Request for Proposal for Hiring of National Firm with Experience in Conflict Management Projects to Conduct End line Evaluation Research for DFID Project
Brief Summary Description of Project:
The “Leadership and Community Development” project funded by the UKaid was launched in December 2012 in 6 neighborhoods aiming at enabling Jordanian hosts and Syrian refugees to manage current and emerging tensions between their communities and develop common solutions to immediate problems that threaten to destabilize relations between these two groups and to enable Jordanian local governance institutions. Since then, and for the following 6 consecutive years a new wave of communities were targeted by the project every year, each wave of communities consists of 6 new communities/ neighborhoods, the projects currently works in 36 communities in 11 governorates.
As the “Leadership and Community Development” project moves into its final year of implementation, there is greater risk of increased tensions derived by the deteriorating economic situation in Jordan. Even before the Syrian crisis, and now the COVID-19 pandemic, heightened competition for jobs and resources, Jordanians faced water and housing shortages and high overall rates of unemployment, paired with a youth bulge and some of the highest unemployment rates among youth and women in the world. Today, Mercy Corps Jordan programs that incorporate feedback from youth leaders showcase how youth continue to highlight un- and underemployment as major barriers to participation in society. These same youth identify unemployment as a barrier to Jordan’s wider stability, with many laying blame on the government for not adequately responding to the high levels of youth unemployment.
The project was recently extended through March 2021, and the final year of implementation will focus activities on responding to the current COVID-19 crisis and its long-term effects, bridging divides between citizens and government, and increasing youth engagement in civil society and economic activities. Recognizing that economic instability is increasingly the key driver of social tensions in Jordan, year five activities will also pilot interventions that target the cultivation of private sector partnerships to drive job creation, particularly for young women and men, and to help restart economic growth that has been stalled as a result of the COVID-19 shutdown.