy strategies and strengthen governmental and civil society efforts related to the inclusion of youth vulnerable to extremism.

This project aims at scaling up and mainstreaming earlier achievements related to the implementation of the Gender Transformative Life Skills program, or short Program Y, via targeted advocacy and a close cooperation with relevant stakeholder through the support of movement / coalition building through the development of new alliances that engage parents and citizens in supporting gender equality focused life skills education program. One of the main results of the project is to develop educational tools for scaling up such activities as online education and working with universities in the training of new educators. To enhance this process, CARE will scale up the Program Y in selected secondary vocational schools whereby the schools take the lead in the implementation with the support from CARE’s local partners and will identify allies among teachers, who will act as trainers of trainers (ToT) and youth engaged as peer educators. In addition, a new comprehensive model, Program Y plus will be piloted working with a more select group of youth vulnerable to violence and extremism. This model seeks to increase community connections and address the multiple layers of exclusion often leading to extremism. CARE´s local partner organizations are increasingly recognized as key players by the public stakeholders in the field of men engagement, youth work and gender equality. Supported by the project, the partners will launch campaigns targeting youth and selected communities, around hate speech and promoting the positive role of all community members in addressing extremism and violence. The project will mainly build on the use of social media, but also involve popular media and the arts to further messaging and reaching vulnerable groups. The project will continue to support the efforts of CARE´s partners to become national resource centers in regards to gender equality, youth work and violence prevention.

The main expected outputs are the following:

Output 1: Life Skills program (Program Y) scaled up in accredited countries with the Ministries of Education and supported in its promotion and capacity building for use in secondary schools.

Output 2: In selected communities, a Program Youth “Plus model” is developed, piloted and tested to address issues of vulnerability to violence and extremism amongst selected youth.

Output 3: In targeted countries, social movements activated and/or supported to engage/encourage citizens; including parents, youth and a diverse civil society, with the focus on encouraging governments to actively promote/address gender equality, life skills and health education in schools.

Output 4: Social norms campaign developed for targeted audience promoting peaceful masculinities, gender equality and addressing hate speech and intolerance.

The YMI II project is be implemented in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Serbia and targets youth, especially young men vulnerable to violence and anti-social behaviors and strengthen key skills, knowledge, attitudes that support improved behaviors around gender equitable norms and non-violence. In total 56.800 people will be directly reached through the project: 150 teachers, 5000 students, 150 university students, 50.200 youth, 1100 parents/citizens, 100 community members and 100 movement leaders. (Indirectly more than 68.000 people).

Research team

The Research team will consist of YMI Coordinator, an External Consultant and Y-Peer Network representative.

The Consultant is a critical partner in the implementation of the Needs Assesment. The Consultant will provide inputs on the assessment content (study design, sampling approach, indicators, etc.), implementation plan, The Consultant will be involved in analyzing and interpreting the findings, data entering and producing the reports. He/she will work in close cooperation with YMI Coordinator.

ACT for SOCIETY Center invites individual experts, teams of experts, NGOs and agencies for the Balkans region, familiar with the context and subject of the project in question, to respond to this call and present in details their expertise, experience, division of work and responsibility levels/responsible person (in case of teams or agencies).

Coordination/Responsibility

Partner organization commits itself to:

• Prepare and agree on a work-plan with the Consultant(s)

• Provide support with implementing the data collection.

• Coordinate with the Consultant(s)

• Provide requested documentation to Consultant(s)

• Provide logistical support to the Consultant(s)

Consultant commits him/herself to:

• Realize all the activities listed in TOR in highly professional manner

• Respectful collaboration with partner organization and beneficiaries in the field

• Submit full needs Assessment report within deadlines.

• Report to Project Coordinator

Application process

If an individual is applying it is necessary to enclose:

- CV with printed hard copies (or e-documents in PDF format on CD) or active web links that indicates experience described in above eligibility section

- Daily fee/rate per day in Euro and the number of days predicted for the work. The Consultant should make a breakdown of costs in the budget part of the proposal, including different activities and types of costs (travel related costs should be included into the budget, if any).

If a company is applying, beside above listed requests, it must enclose proof of tax paid.

Offers should be submitted by 28th of May 2020 at 4 p.m. to the following addresses:

• Rruga "Blv. Zhanë D'ark", Ndertesa 61, Hyrja 5, Apartamenti 24, Tirana, Albania or

• To the email address: actfsociety@gmail.com