Background/IRC Summary:
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.
The IRC’s vision is to lead the humanitarian field by implementing high-impact, cost-effective programs for people affected by crisis and by using our learning and experience to shape policy and practice. To achieve that vision, the IRC’s Technical Excellence team provides technical assistance to IRC’s country program staff and shares what we learn to influence policy and practice.
The Violence Prevention and Response Unit (VPRU) is one of 6 Technical Units within Technical Excellent and works to reduce people’s vulnerability to and support their recovery from violence, and promote transformative work for a future free from violence. The unit houses expertise in the fields of Child Protection, Protection and Rule of Law, and Women’s Protection and Empowerment to support women, children and other vulnerable groups through violence prevention programs that help stop violence before it happens and violence response programs that ensures lifesaving services for people affected by violence. VPRU has programs across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The Women’s Protection and Empowerment (WPE) team reaches women and girls in acute, protracted and recovery humanitarian settings in over 45 countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, North and South America, and Europe.
Scope of Work
WPE has been closely considering the challenges associated with ensuring funding for gender-based violence (GBV) as a policy and advocacy priority. This work has included such actions as producing reports such as “Where’s the Money?” and leadership of the GBV Funding Task Team of the Call to Action on Protection from GBV in Emergencies (CtA). This work, in addition to efforts by a number of other organizations and agencies, overall understanding of GBV funding and capacity to track funding towards GBV in humanitarian contexts has come a long way in recent years, but there is still more we need to know and explore to make GBV funding a priority of humanitarian action.
To further this work, WPE is engaging in a project that aims to strengthen the humanitarian sector’s understanding of GBV prevention and response funding. Despite multiple changes in recent years to the capacity of humanitarian actors to track and report GBV funding, there are still a number of areas in which a deeper understanding of GBV funding and shortfalls are critical. While funding levels do not tell us everything about the humanitarian system response, funding is one critical indication of whether commitments to prevent and respond to GBV, such as those made through the CtA, are being met, if the humanitarian system has implemented the principle of the Centrality of Protection when it comes to prevention and response to violence against women and girls, and whether GBV prevention and response are being prioritized in practice at the planning and programmatic levels.
To further elucidate funding for GBV in humanitarian action by taking on new questions and areas of inquiry, WPE will lead the production of two (2) annual reports on separate themes that “deep dive” into GBV prevention and response in humanitarian contexts funding, analyzing specific aspects of funding levels and gaps while providing recommendations for change to the humanitarian system.
The first report will be delivered by September 2024 through collaboration with a Consultant/Consultant Team.
Objective of Consultancy
This Consultant/Consultant Team will deliver the first report that details the current funding landscape for GBV prevention and response, identifying challenges and gaps in funding for GBV prevention and response and provide recommendations for system-wide improvements. This consultancy will build on the evidence base already created on GBV funding needs and gaps, while highlighting areas of funding (such as tracking, funding for GBV risk mitigation, funding to women-led and women’s rights organizations, accessibility of different funding mechanisms, etc.) that have been identified as critical for further improvement by the CtA Funding Task Team. This evidence – and recommendations for improvement – will be disseminated and used to promote GBV funding.
In 2024, the first of the two annual reports will concentrate on the theme “Where is the Money Going?” In order to be additive to previous research/evidence, this report will concentrate not on recipient type (ie how much funding is going to WROs/WLOs, INGOs, or IOs), but instead answer the question of “how much funding is getting to programming (ie client-facing) and what types of programs are being funded?”
This report will identify gaps in funding for specific types of programming, thereby being useful in identifying where additional investment is needed and if certain types of critical programming (as identified by the GBV Minimum Standards) are being systematically overlooked, including in settings where overall funding pictures are the least bleak.
Key Deliverables of this Consultancy:
- One (1) Report answering the question “Where is the Money Going?”, inclusive of Executive Summary and associated advocacy briefs as appropriate (no more than 2)
- In order to deliver this report, IRC anticipates that the Consultant/Consultant Team will provide a detailed methodology on the process necessary to answer the above question, including such activities as:
- Conducting Key Informant Interview with experts on humanitarian funding (inclusive of refugee and IDP contexts), gender-based violence funding, members of the Call to Action on Protection from GBV in Emergencies, including the GBV Funding Task Team of the GBV AoR; and gender-based violence prevention and response
- Conducting Desk Research of available previous reports on GBV funding;
- Conducting analysis of available data sources;
- Others as appropriate.
- Consultant/Consultant Team will work with the Global Lead for Protection Policy and Advocacy to disseminate/present the report to key decision makers.
Key Working Relationships
The GBV Funding Consultant/Consultant Team will work closely with and report to the Global Lead for Protection Policy and Advocacy within VPRU. S/he/They will also collaborate with the Global Practice Lead for WPE, WPE Technical Advisors, and experts within the field of GBV prevention and response (but outside the IRC) as necessary.
