Safeguarding Consultant

Background

FHI 360, an international non-profit organization, is implementing the Lebanon Civic Action Accelerator Program (LEB-CAAP), a program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to support civil society actors across Lebanon.

Through this Request for Proposals (RFP), FHI 360 seeks a Safeguarding Consultant to support in implementing FHI 360 safeguarding requirements and capacity strengthening for its grantees.

Scope of Work

The consultant will assist FHI 360 by providing technical support to civil society partners on evaluating, developing and implementing safeguarding policies and procedures. The consultant will give technical input on the CSOs’ safeguarding self-assessments results, evaluate the submitted policies, conduct field visits, complete the scoring, give recommendations, and put an adequate action plan in coordination with CSOs.  The consultant will contribute to the production of the training and resource materials, contribute to delivering safeguarding training sessions given to CSOs and provide mentoring and follow-up on the implementation of action plans.

Detailed responsibilities include:

The Safeguarding Consultant will contribute to advancing LEB-CAAP’s commitment to Gender Equality, Safeguarding and Social Inclusion (GESSI) and work in line with FHI 360’s GESSI framework, safeguarding policies, procedures and protocols. In coordination with our Senior GESSI Advisor and Senior Team Leader/Capacity Strengthening, the consultant’s tasks include but are not limited to the following:

1. Review CSO safeguarding self-assessments and submitted policies, provide an analysis of the results, recommend actions to improve policies and procedures and propose next steps.
2. Facilitate the development of capacity strengthening action plans based on the assessment findings and policy reviews with inputs.
3. Deliver training and/or coaching to support CSOs in drafting and implementing safeguarding policies, mechanisms, procedures, and staff orientations, etc.
4. Monitor grantee progress and provide updates to LEB-CAAP with recommendations for follow-on support as needed.
5. Define a timeframe for each CSO to revise and develop its policies based on a scoring result in place.
6. Support CSOs to establish/improve their monitoring mechanisms and oversee the implementation phase, providing support as required.
7. Document and report progress per LEB-CAAP reporting mechanism in line with the project’s monitoring, evaluation and learning framework, and the project’s GESSI Action Plan.
8. Capture successful work of CSO and support the comms team in highlighting their advancement in the safeguarding in practice.

LEB-CAAP will provide all necessary program documents and information for the consultant and will facilitate introductory meetings with the grantees.

Location of Work

Lebanon.

Travel

In-person meetings with the LEB-CAAP team and its grantees are required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in international development, gender studies, social studies or other related field; Master’s degree is a plus.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in the safeguarding field
• Professional certificates in the GESI and Safeguarding field
• Experience in implementing a similar scope of work with USAID funded programs is a plus
• Experience in training design and delivery and material development is required

Evaluation Criteria: The following criteria will be considered in the evaluation of the received proposals:

Past performance        40%

Technical response     40%

Cost                           20%

Required Documentation: proposals must include the following components:

1. CV
2. Technical Proposal that includes a cover Letter addressing the consultant’s experience completing similar safeguarding tasks (providing technical assistance to CSOs, reviewing and analyzing policies, developing training materials etc.) and answering the following question:

FHI 360 requires that all grantees and partners complete a safeguarding self-assessment tool to assess adherence to a set of industry standards for safeguarding for program participants. The standards in this tool align with FHI 360’s safeguarding policies, major funder requirements, and international safeguarding standards. When the standards are effectively and fully implemented, it is an indication that an organization has taken important steps to establish internal controls to address sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA), pledging to combat trafficking in persons, protect children and  mitigating the risk of any type of harm towards program participants,  

Your role as LEB-CAAP's safeguarding consultant will be to assist grantees in reflecting on their self-assessment results and to create/strengthen these policies and turn them into organizational practice at all levels.  However, for many CSOs, short-term priorities to fundraise and deliver programs and services take precedent over longer-term systems strengthening and capacity building, with safeguarding somewhere in between.    

Based on your safeguarding work in Lebanon, what challenges have you faced in ensuring CSOs are compliant with international safeguarding requirements?  As LEB-CAAP’s safeguarding consultant, what strategies would you utilize to support CSOs to make safeguarding more than a donor requirement?  Describe concrete steps you would take with CSO leadership (executive director, board, HR, and finance) to allocate the necessary resources and turn policies into practice.

1. List of three professional references that includes: name, position, organization, email, telephone number and a summary of the specific assignment implemented by the applicant, products/outputs produced and timeframe for the assignment
2. Cost proposal (daily rate)

FHI 360 Disclaimers

• • FHI 360 may perform a background check on any selected candidates.
  • FHI 360 may cancel the solicitation and not award
  • FHI 360 may reject any or all responses received
  • Issuance of the solicitation does not constitute an award commitment by FHI 360
  • FHI 360 reserves the right to disqualify any offer based on failure of the offeror to follow solicitation instructions
  • FHI 360 will not compensate any offeror for responding to solicitation
  • FHI 360 reserves the right to issue award based on initial evaluation of offers without further discussion
  • FHI 360 may choose to award only part of the activities in the solicitation, or issue multiple awards based on the solicitation activities
  • FHI 360 reserves the right to waive minor proposal deficiencies that can be corrected prior to award determination to promote competition
  • FHI 360’s consultant terms and conditions can be found here