Back Protection survey of persons with disabilities in temporary shelters Thailand

1. Background:

1.1. About Humanity & Inclusion (Handicap International)

Handicap International runs its program under the operating name Humanity & Inclusion (HI). HI is an independent and impartial aid organisation working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster. HI works alongside people with disabilities and vulnerable populations, taking action and bearing witness in order to respond to their essential needs, improve their living conditions and promote respect for their dignity and their fundamental rights. HI is currently implementing projects in more than 60 countries worldwide, including Thailand.

1.2. Context in which the project takes place

Thailand has a long-standing history in receiving refugees from neighbouring countries even though Thailand is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol and does not have a formal national asylum framework. Myanmar refugees have been hosted on the Thai-Myanmar border for over three decades. Currently, more than 80,000 refugees[1] live in nine temporary shelters.

Prolonged stay in temporary shelters with limited education, livelihood and other opportunities contribute to a difficult social environment with important protection concerns such as substance abuse, youth offending, early pregnancy/marriage, domestic violence amongst which a high prevalence of Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGBV). Protection coordination bodies exist in the camps, but persons with disabilities are not enough represented and may remain unaware of the referral pathway. The current funding reduction further compromises the protection environment of already very vulnerable refugees. A voluntary repatriation process facilitated by UNHCR has started in 2016. Nevertheless, this process is still very incipient as refugees feel a lot of uncertainty regarding their future in their motherland.

1.3. About Humanity & Inclusion (Handicap International) in Thailand

HI started working in Thailand in 1982 and first focused its actions on the delivery of mobility and assistive devices to Cambodian and Burmese landmine victims, most of whom needed lower limb prostheses. Since 1998, the scope of projects broadened and HI started providing broader physical and functional rehabilitation services to persons with disabilities (including through community-based rehabilitation services), support to social inclusion as well as promoting inclusion within mainstream service providers.

HI implements 4 projects at the moment:

• Risk Education (RE): awareness raising of the dangers posed by mines and other explosive ordnance (EO).
• Physical rehabilitation: enhancing the self-reliance of people with disabilities by supplying locally-produced prostheses and adapted devices (orthoses, crutches, walkers, special seats, etc.) and providing community-based physiotherapy and occupational therapy services.
• Disability and Social Inclusion (DSI): capacity building of Self-Help Groups to empower persons with disabilities and advocate for their rights and participation to community life.
• Growing Together: development of accessible and secure play areas to enable children with and without disabilities to play, learn and grow up together in a safe and inclusive environment.

1.4. The project in Thailand

Project name

Supporting the inclusive and sustainable humanitarian assistance to Burmese refugees towards their resilience and safe voluntary repatriation.

Exact location

Nine temporary shelters along the Myanmar-Thailand border

Target groups (Beneficiaries)

Camp population, including persons with disabilities

Funding

Bureau of Population Refugee and Migrant (BPRM) – United States Government

Project Goal

To improve inclusion of people with disabilities into immediate humanitarian response and sustainable voluntary repatriation process in temporary shelters in Thailand.

1.5. Justification for calling upon a consultant or a team of consultants

• A Protection risk analysis conducted by the Protection Working Groups, led by UNHCR in 2019 has identified SGBV (mainly within the frame of domestic violence) and discrimination against persons with disabilities identified as some of the main risks faced by the camps populations.
• UNHCR SGBV consultation in camps in September 2019: majority of men and boys respondent stated that persons with disabilities (both physical and mental impairment) cannot consent to sexual intercourse.
• There is no specific protection assessment allowing a good understanding of the risks and resources of persons with disabilities (including women and girls, men and boys) in the face of protection violations.

2. SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE SURVEY:

2.1.Objective**

The overall objective of the consultancy is to assess the protection risks, needs and resources of persons with disabilities (including children aged 13 to 18 years) in refugee camps

2.2.Specific objectives:**

1. Identify protection issues faced by the overall camp population and the ones which may be specific (in nature or severity) to persons with disabilities with a specific attention to type of age, gender and type of disability as potential factors impacting the level of threat.

2. Acquire a better understanding of the profile of survivors of protection violations as well as the perpetrators.

3. Understand the formal and informal protective resources (mapping of formal and informal protective resources and individual and familial coping mechanisms) of different populations and how inclusive or segregative these mechanisms are.

4. Design appropriate interventions to respond to identified protection issues (including those related to COVID-19 pandemic – if still relevant at the time of the survey).

2.3. Key areas to investigate:

1. What types of violence and other dangers regarding life, integrity, safety exist and what are the specific group facing particular protection violations?

2. What are the main threats and vulnerability?

3. Who is most at risk of being unsafe? Where, when>

4. What makes them especially vulnerable to violence and to other dangers regarding there life/integrity/liberty?

It is already known that people with disabilities – and among them especially women and girls - are facing more protection violations including sexual violence. This assessment will need to develop understanding of the main personal factors which lead – in this particular context – to different protection violations. The specific attention on women and girls with disabilities shall not prevent from understanding how men and boys with disabilities or people with disabilities within different age groups may face different threats. A specific attention will therefore be needed in age, gender and disability and in particular on people with sensorial disabilities, intellectual disabilities as well as with mental health issues.

1. Who is inflicting violence in the camps?

2. It is assumed that SGBV incidents, especially against persons with disabilities are under-reported. This assessment will need to confirm or infirm this assumption and to identify potential factors/reasons for underreporting.

3. How do people protect themselves in the community?

It is assumed that a lot of factors of risks are held within community’s inability to protect the most vulnerable. This assessment shall not only dig into the misbelief in community on disability leading to protection’s violations amongst persons with disabilities but shall as well investigate what existing protective mechanisms exist and how inclusive they may be to persons with disabilities.

For instance, it is assumed there is a certain level of tolerance for certain types of SGBV, including against persons with disabilities, due to cultural and social customs. This needs to be understood in order to identify community-based leverage to overcome this challenge.

1. What are the Protection formal and unformal resources provided by stakeholders (humanitarian, national and local actors)?

Assess both formal and unformal prevention and response mechanisms including the referral mechanism in place to respond to violence and its level of inclusiveness.

A specific attention needs to be drawn to identification and reporting of violations as well as to coordination among Protection actors.

This should allow assess the gaps in terms of provision of protection services for persons with disabilities.

1. What would be the best way to support Protection in this context?

2. The consultant is expected to provide recommendations to respond to the protection risk, in order to decrease threats and vulnerabilities and improve the coping mechanism.

3. Provide recommendations on how to mainstream protection throughout HI interventions and proposing complementary protection actions.

3. METHODOLOGY:

The exact methodology should be proposed by the consultant or consultants’ team in the application documents.

The survey will be participatory, taking into account the opinions of the different targeted services providers (formal and unformal) and refugees with and without disabilities (including women and girls, men and boys). Inclusive methodologies will need to be developed for people with any type of disabilities to be reached and able to express their views.

The methodology should include both quantitative and qualitative data collected through:

• secondary data review (related to existing protection survey/risk analysis, protection mechanisms already in place and available at camp level)

  📚 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗮 𝗝𝗼𝗯 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗡 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯! 🌍🤝 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗡 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗨𝗡𝗛𝗖𝗥, 𝗪𝗙𝗣, 𝗨𝗡𝗜𝗖𝗘𝗙, 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗦𝗦, 𝗨𝗡𝗙𝗣𝗔, 𝗜𝗢𝗠 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀! 🌐

  ⚠️ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐰: 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚 𝐣𝐨𝐛 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐍𝐎𝐖!

• IDIs, FGDs, PFGDs, and KIIs with various community members and stakeholders in camps:

-persons with disabilities of all age groups (including children with disabilities aged 13 to 18 years),

• women and girls,

• men and boys,

• camp committee members

• UNHCR, NGOs, CBOs workers (including HI camp-based staff) in Thailand.

The sampling techniques and target groups will be developed by the consultant / or consultants’ team, as well as the survey protocol.

The technical feedback on the tools and outcome will be delivered by the DSI Project Manager, HI Country Manager, MEAL Manager and the relevant HI technical advisors (at field and HQ level) as well as from target groups after testing the questionnaires.

Desk Review phase

The consultant will review existing project documents and key information on the context of protection in the camps. On this basis, the consultant/s will:

• Implement a secondary data analysis leading to a report;
• Develop an assessment protocol (including survey and interviews to be led)
• Develop all data collection tools: questionnaire, focus group guide and semi structured interviews guide;
• Set the data entry form;
• Coordinate the translation of the tools from English to Karen, and from English to Burmese;
• Prepare the surveyors training and materials;
• Define a detailed working plan including the list of people to meet during field phase

These elements will be combined in an inception report to be validated by HI steering committee.

Field phase (steps/methodology to be detailed by the consultant)

Reporting phase

The consultant will:

• Write a preliminary report writing on findings, analysis and recommendations;
• Organise a debriefing workshop with HI team, also with SHGs’ members, persons with disabilities and their caregivers, and any other community members involved in the survey to present the findings with the aim of exchanging, and sharing feedback;
• Submit the preliminary report to get comments and feedback from HI team within 5 working days;
• Submit of a final report to HI including annexes and raw and cleaned quantitative data.

4. DELIVERABLES:

· Produce an inception report in English, including

• report related to preliminary finding from secondary data review

• the updated survey plan and all proposed tools to be introduced at the end of the desk phase.

The inception report will have to be validated prior launching the field phase. This includes the final assessment protocol including all the data collection tools and training materials.

· Organize a restitution presentation/workshop to HI including an analysis of the findings and a set of recommendations. During this workshop, the consultant will also provide detailed explanation of the methodological tools used. A PowerPoint presentation will be produced by the consultant. The consultant will develop a preliminary findings presentation in Power Point that should include the following:

i. Key points from draft report outline;

ii. A detailed explanation of the methodology used and timeframe;

iii. A detailed explanation of the methodological assessment tools used;

iv. A preliminary findings/results of the survey;

v. Recommendations for the project and potential future projects to be developed.

· A Preliminary report (in English) incorporating the feedback from the debriefing workshop.

· A Final Report in English within 1 week after completing field data collection. The final report will include relevant comments from HI on the draft report. The final report should be divided into the following sections:

• Executive summary of survey findings;
• Introduction to the context;
• Survey methodology, including selection and sampling methods, and explain any constraints and challenges encountered, and strategies used to overcome them;
• Detailed key findings and conclusions;
• Recommendations;
• Appendix – all data collection tools;
• Data base(s);
• List of persons met during the survey process and salient points of the meetings.

All reports will be delivered in English (good quality English but easy to understand by local communities who are not fluent in English).

Within the report, confidentiality will be respected when representing personal information. A consent form needs to be used prior taking any photo and doing any interview. Any inclusion of pictures of children will have the statement within the document…. “All names & information about the location of children and family privacy in conformity with HI Child Protection Policy”

NB: For reasons of confidentiality, the survey report remains the intellectual property of HI exclusively.

5. TIMELINE:

The survey should start by end of July 2020. The final deadline for the submission of the survey report is 14th September, 2020. The consultancy will be planned in accordance with HI project team and depend on activities planned for the proposed timeframe.

6. PROFILE OF THE CONSULTANT or CONSULTANTS’ TEAM:

The survey can be carried out by an individual consultant or a team of consultants.

If a team of experts is selected, the evaluation will be put under the responsibility of one team leader chosen among the team of experts. This person will ensure all communication with HI Thailand office and will be the sole responsible party for managing the organization of the survey.

The expert or team of experts should combine the following skills, experience and knowledge:

• Master’s degree in a related field (sociology, psychology, international development or other social science)
• Proven experience in Protection sector in camps settings / humanitarian settings
• Significant experience (at least 5 years) with both quantitative and qualitative assessment or research design, implementation, analysis and reporting.
• Significant facilitation and interviewing skills.
• Demonstrated experience conducting survey on sensitive topic areas related to refugees, or disability
• Background in working on disability issues, or with vulnerable or marginalized groups, preferably with a working knowledge on civil society organizations.
• Experience and ability in dealing with very sensitive topics in different cultural contexts
• Fluency in English

7. FORMALITIES:

Proposals from interested consultant(s) should include:

1. Letter of expression of interests (compulsory);

2. Technical proposal (compulsory) describing how the tasks described above will be accomplished, including a survey design and methodology, and proposed timeline considering contextual limitations;

3. Financial proposal (compulsory). All costs related to the survey without exceptions should be figured into the financial plan of the consultant(s), including consultancy fees, domestic and international travel if needed, visa, accommodation, interpreters, per diem, logistics, organization of workshops, etc;

4. Curriculum vitae (compulsory) detailing a consultant’s preparedness, experience & expertise;

5. Reference of previous assignment done or sample of work accomplished;

6. 3 references of which 2 should be from a previous survey experience;

7. List of relevant documents requested for the contractual process in case of selection (passport, insurance, fiscal registration…).

For NOTE - Camp/ field visit limitations:

• No entry to the camps without camp-pass permission;
• No camp visit during weekend and public holidays or after 5 pm.
• Mae La is 45 minutes from Mae Sot; Umpiem Mai and Nu Po camps are about 2 and 6 hours from Mae Sot- accommodation at Umpang (mid-way for both camps), Mae Ra Ma Luang and Mae La Oon are 6 to 8 hours from Mae Sot, there is a HI´s guesthouse, where the consultant can stay overnight.

Evaluation of the proposals/ applications will be made through a selection committee through two phases:

• Administrative selection: checking for completeness of application (all 7 items listed above and 4 minimum as compulsory).

• Technical selection: criteria to select the best application will be based on the quality of the technical proposal, competitive financial proposal, previous experiences, demonstrated expertise of the applicant.

Incomplete applications will not be taken into consideration for technical selection.