عطاء استقطاب شركة استشارية/ خبراء لإعداد ورقة سياسات معنية بتقييم تطبيق التبليغ الإلزامي لحالات العنف الأسري في الأردن وتأثيره على حماية ضحاياه

NOTE

This Term of Reference is for a national consultancy to prepare and develop a policy paper that will provide for evidence review and examine the enforcement and the application of mandatory reporting of domestic violence cases under article 4 of the DVPL #15, 2017, the response of the protection system and law enforcement to domestic violence cases and it’s the implications, to pursue procedural and policy improvements.

 

The policy paper will be a reference for decision, policy and law-makers in regards to articles 4 of the Domestic Violence Protection Law #15, 2017; reconsidering and improving the domestic violence protection mechanism, also in regards to legislative and procedural solutions that protect the survivors and their families and encourage reporting. The paper will be based on desk review of literature, concerned studies and available statistics, interviews with key stakeholders, FGDs with beneficiaries, consultations sessions with the concerned stakeholders.

 

This assignment is related to combating discrimination and gender-based violence against women and girls, achieving justice and institutionalizing follow-up, and in line with the second and the forth strategic objectives of the National Strategy for Women in Jordan (2020-2025), that focuses on addressing violence against women and harmful practices and ensuring the effective accountability frameworks & the capacity of formal institutions to develop and implement policies, legislation, and services and to allocate budgets that support GEWE.

 

Organizational Background

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.

 

:(Background (assignment context

Violence against women in Jordan remains among one of the most serious issues, despite the implementation of number of measures and national strategies. Women and girls who experience violence are mostly unable to attain access to justice, quality health services, specialized institutions and support systems. Disclosing or reporting the incidents is highly taboo, and justice for the victims is rare. Available data suggests that violence against women is a widespread phenomenon in Jordan. According to DHS 2017-2018, 21% of ever-married women age 15-49 have experienced physical violence since age 15; 26% - experienced spousal physical, sexual, or emotional violence.  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.

Legal and social contexts are additional barriers to effective response and protection of GBV survivors. Existing GBV intervention strategies do not always promote a survivor-centered approach, fail to ensure survivors rights and needs.

The Law on Protection from Domestic Violence (DVPL) #15, was adopted in 2017, the article 4 of which provides that health, and education or social service providers in the public and private sectors are obliged to report any case of domestic violence against incapacitated persons, persons lacking legal capacity or persons with reduced legal capacity when they become aware of it or are informed of it. The reporting must be done with the consent of the victim who has full legal capacity when the act against him/her is a misdemeanor[1].  It empowers the Department of Family Protection to settle disputes in cases of domestic violence in misdemeanors, subject to the agreement of both parties. The settlement is limited to the criminal act (felony)[2] and the complaint relating to it. According to the same law, if the mandated to report fail to do so, they can be subjected to punishment such as imprisonment for one week, or a fine of 50 JOD, or both may apply.

The above provision enforces mandatory reporting. However, it remains unclear how service providers under article 4 of the Law actually apply the legal provision, how domestic violence cases are being documented and reported to competent authorities, and what difficulties they face in the law application.  There is lack of unified referral and case management system, and the available data represent only a partial reality. Thus, the issue requires further assessment on how this legal provision is being implemented in practice and supported by data. Protection orders are important component of the protection measures alongside the response by support services. The application of the articles 6 and 16 of the Domestic Violence Protection Law#15[3] envisage of issuing protection orders. According to this law, the protection order is issued by the Family Protection department or court. Protection orders are considered as one of the most effective legal remedies available to survivors of violence, its primary objective is ensuring the safety of survivors, their children and other family members. Jordan lacks data on the number of issuances of protection orders, their effectiveness and length. The fear of retaliation often prevents victims of domestic partner violence from reporting to the law enforcement authorities. From the other hand, shelter is not a sufficiently reliable means of protecting survivor and her children, as far as there always comes a point where the survivor needs to go back to perpetrator, thus, alternative solutions need to be considered to ensure better protection. Survivors can report to the relevant authorities only if they can rely on immediate and sufficient protection against retaliation on the part of the offender. The effectiveness of the protection orders and response of the relevant law enforcement authorities are also the subjects of this review that aims at examining the impact of the protection system on survivors help seeking and reporting behaviours.

 

:The mission objectives

Assess the enforcement and the application of mandatory reporting of domestic violence cases under article 4 of the DVPL #15, 2017.

Assess the impact of mandatory reporting on safety and security of service providers and survivors.

Examine the impact of mandatory reporting on survivor’s help-seeking behavior.

Identify and document survivor’s challenges/barriers in seeking help to state and non-state service providers, law enforcement authorities and judicial protection (protection orders).

 

Scope and Areas of Strategic Focus

:The role of the consultant(s) is to establish an evidence-based analysis and develop a policy paper through examining the following

;Review/analyze legislative and policy frameworks to assess the enablers to reporting domestic violence cases

Analysis of current law application – articles 4-6 of the Domestic violence protection law #15, 2017, procedural and other gaps in application of the provisions on mandatory reporting, existing practices and its implications on reporting underreporting;

Assess whether and how the heath care, education and social service providers understand and how do they apply the Article 4 of the DVP law;

Assess whether mandatory reporting is being an obstacle for women seeking help/services/does mandatory reporting discouraging help-seeking behavior by survivor;

Identify and assess other factors that may affect survivors reporting behaviors such as fear of retaliation, fear of losing custody over children, the lack of or insufficient police and judicial protection (in repeated cases of family violence), the length of the protection orders, etc. 

Assess how the law enforcement authorities respond to such reports; and whether the law enforcement authorities’ responses (actions) meet the survivor’s safety needs.

Review and assess the institutional readiness of established GBV response mechanisms (referral pathway, protection service (including access to shelters), using the mapping of  existing services (including legal) used by survivors of violence (state and non-state service providers, identify gaps in service provision and its impact on reporting);

Assess the impact of mandatory reporting on safety (standards), re-victimization, confidentiality rules, and safety of service providers, survivors and witnesses;

Identify (where possible) % or number of cases that were reported under the article 4 of the Law #15, 2017 for the past years (2017 - 2020), including those with victims consent;

Identify % or number of cases proceeded from the police to prosecution;

Identify % or number of protection orders issued by the Family protection Department or judiciary (courts) in the past years  (2017-2020) to ensure survivors primary safety;

Assess the effectiveness and implementation of the protection orders and what is the time interval between a protection request and issuance of a protection order?

Identify whether the protection orders are available for immediate protection and whether it requires financial or administrative burdens placed on the victim/survivor.

 

 It should be noted that the questions suggested are not meant to be exclusive. The consultant(s) applying for this consultancy will adapt the questions to respond to the purpose and objectives of this assignment. Questions will be finalized in the inception phase. 

 

Process and methodology

 This is largely a qualitative assessment. The consultant will be expected to draft tools for this assessment during the inception phase of the report, including tools for the focus group discussions and in-depth interviews. These interviews to include duty-bearers and rights holders, (e.g. lawyers, police officers, judges, doctors and social workers and/or allied professionals e.g. psychologists, parents of survivors).

In addition, FGDs with survivors (considering safety measure, to be organized through women’s organizations/NGOs to collect survivors voices (data and facts). The FGDs to include participants of vulnerable groups such as women with disability status, etc. 

Desk review will use a wide range of information resources, reports, analysis, reliable data sources, etc. to ensure validity and reliability of information and data.

Consultant will develop a situation analysis based on the determined scope. Also, the consultant will be facilitating two (2) consultation meetings with key stakeholders (Members of the National Team for Family Protection from Domestic Violence and National and international stakeholder’s service providers for survivors of domestic violence). The meetings will be informed by the situation analysis to help refine the areas of focus and will ascertain stakeholder’s opinion on legislation, practices and implications of reporting (MR) and to determine alternative solutions to safe reporting, encourage reporting, violence prevention, victims (survivors) protection and just cases resolutions. Consultant to consolidate all inputs and produce a policy paper document with recommendations based on findings and provide for alternative solutions on application of mandatory reporting considering benchmarking with other countries and best practices (including international best  practices), that promote justice and ensures timely protection of survivors.

 

An advisory group, will be formed to advise on the review process and its methodology, and provide assistance, feedback and comments where necessary; the group will consist of representatives from JNCW and UNFPA. Comments on the inception and different deliverables and draft policy paper will be provided by advisory body through JNCW. 

 

Time Frame

Task	Time frame	Consultant(s) Responsible
Inception phase	10 days  (post contract signing)	The Consultant(s)
Conduct stage (desk review, information and data collection, FGDs, in-depth interviews, consultation meetings)	30 days  (post inception report approval)	The Consultant(s) and JNCW
Reporting stage (analysis and presentation of findings, recommendations and alternatives	10 Days (post final information and data collection)	The Consultant(s) and JNCW review/approval

 

The contract will be for maximum 50 working days spread over a period of starting of January to May 2021. The Consultant(s) will need to have a certain level of flexibility, and work remotely to respond to any unexpected delays that could occur due to unforeseen issues, or due to the feedback from the advisory body.

 

Expected deliverables

Activity	Product to be delivered by Consultant(s)	Due date
Inception phase
Inception report (including two rounds of revision), in English and Arabic.	Based on inception phase activities, the inception report will present a refined scope, reflections on the TOR, a detailed outline of the policy paper design and methodology, questions for the FGD and in-depth interviews, , and criteria for the selection and approach for in-depth desk review (list of literature for desk review). The report will include a detailed work plan. A first draft report will be shared with advisory group upon the comments received, the Consultant will revise the draft. The inception report needs to include ethical considerations to be referred to when conducting FGDs with survivors of violence (safety measures, confidentiality of information and protection of identity, protection of data and information obtained and used, and Informed consent form).
Analysis and reporting phase
Situation analysis (first draft) Presentation of preliminary findings, in English and Arabic.	A PowerPoint presentation detailing the emerging findings of the evidence review will be shared with advisory group for feedback. The revised presentation will be delivered to the advisory group for comment and validation. The consultant(s) will incorporate the feedback received into the draft document (situation analysis). The PPT will be in Arabic and English. The consultant will present the findings to stakeholders.
Stakeholders dialogue
Two 2days consultation meetings with key national stakeholders	A Report over stakeholder’s opinion on legislation, practices and implications of reporting (MR) and proposed alternative solutions to safe reporting (MR), strategies to encourage reporting, preventing violence, victims (survivors) protection response of the law enforcement to survivors complaint.
Draft policy paper (including two rounds of revision prior to the final document)	The first draft will incorporate consolidation of all inputs. Introduction to the main findings, recommendations and alternative solutions proposed by stakeholders and the consultant itself. A first draft will be shared with the advisory group for feedback, revision, for identification of factual errors, errors of omission and/or misinterpretation of information. The second draft will incorporate this feedback and then be shared with the advisory group for final validation. The Consultant will maintain an audit trail of the comments received and provide a response on how the comments were addressed in the revised drafts. This will be followed by a validation meeting with key stakeholders to validate the findings and alternative solutions.
Final draft

 

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

 The Consultancy Service Provider/Consultant(s) has proven prior experience and qualifications to conduct such evidence review at the highest quality. They would need to be well versed in relation to GBV, GBV protection services, legal knowledge and expertise, and to be familiar with function of national justice and legal system in regards to domestic violence cases in particular. The consultant should also have proven experience analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, data collection methodologies, have good language proficiency in Arabic and English, as it will be expected to review national and international reports, international (best) practices, as well as provide executive summaries/presentations in both languages.

 

Consultant Roles and Responsibilities:

The Consultant(s) bears the full responsibility for the deliverables.

 

Skills, experience and qualifications required:

The following expertise shall be covered by the Consultancy Service Provider/ Consultant(s) who has the right to provide it through any number of experts they can justify:

•  

An academic qualification in law and/or sociology, women’s studies or any related field.

Practical experience in women's issues and gender-based violence issues for the past seven years.

Practical experience in analyzing laws and judicial procedures, in-depth knowledge of government policies and procedures for the past seven years.

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

Solid understanding of data and information collection methodologies and analysis, including proven experience in designing qualitative methodologies (FGDs and interviews, etc.) and analyzing qualitative data.

Demonstrated capacity for strategic thinking and policy advice are essential. 

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:

Motivation letter: Short overview of how the candidate meets the qualifications, experience and skills requirements (no more than one page)

Description of proposed approach, methodology, work plan and detailed experts’ deployment and responsibility

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 of each expert for each working day, in addition to any administrative costs or other expenses required to accomplish and deliver the task).

 

General Conditions for Bid

 

1.         تقدم العروض الفنية والمالية ضمن مغلف مغلق بشكل منفصل (العرض الفني بمغلف، والعرض المالي بمغلف)، ويسلم باليد مكتوب عليه رقم وموضوع العطاء ويسلم إلى مقرر لجنة العطاءات في موعد أقصاه الساعة الثالثة عصرا يوم الخميس، الموافق 17/12/2020، لدى:  مبنى الصندوق الأردني الهاشمي للتنمية البشرية/ الهاشمي الشمالي / حي أبو جسار/ قريب من مخابز تفاحة/ هاتف رقم: 065052431.

2.         على مقدم العرض الالتزام بعرضه لمدة لا تقل عن 90 يوماً من وقت تسليم العرض.

3.         لجنة العطاءات غير مسؤولة عن أية أخطاء قد يرتكبها المناقص في وضع أسعاره وتعتبر هذه الأسعار نهائية وملزمة بمجرد فتح العروض.

4.         يلتزم المناقص المتقدم  للعطاء  تقديم كفالة دخول عطاء بنكية غير مشروطة صادرة عن بنك محلي أو شيك مصدق (شيك مدير) بنسبة 5% من قيمة العرض وتعاد عند انتهاء الغرض منها.

5.         يلتزم المناقص المحال عليه العطاء  تقديم كفالة حسن تنفيذ بنكية غير مشروطة صادرة عن بنك محلي أو شيك مصدق (شيك مدير) بنسبة 10% من قيمة العرض وتعاد عند انتهاء الغرض منها.

 6.        للجنة العطاءات الحق في إلغاء أو تأجيل العطاء أو تمديد مدته أو إعادة طرحه أو تجزئته أو زيادة الكميات أو تقليلها بدون إبداء أية أسباب وبدون أن يكون للمناقصين الحق في مطالبتها بأي إيضاح أو تفسير أو تعويض.

7.         يلتزم المناقص الذي تم الإحالة عليه بالتوقيع على قرار الإحالة أو/ والاتفاقية، خلال أسبوع عمل من تاريخ الإحالة كما يتحمل المحال عليه العطاء جميع النفقات القانونية المترتبة على قرار الإحالة من رسوم الطوابع ورسوم اعلان العطاء في الجريدة الرسمة وأية رسوم قد تتحقق وعليه دفعها إلى الجهات المعنية خلال عشرة أيام من تاريخ التبليغ.

8.         تقدم الأسعار بالدينار الأردني معفى من الضريبة العامة على المبيعات.

9.         لجنة العطاءات غير ملزمة بالإحالة على أقل الأسعار.