Call for Expression of Interest (EOI) for Partners’ Identification for Building Resilient Futures: Fostering Partnerships with Local Organizations for Holistic Well-being for Conflict Affected Children 2024-2028

Title of Opportunity:            Building Resilient Futures: Fostering Partnerships with Local Organizations for Holistic Well-being for Conflict Affected Children in Jordan, Lebanon, and Uganda

Opening Date:                                   13 June 2024 

Deadline for Applications:               28 June 2024

Performance Period:                        July 1^st – September 31, 2024, Partnership Assessment and workplan development

                                                            October 1^st, 2024, to December 31^st 2029

Funding Available:                         Less than 200,000 USD 

BACKGROUND

War Child organization from around the world have come together to form the War Child Alliance, a vibrant new network united by a shared belief: that no child should ever be part of war. The first charities bearing the War Child name were founded in the UK in 1993 and in the Netherlands in 1995. Since then, both organizations—joined more recently by new War Child entities in Germany, Sweden, and the US (where it is known as Children in Conflict)—have worked closely together while running their own child support programs.

War Child Alliance, in partnership with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), is in the inception phase to launch a multi-country, multi-year project in Lebanon, Jordan, and Uganda under the MoFA Migration and Displacement Grant Policy Framework 2023-2028. This initiative aims to support child refugees and host communities in these three countries through three main components:

1. Capacity strengthening of local actors in providing evidence-based child protection, education, and psychosocial support (PSS) programming and service delivery.
2.  funding for in-country partners to enhance the organizational capacity of local actors, enabling them to respond effectively to the needs of child refugees and host communities.
3. Meaningful engagement of refugees and host communities in decisions and actions that affect their communities.

Lebanon

The humanitarian crisis in Lebanon ranks among the top ten most severe globally, impacting both host and refugee communities. In response, War Child is actively engaged in addressing this crisis through a multifaceted approach that integrates education with child protection initiatives such as psychosocial support (PSS) and case management. War Child combines established projects with innovative approach in collaboration with local partners across different regions.

One of these projects is  SHIELD , funded by ECHO, which in 2022 entered its fifth term with a new local partner which includes workshops and guidance on the Be There initiative (an evidence based intervention designed to improve the wellbeing of caregivers and promote positive parenting) to ensure quality as we scale up interventions across the Middle East.

War Child is a present and active actor in key coordination mechanisms relevant to this project on the national, regional and global levels, including the national and regional education working groups and taskforces; the CP national working group (co-Chair); CM task force, LHIF committee, MHPSS taskforce, Alliance of Child Protection in Humanitarian Action and Child labor global taskforce.

Jordan

Child labor and early marriage remain significant threats to conflict-affected children in Jordan, with these issues becoming more pronounced in 2022. National dissemination events communicated the urgency of our work to key stakeholders, including the Ministry of Social Development. Special focus was given to our evidence-based interventions, such as Can’t Wait to Learn and Nurturing Families.

Uganda

While our strategic goal is to reach more children through our evidence-based approach, Uganda's unique challenges required a different response. Multiple crises, including Ebola and an influx of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, impeded our efforts. Instead, we delivered a comprehensive emergency response to the escalating refugee crisis, including risk communication, psychological first aid, and stigma reduction, solidifying our presence as an expert actor in the region.       

SCOPE OF WORK

War Child Alliance will implement the project  "Building Resilient Futures: Fostering Partnerships with Local Organizations for Holistic Well-being for Conflict-Affected Children," funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA). Through this project, in line with its strategy, War Child Alliance will enhance local partners' capacity to provide evidence-based child protection, education, and psychosocial support (PSS) programming and service delivery.

The initiative will work alongside and support up to 15 in-country local organizations (3-5 organizations in each of the three countries) through learning trajectory, known as a learning path. This path is geared towards implementing one or more evidence-informed and evidence-based child protection, education, or PSS approaches to enhance local partners' ability to care for the most in-need children.

War Child will also provide direct funding to these local partners.  This funding will enable the selected organizations to make necessary investments and improvements based on their identified priorities and needs. This may include enhancing their visibility, improving their positioning for funding opportunities, strengthening safeguarding measures, or improving the leadership skills of their staff.

Finally, War Child will work with selected partners to promote its youth advocacy methodology, Voice More, and engage youth involved in promoting the rights of children, refugees, and other conflict-affected communities. This will ensure they are meaningfully engaged in decisions and actions that affect their communities.

War Child will work closely with the selected partners to develop the following.

Joint activity

Time frame

Partners Capacity Need Assessment

 August and September 2024

Baseline assessment

August and September 2024

Detailed Activity work plan covering the period 1- October 2024 -31-12025

August and September 2024

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

1. Valid registration with the Government as local non-profit organization (NGO)
2. Previous experience in working in humanitarian assistance, particularly within the refugees crisis response
3. Past engagement and experience with target groups in delivering at least one of the services for refugees and the host community, such as education, child protection, and MHPSS, and in conducting outreach to the most vulnerable communities and hard-to-reach groups
4. Relevance of expertise and program alignments: alignment between organizational expertise, ongoing programs, and funding objectives
5. Institutional and technical capacity and need for support in financial and administrative systems, including procurement, MEAL, and HR policies and grant management
6. Data protection and confidentiality: the partners’ capacity to adhering to ethical and confidentiality standards, gaps and needs for support

NGO PRE-SELECTION PROCESS

Interested organizations will undergo a two-phase selection process:

1. Submission of expression of Interest (EOI): please download Annex (1) the submission template of the “Preliminary Implementing Partner Assessment Tool”; WCA  reserves the right to ask clarifying questions and to disqualify incomplete applications
2. Field assessment verification of the shortlisted local NGOs
3. Certification by an authorized representative that the organization agrees to and will abide by all required terms and conditions by War Child and MOFA .

CONTRACT DETAILS

The Partnership agreement with the partner NGOs will be made for an initial period of one year  (up to August 2025), with possibility for 4-years extension with additional funding.

SUBMISSION DETAILS

Interested NGOs should submit the completed “Preliminary Implementing Partner Assessment Tool” by 28 June 2024 before 5:00pm to the below mentioned link.

If you have any questions about this partnership opportunity, please write you question(s) to [email protected] before the deadline of applications.