Summary
Concern Worldwide, with funding from USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance (BHA), will undertake a 24-month project in support of efforts to overcome two of the largest barriers to the localization of humanitarian action – humanitarian financing and human resources. This focused research project will be implemented across five different humanitarian contexts (Somalia, DRC, Malawi, Bangladesh, and NW Syria)*, with an aim to develop transferable learning on sustainable funding and human resource issues, within the lens of advancing locally led humanitarian preparedness, response, and recovery.
Concern is seeking an academic partner (individuals or institutional research teams) in each of the five study contexts with the expertise to advance the proposed research. In collaboration with the Concern Beyond Barriers Team, the Academic Partner (“the partner”) under this program will support the finalization of the study protocol, assist in the selection and engagement of in-country stakeholders, and lead on the data collection and preliminary analysis.
About Beyond Barriers
Concern Worldwide is an international humanitarian organization committed to the relief, assistance and advancement of poorest people in the least developed countries of the world, aiming towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries. Founded in Ireland in 1968, Concern has over 4,000 personnel working in 24 countries around the world, primarily in Africa and Asia. Beyond Barriers is one of Concern’s primary initiatives aimed at improving humanitarian system strengthening; others include joint initiatives between Concern, International Medical Corps (IMC) and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) on the Building a Better Response Project (BBR), the National NGO Program on Humanitarian Leadership, and Local Capacity Strengthening for Response (LCS4R).
This program will advance a series of practical solutions to overcome common challenges, such as assessment frameworks, case studies, and rapid funding mechanisms. The tools will then be rolled out both in-country and globally via dissemination workshops, a newly developed program website. Aimed at transferability and opportunities for scale-up, this program will be grounded in a focus on proactive, operational solutions to funding and human resource barriers. The program will pay particular attention to the impact of power dynamics in the system. With a focus on a finite set of routine operational issues and challenges that organizations in those contexts face, learning derived from the analysis will help provide an enabling environment in which local humanitarian action can have agency and resources.
Scope of Work
With guidance and support from Concern Worldwide, the academic partner will be responsible for:
Partnership Purpose & Timeframe
The estimated timeframe for this partnership is approximately 6 months. Due to the time frame of the Beyond Barriers project, all deliverables must be completed by February 28, 2023. This timeline is subject to change based on individual country timeline and needs.
Outputs
Essential Requirements
Desirable Requirements
Budget & Level of Effort
Academic partners will be compensated for time and effort on this project, as per the budget submitted and agreed upon.
*Contingent upon donor final approval
Application Requirements
Application Instructions
Interested candidates should send the above requested documents to the following email address by 3rd June 2022: beyond.barriers@concern.net
The covering email should include the following title: “Beyond Barriers Research – Somalia”
Applicants will be reviewed on a rolling basis and a candidate may be selected before the deadline.