Context Background
Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority democracy, has long been regarded as a tolerant and pluralist country. However, according to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s (USCIRF) most recent annual report, in 2019 “religious freedom conditions in Indonesia generally trended negatively” due to growing incidents of religious intolerance, the criminalization of blasphemy, and continued threats from hardline and other intolerant groups. Violations to religious freedom tend to have the greatest impact on minority groups such as Ahmadiyya and Shi’a Muslims, Christians, believers outside Indonesia’s six officially recognized faiths, and ‘nonbelievers.’ Widespread prejudice, hate speech, and religious persecution, particularly against religious minorities, as well as continued rights abuses at the hands of both state and non-state actors, thus remain fundamental barriers to a more inclusive and tolerant Indonesian society.
Within this context, civil society continues to play an active role in pushing for change, with many high profile groups and representatives working to counter religious intolerance, promote pluralism, and increase protection for religious minorities. However, despite this strong track record, Search has observed that civil society initiatives are not always representative of the communities in which they operate. Through our consultations with the US Department of State (DoS), we have found that civil society organizations (CSOs) in Indonesia often lack the capacity to perform outreach and engagement activities with ‘hard to reach’ groups. Groups that are usually considered too challenging for local civil society to engage with are left behind, which not only results in their further marginalization but also in the overrepresentation of the same groups time and again. Minority groups also face significant barriers in coordinating and organizing among themselves, and often lack opportunities to collaborate with allies to advocate for their rights. The project will thus empower CSOs by improving their capacity to collaborate with a range of groups that represent the wider community to conduct dialogues and initiatives that seek to address the root causes of religious intolerance and rights violations.
The Project
Search in collaboration with Yayasan Satu Keadilan (YSK), Jaringan Kerjasama Antar Umat Beragama (Jakatarub), and the KAKAK Foundation (henceforth “the consortium”) is implementing a project to increase understanding about the importance of religious tolerance while broadening ‘whole of community’ collaboration and raising awareness at the public and government level around the importance of protecting the rights of minorities. The overall goal of this 24-month project is to empower minority groups and allies to address barriers to rights and freedoms of minority groups in Indonesia, and the three specific objectives are: 1) To build the capacity of CSOs working on tolerance to perform outreach and engagement with ‘hard to reach minority groups to increase their community-level impact; 2) To empower journalists and social media influencers to detect and respond to dangerous misinformation such as religiously motivated hate speech and persecution of religious minorities, and 3) To provide religious leaders with the skills and opportunities to collectively advocate for religious tolerance and protection of rights.
The situation analysis itself is composed of activities supporting one specific objective to build the capacity of CSOs working on tolerance to perform outreach and engagement with ‘hard to reach minority groups to increase their community-level impact. Specifically, the data collected through this study will contribute to the development of training content for the training of trainers for local partners, CSOs, and issues for CSO-led interfaith dialogues.
Therefore, the primary goal of the situation analysis is to identify the ‘hard to reach’ religious group across the target areas, understand their work, operational structures/mechanisms, and needs and inform the development of training materials for the various stakeholders involved in religious tolerance advocacy and rights protection.
To achieve this, the situation analysis’ objectives are:
Map out the ‘hard to reach’ religious group across the target areas and understand their areas of focus, operational structures/mechanism, and their capacity needs;
Identify current practices, opportunities, challenges, and gaps related to tolerance advocacy and rights protection of minority groups
Identify what other actors could make a positive contribution to tolerance advocacy and rights protection efforts.
2. Goal and Objectives of Consultancy
Search seeks a consultant (individual or team) to layout the final report of PROTECT’s situation analysis.
Specifically, the objectives of the editing are as follows:
Restructure and reconstruct the contents of three reports into one report that align to Search’s style and language, including translating the original reports in Bahasa Indonesia into English;
To confirm details and information that may be incomplete or unclear with the consultants who developed the report to ensure that the report is accurate and in the appropriate style for the intended audience;
To improve the layout and design of the report including visual representation through the use of infographics for example.
3. Geographic Locations
The assignment will be taken remotely but the consultant should have a basic understanding regarding the situation analysis’ targeted locations, which are the greater Jakarta region (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi), the greater Bandung region, and the greater Surakarta region.
4. Logistical Support
Search will share three reports with the consultant. Search will also organize an inception meeting. The consultant will participate in the meeting to have a better understanding of the report and have an opportunity to seek clarifications from the program and DME staff who supervised and reviewed the report.
5. Key Deliverables and Timeline
Search expects to finalize the recruitment of the consultant by the third week of November 2021. The consultancy is expected to last ten working days (two weeks). Final deadlines will be agreed upon by Search and the consultant upon finalization of the contract.
Deliverables
Search expects the following deliverables from the consultant:
Participation in the validation meeting;
A well-edited report in English (45 pages max in length, excluding appendices) that consists of (unless otherwise agreed upon with Search):
Table of contents
Abbreviations
Executive summary of the methodology, limitations, key findings, and recommendations
Background information (project specifics)
Methodology: Objectives, data collection and analysis, and limitations of the study
Research findings, analysis, with associated data presented (should be structured around the main objectives/evaluation criteria and should cover all indicators) The selection will have multiple sub-sections.
Recommendations for future action
Appendices, which include detailed research instruments, a list of interviewees, terms of references and evaluator(s) brief biography.
6. Requirements of Consultant
The following skills and experience are expected by Search for the selected editor for this project:
Proficiency in translating from Bahasa Indonesia to English;
Proficiency in English including excellent spelling and grammar;
The ability to retain the author’s “voice” after editing;
Experience in conducting similar assignments;
A good understanding of Search’s reporting style and language is an advantage;
Critical thinking along with an eye for detail;
Proficiency in words. Good command of other publishing tools will be an added advantage.
In addition, the consultant is required to respect the following Ethical Principles:
Comprehensive and systematic inquiry: Consultant should make the most of the existing information and full range of stakeholders available at the time of the review.
Competence: Consultant should possess the abilities and skills and experience appropriate to undertake the tasks proposed and should practice within the limits of his or her professional training and competence.
Honesty and integrity: Consultant should be transparent with the contractor/constituent about: any conflict of interest, any change made in the negotiated project plan and the reasons why those changes were made, any risk that certain procedures or activities produce misleading review information.
In addition, the consultant will respect Search’s evaluations standards, to be found in Search’s evaluation guidelines:
http://www.sfcg.org/programmes/ilt/dme_guidelines.html