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Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) |
TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR) For A Project of Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), supported by UNFPA Bangladesh I. Background Gender based discrimination and gender-based violence (GBV) are both social and development concerns for Bangladesh. The incidence of Gender-based violence (GBV) is alarmingly high in Bangladesh. According to the Violence against Women (VAW) Survey conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics in 2015, approximately 73% of ever-married women in Bangladesh have experienced some form of partner violence in their lifetime, and more than half (54.7%) have experienced violence in the last 12 months prior to the survey. The GoB is committed to combating GBV and, together with bilateral, multilateral, civil society organizations and the private sector, is addressing this critical issue to safeguard women’s human rights. Despite these commendable efforts and the range of programmes implemented in Bangladesh however, several gaps, both at the national and local levels, impede the realization of an enabling environment where there is no gender based discrimination and no tolerance of GBV. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is, globally and in Bangladesh as well, the lead UN agency addressing the physical and emotional consequences of GBV and promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment. UNFPA has been in partnership with the Government of Bangladesh (GoB), since 1974, to improve reproductive health care services and to ensure universal access to health services by emphasizing a gender-inclusive and human rights-based approach. It supports the government to reduce sexual and gender-based violence by raising awareness on the issue and providing services for survivors of GBV. Empowering adolescent girls and ending child marriage, a key manifestation of GBV, is another priority area of work for UNFPA and UNFPA partners with MoWCA, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to provide adolescents life skills education, prevent child marriage and mitigate its consequences. UNFPA has supported the GoB in its GBV prevention and response efforts. At the national level UNFPA co-chairs the GBV Cluster with MoWCA, and at the sub-national level e.g. in Cox’s Bazar district, UNFPA leads the GBV Sector. In Cox’s Bazar district, UNFPA’s support to prevent GBV has been ongoing since 2016 through the established partnerships with NGOs to strengthen the OCC, support emergency referral responses and distribute dignity kits to GBV survivors. The project, ASTHA, aims to contribute to the current gaps. The goal of the project is to ‘strengthen GoB and CSO efforts to reduce GBV and increased utilisation of multi-sectoral response services in three districts of Bangladesh for nation-wide replication’. The outcomes of the project are- 1) increased access to multi-sectoral response services for survivors of GBV, and 2) increased positive attitudes among community members about harmful gender norms and behaviors that perpetuate violence. In that, ASTHA is aligned with the National Women’s Development Policy (2011) and will contribute to the accomplishment of key national development priorities of gender equality and women’s empowerment as emphasized in the Seventh Five Year Plan (2016-2020) and the National Action Plan to Prevent Violence against Women and Children (NAP VAW 2013-2025). ASTHA will also contribute to the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) thematic pillars 1 and 3, as well as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3, 5, 10 and 16 of Agenda 2030. For achieving these outcomes, sub-national level activities of ASTHA, under the coordination of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MoWCA) and in collaboration with the protection, legal, health and psychosocial sectors, will be implemented in four UNFPA 9th Country Programme (2017- 2020) target districts; namely, Jamalpur, Patuakhali, Bogura and Cox’s Bazar districts, which all have high GBV prevalence rates. ASTHA will target vulnerable populations at risk of GBV, particularly women and girls who do not have access to multi-sectoral services as a result of poverty, social exclusion, statelessness, geographic distance, extreme weather conditions and lack of transport. The ASTHA project is aligned with and contributes to achieving the expected results of the UNFPA Bangladesh’s 9th Country Programme (2017-2020) Output 3.2: Increased availability of information and services to prevent and address gender-based violence and harmful practices, in both development and humanitarian settings. Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), a national legal aid and human rights organization is the key implementing partner of UNFPA Bangladesh to implement the ASTHA project with funding support from the Embassy of Netherlands (EKN). The duration of the project is four years and the main implementation of project activities has started from January 2018 and will end in December 2021. How to Apply: The individual / firm must submit the following documents along with technical and financial proposal (including vat & tax) the financial proposal should include 15% vat as per government rules only. ASK will deduct 10% income tax at source from the agreed consultancy amount. The proposal should be in English. The technical and financial proposal should be submitted in two separate envelopes. These two envelopes are then to be put in one larger envelope which must be sealed with a cover letter addressing the Executive Director, Ain o Salish Kendra, 7/17, Block-B, Lalmatia, Dhaka-1200, and Bangladesh. The proposal to be submitted at ASK office not later than 30th September, 2018. Contact Person: Khaleda Khanom, Team Leader, ASTHA Project, Telephone: 8100192, 8100195, 8100197 For detailed terms of reference please click here |