JISRA Project Baseline Research Study and Mapping – Iraq At Search for Common Ground

Position Summary

JISRA Iraq is seeking to hire a consultant/consultant agency who can, conduct a youth and gender sensitive Research Study on FoRB in Sinjar, Nineveh Plains and Kirkuk to explore the religious dimensions of conflict with an emphasis on the role and impact on women and youth, to facilitate the following objectives.

The Project

The Joint Initiative for Strategic Religious Action (JISRA) in Iraq is a consortium of three international NGOs, namely Search for Common Ground (Search), Tearfund, and Mensen met een Missie (MM), as well as local partners Peace and Freedom Organisation (PFO) and Christian Aid Program Northern Iraq (CAPNI) who will collectively be referred to as “the consortium” or “JISRA Iraq”over in this ToR. The consortium aims to address and transform intra-, inter-, and extrareligious dynamics in Iraq to promote Freedom of Religion and Belief (FoRB) through direct and local partner implementation. JISRA will leverage the role of a variety of actors, including religious leaders, young women and men from different religious and socio-economic backgrounds and civil society to identify, reflect, and build upon specific entry points for intrareligious, interreligious, and extrareligious engagement and promote an inclusive, tolerant, and flourishing society in Iraq.

There is an interlocking relation between: religion, the system of power, and systematically legitimized gender based inequalities that is well institutionalized through laws, policies, programmes and practices. JISRA takes into consideration that religious leaders have a tendency to marginalize women and youth. It therefore builds on challenging gender norms taking into account local practices, customs and the sensitive patriarchal system. Among others, JISRA works towards transforming masculinities, and engaging religious leaders, both men and women, including youth as mediators, community mobilizers and advocators for peace.

The JISRA programme attempts to resolve challenges in the following spaces:

1. Intrareligious sphere, where challenges are:
   Terms of Reference | Research Study on Religious Conflict in Iraq and Stakeholder Mapping
   JISRA | Iraq
   I. The existence of harmful religious norms and practices towards women, youth and
   minorities
   II. Proliferation of othering and exclusivist claims on the trust
   III. Radical and extremist narratives increasingly taking root in people and
   communities experiences grievances and exclusion
2. Interreligious sphere, where challenges are:
   I. Lack of meaningful interreligious interaction fosters tension between communities
   driven by prejudices against the other and scapegoating of the unfamiliar
   II. Polarisation is exacerbated by the demise of local practices that help resolve
   grievances as well as those promoting peaceful co-existence and tolerance, the
   increase of more dogmatic views and fake news spread through social media
3. Extra-religious sphere, where challenges are
   I. The influence of powerful religious groups on state policies and practices, and the
   use of religion by decision-makers for political gain or influence
   II. Existing and upcoming policies (regional/national) and practices that curb the right
   to FoRB
   III. Diminishing civic space, the exclusion of minority faith actors (including CSOs,
   women and youth) within decision-making processes.
   IV. Repressive security practices are often used as a legitimation for prosecuting certain
   religious minority groups and can lead to a rise in violent extremism
4. Capacity and knowledge, where challenges are
   I. Lack of grassroots actionable knowledge on building FoRB and its intersectionality
   with other rights
   II. Lack of (interfaith) cooperation among civil society actors
   III. Religious actors not always being equipped in terms of project management,
   strategic and specialized know-how

Click here for full list of deliverables.

The following skills and experience are expected by SFCG for our evaluator for this project:

• Proficiency in English, Arabic and Kurdish (written and spoken);
• More than 5 years of experience in project baselines, research and project evaluation, including collecting data in interviews, surveys and focus groups;
• Experience in conflict analysis including religious conflict and working with religious, governmental and civil society sectors;
• Experience working with international organizations;
• Terms of Reference | Research Study on Religious Conflict in Iraq and Stakeholder Mapping
• Experience conducting quantitative and qualitative surveys and analysis;
• Experience in mainstreaming gender and youth in research,
• Research Methods and data collection skills;
• Familiarity and experience with Iraq and Kurdistan Region of Iraq contextual challenges.

In addition, the consultant is required to respect the following Ethical Principle:

• Comprehensive and systematic inquiry: Consultant should make the most of the existing information and full range of stakeholders available at the time of the review. Consultant should conduct systematic, data-based inquiries. He or she should communicate his or her methods and approaches accurately and in sufficient detail to allow others to understand, interpret and critique his or her work. He or she should make clear the limitations of the review and its results.
• Competence: Consultant should possess the abilities and skills and experience appropriate to undertake the tasks proposed and should practice within the limits of his or her professional training and competence.
• Honesty and integrity: Consultant should be transparent with the contractor/constituent about: any conflict of interest, any change made in the negotiated project plan and the reasons why those changes were made, any risk that certain procedures or activities produce misleading review information.
• Respect for people: Consultant respect the security, dignity and self-worth of respondents, program participants. Consultant has the responsibility to be sensitive to and respect
• differences amongst participants in culture, religion, gender, disability, age and ethnicity.

In addition, the consultant will respect SFCG’s evaluations standards, to be found in SFCG’s evaluation
guidelines: http://www.sfcg.org/programmes/ilt/dme_guidelines.html