Consultancy Services Tender (RFP/JOR/AMM/2022/009- Feasibility study) At Danish Refugee Council

Background

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC), assists refugees and internally displaced persons across the globe: we provide emergency aid, fight for their rights, and strengthen their opportunity for a brighter future. We work in conflict-affected areas, along the displacement routes, and in the countries where refugees settle. In cooperation with local communities, we strive for responsible and sustainable solutions. We work toward successful integration and whenever possible – for the fulfillment of the wish to return home.

RYSE is an ambitious attempt to incrementally develop and mobilize a dynamic, powerful, multi-stakeholder initiative/ eco-system focusing on empowering at least 25,000 displaced and conflict-affected youth to become the much-needed positive change agents in a region marred by war and political instability. RYSE vision is to develop a flagship model, in which youth, governments, private sector companies as well as investors and civil organizations together educate, embolden and enable youth to fulfil their critical role in a future Syria and Jordan and to pursue their life ambitions. The key target group are Syrian youth who are displaced and living as refugees in Jordan but also vulnerable young Jordanians who have been massively affected by the conflicts in the region. The project is implemented by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) in partnership with Generations for Peace (GFP), INJAZ, Jordan River Foundation (JRF), and Mercy Corps (MC). It is funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF).

RYSE encompasses three separate, but interlocking objectives. Objective 1 focuses on providing life skills, trainings, and pathways for youth to engage in leadership in civil society. Objective 2 provides a graduation model approach to help youth and their families become more resilient and obtain improved economic outcomes. Objective 3 will seek to create an enabling and refugee and youth-inclusive supporting environment by addressing the formal and larger context of institutional and policy structures in Jordan that prevent youth from actively participating in civil society and the labour market. This will be achieved through policy analyses and assessments, advocacy, mobilization, and capacity building of a broader set of stakeholders and duty bearers to promote refugee and youth-inclusive policies. The activities described in this TOR fall under the second and the third objectives.

Response- Graduation Approach Overview, RYSE partners is running an 18 months Graduation Approach program targeting 580 households with youth between the ages of 18 – 30 that have prematurely entered the labor market in order to provide for their families. The Consortium members have specifically chosen the Graduation Approach due to its international success in helping vulnerable individuals carve a path out of poverty. The Graduation Approach is based on the idea that poor and vulnerable households can and must be equipped to do more than just cope. Successful Graduation programmes are cognizant of the multidimensional nature of poverty and insecurity that the ultra-poor face and present a composite set of carefully sequenced interventions that address these multiple dimensions of poverty. The interventions build the skill sets and asset households to build their confidence and social capital so that they can remain food secure, lead sustainable economic lives, and become more resilient. The RYSE Graduation Approach covers the following core pillars:  Livelihoods promotion: Intensive technical and vocational training; livelihoods grants; internship support  Social protection: Preventive, protective and promotive mechanisms to support basic income security such as consumption support and IPA; linkages with protection, health and education services and employment opportunities  Financial inclusion: Direct access to convenient informal savings facilities, accompanied with financial literacy training, and linkages for financial service providers  Social empowerment: Regular check-ins and life-skills support that build confidence, promote social inclusion, build resilience at a household level,and promote positive behavioral change relevant to enabling self-sustainability, security and well-being

Additionally and as a cross cutting component the approach offers regular household mentoring for participants. This is critical because coaching deepens a participant’s learning, helps them resolve challenges, manage livelihoods effectively, and adopt positive behaviour. Coaching also helps to address unequal gender relations within households and communities

Many governments are now moving towards implementing more integrated, comprehensive social protection systems with complementary social and economic policies. The need for an integrated programming that aims to build the self-reliance capabilities of households is becoming more significant. Such programs will decrease the dependence on humanitarian aid and contribute to both poverty alleviation and to the Jordanian economy. The Graduation Approach adds real value to these efforts to build more secure, sustainable and resilient livelihoods. It represents a holistic effort to address the wide spectrum of resource deficits that keep the ultra-poor trapped in poverty and vulnerability. The Graduation Approach’s proven success has encouraged governments and development agencies to scale up the model to reach millions of individuals.

RYSE consortium, under objective 3, aims to promote the Graduation Approach and build the capacity of the key government agencies (e.g. Municipalities, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Social Development, LDU Local Development Unit, Employability Offices, etc.) to be able to effectively implement the Graduation Approach model within their different interventions. A key element of the proposed graduation intervention is to seek opportunities to transfer the model to appropriate duty bearers in Jordan. The lessons learnt from RYSE on the implementation of the Graduation Approach in Jordan could constitute a strong basis to develop the support of the Government of Jordan towards vulnerable refugees and Jordanians.

For the background and the challenge, please refer to annex one

The Purpose of the feasibility study:

RYSE seeks to hire an independent management consulting firm/organization to assess the feasibility of the Jordanian government to replicate some or all aspects of the graduation model as a pathway by which both poor Jordanians and Syrian refugees can be more effectively included in social protection schemes , livelihood responses and economic development programs. This study will examine the Graduation Approach as a viable solution to enable unemployed Jordanians and Syrian refugees living in extreme poverty to reduce dependence on decreasing aid resources, become self-reliant, and actively contribute to local economies, while building transferrable skills.

The specific objectives of the feasibility study are:  Consolidating evidence around the viability and positive impact of the Graduation Approach implementation under RYSE and globally  Map out the Governmental institutions and existing governmental activities that could fit the graduation approach, against the model implemented by RYSE  Identify the gaps in terms of capacities/activities to implement the GA at the government level  Assessment of Key barriers for Graduation Approach model implementation with government institutions including main capacity gaps.  Providing recommendations and mitigations for all aspects of the feasibility study in relevance to the adaptation of the Graduation Approach including recommendations in terms of the capacity building needed to implement the GA at the national level.