Oxfam employs more than six thousand people in 90 countries who share a commitment to work together to end poverty and suffering. It is committed to ensure diversity and gender equality within the organization and welcomes applications from women, person with disability and under-represented groups. Oxfam does not discriminate against applicants or employees based on their HIV/AIDS status. The organization has been working in Bangladesh since the War of Independence and has established a permanent country office in 1972. Since then it has responded to all major emergencies in the country. Oxfam’s current program focuses on Economic Justice & Resilience, Gender and Women’s Leadership and Humanitarian Capacity Building and Response.

A simple, inescapable truth underlines everything we do at Oxfam. There’s enough wealth in this world to go around. It’s not unfortunate that people live in poverty. It’s unjustifiable. It’s not their problem. It’s ours too. And with the right support, we can stop poverty and suffering in their tracks. More than 8,000 people already commit their time and talents to our humanitarian and long- term development projects. Now we’re looking for yours.

Oxfam in Bangladesh is looking for a qualified Consultant or a Consultancy Firm for “Research Associate.” We are inviting for proposal from interested consultancy firm / individual to undertake this assignment.

Background:
Local humanitarian leadership of women-led and women’s rights organizations is both an aspiration and a challenge in the humanitarian field. Humanitarian actors in the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) 2019 has made the commitment to improve the quality and quantity of local partnerships in humanitarian action. Particularly, it is committed to increase financial support and engagement with women’s rights organizations to engage in humanitarian preparedness, response and influencing.

Moreover, focus from COVID-19 response show that having local women-focused organizations as responders in emergencies are critical in meeting the needs of women and girls. However, progress towards meaningful engagement have been a challenge. For instance, funding for women-focused and gender specific needs and interests are not clearly accounted for1 and data from the latest Covid19 response show that only 1.9% of funding have reached local and national organizations, none of which are women-focused organizations.2

In Cox’s Bazar, feminist and women’s rights organizations tend to be less visible and engaged than INGOs and local male-led organizations that do not specialize in gender stand-alone programming. There are lesser known barriers to their participation in the response which require affirmative action, and must be brought into light if the Rohingya response is to truly respond to its commitments to Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women and Girls (GEEWG), Grand Bargain and Charter for Change.

Partnering with, and building the capacity of, local Women’s Rights Organizations (WRO) within a humanitarian response is at the nexus of these commitments. Limited knowledge products exist which capture the modalities and strategies to generate quality partnerships with WROs within a humanitarian setting. There is a need to document, reflect, learn and share from existing experiences in engaging WROs in a meaningful and empowering way which drives transformative change for gender and social justice.

To consolidate the experiences of local feminist, women-led and women’s rights organizations in meaningfully participating in the Rohingya response, a participatory study will be conducted on the needs, barriers and ways forward for the meaningful engagement of women’s rights organizations in the response. This study builds on the first piece on feminist LHL in Cox’s Bazar, an internal Partnership Learning Review, conducted with a specific women’s rights organization in the response in 2020. Learnings here will be used to contribute learning for the Rohingya Response to better partner and engage with feminist, women-led and women’s rights organizations.

This study will be led by Oxfam Feminist local humanitarian leadership (LHL) practitioners, and supported by a National Research Associate (NRA). The NRA will support the lead in design, data gathering, writing and analysis of the study; as well as in the technical and accurate translation of data from Cox’s Bazar local language and Bengali to English.

Objective:

1. Support the research lead in mapping and engaging current and former feminist, women-led and women’s rights organizations (WROs) operating in the Cox’s Bazar Rohingya response and engage them in a participatory co-designing process for the methodology of the study;3
2. Review related literature on the theme, and support research lead in consolidating information from these.
   
3. Organize, conduct, and facilitate interviews, workshops and meetings related to the study. Support the research lead in data collection of feminist and WRO experiences - their needs and interests, what has worked and what has not, barriers and opportunities in having more voice, space and strength to meaningfully engage in the Cox’s Bazar Response; and translate data in local language or Bengali to English.
   
4. To collect and consolidate research participants’ recommendations, including affirmative action m asures to enable their meaningful engagement vis a vis Charter for Change, Grand Bargain and WHS commitments.

Please refer to the detailed ToR (Click here) for this assignment.

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION INSTRUCTION:

• The individual/firm must submit the following documents along with Technical & Financial Proposal.
  
• The financial proposal should include 15% VAT only. Oxfam will deduct Income Tax and VAT as per government rules and policies at source from the agreed consultancy amount for national consultant and firms.

For Individual Consultant:

• Maximum 2 pages’ profile highlighting related assignment completed with client name, contract person and mobile number along with detailed CV.
  
• TIN certificate and any other relevant document (if necessary).

For Consultancy Firm:

• Maximum 2 pages’ firm profile highlighting related assignment completed with client name, contract person and mobile number.
  
• Lead Consultant’s (who will lead the assignment) Maximum 2 pages CV highlighting related assignment completed, role in of the completed assignment.
  
• Other Team members’ (who will involve in the assignment) one paragraph short CV highlighting related assignment completed and role.
  
• Firm’s Certificate, TIN and VAT registration.

Please mention the assignment title “Research Associate” in the subject line and send the application to hrcox@oxfam.org.uk

Submit two separate PDF files with following names:

1. Financial proposal
   
2. Technical proposa

The Technical proposal should include following parts

• Cover page
  
• Table of content
  
• Understanding of the assignment (pls. don’t copy & paste)
  
• Experience in handling similar assignments, a work-plan, methodology
  
• Certificate: TIN and VAT registration

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 03 August 2021

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Oxfam is a world-wide development organization that mobilizes the power of people against poverty

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Oxfam is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behaviour at work including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, lack of integrity and financial misconduct; and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults. Oxfam expects all staff, volunteers, consultants to share this commitment through our code of conduct. We place a high priority on ensuring that only those who share and demonstrate our values are recruited to work for us.

We are committed to ensuring diversity and gender equality within our organisation and encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply.

OUR VALUES - All our work is led by three core values:

Empowerment: Everyone, from our staff and supporters to people living in poverty, should feel they can make change happen.
Accountability: We take responsibility for our actions and hold ourselves accountable. We believe that others should also be held accountable for their actions.
Inclusiveness: We are open to everyone and embrace diversity. We believe everyone has a contribution to make, regardless of visible and invisible differences.

We are committed to ensuring diversity and gender equality within our organisation and encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply.

Note: All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and may be subject to appropriate screening checks, which can include criminal records and terrorism finance checks.