Terms of Reference
Community-based assessment of gender barriers to access to HIV services for transgender women in 15 countries in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA)
Community-based assessment of gender barriers to access to HIV services for transgender women in 15 countries in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA)
Background information on ECOM
ECOM — the Eurasian Coalition on Health, Rights, Gender and Sexual Diversity – is an international non-governmental association that strives for the creation of favorable conditions in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) region for gays, other men who have sex with men, and trans* people for them to have access to sexual and reproductive health services, including prevention and treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), but also works for those services to be evidence-based and rights-oriented.
One of the tools of ECOM to achieve the objective of creating a favorable legal environment is to collect strategic information in the context of gender issues and to continue using data for advocacy and improvement of the existing services.
Overview of the situation and assessment of gender barriers
Transgender people belong to one of five UNAIDS-recognized key groups that are particularly vulnerable to HIV. The prevalence of HIV among transgender women can be up to 49 times greater than that of the general population. The factors that may increase the risk of HIV infection are unprotected sex, depression and anxiety, sex with the use of various psychoactive substances, and involvement in sex work.
Different statuses and identities can lead to even greater insecurity and reduced access to health, legal, social and other services. For example, transgender women in migration, involved in sex work and consuming drugs may face transphobia, misogyny and sexism, xenophobia, and whorephobia and discrimination against drug addicts, may face racism and classism.
ECOM, in cooperation with the Eurasian Women's Network on AIDS (EWNA), is preparing to conduct an assessment to identify gender-related barriers to access to HIV services in 15 project countries. The EWNA is conducting a study among women living with HIV (PLWHA), women who use drugs (PWUD) and sex workers (SW); ECOM is conducting a study among transgender women.
We expect that identifying, measuring, analyzing gender barriers faced by girls and women from different communities in the EECA region will help increase the overall understanding of the following:
- the burden of stigma and discrimination, gender barriers faced by people living with HIV in the EECA region;
- measures taken to eliminate gender barriers;
- identification of gaps and changes in gender barriers over time;
- advocacy for more effective national policies and programs.
Priority eligible community for this announcement and geographical coverage:
- Transgender women.
- Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
Expected action plan
The Lead Consultant shall coordinate the conducting of the needs assessment.
The Lead Consultant shall adapt the available checklist for the study among transgender women, and shall prepare supporting documents for national informants. The checklist requiring adaptation was developed by EWNA based on the UNAIDS Gender Assessment Tool for women from the PLWHA, PWUD, SW communities to assess, with community human resources, the gender barriers to access HIV services, and contains questions on behavioral data; social, cultural and economic factors; legal and political factors; the needs of women in politics and in HIV programs; and an integrated response to HIV.
After hiring the Lead Consultant, ECOM will announce a competition for hiring national informants in the 15 countries mentioned above, who will further collect country data based on the adapted checklist. The Lead Consultant shall conduct a global and regional literature review, shall monitor the completion of the checklist, shall process data for each country and prepare a report.
TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR CONSULTANT
Purpose: Conduct assessment of gender barriers for transgender women while accessing HIV services in 15 countries in the region.
- Adaptation of the main data collection tool (checklist) to fit transgender women’s needs; getting approvals from ECOM;
- Preparation of the required forms supplementary to the checklist (data collection schedule, guidance for informants on data collection, informed consent form for the informants, digital versions of the checklist in Russian and English posted on a platform proposed by ECOM), determination of the algorithm of quality control of the collected data;
- Online training module for country informants on filling out the checklist and collecting data;
- Global and regional literature review;
- Monitoring of data collection across 15 countries by national informants; supervision of the process of filling out the checklists; acceptance and approval of the completion of the data collection phase;
- Processing of the collected data;
- Elaboration of a report based on the literature review and collected data; ensuring ECOM's approval of the report;
- Online presentation for the members and partners of ECOM on the main findings of the conducted study.
For the Lead Consultant, Daniyar Orsekov (daniyar@ecom.ngo), ECOM Advocacy Coordinator, will act as the main contact person, who will be the focal point from ECOM for communication, support, monitoring and final evaluation of the Consultant's work.
DELIVERABLES:
- Adapted checklist;
- Supplementary forms for effective data collection;
- Webinar(s) on data collection for national data collection informants;
- Global and regional literature review;
- Individual consultations and contacts with national informants upon request;
- Report on the study;
- 1.5 hour-long webinar with presentation based on the study report and findings.
SCOPE OF WORK
All work must be completed by December 15, 2022.
The report on the completed work must be developed and submitted to ECOM not later than 5 working days after the end of the contract duration.
QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR THE CONSULTANT
- Higher education, preferably in the field of sociology, gender;
- Minimum 3 years of experience as a gender research analyst/ consultant, experience with access to HIV services;
- Common understanding of HIV/AIDS issues in the region;
- Minimum 3 years of experience in conducting research specifically on transgender or LGBT communities;
- Decent knowledge of Russian and English, sufficient for literature review, data processing and communication;
- (Preferably) experience and technical capacity to effectively conduct multi-country research studies;
- (Preferably) ability to define several tasks and prioritize, high level of self-organization, ability to work without direct oversight;
- (Preferably) knowledge of MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Outlook, utilization of social media platforms and online messengers to ensure fast communication.
Transgender women applying for this position will have priority in case of qualifying equally with cisgender women.
SELECTION CRITERIA
- Compliance with the above listed qualification requirements;
- Proposal submitted by the consultant, which must include the following: (a) CV in case of individuals, with examples of analytical and research work experience, (b) time frame in line with the Terms of Reference, (c) description of possible sources of data collection on the basis of which the consultant will develop the final report, (d) financial proposal.
REMUNERATION AND COMPENSATION
In total, the completion of the work shall not exceed 11 expert working days for the entire Terms of Reference.
The Consultant and ECOM will sign a service contract, under which ECOM will not be liable for any taxes to be paid by the consultant; any taxes required by the law of the country of residence and all other payments shall be made by the Consultant.
APPLICATION PROCESS
We invite you to submit your proposal to contact@ecom.ngo with the following subject of the e-mail: “Assessment of gender barriers.”
Deadline for applications is July 27, 2022.
Additional questions or requests for clarifications can be sent to Daniyar Orsekov, ECOM Advocacy Coordinator, at daniyar@ecom.ngo.