TERMS OF REFERENCE
Oxfam is a global movement of people who are fighting inequality to end poverty and injustice. Across regions, from the local to the global, we work with people to bring change that lasts.
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BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
Oxfam is carrying out a research project to critically examine how women and girls in SWANA experience, negotiate and resist social and cultural norms surrounding sports and bodily autonomy. Drawing on an intersectional and decolonial feminist framework, the project interrogates how systems of patriarchy and colonialism shape both constraints and possibilities for embodied agency through sport.
The study is guided by three core research questions:
· How do prevailing social and cultural norms in the SWANA region shape women and adolescent girls’ participation in sport and their experiences of bodily autonomy?
· What strategies and mechanisms are used by women, girls, and communities to either suppress or resist expressions of bodily autonomy through sport?
· What practices and approaches can better support women and girls’ voice, agency, and bodily autonomy in community-based sports programming?
To explore these questions, the research will employ desk research and qualitative research methods, including semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with women and girls engaged in sport activities to explore experiences and perceptions of bodily integrity, and personal or social constraints.
This project takes a critical stance toward dominant, donor-driven narratives of empowerment, instead privileging local knowledge, lived experience, and bottom-up forms of resistance. A central objective is to produce knowledge that is accessible, community-rooted, and non-extractive.
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SPECIFICATION OF SERVICES OR WORK REQUIRED
While the study does not claim to represent all women and girls in the SWANA region, it seeks to generate rich, contextual, and relational insights into how bodily autonomy is shaped—and reshaped—through sport as a contested and potentially liberatory space, covering Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Jordan.
The researcher will be integral to the data collection and writing up of the report. The responsibilities for this person are:
1. Participant identification
2. Data collection, including leading focus group discussions in Arabic
3. Data translation and interpretation
4. Co-writing analysis and findings
5. Ethical and political accountability for research by ensuring the findings do no harm
If the supplier wishes to propose modifications to the specification (which may provide a better way to achieve Oxfam ´s objectives) these must be considered as an alternative offer. The Supplier must make alternative offers in a separate letter to accompany the offer. OXFAM is under no obligation to accept alternative offers.
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METHODOLOGY
To explore these questions, the research will employ desk research and qualitative research methods, including semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with women and girls engaged in sport activities to explore experiences and perceptions of bodily integrity, and personal or social constraints.
This project takes a critical stance toward dominant, donor-driven narratives of empowerment, instead privileging local knowledge, lived experience, and bottom-up forms of resistance. A central objective is to produce knowledge that is accessible, community-rooted, and non-extractive.
Planned Timeline
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TIMEFRAME AND PAYMENT SCHEDULE
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EXPERIENCE OR PROFILE REQUIREMENTS
The individual should have the following competencies:
Essential
1. Deep cultural understanding and knowledge of the focus countries (Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Jordan)
2. Fluency in Arabic and English
3. Able to navigate sensitive topics around bodily autonomy
4. Skilled in qualitative research methods (semi-structured interviews and focus-group discussions)
5. Familiar with feminist and decolonial methodologies
6. Committed to co-authorship, respecting deadlines and open communication
7. Be a young researcher between 20 and 30 years old
How to apply
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APPLICATION PROCESS
Submission Instructions
Quotations and applications must reach Oxfam no later than 18/8/2025 AMMAN COB.
Responses must be submitted in English, electronically to: ammanprocurement@oxfam.org.uk
The subject of the mail should be: [ToR Reference (RFQ-MENRP-25-0031) – Proposal Submission + [Name of bidder]]
Administrative Requirements
To be shortlisted for evaluation against award criteria, Click Here to view the documents must be submitted with this application.
Evaluation and Award Criteria
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Only quotations with combined scores of at least 45 points for the technical award criteria (approach paper and CV) qualify for the financial evaluation.
Oxfam withholds the right to conduct interviews with one or more potential suppliers before an award decision is made. The purpose of the interview is to seek further clarification on the submitted quotations and learn more about the background and previous experiences of the potential suppliers and their teams.
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