Call for expressions of interest – Legal assistance in the regions of Tunis and Médenine At Helvetas

The Swiss government is committed to financing a regional project on children and young people on migratory routes (EJM) in North and West Africa. The “Children and Young People on the Migration Routes of West and North Africa” project aims to sustainably strengthen national and regional systems of protection, education and socio-economic integration and facilitate access for children and young people on the move to the services provided by these systems (economic integration from the age of 18).

The project began with a preparatory phase (2021) and a first phase of 3 years in 5 pilot countries to be able to develop and test approaches to strengthening systems which will be sustainable and which will not be structurally dependent on external resources (2022-2024; Guinea, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Tunisia).

A consortium led by Helvetas, Terre des hommes and GIZ in partnership with the MMC, Médecins du monde Belgique, Enda/MAEJT, SSI AO and SSI-International was selected by the Swiss Directorate of Development and Cooperation (SDC) to the implementation of the project.

Purpose of this call for projects

2.1 General Objective

The general objective of the intervention is to contribute to improving legal assistance for children and young people on the move in the governorate of Médenine through i) The development of tools to support actors ii) Raising awareness and strengthening capacities of care actors and legal actors iii) coordination of actors involving local authorities, civil society and communities

In order to meet this general objective, the EJM project wishes to collaborate with an actor with expertise in protecting mobile and vulnerable populations in order to deploy the following actions:

• Development of turnkey tools to support legal assistance and protection actors. The tools proposed must be accessible (popularization and adaptation to the Tunisian context) and innovative (use of digital technology);
• Capacity building of actors at different levels: Direct training and training of trainers targeting CSOs, communities, state services and legal actors.
• Support and lead the establishment of a coordination and advocacy system including key people identified within the community as well as civil society and local authorities concerned by issues related to legal assistance for children and young people in mobility.

This intervention will have the geographical focus of the governorates of Tunis and Medenine.

2.2 Duration of the intervention

The contract is planned for a period of 6 months with an estimated start date of March 1, 2024.

2.3 Target population

The following beneficiaries will be targeted:

Beneficiary types

• Children and Youth
  • Children and young people aged 0 to 24 and their guardians
• Associative support structures
  • Coalition of Humanitarian Associations of Medenine
  • ADDIC
  • Others (to be identified/proposed by the partner)
• State services
  • Reception and accommodation centers
  • Youth club
  • Child protection delegates
  • Child and family judges
  • Others (to be identified/proposed by the partner)

2.4 Intervention methods

This intervention responds to the attack on effects 2 and 3 of the protection component of the Children and Youth project on the migratory routes of North and West Africa, namely:

• Outcome 2: National, transnational and regional systems and organizations are strengthened to provide better protection (…) to children and young people on the move
• Outcome 3: National and regional laws and strategies are inclusive and based on child rights; they take into account the needs of children and young people in mobility through personalized care protocols

As part of the development of this intervention, work sessions are planned for the articulation of the intervention and its results chain with the logical framework of the project.

In order to improve the humanitarian response in terms of protection in the governorate of Médenine and Tunis, the EJM project wishes to join forces with a partner active in the region concerned to carry out the first pillar actions in the targeted areas.

3. Transversal approaches

The EJM project mobilized a certain number of cross-disciplinary expertise to ensure inclusion and consideration of the specific needs of children and young people in vulnerable situations.

The approaches described below should be taken into account during the intervention:

• Conflict-aware project management

As part of the project start-up, a conflict-sensitive project management workshop was carried out in Zarzis. This workshop enabled the production of an action plan and certain recommendations which will be taken into account during the implementation of the project.

• Gender, Inclusion and Diversity

A specific analysis of issues related to Gender, inclusion and Diversity was carried out during the first phase of the project. The recommendations of this analysis will be taken into account to ensure that the most vulnerable profiles and their specific needs are integrated during the implementation of the action.

4. Monitoring-Evaluation of the project

The selected partner will work throughout the implementation of the project in close collaboration with the EJM project country coordination.

Regular monitoring of activities will be the responsibility of the partner and the coordination of the EJM project. The selected partner will complete the activity sheets and other reporting documents specific to the EJM project (see annexes). The activity sheet, the budget and the timetable will be the reference documents used by the EJM project and the partner. At the same time, the partnerwill undertake to communicate regularly and flexibly with the coordination outside of the agreed means and reporting times when necessary. In this sense, joint site visits between EJM project coordination and the partner will be organized.

Bi-monthly technical and financial reports will be produced by the selected partner in collaboration with the actors who will benefit from the cascade financing, and will then be consolidated at the level of the selected partner before sharing with coordination of the EJM project.

Indeed, as part of this partnership contract, the EJM project asks the main recipient to carry out cascade funding aimed exclusively at local organizations which will be sub-recipients of this funding. The selected partner will be responsible for coordinating and consolidating technical and financial reporting with local sub-recipient partners.

A final technical and financial report must be submitted 1 month after the end date of the intervention.

The partner will actively contribute to the various EJM project committees through a review of activities carried out versus planned activities and active participation in strategic discussions relating to the implementation of the project. The committees concerned are as follows:

• Steering committee: On an annual basis, this committee brings together the key and strategic partners of the global EJM project in order to provide information on the progress of activities and jointly monitor the directions strategies of the project.
• Technical committees: On a quarterly basis, this committee aims to monitor and evaluate the progress of activities in the medium term and to maintain thematic exchanges in order to identify the axes of interventions

Finally, among the planned activities, the partner coordinating the EJM project will organize coordination sessions in Médenine which will allow better articulation of the pilots between local state and civil actors as well as an evaluation and capitalization of the actions carried out.

5 Eligibility criteria

5.1 Eligibility criteria of the submitting organization

In order to submit your project proposal, please ensure that your organization meets the following criteria:

• Status and legal recognition in order to carry out activities in Tunisia;
• Mandatory experience in the analysis of legislative texts and legal assistance for migrant populations;
• Imperative experience in the development of capacity building tools, particularly digital;
• Recent experience of protecting vulnerable populations, particularly migrants, in the governorate of Medenine;
• Imperative experiences in the protection of vulnerable populations, particularly migrants, in the MENA region and West Africa;
• Past or current partnerships with civil society in Medenine;
• Ability to manage financing in amounts exceeding CHF 100,000;

5.2 Eligibility criteria for the narrative proposal

The formulation of activity proposals must comply with the following criteria:

• Compliance with the indications in the tender document;
• Presentation of the digital and innovative approach to tools;
• Presentation of transnational synergies in particular MENA;
• Presentation of the issues related to children and young people on the move in the region of Tunis and Médenine;
• Community Involvement Overview

Particular attention will be paid to the innovative and digital approach of the tools developed.

5.3 Expenditure eligibility criteria

The overall budget for the intervention is 40,000 CHF

The expenses below will be considered ineligible and will void the evaluation of the proposal:

• Permanent human resources (HR specific to the implementation of activities may be included as activity expenses with justification)
• Major construction/rehabilitation
• Purchases of heavy equipment (Purchases are not all excluded but must be justified and directly linked to the activities)

5.4 Procedure for evaluating project proposals

Project proposals will be evaluated by the country coordination of the Children and Youth on Mobility project, according to a grid of criteria divided into 3 levels of evaluation presented above: Organization, Narrative and Budget.