Background: 

VSO has been in Nepal since 1964 and currently implementing its programmes in 20 districts  of five Provinces. Currently, VSO Nepal programme focuses on Education, Sexual and  Reproductive Health and Rights, Youth, Livelihoods, Gender & Inclusion, Governance,  Climate Change and Resilience. Through Volunteering for Development (VFD) approach,  VSO aims to be more responsive to and actively engaged in supporting disadvantaged groups.  

VSO’s Strengthening Access to Holistic, Gender Responsive, and Accountable Justice in  Nepal (SAHAJ) aims to reduce vulnerability towards different forms of Gender-Based Violence  (GBV) particularly against Women and Girls, break the culture of silence around GBV and  increase access to security and justice services. This is a consortium project led by Voluntary  Service Overseas (VSO) with International Alert (IA) and partners namely Forum for Women,  Law and Development (FWLD); Antenna Foundation Nepal (AFN); Emory University;  SAMAGRA and MAHURI Home. SAHAJ is one of the projects within UKAID’s Integrated  Programme for Strengthening Security and Justice (IP-SSJ). The project covers a total of 13  districts in Province 2 and 5. 

Evidence from a multinational, multilevel study confirms a link between norms that justify wife beating and men’s control over women to higher national rates of IPV. Many of the studies  found a high prevalence of violence against intimate partners among men. A report by  International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) 2012 suggests that in Nepal, about 71  per cent of men reported ever using any form of violence against their intimate partner. The  most common form of intimate partner violence (IPV) was emotional violence followed by  emotional violence was physical violence, reported by two-fifth of the men.  

SAHAJ through the studies has found that men’s social networks are more expansive than  women. This resonates with women’s reduced mobility and men’s broader range of  engagement with others outside the home. This reinforces the need to study the masculinities  within men that motivates to engage for gender norms transformation or identifying the  hindrances for their participation in shifting the existing gender norms. The identification of  approaches where men might be reached is equally important.  

Engaging men and boys in transforming harmful gender norms is one major component within  the SAHAJ project. The project believes that Men/Boys Engagement to create lasting social  norms change is an emerging practice area as working only with women and girls alone is  less effective and does not create an environment conducive to change. As gender norms are  interdependent.  

Along with marginalised women, girls, students and stakeholders, SAHAJ is working closely  with men and boys through the interventions in family, schools and justice and security  providers. Men and boys are sometimes more difficult to engage in gender norms  transformation programming, especially if it is perceived as a woman’s or girl’s issue, but  efforts to engage men in countries around the world and Nepal are showing promising signs  of success at transforming social norms. For example, SAHAJ baseline report suggests that  most men have higher trust with the security and justice service providers. Similarly, the  midline report suggests greater collaboration, the change seemed to be the greater willingness  of men and boys to support women and girls’ work in the home, especially if they had free  time.

To further explore the opportunities and challenges for men/boys, VSO Nepal is looking for  more in-depth study to engage them more effectively in gender norms transformation process.  

Objective of the Assignment: 

The main objectives of this consultancy work should serve are as follows: 

• To assess the motivations for men and boys to engage in gender norms transformation  process 
• To critically reflect and examine what went well and went less successful to involve  men and boys in the project interventions 
• To identify the opportunities and challenges for men and boys to involve in gender  norms transformation process.  
• To recommend future strategies to strengthen the meaningful participation of men and  boys in the projects aiming at gender norms transformation and GBV issues

For TOR Please CLICK HERE

Interested and eligible Firms/individuals are requested to submit their letter of interest  along with required documents as mentioned above on point no. 9 and 14 to email ID:  [email protected] no later than 5:00pm, 15th February 2021