Consultancy On Fisheries Forced Labor/Trafficking In Persons (FL/TIP) Gende

Consultancy on Fisheries Forced Labor/Trafficking in Persons (FL/TIP) Gender Study in Indonesia

About Plan International
Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organization, striving to advance children’s rights and equality for girls all over the world. At Plan, we work alongside children, young people, our supporters and partners to tackle the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children. We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood and enable children to prepare for and respond to crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge. For over 80 years we have been building powerful partnerships for children, and we are active in over 75 countries.

The present research is expected to be embedded in Plan International’s Research and Evaluation Agenda, as well as Plan International’s broader ambition of gender transformation. The Agenda identifies areas to best focus efforts and resources in generating relevant evidence that will fill sectoral knowledge gaps and enhance influencing and programming. This research is expected to align with Plan International’s Research and Evaluation priority theme of promoting gender norms change, specifically how to address the challenges and opportunities facing women in fishing communities in terms of vulnerability to exploitation.

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Introduction: the SAFE Seas project
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The Safeguarding Against and Addressing Fishers’ Exploitation at Sea (SAFE Seas) Project is a five year program funded by the US Department of Labor (USDOL) and implemented by Plan International (henceforth Plan), the United States National Office (USNO) in cooperation with the Plan Asia Regional Office (ARO) and the Plan Country offices in Indonesia (IDN) and the Philippines (PHL).

SAFE Seas’ primary objective is to combat[1] forced labor (FL) and trafficking in persons (TIP) on fishing vessels. By the end of the project, it is expected that the project will contribute to
the reduction of FL and TIP on fishing vessels in all selected project sites, including those in Indonesia, namely: Bitung, North Sulawesi, and Central Java.

The project has two intended outcomes:

• Improved enforcement to combat labor exploitation including FL/TIP on fishing vessels

• Decreased indicators of labor exploitation including FL/TIP on fishing vessels.

To achieve the outcomes, Plan is working closely with various regional, national and local actors to:

• improve FL/TIP laws, policy frameworks and capacity, especially around labor inspection of fisheries ports;
• improve FL/TIP reporting and coordination mechanisms among government agencies, labor inspectors, service providers and fishing communities;
• operate fishers centers where fishers can come to receive advice, support, report labor issues and access grievance mechanisms;
• improve capacity and awareness among fishers and fishers communities to be aware of FL/TIP and take action when FL/TIP occurs.

Plan is actively involving fish workers, fish worker organizations and fishing communities in all aspects of the program.

One aspect of the program highly relevant to this study is the formation of a series of Community-based Fishers’ Protection Mechanisms, called “Kader Perlindungan” (Cadre), which have been set up within the local government, “Program Kesejahteraan Keluarga“ (PKK). Plan has set up a Cadre in 8 villages located across the Indonesian project sites in Central Java and Bitung. Each Cadre consists of 8 - 12 volunteers, made up of community leaders and community members, many of which are the wives and female family members of fishers. The members have been trained in FL/TIP early detection and reporting, and have been linked to local authorities who can take action and respond to labor complaints. The role of the Cadre is to receive grievance reports from fishers who then connect fishers to the village government, Fishers’ Centers, service providers and relevant government agencies for follow up assistance. One aspect of the study will be to look at the role of women within the operation of the various Cadre and PKK.

Background of the study

Women’s roles, their positions, their lived experiences, and level of agency in the context of FL/TIP is underexplored. This research aims to make a contribution to enhance knowledge on this issue. The Safe Seas Program wants to learn more about women on shore, specifically those who are involved in fishery work themselves, or partners or relatives of fish workers on vessels. This research seeks to focus on the role and position of women on shore, including their experiences and their agency in responding to FL/TIP and shaping their own lives.
Most available studies on women in the fishing industry overwhelmingly identify their current roles in the value chain in terms of imbalances of power and restricted agency due to entrenched gender norms. Previous studies that provide a gender analysis of fisheries and fishing communities are from a fishery management perspective, with the aim of improving management for the purpose of conservation, combating IUU fishing, as well as creating better economic returns for fishing communities. Yet, there are few significant studies available that identify women’s awareness, lived experiences in terms of on-shore effects and coping strategies in regard to FL/TIP on vessels presently.
In its Fisheries Management and Gender briefing note, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) reports that women play important roles in three areas in the fishing sector, namely in (i) maintaining equipment such as nets, (ii) processing fish, and in (iii) marketing of the fish. As such, they are recognized as a complementary unit in the fishery industry and their role is mainly land-based and not on the fishing vessels themselves. Along these lines, a 2015 study conducted by fishers’ rights advocacy group, Kiara , found that women contribute close to half (48 per cent) of income in fishing households across Indonesia. They also work long hours – 17 hours per day, with a major role in seafood processing and selling fish products as well as in handling domestic chores at home. Some of this work is unpaid and seen as assisting the husband who does the actual fishing, and women’s work often goes unrecognized.

In 2018, the USAID Oceans and Fisheries Partnership (USAID Oceans) conducted studies on gender in the fisheries industry in Bitung, North Sulawesi, Indonesia and General Santos, Philippines and found that men and women have different roles in the industry. Males mostly are involved in capturing fish while women are engaged in processing and marketing tasks. This previous research demonstrates a highly unequal and gendered division of labor between men and women, with women assuming virtually all on-shore responsibilities, though it is unclear the degree of agency that women have in decision-making in terms of looking for work, managing money, sending children to school, etc. On the one hand, gender norms which already contribute to the restriction of women’s socio-economic agency may be amplified by FL/TIP on fishing vessels thereby restricting a family’s ability to cope, however wives may also become the sole household decision makers with respect to money management and family decision making when their husbands were at sea.

In 2020, the Safe Seas Program conducted a similar gender study at its project sites in the Philippines. This study found that FL/TIP negatively impacts women and families through stress, extra workload to make ends meet, increased debt burden, and economic instability. The study also highlighted how women are key advocates against FL/TIP by using considerable influence at the community level through local community organizations and playing a crucial role in advocating to local governments to prosecute labor violators. This study seeks to take a similar approach, while being tailored to the Indonesian context.

The above-mentioned studies identify and discuss the roles of women in the fishing industry. This is a welcome first step, yet there is still a dearth of research around women’s awareness, perception and coping strategies in their felt effects of forced labor and trafficking on fishing vessels of their male partners/relatives.
Similarly, more research needs to be done on the impact of women fishers in the community where they play a variety of roles within supply chains, unions, civil society, reporting mechanisms and filing complaints on behalf of fishers. For example, women are prominent in fisheries organizations such as CSOs and unions, and have political impact in shaping their community.

Purpose and scope of the research

The research will scope the socio-economic and gendered aspects of the impact of FL/TIP felt by female relatives with the aim of informing project interventions, community-level action, stakeholder engagement and policy responses that seek to decrease indicators of FL/TIP in the fishing communities.

The intended research will depart from the existing research on women’s roles in the fishing industry to then look more specifically into three distinct issues:

Part 1 - To assess women’s awareness and knowledge of FL/TIP, and the gendered impacts of FL/TIP. The impacts of FL/TIP occurring on fishing vessels on women in fishing communities are underexplored, as well as the impacts on them as a spouse or relative of a male fish worker. The research interest here is to first gather information on the women’s level of awareness and knowledge of FL/TIP on fishing vessels to then identify the impacts on their daily life and their responses and coping strategies, particularly in economic and gendered terms. The research will investigate the awareness, agency, barriers and decision-making of female relatives of fishing vessel workers throughout the work cycle of fishers (ie. in the pre-departure stage before the departure of the vessel, whilst the male worker is at sea, and when they return from sea).

Part 2 - To assess women’s current involvement in household and community decision making, and identify how women can be involved in combating FL/TIP and reducing the impacts of FL/TIP on their families. This section is aimed at assessing women’s agency and how it is affected by the impact of gender norms. This section will focus on women’s coping strategies in response to FL/TIP on fishing vessels and the actions they are taking in combating it or mitigating its effects. It also looks at how woman are currently involved in each stage of household decision making (contrasting both when the husband is at sea and at-home) and how women can be involved in supporting fishers in decision making processes.

Part 3 - To explore the way women are taking action to combat FL/TIP, both at present and possibilities for doing so in the future. Women are needed to make a contribution to combat FL/TIP in terms of prevention and/or protection. The research aims to assess how successfully women are already taking action to combat FL/TIP through their role in the PKK, as well as the challenges they face in doing so, and how their agency can be enhanced and leveraged. . The research here is also interested in outlining the potential roles women could assume to combat FL/TIP, and to learn from best practice exhibited by women in other fishing contexts such as unions, CSOs and current fishery interventions. It is crucial in this stage that the aim of any intervention is a collective or community approach. Women cannot be expected to shoulder the burden of combating FL/TIP on an individual level. Social and gender norms must also be taken into account when considering the design of interventions.

Users of the research

This research will contribute to the understanding of how FL/TIP affects women and families and suggest ways that women can be powerful advocates for anti-FL/TIP efforts at the local, regional and national levels.

As Plan SAFE Seas is in the final year of its program, the aim of the research is therefore to extend beyond program design, and be used to influence a wide range of stakeholders during the project and beyond the end of the project.

Key audiences will therefore include government, private sector and civil society, with the intention of improving policy and assisting advocacy efforts. Key audiences include:

• Plan International - Plan SAFE Seas is in the final year of its program. However this research can inform the ongoing program design for Plan International in its overall mandate to empower women and children;
• Private sector - This report will provide advice to the private sector and employers on how to improve conditions for women and children and understand the full impacts of fishing practices;
• Government - this research can inform policy decisions and influence decision makers through advocacy;
• Civil Society - this research can inform advocacy efforts for improved policy, as well as assist and influence partners in project design.

Interested consultants shall submit (i) a technical proposal and a (ii) financial proposal.

The technical proposal shall encompass:

• Short description of women in the fishing sector and the issues of FL/TIP in South East Asia (1-2 pages)
• Detailed response to the TOR
• Proposed research methodology for (i) field data collection, (ii) analysis and (iii) interpretation, this will be subject to further discussion during the inception phase
• Critical issues for consideration for field research on FL/TIP on fishing vessels and on shore, such as ethics, language barriers, travel etc.
• Ethics and child safeguarding approaches, including any identified risks and associated mitigation strategies
• Proposed research team including their CVs and each a brief statement of why the proposed team member has relevant qualification for the research
• Examples of previous work

The financial proposal shall encompass:

• Daily rates per consultant in USD
• Proposed Level of Effort
• Travel and accommodation
• Any other costs necessary to undertake the assignment

Please see the linked Terms of Reference (ToR) for additional ToR information on research questions, suggested timeline/workplan, qualifications, and detailed application needs.

Detailed TOR

Combat is defined here using the widely adopted 3P’s framework; prevent, protect and prosecute. This framework has also been adapted into the ASEAN Plan Of Action Against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children which can be found at https://asean.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/APA-FINAL.pdf

Job Type: Full-time