Developing GBV Protection and Prevention Guidelines for Women’s Economic Empowerment Initiatives

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Developing GBV Protection and Prevention Guidelines for Women’s Economic Empowerment Initiatives

Project “Strengthened the active participation of women (Jordanians, Syrian Refuges, Youth and Women with Disabilities) with a comprehensive approach to rights in Jordan”, co-funded by AECID – Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation.

INTRODUCTION

Alianza por la Solidaridad (Alianza-AA) was born with the vocation of working to achieve a better and more sustainable world for all, regardless of where they were born or where they decided to live. We invest all our work, knowledge, experience and creativity in defending and advancing global rights in all parts of the world and for all people.

Our work responds to the defense of the rights of migrants, the rights of women around the world, the sustainability of the environment and the defense of the rights of people affected by humanitarian crises. For this we know that we need to build an informed, critical global citizenship that is eager to get involved in the social changes necessary to achieve a world that puts people and human rights at the center. And we know that awareness-raising and advocacy is key to achieving this.

Alianza has been working in Jordan since 2007. The organisation has always collaborated with Jordanian organizations of a strong feminist nature and supported the work of civil society, especially in terms of empowerment and women's rights, prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence, both with Jordanian women and refugees. Our programmatic priorities for the period 2020-2026 are:

1. Eradicate gender-based violence suffered by women, especially young and migrant women and women rights defenders. 2. Promoting the Human Rights of Excluded Groups 3. Promote Climate Justice, ensuring the resilience of the groups most affected by Climate Change, and especially women, to adapt to leading the ecological transition. 4. Protect the most vulnerable people during humanitarian crises and strengthen their resilience capacities

Since June 2018, we are a member of ActionAid, an International Federation made up of 46 countries. Our incorporation into the Action Aid network has meant expanding our work to more than 50 countries on 5 continents, achieving greater visibility and impact. In addition, we have achieved greater efficiency in our political pressure.

Project Context

These ToR are developed within the framework of the program (hereinafter the Convenio) entitled "Strengthened the active participation of women (Jordanians, Syrian Refugees, Youth and Women with Disabilities - WwD) with a comprehensive approach to rights in Jordan", funded by the Spanish Cooperation – AECID and the Barcelona City Council.

Alianza por la Solidaridad is part of a consortium formed by three Spanish NGOs (Alianza, MPDL and NOVACT), of which Movement for Peace – MPDL is the lead organization for this intervention, along with the local partners: Be Positive; Community Based Rehabilitation Center (CBR); I Dare; and Housewives Association (HSF). The direct local partner of Alianza is HSF.

This Convenio will last until early 2027. Its general objective is to “Contribute to a life free of violence for women, preventing economic, gender, community and digital violence” and it includes 3 specific objectives:

\- SO1: Promote the sustainable and inclusive economic empowerment of Jordanian and refugee women, with special attention to young women and women with disabilities.

\- SO2: Improve the system of protection, prevention and response to gender violence in Mafraq, Zarqa and Amman.

\- SO3: Strengthen the leadership of Jordanian and refugee women, paying special attention to young women and/or women with disabilities, in peace building, preventing violent conflicts and promoting resilience in their communities.

Alianza is coordinating the implementation of SO2, in which these ToR are framed.

Project Objectives

Specific Objective 2: Improve the system of protection, prevention and response to gender violence in Mafraq, Zarqa and Amman, will be achieved through the following outcomes:

\- SO2. O1. Women and WwD (Jordanians and refugees) surviving or at risk of GBV have access to prevention, detection, care and referral services with high quality standards.

\- SO2. O2. Strengthened the favorable environment at the community level for the prevention and detection of gender violence and the promotion of women's rights, from the female leadership.

\- SO2. O3. Reinforced the joint strategy of partner organizations to guarantee the protection and empowerment of women and WwD (Jordanians and refugees) from a comprehensive perspective.

These ToR are mainly related to Outcome 2 of Specific Objective 2, more specifically with the activity A2.2.4 “Piloting and development of a protection kit to avoid potential negative impacts on women's security derived from their economic empowerment”. The goal of this activity is to develop and disseminate a set of tools grounded in experience to serve as a guide for any organization seeking to launch economic empowerment programs, ensuring protection and an approach based on the principle of “do no harm”.

CONSULTANCY

Summary of the Process

The consultant (or consultancy group) will conduct an analysis of various economic empowerment initiatives carried out both within and outside the project consortium to identify key aspects and best or worst practices related to the risks faced by women participating in these programs and their protection. Based on this analysis and knowledge of the sector, the consultant will develop intervention guidelines for organizations working on women’s economic empowerment (entrepreneurship/self-employment or employment) that will ensure potential risks are taken into account and prevent unintended consequences in terms of protection against violence and discrimination.

Objective and Outputs of the Consultancy

The project aims to develop comprehensive, practical, and useful guidelines or a toolkit to ensure the protection against and prevention of gender-based violence at all stages of economic empowerment programs. This toolkit will serve as a reference for any stakeholder (community organizations, NGOs, public institutions) that implements economic empowerment programs for vulnerable women or intends to do so in the future.

Prior to this, the consultant will analyze real-world cases carried out by partners in order to better understand the challenges, main obstacles, and risks related to the protection of women and the prevention of gender-based violence in this type of interventions.

The specific expected outputs are as follows:

• Conduct a thorough analysis of current/recent experiences of economic empowerment initiatives for women, identifying: practices that entail or might entail risks of GBV or any other protection risk; short-term impact of the initiatives on (risk of) GBV by women participants; solutions/recommendations to bridge these gaps; good practices implemented to ensure protection and/or avoid (further) GBV and discrimination throughout the program cycle, especially for those women already at risk.
• Develop a comprehensive and user-friendly toolkit to ensure protection for women in economic empowerment programs, especially those addressed to vulnerable women. The toolkit must cover the whole program cycle, addressing at the very least: Design, planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation.
• Train Alianza-AA staff, partners and other relevant stakeholders in understanding and using these guidelines/toolkit.

All the process will be guided by the following principles:

• Human rights-based approach (HRBA), ensuring a thorough analysis of the root causes of protection risks and treating participant women as right-holders.
• Survivor-centered approach, that will guide the consultants in their engagement with persons who have experienced GBV or may be at risk of it. This principle will also be integrated in the contents of the toolkit.
• Intersectionality. The process and the developed tools will account for and be responsive to the different rights, needs and risks attached to different sources of vulnerability added to gender discrimination —such as age, disability, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, etc.
• Do no harm. The concept of ‘do no harm’ means that humanitarian organizations must strive to “minimize the harm they may inadvertently be doing by being present and providing assistance.” Such unintended negative consequences may be wide-ranging and extremely complex. Protection actors can reinforce the ‘do no harm’ principle in their GBV-related work through careful attention to the human rights-based, survivor centred, community-based and systems approaches described below.

Tasks and Deliverables

The consultant is expected to carry out the following tasks and submit the following deliverables:

1. Assessment and empirical analysis - Conduct an analysis of at least two economic empowerment initiatives implemented in the Jordanian context. The design of this process will be agreed with Alianza-AA and will be participatory, including the experiences and opinions of women participating in these initiatives. Relevant deliverable: inception report. - Complement the analysis with existing GBV prevention and protection frameworks and relevant literature review. - Submit an assessment report in English, including all the relevant information and conclusions. This report will include a specific proposal for the guidelines/toolkit (structure, methodology, etc.). Any survey or data collected will also be submitted to Alianza-AA. 2. Elaboration of toolkit/guidelines - Elaborate the toolkit for GBV protection in economic empowerment programs. The draft structure and other key features of the toolkit/guidelines will be shared in advance with Alianza-AA for approval in the final report of phase 1. - Submit a toolkit draft in English, for observations and inputs by Alianza-AA. - Submit a final draft in English for approval by Alianza-AA. - Submission of the final version of toolkit/guidelines in English and Arabic. 3. Training & dissemination - Implement a training session to explain the toolkit and how to use it to the consortium members and other relevant stakeholders (participants transportation and refreshments covered by Alianza-AA). - Deliverables for this phase will include a presentation and a session report with the materials and methods applied in English and Arabic, in order to facilitate multiplication of the training by other organisations.

All the deliverables will include the logos of the funding entities and Alianza-AA.

Duration

The consultant’s commitment for the specific service is expected to last for about 2,5 months. The specific work plan will be agreed with Alianza.

REQUIREMENTS & SELECTION PROCESS

Profile Requirement

The consultant (or consultancy team) profile shall comply with the following requirements:

• Degree in Gender Studies, Social Work, Psychology, or related fields relevant to the assignment.
• Proven knowledge of GBV and protection issues, including key concepts, approaches and relevant stakeholders and frameworks at local and international level.
• Proven experience in GBV and protection programming.
• Proven experience in participatory analysis and assessments.
• Experience working with vulnerable communities, especially with women survivors or at risk of GBV.
• Strong research and facilitation skills, with a focus on participatory methodologies.
• Ability to develop innovative and user-friendly training materials.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Understanding of the local context and cultural dynamics related to GBV and gender issues in Jordan.
• High or native level of Arabic.
• High level of English.

Application and submission deadline

The consultant must submit a technical and financial proposal (maximum 10 pages in total) including the following:

• Cover letter of maximum 500 words, highlighting the motivation and key skills for the service
• CV
• Tentative workplan
• Methodological approach
• Tentative activities and/or other relevant considerations
• Detailed financial proposal including all applicable taxes

All applications should be submitted by 6th Jun 2026. Please send your application to Ari.jobs@actionaid.org with the subject line: "Protection in Economic Empowerment – \[Your Name\]".

Pre-selected consultants may be requested to have an interview.

Evaluation

Proposals will be evaluated according to the following:

CRITERION VALUE

Academic profile 20%

Prior experience 30%

Quality of the proposal 30%

Added value 5%

Financial offer 15%

Incomplete proposals will not be considered.

Profiles not complying with the mandatory language requirements will not be considered.

“Alianza por la Solidaridad (the Spanish member of ActionAid International) is committed to preventing any kind of unwanted behavior at work, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse, lack of integrity, and/or financial misconduct. We expect all our staff, volunteers, suppliers and partners to share this commitment and adhere to our code of conduct, as well as other policies related to and approved by the organization. Only those who share our values and code of conduct will be selected to work with us”