National Consultant for Development of National Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) on Violence Against Women, Focusing on Women Migrant Workers

BACKGROUND

Violence against women (VAW) is a pervasive human right violation that affects one out of three women worldwide.[1] Cutting across all distinctions of geography, class or ethnicity, it is firmly grounded in unequal power relations between women and men and reinforced by discriminatory and gender-biased attitudes, norms and practices that both contribute to such violations and allow them to continue unchallenged. VAW impedes human development and has serious negative consequences, ranging from multiple immediate to long-term physical, sexual and psychological impacts, which often prevent women and girls from fully participating in society. In addition, it carries tremendous economic costs for women, their families, for businesses, national budgets, the economy and society at large.

VAW is rooted in gender inequality, discrimination, and harmful cultural and social norms. It is an expression of power and control of men over women. Harmful notions of masculinity, the sense of sexual entitlement that many men have over women and their bodies, and the widespread cultural acceptance of violence, drive violence against women and allow it to continue unchallenged.

Women migrant workers are disproportionately vulnerable to violence, abuse and exploitation at all stages of the migration cycle and they often experience intersectional forms of discrimination due to the sector of labour market insertion, legal status, limited access to information, debt bondage, among others. As outlined in the 2017 Report of the Secretary-General on “Violence against women migrant workers”, while women can considerably increase their agency through their decision to migrate, they are also overwhelmingly featured as survivors of VAW and trafficking for purposes of sexual exploitation. Women migrant survivors of violence and trafficking face multiple challenges while seeking justice or accessing essential services. Lack of gender-sensitive facilities and reception services, absence of protection orders, limited referral networks and coordination mechanisms are among the main barriers faced by survivors of VAW.

Safe and Fair: Realizing women migrant workers’ rights and opportunities in the ASEAN region (2018-2022), is part of the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls, a global, multi-year initiative between the European Union and United Nations. Safe and Fair is implemented through a partnership between the ILO and UN Women with the overriding objective of ensuring that labour migration is safe and fair for all women in the ASEAN region. The programme aims to address women migrant workers’ vulnerabilities to violence and trafficking, strengthen rights-based and gender-responsive approaches to violence against women and labour migration governance, and support access to essential services.

In Thailand, Safe and Fair works in close cooperation with governments and social partners to achieve three inter-linking specific objectives: (1) Women migrant workers are better protected by gender-sensitive labour migration governance frameworks; (2) Women migrant workers are less vulnerable to violence and trafficking and benefit from coordinated responsive quality services; and (3) Data, knowledge and attitudes on the rights and contributions of women migrant workers are improved. The programme strategy mainstreams three cross-cutting topics: women’s voice and agency; rights-based approach; and broad engagement of stakeholders.

In 2019, Safe and Fair conducted Scoping Studies Research with the objective of increasing knowledge on existing legal frameworks and referral structures in the field of violence against women (VAW), labour migration and trafficking. Through extensive country reports, a deep overview of existing services for survivors of violence, including women migrant workers, is provided.

In August 2019, the National Workshop on Coordinated Quality Services for Ending Violence against Women, held in Bangkok, the importance of developing and operationalizing localized Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on VAW referral mechanisms was agreed among key stakeholders, such as government agencies and civil society organizations. Furthermore, in December 2019, during the Workshop on Quality VAW Service Coordination in Mae Sot, key stakeholders discussed the development of local SOPs on VAW prevention and response, mapped existing key actors on VAW services with a particular focus on women migrant workers.

As a result of the consultation in 2019, the local SOP in Chiang Mai, Bangkok, and Mae Sot was drafted and signed by multi-agency essential consultant on 14 December 2021, 15 December 2021, and 5 July 2022 consecutively.

As part of the effort to strengthen the effective functioning of coordination at the national level, the Safe and Fair Programme, in partnership with the Department of Women's Affairs and Family Development, Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, organized a national dialogue to discuss the draft national Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) on Violence against Women, including Women Migrant Workers on 1 July 2022. This consultancy aims to build on the initial draft and finalize the national SOP on VAW for Thailand, considering the inputs from government departments and CSOs, EVAW experts, and the collection of good practices at the local level (local SOPs in Bangkok, Mae Sot, Chiang Mai) in line with international standards and guidelines, without leaving women migrants subject to violence behind.

Duties and Responsibilities

2. Scope of work

The Consultant will be responsible for:

Reviewing the draft national SOP on VAW for Thailand, based on recommendations from stakeholders and UN Women VAW expert groups, in line with international standards and guidelines
Facilitating and moderating the verifying workshop to finalize the national SOP on VAW for Thailand.
Revising and finalizing the national SOP on VAW for Thailand (The SOPs should be produced in both Thai and English languages)

This consultancy will contribute to the Programme’s “Output 02.04: Capacity of front-line services providers (health, social and criminal justice) to respond to the needs of women migrants experiencing violence and trafficking is enhanced”, “Activity 2.4.2 Skills building on quality responses and service referral to front-line/initial contact consultant, to increase access for migrants who are or have experienced violence and trafficking” and “Indicator 2.4.3 Number of joint task forces (linking, for example, criminal justice, labour, immigration and VAW) established on women’s protection/trafficking.”

3. DELIVERABLES AND TIMELINE

The consultant will produce the following deliverables:

No

Tasks and Deliverables

Target Dates

1

Review first draft national SOP in both Thai and English languages, based on inputs from consultative meeting on 1 July 2022, inputs from Safe and Fair EVAW experts, and the collection of good practices at local level (local SOPs in Bangkok, Mae Sot, Chiang Mai) in line with international standards and guidelines.
Deliverable:

Amended draft national SOP on VAW (in both Thai and English)

15 November 2022

2

Moderate/ facilitate the discussion at the verification workshop.
Deliverable:

PPT Presentation for verification of national SOP
Finalized and agreed progress report of the workshop

15 February 2023

3

Revise and finalize the national SOP on VAW for Thailand, per the inputs from the verifying workshop and inputs from Safe and Fair EVAW experts.

Deliverable:

Final national SOPs (in both Thai and English languages)

15 April 2023

4. DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT

The duration of the consultancy is from 26 September 2022 to 30 April 2023. The duty station is Bangkok (home-based). In the event that the consultant needs to travel related to this assignment, UN Women will bear the costs of requested travel expenses.

5. CONTRACT SUPERVISION

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of Programme Analyst – Ending Violence against Women, Safe and Fair Programme, UN Women who will be responsible for the quality assurance of the deliverables.

6. SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

Payments for this selected individual will be based on the achievement of each following deliverables and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed. Payments will not be based on the number of days worked but on the completion of each stated deliverable within the indicated timeframes.

Competencies

7. COMPETENCY

Core Values:

Respect for Diversity
Integrity
Professionalism

Core Competencies:

Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
Accountability
Creative Problem Solving
Effective Communication
Inclusive Collaboration
Stakeholder Engagement
Leading by Example

Required Skills and Experience

8. DEGREE OF EXPERTISE AND QUALIFICATIONS

Master's degree or higher in Gender Studies, Social Science, Laws, Political Science, international relations, or related development fields. A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Minimum 2 years of relevant work experience, with demonstrable expertise in VAW prevention and response.
Experience working on women's rights, migrant workers' issues, refugees or IDPs is required.
Experience writing policy recommendations or research reports is required.
Experience in development of SOP, guidelines, and procedures.
Experience in drafting National Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) is a plus.
Experience working with government, NGOs and the migrant worker community is required.

• Excellent command of English and Thai with proven writing sample.

9. EVALUATION

Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis.

Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [70%]
Financial Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%]

A two-stage procedure is utilised in evaluating the applications, with evaluation of the technical application being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal of the candidates who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated.

Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Technical Evaluation Criteria

Obtainable Score

Education

Master's degree or higher in Gender Studies, Social Science, Laws, Political Science, international relations, or related development fields. A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

20%

B. Substantive experience and skills

Minimum 2 years of relevant work experience, with demonstrable expertise in VAW prevention and response.
Experience working on women's rights, migrant workers' issues, refugees or IDPs is required.
Experience writing policy recommendations or research report is required.
Experience in development of SOP, guidelines and procedures.
Experience in drafting National Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) is a plus.

40%

C. Coordination skills

Experience working with government, NGOs and migrant worker community is required.

20%

D. Reporting writing and language skills

Excellent command of English and Thai with proven writing sample.

20%

Total Obtainable Score

100%

Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

Only the financial proposal of candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation will be considered and evaluated.
The total number of points allocated for the price component is 100.
The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened/ evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.