Third Party Monitoring in Syria

Since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, the German government through the Federal Foreign Office (FFO) and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has assisted the crisis-affected Syrian people in the whole of Syria ranging from humanitarian assistance to resilience/ early recovery programming and stabilization efforts. Project activities funded by the German government in Syria observe clear "red lines" defined by the FFO, neither benefiting designated terrorist entities, the Syrian regime nor other armed actors and their partners. In the current situation, presence and project visits of German governmental staff in the project areas inside Syria are generally not possible. Since 2017, FFO commissions a Third-Party Monitoring (TPM) system via GIZ for Syria that was constantly evolved and expanded, focusing primarily on political red lines with regard to sanctioned entities. The contractor is responsible for providing information relevant to FFO-decision making on projects in the Whole of Syria, including (1) the former "de-escalation zone Idlib" in NWS, (2) the self-administered NES, (3) the Regime Controlled Areas, and (4) the TUR-controlled areas. The following deliverables are expected for the above-mentioned regions: - Quarterly written report and availability for follow-up discussions on general political, security and administrative dynamics, relations, and trends as well as developments and potential opportunities relevant for German aid delivery and the activity of civil society actors in the different regions - Several risk assessment reports per month of potential or current implementing partners or other project-relevant local entities to provide vetting against humanitarian principles and/or foreign policy red lines, as well as human rights and operational compliance. - Several vettings per year of informal money-transfer services ("Hawala-systems") against potential diversion of funds to sanctioned entities. - Up to ten humanitarian delivery reports per month from Turkish/Syrian border crossing to destination, including monitoring of distribution, concerning the observation of humanitarian operational standards - Sector-specific reports (e.g. health, education, or financial flows), i.a. on the degree of influence/control/benefit by sanctioned entities. - Pro-active spot reports and availability to discuss developments significant for project implementation and changes in the fundamental balance of power or actors" control over administration and/or security services. - Spot reports providing field-based, third-party monitoring services for project output verification and quality control in order to (1) ensure project activity integrity and (2) assess the project impact with regard to the target group/beneficiaries - In case of need and in line with the service provider"s capabilities, deliverables mentioned above can be substituted with related tasks. In order to be able to provide the required services, the tenderer must demonstrate the following capabilities 1. Capability to design and manage monitoring processes for stabilisation, resilience and humanitarian projects within their respective risks 2. Capability to independently gather data in the project areas in selected areas of Syria through physical access (where possible) and local networks (teams of field enumerators/ researchers/ assistants) 3. Capability to critically assess, analyze and process this data in order to make it useful for operational decision-making in FFO project work. The contractor must provide a pool of field enumerators/ researchers/ assistants to gather raw data from the field/ project locations. Please note that the monitoring of foreign policy-relevant dynamics described in this tender is not a standard TPM-service, which for example could be limited to verification of aid-delivery. Methodologically competent sources in the field must be systematically directed to gather relevant data, which often will be fragmentary and / or contradictory. This data must then be structured and processed to feed into nuanced answers to FFO questions. The service provider is not expected to deliver definitive answers on any and all questions but needs to indicate degrees of likelihood or even limitations in answering questions. In case of need and in line with the service provider"s capabilities, deliverables mentioned above can be substituted with related tasks and/or deliverables in regions.