Consultant Report Writer: Increasing risk of GBV for displaced/refugee women

Please note, this consultant could be based anywhere, however the consultancy contract will be administered through the IRC office in London. 

IRC is seeking a consultant to draft a report on the increasing risk of GBV for displaced/refugee women and girls face in times of COVID.

Women and girls in emergencies and protracted crisis are hit hardest by the mitigation measures that were put in place by governments to curb the transmission of COVID-19. IRC risk analysis from WPE teams in 34 countries found women raising concerns about their safety in the home, experiencing increased violence, feeling isolated and overburdened and reported early forced marriage of adolescent girls. The pandemic deepens entrenched harmful gender norms and the solutions and policies devised by gender-neutral decision making bodies perpetuate existing inequalities.

UN Secretary General António Guterres called on governments to put the safety of women and girls first in their response to the pandemic. Yet, this high level of attention and rhetoric has not yet translated into humanitarian action that actually puts the safety and needs of women and girls first. Currently, funding requests for gender-based violence programming (GBV) represent only 0.68% of the overall COVID-19 funding appeal as of 19 May, as part of the Global Humanitarian Response Plan (GHRP).

The purpose of the report is to

• convey an accurate picture of the increased violence, risks and challenges refugees/displaced women face in their day to day life under COVID lockdown.
• convey the sense of urgency behind our advocacy asks to policy makers and underpin it with data from diverse humanitarian contexts across the world.
• provide initial financial analysis of GBV funding and - if possible - allocation to front line responders at national level.
• make the case for why we must engage women and girls in the design of emergency response programming from the start, including program adaptations to COVID, to ensure their safe and equitable access to aid.
• showcase how IRC addresses women’s and girls’ feedback in risk mitigation strategies.
• make the case of why frontline responders such as the IRC and women’s organisations need to be able to access rapid, flexible and multi-year funding directly.

In particular the report will call for increase in funding GBV programming, especially to frontline responders, and highlight the need to elevate the voice and agency of women and girls. 

Core Consulting Tasks

• Document review of a data analysis provided by IRC, based on the WPE Remote Safety Audit data from 30-35 countries
• Document review of initial funding analysis provided by IRC
• 6-8 Key Informant Interviews with IRC WPE managers and external experts (Questionnaire and list of stakeholders provided by IRC)
• Draft approximately 15-20 page policy report including findings of data analysis report and KIIs (including data visualization, excluding editing and translation)
• Presentation of report to IRC staff and inclusion of feedback prior to finalization
• Meeting with IRC at least once a week throughout consultancy.

Key outputs

• Written report of 15-20 pages
• 12 days for interviews, analysis and drafting of the report
• 4 days for report writing, incorporation of feedback, and presentation

Please note, the work needs to take place in August for completion of the report in September.