Type: Individual Consultant for Rapid Assessment and Protocol Development for Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV)
Duty Station: Colombo, Sri Lanka
Closing Date: 28 July 2024, midnight Sri Lanka time (GMT + 5:30)
Link to the application
UNFPA Sri Lanka's 10th country programme aims to promote equitable sexual and reproductive health and rights for all Sri Lankans, with a particular focus on girls, women, and young people. The programme aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) agenda, pursuing the three transformative goals: (1) Ending unmet need for family planning, (2) Ending preventable maternal deaths, and (3) Ending sexual and gender-based violence and harmful practices. Despite being classified as a middle-income country, UNFPA's Country Office (CO) in Sri Lanka engages in policy advocacy and dialogue to enhance the rights of women and girls in both development and humanitarian contexts.
Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is widely recognized as a major public health priority and grave violation of Human Rights, with serious consequences for the health and well-being of survivors, their children and families. Technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) is an emerging form of SGBV, encompassing online harassment, cyberstalking, non-consensual distribution of intimate images, and other abuses facilitated by digital technologies. Addressing TFGBV requires robust legal frameworks, coordinated response protocols, and effective data protection measures to safeguard survivors' information.
For this purpose, the consultancy is aimed at conducting a rapid assessment of the existing regulatory framework and response protocols for TFGBV, with a particular focus on identifying and addressing data protection issues and gaps in response. The consultancy will develop a comprehensive protocol, for responding to TFGBV, ensuring alignment with international best practices, survivor-cantered principles, and robust data protection standards. This includes evaluating current practices regarding the handling and storage of sensitive data by law enforcement and providing recommendations to mitigate security risks.
The Consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:
a). Rapid Assessment
- Review and analyze existing laws, regulations, and policies related to TFGBV in Sri Lanka.
- Assess the current institutional and organizational protocols for responding to TFGBV.
- Conduct stakeholder consultations, including with government agencies, law enforcement, civil society organizations, survivors, and technology companies.
- Identify gaps, challenges, and strengths in the current regulatory and response framework, with a particular focus on data protection.
- Evaluate current practices of law enforcement regarding the handling and storage of sensitive data (e.g., videos and images)
- Evaluation
- Development of Protocols
b). Evaluation
- Evaluate the effectiveness of existing protocols in addressing and preventing TFGBV.
- Assess the extent to which current protocols are survivor-cantered, ensuring the dignity, safety, and rights of survivors.
- Review data protection measures currently in place, identifying any security vulnerabilities or risks to survivors' personal information.
- Provide recommendations for improving the current framework and protocols to better support survivors, prevent TFGBV, and enhance data protection.
- Provide recommendations for software, data protection needs for investigation of TFGBV.
c). Development of Protocols
- Develop a comprehensive protocol for the response to TFGBV, incorporating international best practices, a survivor-cantered approach, and robust data protection standards.
- Ensure the new protocol includes clear guidelines for law enforcement, healthcare providers, social services, and other relevant stakeholders.
- Develop training materials and tools to support the implementation of the new protocol, including data protection measures.
Please refer to the Terms of Reference for further details.
