INVITATION TO RFQ for the provision of Innovating with Refugees: A Scalable Approach from Refugee-led Framework to Community-Led Solutions Consultancy

[RFQ/JO/CO/25/008]

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is an independent, humanitarian, non-profit, and non-governmental organization providing assistance, protection and durable solutions to refugees and internally displaced persons across 32 countries worldwide. In Jordan, NRC’s programmatic activities include Shelter, Education, Information, Counselling and Legal Assistance (ICLA) and Livelihoods. NRC maintains area offices in Irbid, Mafraq and Amman, as well as in Azraq and Zaatari refugee camps and a country office in Amman.

Currently over two-thirds of refugees globally find themselves in a state of protracted displacement, in host nations where achieving durable solutions remains elusive. The prevailing discourse on durable solutions predominantly revolves around the “traditional” durable solutions pathways of return, local integration, and resettlement. However, in protracted refugee crises like Jordan, these avenues may not be available to most refugees. While attempts have been made to develop and implement tools that track progress towards self-reliance and durable solutions, this is not led to significant change in programming approaches. Most durable solutions programs and interventions are primarily driven by donor priorities. This approach often results in short-term, narrowly framed, and reactive solutions that may not fully address the complex and underline challenges faced by displaced populations impeding long term solutions. Further, the reduction in funding across humanitarian sector amplifies this issue as interventions either are stopped or scaled down. Additionally, the way NRC operates—guided by its Theory of Change (ToC) to design interventions is a top-down and core competency-based approach to designing durable solutions interventions. This inadvertently impose predetermined goals and strategies that do not always reflect the unique needs and priorities of displaced populations. This approach can limit the flexibility needed to adapt to evolving contexts or incorporate refugee perspectives meaningfully into the designing and implementation process. The analysis of data based on a refugee-led framework to measure progress towards durable solutions among Syrian refugees in Jordan identified a significant gap: refugees' voices are often marginalized in shaping durable solutions discussions, decisions, and responses. Further deliberations also identified misalignment between existing intervention approaches and refugees’ long-term goals. A gap that was identified is interventions are designed through a top-down approach without a holistic approach. This is further impeded by no or minimal engagement of displaced community members.

This emerged the need to apply a human-centred design that empowers refugees to contribute meaningfully to addressing the challenges facing them. Further, given the changing context in Syria, it has become more important to consider the voices of refugees and design interventions that can help them realize the durable solutions of their choice. Co-creating solutions when the refugee’s needs and aspirations are taking shape due to change in Syrian context will help NRC and other humanitarian actors to understand the nature of solutions that refugees are looking for and how such solutions can be implemented either in Jordan or Syria. It is opportune time to engage community to come up with solutions as refugee context in Jordan is evolving fast, funding in humanitarian space is reducing, and interventions are not able to address the needs and aspirations of Syrian refugees. If these are not aligned and tailored to refugees' specific needs, progress toward durable solutions will stall and could even regress due to reducing humanitarian assistance.

Deadline for Bids:

Deadline for bid submission is 10.03.2025 - 10:00 AM  Amman time.

Please submit your bid by uploading all files to the e-tender box (eTB) web site - the link is included in the file

0_LINK TO UPLOAD BID.pdf, which you downloaded together with this tender package.

In order to avoid technical problems, please note that you can upload as many files as it is required, but the single file size is limited to 10 MB each, and it is not allowed to upload zip, rar or 7z  file. Files with the same file name cannot be uploaded twice.

After successful bid submission, you will receive an e-mail confirmation from the eTB system, with the list of submitted files. If you notice that some files have not been successfully uploaded (e.g. due to the internet interruption), please submit missing file(s) again and please put MF after the company name (example: ABC company MF).

If you need to submit a revised bid before the deadline, the Company name in the eTB system should be modified by adding “2” after the Company  name and the latest submission will be considered as the final bid. (Example: ABC company 2)

If you have any technical questions please use the link available also in downloaded file 0_LINK TO UPLOAD BID.pdf  before 02.03.2025. After submitting your question, you will receive an e-mail confirmation from eTB system.

If you do not receive confirmation e-mails, or in case of technical problems, please contact jo.contact@nrc.no

Complete RFQ documents can be obtained, free of charge from 23 February 2025 until 10 March 2025, 10:00 am (Amman Time) , by accessing the following link:

https://etbsystem.no/ClientTrans/Download?ID=jJWl%2fzUUGIk%3d

If you do not receive an e-mail, or in case of technical problems, please contact jo.contact@nrc.no  with email subject as: (RFQ/JO/25/006) – Technical Enquiry

Regards,

NRC Procurement Unit