Protection Analytical Framework Consultancy

Over the past 16 years, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has pioneered and implemented programs that prevent and respond to violence against women and children, as well as other vulnerable groups in refugee settings and in other conflict-affected contexts, making the IRC a global leader in this field. IRC seeks to bring together specific expertise involved in violence prevention and response in conflict affected settings to ensure collaborative and still specialized support to survivors and those at risk of violence. This expertise is housed in the Violence Prevention and Response Unit (VPRU), which is responsible for ensuring overall quality and communication of VPR work within the IRC through support to the field and promulgation of global best practice. The VPRU includes specializations focused on violence against women, violence against children, and protection/ rule of law for refugees, IDPs and other vulnerable populations. IRC presently implements VPR programs to support social and political environments that foster freedom from violence, discrimination, and exclusion for vulnerable populations in contexts of crisis.

The Results-Based Protection Analysis project, led by the IRC and Danish Refugee Council, will strengthen collective analysis for protection outcomes by building a core approach to protection analysis that is fit for use by both frontline protection teams as well as by protection coordination mechanisms. This two year project uses a human-centered design approach to develop and deliver a resource package of easy-to-use modular tools and approaches to improve the quality, documentation and alignment of protection analysis and resulting decision-making with the needs of protection frontline workers, coordination actors and those steering broader humanitarian response strategies in mind. Having a commonly agreed upon structure and analytical framework, clarity on roles/responsibilities in conducting protection analysis from the ground up, and fit for purpose training and tools designed for the end-user will assist in making sense of data and facilitating faster and improved analysis to achieve protection outcomes for the women, girls, men and boys affected by crisis and conflict.

As a key activity of the IRC and DRC’s Results-Based Protection Analysis, this consultancy will develop a protection analytical framework (PAF) that will provide a common framework and categorization of essential protection data and information needs to support the achievement of protection outcomes. The PAF will outline the structure and organization, and boundaries for a protection analysis that will assist protection staff and coordination stakeholders to approach a problem with logic, creating a model that provides the foundation and a guide for data collation and analysis. The PAF will entail a visual representation of the critical components of a robust protection analysis, linking information needs, indicators, data sources and methodologies, and allow stakeholders to identify important relationships between variables and provide a common framework and categorization which can be easily adapted for different contexts.The developed PAF will be informed by stakeholder consultations, a desk review of existing analytical frameworks, and linked to the human-centered design and testing activities of the Results-based Protection Analysis project. This activity is an important deliverable to the Results-Based Protection Analysis project, and as also intrinsically linked to the Global Protection Cluster’s Information and Analysis Working Group (IAWG) key areas of working in enhancing protection clusters’ capacities on information management and analysis for protection outcomes. The consultancy will be overseen by the Protection Analysis Specialist and IRC-DRC Project Strategic Advisory Group, and will also feed into the GPC IAWG.

Consultancy Deliverables:

In collaboration with the Protection Analysis Specialist, the Results-Based Protection Analysis Strategic Advisory Group, and the Information and Analysis Working Group (IAWG) under the Global Protection Cluster, the consultant will develop:

1) Summary conclusions from protection analytical framework desk review and consultations

2) Protection Analytical Framework, and

3) A Protection analysis plan/ workflow suite of tools

The PAF will: 1) describe what is needed to investigate/assess protection risks and visually explain and break down the main factors, variables or constructs related to protection risks to be investigated and the presumed interrelationships among them; 2) will be suited for application and adaptation across all humanitarian contexts (including IDP and refugee) to ensure all component parts of protection are investigated and explored; 3) will help to guide the analysis of information on current and forecasted priority protection needs.

The development of the PAF will be undertaken through a desk review and consultations to consolidate experiences and examples of analytical frameworks and ensure linkages and complementarity within the protection sector and sub-sectors. Sectoral and sub-sectoral analytical frameworks and guidance will be consolidated and reviewed alongside the Results-based Protection Analysis Project’s mapping of existing resources on protection analysis.The consultant will coordinate closely the Project team and with IAWG co-leads, consulting key stakeholders from this body and presenting work product for Project Advisory Group and IAWG feedback, which will be incorporated into the final draft delivered by the consultant.

To support the operationalization of the PAF, the consultant will also lead in the development of a protection analysis plan/ workflow suite of tools. The suite of tools aims to link the protection analysis framework with examples of ‘information needs’ which directly links to indicators, suggested questions, and the most relevant data collection techniques and methodologies. In the end, this will produce a customized analytical framework, based on the needs of the context to support a structured and organized approach to protection analysis.

This activity targets key protection staff and others involved in the planning, design, implementation, and coordination of protection analysis and responses. This activity will work closely with Results-based Protection Analysis Project consultation and product testing activities, ensuring tools and guidance for frontline and coordination level efforts are practical and fit-for-purpose.