Consultancy – Membership study: status of EuroMed Rights’ network member base to implement its new strategy
- Context
EuroMed Rights is one of the biggest and most active networks of human rights organisations in the Euro-Mediterranean region. Our name refers to the vision stipulated in the Barcelona Declaration of an equal partnership between the regions and countries located around the Mediterranean Sea (e.g., North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe).
Operating under Danish law since our creation in 1997, we currently encompass 70 organisations from 30 countries. We have offices in Copenhagen (headquarters), Tunis, and Brussels. Today, we work primarily on promoting and protecting human rights and democracy in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean regions and on influencing the policies of major European actors towards these areas.
Our vision is human rights and democracy for all in the Euro-Mediterranean region.
Our mission is to strengthen the collaboration between human rights organisations from the South, the East and the North of the Mediterranean, and to increase their influence at home and abroad. We achieve this mission mainly by facilitating the creation of joint strategies and action plans between members, and by conveying their shared analyses and views to decision-makers and to the public.
In its new strategy for 2022-2027, EuroMed Rights set it as a goal to “energise” its member base.
As a member-driven network with a broad and diverse membership base, EuroMed Rights serves as a platform to mobilise and engage its members in policy collaboration, capacity building, and advocacy and communication to jointly work on addressing human rights issues in the Euro-Mediterranean region. As the Network has grown in size and importance over the past 25 years, it aims to ensure that the strengths and capacities of its members are fully mobilised and that new CSOs that cater to alternative audiences such as social movements and youth activists can find room within the Network.
The overall purpose of the present consultancy is to support the Network in reaching this organisational goal.
- Objectives and outputs
Objectives
The study should assess the capacities (strengths and gaps) of the Network’s current members when it comes to delivering on the five political goals listed in the Network’s new strategy document for 2022-2027 (Migration and asylum rights ; Women’s rights and gender justice ; Accountability, justice and space for civil society ; Democracy and freedom ; and Economic, Social and Cultural rights) as well as the three additional issues that the Executive Committee has decided to pursue (climate justice, LGBTQI++, youth and social movements).
It should evaluate how the Network can improve its ability to exploit the strengths and competences of its members and key partners in delivering on the above-mentioned political goals.
Deliverables
The study should provide:
- A mapping of the capacities and interest that EuroMed Rights’ members have to deliver on each of the above-mentioned political goals and issues. This will amongst other be based on an analysis of their activities, of the human rights issues they work on and key networks, partners, and actors they work with, all data that will be part of the deliverables.
- A mapping of EuroMed Rights key partners specifying how they engage with the Network, on which thematic/human rights issue and how they contribute to achieving EuroMed Rights’ goals.
- A mapping the geographical implantation and presence of its members and key partners in the Euro-Mediterranean region – including a mapping of the office /staff presence that these organisations have in countries in the Euro-Mediterranean region outside the countries where they are legally registered.
It is also expected to provide recommendations and inputs
- As to how the Network in the future may further exploit the capacities that its members and partners have when seeking to reach its political goals and to deliver on the three political issues (climate justice, LGBTQI++, youth and social movements).
- As to how the Network can better engage with and mobilise its current members and partners based on side comments collected during the study.
In terms of documents, we expect the consultant(s) to deliver an analytical report of maximum 20 pages complemented with annexes gathering data collected on members, including a one-pager on each regular member, as well as an Excel database on members and partners as a tool for EuroMed Rights to further work on membership issues.
Besides these mandatory items, the consultant(s) will be welcome to provide any additional relevant outputs disclosed by the study.
Attention will be paid to the format of the deliverables to make key outputs easy to read and communicate on (for example by using visual representations).
- Methodology
In 2020, EuroMed Rights has set up a taskforce to lead the efforts to energise the network’s member base. The taskforce is composed of members of EuroMed Rights’ secretariat and Executive Committee. This group jointly ran a SWOT analysis of the member base to inform the elaboration of the present ToR as well as relevant parts of the 2022-2027 strategy. Both documents will be shared with the consultant(s) as reference documents.
The information will be gathered through:
- Reading and analysing documents provided by EuroMed Rights.
- Interviewing members of the staff who work closely with EuroMed Rights’ member organisations (i.e. program officers and assistants from the program department).
- Interviewing member organisations.
- Running an online survey targeting members.
- Analysing data on partners that will be collected by EuroMed Rights’ program staff in a template to be developed by the consultant consistently with the member’s approach.
The focus should be primarily on EuroMed Rights’ members, and it is expected that all regular members of the Network (63) are reached out during the study. Data on partners will be handled through desk study and discussion with EuroMed Rights’ staff.
In the data collection online consultation with members should be prioritised, but highly necessary travel in the Euro-Mediterranean region (e.g. to visit the Network’s offices) may be considered in accordance with our carbon footprint reduction policy.
The study will itself serve to engage with EuroMed Rights’ members and form part of the efforts to energise the Network’s member base. The consultant(s) is/are therefore expected to pay great attention to communication with members. Best ways of approaching members to get relevant data will be discussed with EuroMed Rights’ staff. These should explore EuroMed Rights’ political goals and issues without explicitly referring to them to favour non-biased answers.
Also beware, that the conclusions of the study may be subject to an update in 2024 to inform the mid-term report on the strategy implementation to be submitted to EuroMed Rights’ General Assembly.
- Process and timeline
Within the below timeframe, the selected consultant(s) will propose and finalise the above-described deliverables with the help of EuroMed Rights’ program department and executive consultant.
The program department will provide support to the consultant(s) in reaching out to members and mobilising them for the study purpose.
The consultant(s) will keep EuroMed Rights’ main contact persons regularly informed of the study process (at least every second/third week) and warn them if any difficulty/risk appears in the process especially when collecting information on members.
The process may also include interactions on the study content with EuroMed Rights executive committee members (2) from the membership taskforce in charge of the implementation of the strategic goals on members, and especially with the political referent on membership.
The consultancy shall be conducted according to the following indicative timeframe:
| Step 1 | Application deadline | 5 October 2022 |
| Step 2 | Selection of the consultant | By 14 October 2022 |
| Step 3 | Information sharing and methodology finetuning with EuroMed Rights incl. questionnaires | By 14 October 2022 |
| Step 5 | Collecting data on members (survey, interviews…) | By 30 November 2022 |
| Step 5 | Presentation of a first draft of the deliverables (meeting) | By 20 December 2022 |
| Step 6 | Feedback from EuroMed Rights | By 15 January 2023 |
| Step 7 | Submission and approval of the final deliverables | By 31 January 2023 |
- Practical
The consultant(s) is/are expected to work independently and to closely coordinate with the Executive Consultant and Program Director. Most of the tasks will be performed remotely.
Very good command in English and French is required in order to access information and communicate with stakeholders from all focus countries. Mastering Arabic will be a plus. The study outcomes should be written in English.
It is expected that candidates have knowledge and/or experience in the field of human rights and in running surveys.
- Application procedure
Qualified and interested candidates are hereby requested to apply individually before 5 October 2022.
The application should contain the following:
- A brief description of why the consultant(s) consider(s) herself/himself/themselves as the most suitable for the assignment and a clear methodology on how they will approach and complete the assignment incl. a work schedule, number of work days, team coordination if any. Maximum five pages.
- A curriculum vitae, indicating education background/professional qualifications, experience, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the candidate(s) and at least three (3) professional references.
- A budget with an all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs.
Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed. Samples of the shortlisted consultant(s) prior production will be requested. Consultant(s) may be asked to review their initial proposals after the interview, that should allow fine-tuning the methodology and work schedule.
Questions and candidacies can be sent to Christel Décatoire, Executive consultant: [email protected]
More information about EuroMed Rights: www.euromedrights.org
- Payment modalities
EuroMed Rights will break down payments in three parts based on the amount agreed with the consultant:
- 50% to be paid after the signature of the agreement,
- 25% to be paid when the first deliverable draft is submitted,
- 25% to be paid after the final draft is approved.