Survivors of Human Trafficking Case Management Plan Consultant at Heartland Alliance

Organizational Background and Project Description

Heartland Alliance International (HAI) is the youngest and fastest-growing part of Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights, a family of organizations that has been leading anti-poverty and social justice work in Chicago for more than 125 years. HAI is comprised of nearly a dozen country offices implementing programs on a broad range of human rights issues globally, as well as the Chicago-based Marjorie Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture, which serves individuals from more than 50 countries. HAI has significant expertise in the fields of trauma-informed mental health care and access to justice for survivors of rights abuses. It is also an industry leader in access to high-quality and stigma-free health care. Across all of its programs, HAI promotes progressive, innovative approaches to human rights protections and gender equality.

Heartland Alliance International (HAI) began working in Nigeria in 2009 with a large-scale effort to bring high quality, stigma-free HIV prevention services to some of the country’s most marginalized groups. That effort has grown to become one of the largest USAID-funded HIV programs for key populations in Sub-Saharan Africa — including members of the LGBTQI+ community, sex workers, and people who inject drugs.

HAI has expanded its programming in Nigeria to focus on the needs of adolescent girls and women, particularly those who are extremely marginalized, exposed to gender-based violence and hard to reach. With a strong background in gender equity and expertise in trauma-informed mental health and psychosocial support services, HAI has been training service providers to work with women and children who have been trafficked by Boko Haram and other militarized groups in Northeastern Nigeria.

PROGRAMMING

Ensuring Equal Access to Healthcare: HAI grows the capacity of key population-led grassroots organizations to provide stigma-free HIV services in an often-hostile legal and cultural environment, providing training in leadership, management, financial, and monitoring and evaluation skills. HAI trains female sex workers and LGBTQI+ individuals as peer educators to conduct community outreach and as paralegals to respond when individuals are arrested on unfair grounds.

Anti-Trafficking Capacity-Building: HAI conducted extensive assessments on the psychosocial and mental health needs of communities coping with atrocities, including trafficking, committed by Boko

Haram and other militarized groups. HAI is training clinical and non-clinical staff on mental health and psychosocial support interventions tailored for victims of trafficking, and social workers and security agencies on effective victims screening and identification procedures. HAI also works closely with national governmental agencies to build their capacity to provide improved services and psychosocial support for victims.

Women’s Empowerment: HAI is committed to empowering adolescent girls and women in post-secondary institutions. HAI’s peer facilitated programs build skills in leadership, decision-making, negotiation and influencing, financial literacy, and other areas.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

With generous support from Office to Monitor and Combat Human Trafficking (J/TIP), HAI launched the Strengthening Services for Victims of Human Trafficking in Northeast Nigeria project, which started in January 2018 and will end in February 28 2022. This is a four-year grant to improve the capacity of governments, civil society, and communities to protect and provide comprehensive services for survivors of trafficking in Northeast Nigeria, particularly former child soldiers and women and girls trafficked by combatants for forced labor and/or sexual exploitation. Project’s activities take place in Northeast Nigeria (Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states) and aim to improve comprehensive services for victims of trafficking, including former child soldiers and women and girls trafficked for forced marriage and sexual exploitation and build the capacity of existing local partner institutions providing services to survivors of trafficking.

The project objectives include:

Objective 1: Specialized service providers have improved coordination and are able to identify victims of trafficking

Objective 2: Social service stakeholders in northeast Nigeria provide quality and comprehensive shelter, protection, and psychosocial services to victims of trafficking.

Partnership:

This project is implemented in partnership and close collaboration with the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons – NAPTIP, and more specifically NAPTIP Maiduguri Zonal Command, responding to trafficking in persons in six states in Northeast Nigeria.  HAI also has a partnership with Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development (MoWASD) in Borno State. In addition, HAI, IOM and UNHCR, established Anti-Trafficking Task Force in Borno State, chaired by NAPTIP and MoWASD. HAI, IOM and UNHCR provide technical and operational support. The purpose of the task force is to bring stakeholders together to work collaboratively, in a coherent manner to combat TIP in Northeast Nigeria through strengthening their capacity to prevent, mitigate, and respond to TIP by drawing upon the comparative advantages of all the stakeholders. HAI continue its efforts to establish and build the capacity of the Task Force in close collaboration with IOM and UNHCR in Borno State.

Project Focus and Approach:

Northeast Nigeria: The project focus is on combatting TiP in Humanitarian/Conflict Settings and TiP perpetrated by non-state armed groups, such as Boko Haram and ISWAP. The work approach is through:

• Protection/Technical Assistance: Capacity building of government actors and social service providers in providing comprehensive, holistic and trauma-informed services to victims of human trafficking.
• Trauma-informed mental health services for victims of TiP, including children.
• Trainings for social workers working in IDP camps and transit (rehabilitation) centers on efficient procedures for victim identification and screening using a victim-centric approach, including identifying child victims of trafficking.
• Trainings on case management planning for victims of human trafficking for social workers, protection officers, case managers and NAPTIP officers.
• Prevention/Awareness Raising and Sensitization at all levels:
• In IDP camps and host communities
• With communal leaders (district heads) and religious leaders.
• Participatory workshops on TiP in Northeast Nigeria, including focus on cultural and poverty driven practices leading to exploitation of children, such as Al-Majiri schools, forced child begging and street hawking, forced child labor, forced marriage, including child marriage.
• Development of awareness raising plan for communal and religious leaders to conduct ongoing sensitization in their communities and hard to access local governmental areas.
• Work with the Protection Sector Northeast Nigeria (PS NEN) and sub-sectors to mainstream TiP among the cluster system in Northeast Nigeria
• Partnerships/Improving Coordination and Referrals: Working with IOM, UNHCR, NAPTIP, MoWASD and other international, national and civil society partners to support coordination of services and referral mechanisms.

This project is the successor of Protect, Shelter, and Heal project, carried out by HAI from 2016 to 2017 in Nigeria and Swaziland. Through that project, HAI provided technical assistance to government agents and civil society organizations to address gaps in identification and protection for victims of trafficking and in the understanding and application of the trafficking in persons’ local and international legal frameworks.

1. Overview

The Survivors of Human Trafficking Case Management Plan Consultant will be responsible for developing a case management standard operating procedure (SOP) tailored to the needs of survivors of human trafficking in Northeast Nigeria. This plan should be immediately applicable for use by service providers working with victims of trafficking, particularly former child combatants and women and girls trafficked by combatants in the Lake Chad Basin Region. The SOP is intended to provide specific guidance on case management, including identification, screening, and referral, for victims of trafficking, intended for use by State and Federal Nigerian government agencies and NGOs.  The SOP should take into consideration the disparate risks and needs faced by victims of trafficking based on gender.  This project primarily works with women and girls, but the SOP should also provide guidance on working with boys recruited by armed actors, and persons with disabilities who are at increased risk of sexual or labor exploitation in the context of conflict.

The case management SOP can build on existing SOPs developed by other actors and should include:

1)  Effective documentation of case management services that facilitates independent case review, case handover or referral, and documentation of any special needs that should inform team response to victims of trafficking.

2) Elaborated content on risk assessment and safety planning for both adult victims and minors that takes into consideration gender. The SOP should include information on assessing risk to self or others, and risks from family and/or community, and should be consistent with all applicable laws, international guidelines and government policies on child safeguarding. .

3) Elaborated content on trauma-informed care and integration of psychosocial support into case management service delivery.

4) Cultural and contextual adaptations for the Lake Chad Basin Region, particularly with respect to gender, religion and customary law and practice. The SOP should take into consideration the education level of practitioners, limitations and benefits of customary law, the cultural diversity of NE Nigeria, and community attitudes and beliefs regarding individuals who may have been forced to provide sexual or labor services to armed actors, or who have engaged in commercial sex work.

This consultant will report to Peret Shikse, JTIP Nigeria Program Director, and receive technical guidance and oversight from the Global MHPSS Technical Advisor. The consultant should be based in Northeast Nigeria and be willing to travel to Maiduguri and Damaturu  as needed.

Key Responsibilities

Desk Review and Needs Assessment:

• Review existing case management SOPs and related documents to determine what content can be used or adapted for the Northeast Nigeria context and where gaps exist.
• Review HAI program information and other agency reports and publications to understand unique needs of trafficking survivors and service providers in the Lake Chad Basin Region and existing strengths and gaps.
• Conduct a roundtable discussion with key stakeholders and, as needed, collect additional new data to assess needs of service providers and participants to better understand gaps in case management service delivery.

Inception report:

• Based on gaps exposed during desk review and needs assessment, compose an inception report detailing plan for case management SOP development including focus on 1) cultural and contextual adaptations for the Lake Chad Basin Region; 2) risk assessment and safety planning; 3) trauma-informed care and integration of psychosocial support into case management service delivery, and 4) other elements determined to be needed to fill gaps in current case management resources.
• Inception report should include plans for dissemination of SOPs to service providers and organizational leadership including international NGOs, CSOs, and government actors.
• Inception report should be approved by the Clinical Psychologist/Project Coordinator and the Global MHPSS Technical Advisor prior to SOP development.

SOP development:

• Compose case management SOPs including elements detailed above. SOPs can reference and draw from existing resources. At least one draft version should be reviewed and approved by the Clinical Psychologist/Project Coordinator and the Global MHPSS Technical Advisor before finalization.

Dissemination

• With the Clinical Psychologist/Project Coordinator, conduct dissemination activities as developed in the inception report. Activities may include in-person and remote (webinar) dissemination workshops and trainings.

1. Deliverables

• Inception report
• Case management SOP draft and final report
• Dissemination activities
• Final report of consultancy including objectives, deliverables achieved, successes, challenges, and suggestions for technical quality improvement, and action plans to address any program quality concerns.

1. Qualifications/Bid Evaluation Criteria

Education and/or Experience:

• Advanced degree in psychology, social work, or related field with a minimum of 5 years of professional experience.
• At least two years of experience working with refugees, displaced persons and/or survivors of violence, preferably in Nigeria.
• Experience in gender-based violence and/or human trafficking is preferred.
• At least two years of experience implementing case management and MHPSS programming in development and/or humanitarian settings, preferably in Nigeria.
• In depth experience/knowledge of Lake Chad Basin region in Nigeria.
• Experience developing standard operating procedures (SOPs) and/or other program resources.

Language Skills:

• Excellent oral and written English language skills required

1. Anticipated Timeline

HAI anticipates the Contractor beginning on February 10, 2022. All deliverables must be completed before March 31, 2022.

1. Management

Peret Shikse, JTIP Nigeria Program Director, will provide overall supervision to the Contractor during contract period. HAI will provide overall logistical support and assistance to the Contractor, as needed and when possible.

The Contractor is responsible for arranging and completing all activities listed in the approved proposal, in coordination with HAI’s local project and logistics staff, if applicable. The Contractor will advise HAI prior to each of those activities. The Contractor will be responsible for completing and submitting to the Company the deliverables listed in Section D of this document. The Contractor will be responsible for procuring his/her own work/office space, computers, Internet access, printing, and photocopying throughout the consultancy. The Contractor will be required to make his/her own payments for such services. The Contractor will be responsible for any expenses beyond the fee provided by the Company as determined in this document. 

1. Payment Schedule

Payment(s) will be made upon completion of deliverables.

G.    Submission Process

To be considered for this contract, please submit an .

1. A letter of interest, indicating how your skills and experience meet the qualifications listed above;
2. A summary of relevant past performance or a résumé or CV (no more than four pages) for individuals;
3. A draft budget, including consultation fees and all other consultancy-related expenses to meet the above described deliverables, including travel. There is no preferred budget format.

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