Call for expressions of interest for the development of the Humanitarian Standards Partnership mapping tool

Application deadline: Thursday 24 March 2021
Please note we will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis.
Starting date: as soon as possible

1. The Humanitarian Standards Partnership

The Humanitarian Standards Partnership (HSP) aims to promote complementarity and coherence among sets of humanitarian standards to support practitioners in principled humanitarian action.

The HSP currently has seven members representing the following global humanitarian standards:

• Child Protection Minimum Standards (CPMS)

• Minimum Standards on Education (INEE)

• Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards (LEGS)

• Minimum Economic Recovery Standards (MERS)

• Minimum Standard for Market Analysis

• Humanitarian Inclusion standards for Older People and People with Disabilities

• Sphere Minimum Standards (Protection, CHS, WASH, Nutrition, Food security, Shelter, Health)

All HSP standards are based on three foundation texts:

• The Humanitarian Charter

• The Protection Principles

• The Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS)

The HSP is governed by a Steering Committee, consisting of representatives from all partner standards. The HSP Coordinator will be the main contact for this assignment.

2. Objective of the mapping tool

The objective of the mapping tool is to provide humanitarian workers ready access to the wealth of information across all standards handbooks by specific theme. The tool will pre-select the handbook sections and standards relevant to specific themes and allow people to find the information they need without searching each individual handbook. Each theme is presented as a document or page within the mapping tool.

The HSP would like technical and “people and process”[1] standards to be used together and to inform each other. The curated tool will serve this purpose. It goes beyond a simple term search (which is available on the online handbook platform) and will ensure a well thought-through approach, ensuring the three foundation texts listed above are referenced, and sectoral divides bridged. Hence, not all listed sections and standards will necessarily make direct reference to the theme, and not every mention of a certain term will automatically justify an entry in the mapping tool. The result should guide the reader across an overview of how the theme is treated across the handbooks and humanitarian sectors. We envisage each thematic document to be around 500 words only, and may include diagrams such as decision trees.

For example, a WASH specialist seeking guidance on hygiene promotion will find links to child protection, inclusion, education, livelihoods, markets, cash etc, while being reminded of the importance of working for and with affected people.

3. Format

The mapping tool will be integrated into the Interactive Handbook (handbook.hspstandards.org). The tool is intended for online use only and will be reviewed and updated as handbooks are revised, or new handbooks onboarded. The content will be developed in MS Word format, before being uploaded.

Each section will consist of:

• The theme, followed by a short section introducing it;

• A visual representation of the theme across all handbooks (possibly some sort of pie chart or similar, indicating where the bulk of the information is – TBD);

• A list of hyperlinks to the relevant sections or standards, each link accompanied by brief information on the content. This list should be sequenced logically;

• A section with links to useful tools which can be found in one of the handbooks;

• A section referencing other mapped themes in the tool, as relevant.

The details will be refined in consultation with the selected bid.

4. Themes for the mapping tool

Below is an indicative list of themes to be mapped:

a) Humanitarian response sectors (sub-themes for each of these themes can be considered as separate entries as well)

• WASH

• Nutrition

• Food security

• Livelihoods

• Shelter

• Health

• Education

• Child protection

b) Contexts

• Urban

• Camp-based

• People on the move

c) Response settings

• Environmental sustainability

• CCA, DRR

d) Response modalities

• Cash-based programming

• Market-based programming

e) Protection and inclusion of at-risk groups

• Older people

• Persons with disabilities

• HIV

• Children

• Gender, PSEA, GBV

f) Response phase

• Assessment

• Planning and programme design

• Monitoring

• Evaluation

• Learning

5. Consultancy: milestones, deliverables and requirements

The mapping tool requires an initial consultancy for an estimated maximum of 12 days. Please note that a new consultancy contract for mapping additional terms is a possibility.

Individuals, groups of consultants with a lead consultants or organisations are invited to apply.

Milestones and deliverable:

• Together with the HSP Steering Committee members, the consultant will identify 5 “pilot” themes and map them. The result (a working prototype in MS Word), accompanied by a feedback form, will be tested with the various HSP communities and other humanitarian actors for one month. The HSP coordinator will lead on the piloting phase.
  Total time: about 5 weeks.

• The consultant will analyse the feedback, discuss it with the HSP Steering Committee and propose any changes for the mapping process. Based on those changes, (s)he will map another jointly agreed 15 to 20 themes.

Requirements:

• Excellent understanding of one or more HSP standards handbooks, ideally having actively worked with them.

• Strong visual and conceptual capacities.

• A sense of pedagogy, ensuring that this mapping is accessible and easy to understand and digest.

• Humanitarian background is an asset.

Potential next step: HSP training tool

We may draw a short training module out of the mapping, which could be integrated into the trainings of the individual HS Partners or provided as part of an HSP training. The training module could build on case studies that need a broad range of response elements and invite the participants to use the mapping tool to work out solutions for the case studies. This would be a separate short consultancy.

[1] Such as the CHS or inclusion standards.