RFP-Strategy Development to Strengthen Survivor & Community Leadership to Address Human Trafficking and Debt Bondage

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RFP - Strategy Development to Strengthen Survivor and Community Leadership to Address Human Trafficking and Debt Bondage

About the Organization:

The Freedom Fund is a public charity and philanthropic initiative dedicated to identifying and investing in the most effective frontline efforts to end slavery. The Freedom Fund currently supports over 120 partners in seven hotspots in India, Nepal, Thailand and Ethiopia. In addition, the Fund has also launched global initiatives on supply chains, strategic litigation, the treatment of mental trauma and safer migration.

Summary:

The Freedom Fund seeks an independent consultant or agency to help develop a strategy that lays out a plan to effectively support survivor movements and leadership in and across our partners’ communities. This strategy document would represent an initial step to our long-term ambition to empower survivors of trafficking, forced labour or debt bondage to support government on the most effective ways to respond to and prevent such exploitation.

The Freedom Fund adopts a collaborative approach towards governments and aims to drive on-the-ground change through stronger relationships and constructive engagement with government stakeholders. They expect that this assignment should take approximately 22 working days over a period of 45 days, starting February 1, 2021 at the latest.

Background to the Freedom Fund in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh:

The Freedom Fund is a leader in the global movement to end trafficking and forced labour. We identify and invest in the most effective frontline efforts to address this issue in high-prevalence countries and sectors. Partnering with visionary investors, governments, non-government organizations and those at risk of exploitation, we tackle the systems that allow extreme exploitation to persist and thrive. Working together, we protect vulnerable populations, liberate and reintegrate survivors and prosecute those responsible. Through our innovative hotspot model, we convene strategically aligned networks of NGOs working to address trafficking and forced labour in high prevalence areas of Nepal, India, Thailand, Ethiopia and Myanmar to multiply the capacity, impact and influence of frontline partners.

The Freedom Fund has been supporting service delivery organisations in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to reduce human trafficking, bonded labour and harmful child labour since 2015. The program’s next phase will build on the program’s achievements and learnings so far to inform more intensive efforts to engage government systems for state-wide impact to address the exploitation of children in the two states.

Goal of the Assignment:

Goal: To develop a strategy document that lays out a plan to effectively support a survivor forum and leadership in and across our project communities.

Project Deliverables:

They expect that this assignment should take 22 working days over a period of 45 days, in close collaboration with the FF programs team and relevant FF implementing partners.

The consultant would conduct the following activities to inform the final document:

• Desk research and interviews of expert practitioners to identify lessons from previous or still ongoing efforts to support such a movement
• In collaboration with our partners, map out existing survivor groups in partner communities and identify individual survivors who have shown leadership potential.
• Conduct in-person consultations, if possible, with the identified survivor leaders to explore their visions for a potential survivor movement and identify the support necessary to build a more cohesive movement
• Develop a draft strategy based on the findings from the steps laid out above and request FF partners’ feedback.
• Present draft to the FF team
• Incorporate feedback and submit final draft.

The final report format will be discussed and agreed with the FF team, but it should be no longer than 10 pages and include the following content.

• Lessons and best practices from other movements
• Key feedback collected from survivor leaders on the following topics: governance structure, sustainability, economic reintegration.
• Proposed next steps/ priority areas to support a survivor movement as part of the Freedom Fund program

Essential Qualities and Experience

The consultant or consultancy team must have the following attributes:

• Experience working with survivors of trafficking or forced labour
• Very strong facilitation skills
• Previous experience working on social movements /survivor networks
• Ability to present and frame complex social issues and solutions in language appropriate to the audience
• Experience working with community-based organisations, including training and mentoring.
• Excellent communication skills and fluency in written and spoken Hindi and English

Application:

Interested parties should prepare an application of no more than 5 pages plus annexes if they are needed.

If you would like to apply for this consultancy, please send your application to Michelle Mendonca at mmendonca@freedomfund.org by no later than 21 January 2021.

If you have any questions about this consultancy, please contact Michelle Mendonca at mmendonca@freedomfund.org.

Applications should contain the following sections:

• Outline of approach addressing the deliverables/ activities listed in the ‘Terms of Reference’ section above. Please be sure to include a proposed methodology and timeline/ workplan.
• Professional experience: a list of relevant previous professional assignments.
• Consultancy fees, detailing high level budget lines.
• Three professional references