NOTE

This Term of Reference is to conduct a study that aims to collect administrative and budgetary data to estimate the annual economic cost of health, security, justice and social services due to domestic violence against women and girls in Jordan.

The study aims to expand the understanding of the economic cost of violence against women in Jordan, and efforts made by the governmental and non-governmental actors to address.

The results of this study will enable the GOJ to take resolute, evidence-based and policies and actions towards combating violence against women and girls in Jordan; assist the GOJ in meeting its obligations towards the SDGs, particularly in reaching the targets on VAW identified in Goal 5; expected legal and policy reform will lead to a more effective allocation of State resources.

This assignment corresponds to one of the four goals of the National Strategy for Women in Jordan (2020-2025) focuses on addressing violence against women and harmful practices: Women and girls enjoy a life free of all forms of violence. One of the main indicators for measuring the advancement towards the implementation of this goal is the estimation of the economic cost of violence against women and girls in Jordan.

The Jordanian National Commission for Women (hereinafter – JNCW) is the national machinery for Women in Jordan established in 1992 by the Cabinet Decree and chaired by HRH Princess Basma Bint Talal, which mandate is the promotion of status of women in Jordan and ensuring non-discrimination. The Commission works on integrating women’s issues and priorities in national strategies, policies, legislation, plans, and budgets; developing and monitoring the implementation of the National Strategy for Women in Jordan. JNCW is a reference body for all official agencies in setting woman-related policies and strategies, reviewing legislations to remove all forms of discrimination, therefore JNCW and Jordanian State recognising commitments and obligations that framed in the multiple international agreements and treaties.

I. Background

Violence against women (VAW), and specifically domestic violence (DV) against women, is a global pandemic and a violation of an individual’s human rights. Research has found that one in every three women worldwide has experienced physical and/or sexual violence, and the rate is slightly higher at 37 per cent in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

The Government of Jordan has taken serious steps over the past two decades to protect women from violence and enhance response to VAW. In 1997, the Family Protection Department (FPD) was established under the Public Security Directorate (PSD), the first in the region. A new law for the protection from Domestic Violence was adopted in 2017 to better tackle this phenomenon. The national team for the protection from Domestic Violence was established in 2003 under the leadership of the National Council for Family affairs which leads the coordination efforts among the different stakeholders..  

 According to DHS 2017-2018, the national prevalence rate of violence is approximately 22 per cent among ever married women aged 15 – 49. These women have been exposed to physical, sexual or psychological violence by a current or former intimate partner in the last 12 months before the survey. According to the same report, 21% of ever-married women age 15-49 have experienced physical violence since age 15; 26% - experienced spousal physical, sexual, or emotional violence. Over 1 in 10 ever-married women report physical violence by a brother (13%) or by their father (12%). Only 24% of ever-married women who have experienced spousal physical or sexual violence reported injuries; two-thirds have never sought help or told anyone about the violence. Despite the fact that the national prevalence rate of intimate partner violence (IP) is approximately 22 per cent, this study will examine domestic violence instead of marital violence, as there is a concern over the level of record-keeping and administration by service providers and adequate disaggregation of data by perpetrators of domestic violence.

Therefore, this study will focus on collecting administrative and budgetary data to estimate the economic cost of services due to domestic violence perpetrated against women aged 15+ by family members within household. The Domestic violence protection law 2017, expands the definition of the family concept, adding relatives up to the fourth degree, who can perpetrate domestic violence or exercise violence behaviour, such as intimate partner, in-laws from the third and fourth degrees, other relatives who live in the family home.

In fact, as UNFPA recent report on Jordan with the series entitled “Review of Health, Justice and Police, and Social Essential Services for Women and Girls Survivors of Violence in the Arab States” highlights, service provision for survivors of violence face several challenges including: “Inadequate synchronization of policy frameworks of government and NGO entities as well as a scarcity of resources and necessary capacities, undermine full realization of the national system for protection from violence; and costly litigation process is a further impediment for survivors seeking access to justice. NGOs became critical providers of free legal aid using mobile teams and specialized lawyers in women and girls’ safe spaces in refugee camps; and Advancement of GBV service provision in the three sectors is largely dependent on external funds from donors and UN agencies. This makes sustainability all the more difficult to attain and reinforces a project rather than an informed programmatic approach; finally, the review notes that GBV services in the three sectors (Health, legal and police, and social) have limited access to national budgets and external donor funds, which constrains budgets for advancement of GBV work - health and social sectors most affected”.

Estimating the economic cost of services is an important tool for a deeper understanding of financial gaps and will help the government and other national and international actors to have a targeted support where it is mostly used. The estimation of the cost can provide an evidence base to redirect budget allocations and ensure a sufficiently funded, comprehensive and ultimately effective response to VAW at the legal and service provision levels. In addition, it contributes to increasing the efficiency and transparency of budget allocations, especially for countries that have a limited budget for gender equality, which is the case in most Arab countries. Although largely undocumented, the social and health costs of violence against women might not evidently exist.

Measuring the costs of services will be possible through collecting and analyzing administrative and budgetary data to calculate the cost of existing services provided by governmental bodies and non-governmental organizations.

II. Purpose of the study and rational

This study aims to estimate the economic cost of services made available for female survivors (domestic violence perpetrated against women aged 15+) or the response to an alleged or convicted perpetrator by authorities and different types of service providers including health, social, legal, police services, cost of the prosecution, rehabilitation and incarceration, courts, child protection, women’s shelters, violence hotlines and the health sector. Services included will also relate to prevention services/ activities in the past 12 month.

The current assignment contributes to existing efforts that JNCW, the Jordanian Department of Statistics and UN partners (ESCWA, UNFPA, and UN Women) are exerting to estimate the economic cost of violence in Jordan on the household level. All this would allow for an evidence-based policy reformulation of national response to violence against women and girls in Jordan. The final expected result of the study is a report analysing the economic cost of service provision incurred by governmental, national non-governmental and international organisations working to combat violence against women in Jordan, especially domestic violence.

To have this mission facilitated in all means, a steering committee has been founded in February 2021 and is chaired by the Secretary General of the Jordanian National Commission for Women that includes the decision makers of the main stakeholders of combating VAW in Jordan such as the national team for family protection, ESCWA, DoS, UNFPA and the FPD.

A contextual analysis, which was conducted through a fieldwork mission by an international consultant from ESCWA to identify sources of administrative data and budget information for a costing violence against women methodology in Jordan. A national consultation workshop was held in March 2021 with the relevant specialized parties such as the national team for family protection, international NGOs service providers, national NGOs and institutions - to discuss the findings of the contextual analysis and to devise the study objectives, scope and methodology. This led to the formulation of an operational model for estimating the economic cost of VAW in Jordan.

This study will utilize a methodology that was developed by UN-ESCWA for countries of the Arab Region. Moreover, a step-by-step guideline to costing VAW in the Arab region were developed by ESCWA and UNFPA to capitalize on the learning gathered in the context of this project. The guidelines detail the purpose and importance of the costing exercise and recommend steps to take when conducting a costing study, and different country’s experiences in undertaking the costing exercise.

III. Scope of Work

This is largely a quantitative assessment. It will be expected to: Design the study methodology, identify the best approach for collecting administrative and budgetary data, collect the data and apply the costing model developed by ESCWA to calculate the economic cost of services such as  legal, social,  judicial, and law enforcement services provided to survivors of domestic violence that are incurred by governmental and non-governmental service providers, and the economic cost of the state response (police and judiciary) to an alleged or convicted perpetrator of domestic violence.

To estimate the costing of services provided for survivors of violence, information must be drawn from multiple sources. It will be necessary to examine the allocation of State resources through examining:

-Recurrent budgets of key ministry or governmental institutions with a role in preventing and addressing violence against women activities to prevent violence against women and girls, provision of services for victims of violence and perpetrators, prosecution, different plans, strategies, and programs on violence against women in the last fiscal (year) period that indicate allocations of public spending;  

-project documents of international organizations and national non-governmental organizations;

-and national semi-governmental organizations (the National Council for Family Affairs, the National Center for Human Rights, the Supreme Council for the Affairs of Persons with Disabilities, the Jordanian National Commission for Women

The study will focus on estimating (to the extent possible) direct tangible costs incurred by the Government of Jordan or activities oriented to prevent and address violence against women with the reference to key ministry or governmental institution with a role in preventing and addressing violence against women; and by national and international non-governmental organizations operating in Jordan which provide services due to domestic violence.

-Process and methodology of workDesigning research conceptual framework, research questions and data collection tools in reference to the ESCWA methodology and guideline (links are provided across this document).

-Mapping organisations that provide services to survivors of VAW (governmental, non-governmental and international).

-Co-facilitate three orientation sessions with national and international stakeholders – service providers

-Desk review of existing documents, including laws, policies and strategies, and reports.        

-Developing questionnaires and organise field work to interview key stakeholders from governmental and non-governmental organizations to better understand funding sources and adequacy of budgets to deliver the services needed; and collect data;

-Analyse collected data and apply the model for costing service, integrate the findings in the national report on the economic cost of violence against women and girls in Jordan.

-Discuss and validate the findings in a national workshop to identify policy recommendations

            Expected outputs/deliverables and timeframe:

First Phase: Inception phase	Mid of November – End of December 2021
Deliverable	Time frame
-Inception report will need to introduce a study framework and data collection tools, a detailed work plan; List of literature for desk review; identify existing service providers and identify organisations to be interviewed in consultation and collaboration with JNCW and existing data base.;  -Facilitate three orientation sessions for relevant stakeholders (governmental entities; NGOs service providers; INGOs service providers); -Develop questionnaire for service providers per sector; -Define the number of organisations and institutions, governmental entities to be interviewed and include it in the report resulting from orientation sessions.   *The first draft of the inception report will be shared with JNCW, UNFPA and ESCWA assigned expert upon the comments received, the Consultant (s)will revise the draft addressing all comments. The inception report is limited to two rounds of review.	-Submitting the inception report should take place two weeks after the date of signing the contract.   -Submitting the report of the orientation sessions outputs, One week from the day of the last orientation session by– 23.12.2021
Second Phase Data collection phase	January – April 2022
Deliverable	Time frame
Organize the field work to interview organizations and collect data as per the work plan, and develop a summary report on data collection, limitations and challenges, the report will have as annexes the raw data and documentations, records, official letters, collected row data in data format (excel)
	-The process of collecting data should kick off mid-January 2022 maximum. -Submitting the summary report should be due Mid of April 2022 maximum.
Third Phase: Data Analysis	April- June 2022
Deliverable	Time frame
Analysis of data and applying the costing model for each sector
	Submission of first draft of the report should be due mid of June 2022
Forth Phase:  Presentation of findings	June - August 2022
Deliverable	Time frame
Discuss the findings in a national workshop to identify policy recommendations
	Final Draft Report on the economic cost of services provided to female survivors of domestic violence should be submitted by mid of July 2022.
	PPT on findings should be submitted by the end of July 2022. Presented in a national workshop to identify policy recommendations by end of August 2022.

 

ESCWA and the contracting entity will present findings in a workshop organized for key stakeholders, Government officials, and partners.

 

Management and partnership strategy for the administrative and budgetary data collection

The Jordanian National Commission for Women will lead and will be responsible for the overall coordination of the data collection process, with ESCWA and UNFPA technical support. Other national partners will include (members of the National Team for the Protection from Domestic Violence, as well as the Higher Population Council, Higher Council for the rights of PwD, National Center for Human Rights, Department of Statistics, as well as representatives from civil society organizations, international organizations, specialists, academics and experts.  

To oversee the data collection process will be undertaken by already established Steering Committee that also will be final endorsement of the study reports. All comments, feedback throughout the data collection process will be provided through JNCW. 

 The result of the study/assessment will provide an understanding of the monetary cost of services that are funded by government and non-governmental resources, the findings of which will be integrated into the comprehensive national report on the estimating the economic cost of violence against women and girls in Jordan, the integration of findings of two studies will be undertaken by ESCWA.

Timeframe: The contract will be for maximum 125 working days spread over a period of starting of mid of November 2021 till the November of 2022. The Researchers will need to have a certain level of flexibility, and be able to respond to any unexpected delays that could occur due to unforeseen issues, or due to the feedback from the advisory body.

           

The Consultancy Service Provider/Consultant(s), skills and experiences

The researcher team will need to work closely with UN ESCWA and JNCW to carry out and complete the study. International expertise with track record experience in carrying similar exercises in different context is also desirable.

It is preferable that three researchers from the same institution undertake the assignment and will carry out the tasks in parallel, per sector, such as:

-Examine and collect data from recurrent budgets of key ministry or governmental institutions;

-Examine and collect data on violence against women related project documents of international organizations working in Jordan;

-Examine and collect data on violence against women related project documents of main non-governmental organizations and semi-governmental organizations in Jordan.

The contract will be awarded to a research institute that have proven record in:

-Developing research paper using quantitative and qualitative methodologies and analyzing policies impact

-Developing research on socio-economic development and gender issues including research on violence against women

-Proven strong experience and knowledge of data analysis

-Degree or PhD in Economics, Health Economics or Applied Economics, Management and Business Development.

-Experience in Econometrics including, OLS regression, logistic regression and Propensity Score Matching

-Experience in cost benefit evaluation

-Proven experience in preparing research and papers, especially in human and women's rights and GBV in the past 5 years

-Excellent drafting/reporting/presentation skills

-Fluency in Arabic and English

-Ability to lead and deliver in a timely manner

-Good communication skills, especially in terms of dealing with key informants

-High commitment of respecting agreed deadlines within the time frame.

Application Process

-Please submit your CV/s along with your technical and financial proposals signed and submitted in hard copies in an envelope and soft copies presented in the USB flash driver.  The financial proposals will only be opened for technically qualified proposals.

-Proposal should be no longer than 5 pages, excluding CVs, budget and example piece of work. 

Technical offer should include

-Description of proposed approach, methodology, work plan and detailed experts’ deployment and responsibility, clearly indicate the reference of the intended methodology from supported guideline.

-A list of tasks and projects/ studies carried out by the applicant that includes, the date and period of implementation, the role of the consultant in it, the name of the organization.

-An example piece of work from a similar assignment A copy of the registration certificate of the service provider if it is a legal entity, or a copy of national identity card if the service provider is an individual.

The financial offer should include: The cost of consultancy service in Jordanian dinars, and the cost details with and without tax (including the fees/ rate of each expert for each working day, in addition to any administrative costs or other expenses required to accomplish and deliver the task- not to exceed 6% of the total financial offer, noting that the expenses of the orientation session and validation sessions are JNCW’s responsibility).

General Conditions for Bid