Call for bids: Promoting education on consent in Romania
British Embassy Bucharest invites project proposals to promote education on consent amongst Romanian youth.
Deadline for submitting project bids is 10 November 2022.
Background
British Embassy Bucharest invites project proposals to promote education on consent and related issues for Romanian young people. This is part of a wider British Embassy portfolio of projects seeking to support efforts to improve the rights of women and girls in Romania, alongside a multi-year programme of projects on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking.
In the first 6 months of 2021, 10,643 Romanian women and young girls reported battery and other violence, in 65% of the cases the perpetrator was their partner or ex-partner. 84% of the incidents occurred in their residence. The Police intervened in 28,486 cases of domestic violence, out of which 7,659 were of high risk. 22 women were killed. In addition, anecdotal evidence suggests that the cases of sexual harassment among students has gone up, in a country where one third of the women report some type of sexual harassment. Romania is also the EU country with the highest number of trafficked victims to the UK.
Understanding of consent is an important part of preventing sexual assault and violence against women. It also promotes better social attitudes towards women and a broader understanding of respecting individual autonomy. It would also contribute to education on healthy relationships and address violence within relationships.
In this context, we would welcome bids for projects, with a total budget of 48,500 RON, which would improve education on consent in Romania, targeted at both young men and women. These projects can provide education around consent directly, or produce materials and opportunities for teachers to use them.
Objective
- to improve young people’s understanding of consent, including, but not limited to consent in a relationship
- to improve young people’s understanding of how a lack of consent or manipulated consent can constitute abuse in different circumstances; including violence and sexual assault, but also other forms of coercive control and abuse
Scope of Work
The project should have a national reach, where possible, but we will consider targeted pilot projects. It should also look to build long-lasting resources to be utilised beyond the immediate life of the project.
Activities
It is essential that the project implementer builds effective relationships to secure buy in at a policy and operational level for this project to be successful. Potential activities could include:
- training for teachers in high schools on consent education
- creating an online guide that explains the principles of consent and that can be easily accessed by students
- educational sessions for high school students on consent
- campaigns targeting young people, promoting consent
- pilot projects that can be used as an evidence base to promote further education on consent
This is not an exhaustive list and the British Embassy welcomes innovative proposals from potential implementing partners that suggest additional or alternative activities to deliver the key objectives. We encourage creative proposals and ideas.
Project approach
British Embassy Bucharest will approve project proposals. This proposal will form the basis for project planning. The proposal should set out how the implementing partner will deliver activities to support the objectives set out above with an implementation plan and supporting activity based budget. British Embassy Bucharest will oversee the project planning and provide the necessary contacts to the implementers, including as required with Romanian authorities.
The project implementer will manage project logistics and is expected to consider the pandemic context and its possible impact on the project implementation when submitting the bid.
The Embassy will provide contact persons and focal points for UK institutions or experts that might be needed in the process, including on UK policy on education on consent.
How to bid
Our process will consist of a one-stage full bid proposal.
Bids should be completed in English. You will need to complete and submit the following documents:
Email these documents to bucharest.projects@fcdo.gov.uk and andrada.petrache@fcdo.gov.uk. The subject of the email should be: name of implementing organisation and title of the project.
The project sponsors reserve the right to request additional information from bidders before making a decision.
Activity based budgets should list the activities needed to deliver the outcomes (results) of the project. All costs should be in Romanian New Lei (RON).
Deadline for submitting project bids is 10 November 2022.
Reporting
The reports to be produced during the course of this project are to be delivered in English:
- an inception note detailing approach and proposed activities. This should also set out key stakeholders who will be engaged, a proposed schedule of activities, risks, safeguarding approach and any additional details, including a communications plan
- a draft report
- three monthly financial reports
- after a facilitated process of commenting, the final report
Composition of the project teams
The British Embassy Bucharest will nominate a Project Director, British Embassy Bucharest (Goran Mandic, 1st Secretary) and a Project Manager, (Andrada Petrache, Senior Political Officer) to oversee the project delivery.
Project proposals should demonstrate that the implementing partner’s staffing levels are appropriate to deliver the aims of the project and that the staff have relevant expertise and experience in working on prevention of sexual assault and gender based violence, and education on these topics in Romania, as well as detailed knowledge of the Romanian context. They should also have a demonstrable track record of working with young people and the education system in Romania.
Timing and scope of input
The bidding round is an open and competitive process, assessed by British Embassy Bucharest. The selected partner will be contacted by mid November. Once a bid is approved, a Grant Agreement will be signed with the successful bidders. In the documents section you will find an example of a Grant Agreement.
Your organisation will be expected to sign the contract within one week of the funds being awarded. Failure to do so may result in the funds being re-allocated. The implementing organisation will be required to submit report updates and a final evaluation of the project.
There are no pre-payments. Reimbursements will be completed once activities have taken place and all receipts submitted. Implementing organisations will request repayments using an invoice (including receipts and a financial report of spend) and the repayments will be carried out during those dates agreed upon in the respective contract.
The budget should be presented in Romanian New Lei (RON). All payments will be made in RON to a bank account held in Romania.
Please send any questions regarding the call for bids to andrada.petrache@fcdo.gov.uk.
It is expected that the project will be carried out from mid-November 2022 to end March 2023. The crucial milestones will be:
- the submission of the draft report: January 2023
- final report: March 2023
Budget
Grant applications must include an estimated budget of at least 48,500 RON.
Depending on the quality of the proposals, the British Embassy reserves the right not to grant all or part of the available funds. The Embassy also reserves the right to award a grant of less than the amount requested by the applicants. In such a case, applicants will be asked to increase the amount that they co-finance, to propose other co-financing means or to decrease the total costs without altering the substance of the proposal.