Request For Handicap International
Request For Call for Expression of Interest, فراخوان برای ابراز علاقمندی, د لیوالتیا څرګندولو لپاره خبرتیا
Call for Expression of Interest (EOI)
I. Background
1. Humanity & Inclusion (HI) and sectors of intervention
Handicap International is an independent and impartial international organization working in situations of poverty and exclusion, conflict and disaster. Working alongside persons with disabilities amongst other vulnerable groups, our action and testimony are focused on responding to their essential needs, improving their living conditions and promoting respect for their dignity and their fundamental rights.
HI started working in Afghanistan in 1996 and currently works across 7 provinces (Kabul, Kandahar, Kunduz, Herat, Nimruz, Nangarhar and Bamyan). The population groups targeted by HI interventions include internally displaced persons (IDPs), returnees, persons with disabilities, women-headed households and other vulnerable people who have been affected by natural and manmade disasters. HI is a strong actor promoting and advocating for the rights of survivors of landmines and other persons with disabilities and provides technical support to key stakeholders including humanitarian partners on disability-inclusion and inclusive programming.
HI’s activities in Afghanistan cover several thematic areas including Mine Risk Education, Physical Rehabilitation, Mental Health and Psychosocial support (MHPSS), Protection and Livelihoods. HI is actively engaged within the National Disability Inclusion Working Group (DIWG) to provide technical support and orientations on disability-inclusion across humanitarian actors and coordination mechanisms.
2. Purpose of the Call
This call for Expression of Interest aims to identify eligible Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) for prospective partnerships supporting the Humanity & Inclusion (HI) Strategy in Afghanistan.
The locations where HI is looking to partner with OPDs are: Herat, Kandahar, Nimroz, Nangahar, and Kabul.
OPDs from those 5 provinces are invited to express their interest by sending the duly filled application form, highlighting their relevant experience, capacities, expertise, skills and commitment to take part in the initiative by the 10th of October 2024.
Women with disabilities led organizations are strongly encouraged to apply.
II. Description of the opportunity and scope of work
1. Partnership
HI’s Afghanistan program seeks to integrate a robust OPD engagement component into its operational strategy in order to achieve its global objective aiming at ensuring the Afghan population, men, women, boys and girls with and without disabilities and their representative organizations are supported to access safe and accountable inclusive services and to meaningfully participate in the response.
As part of its long-term vision, HI’s objective is to pilot an initiative aiming at supporting the establishment of Disability Resource Centers1 / Information and Orientation Platforms led by OPDs in different locations. In order to achieve that, HI’s program in Afghanistan is actively looking for committed OPDs to engage with throughout this pilot initiative.
The collaboration will be formalized by a partnership agreement for a period of 12 to 18 months maximum. HI and the selected OPDs will be working together to develop a joint action plan to implement and monitor activities.
2. HI’s commitment towards partner OPDs
As part of its commitments to effectively engage with OPDs, support their meaningful participation and well implementation of the activities, HI will provide tailored support to selected OPDs in different areas:
- Organizational Support: governance and structure, registration processes, supporting enabling working environment (workplace; office furniture).
- Technical support: capacity building, coaching to enhance overall capacities in:
- leadership, advocacy, technical advisory, communication, data collection, etc.
- humanitarian programming, proposal writing and management.
- disability inclusive humanitarian programming advocacy, technical advisory (such as conducting rapid accessibility audit), service provision.
- meaningful participation and representation within humanitarian programming, coordination and decision making.
- Financial support:
- By covering specific costs to ensure implementation of the activities: workshops and capacity-building activities’ costs, including refreshments, lunch, and contribution to transportation fees.
- By providing small grants to support implementation of the activities listed in the action plan and to support scaling-up of OPDs’ activities.
III. Objectives of the Call
1. Rationale on barriers to meaningful participation of persons with disabilities
Persons with disabilities today face multiple barriers to meaningful engagement in humanitarian action and more specifically in accessing services. These barriers include discriminatory attitudes on the part of community, local organizations, services and/or humanitarian actors, such as the perception that persons with disabilities do not have the necessary skills to contribute to humanitarian decisions; the lack of accessibility of services (health, education, livelihood, wash, etc.) ; inaccessibility of language and related information systems/communication channels; institutional barriers that prevent registration of OPDs, accessing grant opportunities and/or becoming membership of humanitarian spaces and coordination structures; financial barriers to access to transport, the Internet, sign language, computers, etc.
Meaningful participation of persons with disabilities and their representatives Organizations (OPDs) is also affected by the need of empowerment and capacity building in terms of methods, tools and resources related to Inclusive programming.
2. Objectives of the Call
- General objective
HI aims to collaborate with dedicated OPDs to establish Disability Resource Centers/ Information and Orientation Platforms led by OPDs fostering changes in attitudes, practices, and policies.
- Specific objectives:
Partner OPDs will contribute to:
- Identification of barriers for meaningful participation and access services.
- Monitoring and documentation of the situation of persons with disabilities.
- Identification and referral of persons with disabilities and/or at-risk individuals to services.
- Raising awareness on protection risks, rights of persons with disabilities and available services.
- Developing advocacy strategies jointly with HI and provide technical support on Disability-Inclusion and Inclusive Humanitarian Action to the public structures and services as well as humanitarian actors in the region which includes training, conducting accessibility audit and providing recommendations etc.
IV. Conditions of the Call
1. Eligibility Criteria
HI will document all applications that will be received within the deadline.
Only applications that meet the eligibility criteria listed below will be considered and analyzed through further organizational capacity assessment and ethical screening before final selection.
List of eligibility criteria:
- To be an OPD: an organisation or group led by persons with disabilities and where most of the members are persons with disabilities.
- With the mandate of promoting rights of persons with disabilities and their access to services.
- Operating in locations of Herat, Kandahar, Nimroz, Nangahar, and Kabul.
- Alignment between OPD’s strategy, priorities, areas/sector of intervention and HI’s scope of intervention
- Sending the dully filled application form by the deadline.
2. How to apply?
- Fill in the Application Form
- Send the Application Form either by email to:
with the Subject clearly marked “OPD name _ Call for Expression of Interest _ HI Afghanistan 2024”
OR
delivered in a sealed envelope marked “OPD name _ Call for Expression of Interest _ HI Afghanistan 2024” at the following address:
Handicap International – Humanity & Inclusion
H # 31, Street # 8, Old Taimany, District # 10, Kabul
Afghanistan
- Deadline for applications: 10th of October 2024.
- Any requests for additional information should be addressed by email to p.info@external.hi.org before 8th October 2024
3. Selection Process:
HI is following a strict selection process with different steps. HI ensures that all steps are documented, and information provided in a transparent manner to the OPDs. The preselection of the applications, ethical screening and final selection of OPDs will be conducted by a dedicated Selection Committee.
Step 1: Collecting applications by OPDs until the 10th of October 2024.
All applications will be documented and treated following the confidentiality principle.
Please note that participating in this Call for Expression of Interest does not guarantee that the OPDs will ultimately be selected for a partnership with HI.
Step 2: Preselection
The Selection Committee will review the applications to select those who meet the eligibility criteria. Incomplete application will not be considered. HI will inform all applicants of the results of the preselection by 20th October 2024.
Step 3: Ethical screening
HI will conduct ethical assessments of preselected applicants to ensure they align with its core values and ethical standards, promoting integrity and trusting partnership.
Step 4: Organizational Assessment
HI will carry out an organizational assessment to determine how closely the candidate OPD aligns with HI's operational strategy and to explore potential avenues for collaboration. At this stage, the applicants will be asked to provide some documentation about the organisation.
Step 5: Final Selection
The Selection Committee will carry out the analysis of the applications to weights and select those that best align with HI strategy, priorities, sectors and scope of intervention.
All applicants will be notified of the outcome of their applications. Successful applicants will receive an invitation to further collaboration and the signature of a partnership agreement.
Timeline of the selection process
|
Step 1 |
Deadline for applications |
10th of October 2024 |
|
Step 2 |
Preselection results |
20 October 2024 |
|
Step 3 |
Ethical Screening and |
24 October 2024 |
|
Step 4 |
Organizational assessment |
20 November 2024 |
|
Step 5 |
Final Selection results |
25 November 2024 |
|
Step 6 |
Signature of Partnership Agreement |
31 November 2024 |
4. Reasonable Accommodation
We are committed to ensuring that our application process is accessible to all individuals. If you require any accommodations or support to participate fully in this process, please do not hesitate to contact us to p.info@external.hi.org