Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA) is a non-for-profit public membership-based organisation, registered by the initiative of harm reduction activists and organisations from Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (CEECA) in 2017.
More information about the Association and specifics of the work you can find on our website https://old.harmreductioneurasia.org
This research project is a collaboration between EHRA and the the School of Law, Swansea University, UK.
THE OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSULTANCY
In the framework of project “New Psychoactive Substance Use in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Serbia” EHRA is seeking to engage technical consultants in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Serbia, one consultant per country, for supporting EHRA in conducting research on new psychoactive substances (hereinafter – NPS) use in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Serbia.
The assessment is aimed to analyze existing evidence and documents to overview the
(a) existing statistics/data on NPS use from various sources,
(b) researches of patterns of use and procurement of NPS (via clubs, darknet, etc),
(c) existing algorithms of ambulance and police actions, and
(d) availability of harm reduction services for NPS users, and how existing services needs to adapt to meet the needs created by NPS in four countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Serbia. This research will be conducted using the same methodology as one, done already in Moldova and Belarus.
The potential candidates should:
- collect national data sources (such as website links, documents (in word, pdf formats), presentations and other materials) on NPS (documents and research data on drug use, behavior and harm reduction services, existing laws on health and drug policy). If documents are in national language – to make summary of the document with main quotes and translate it into English or Russian;
- to organize the field data collection:
– recruit respondents from community of people who use drugs for focus-groups;
– arrange interviews with officials from law enforcement and health services, harm reduction services (list of needed interviewees will be agreed with EHRA);
– according the collected national sources on NPS use, together with EHRA staff member to adjust questionnaire for interviews/ focus groups;
– organize logistics for the interviews/ focus-groups (place, time, coffee breaks for focus-group participants);
– make notes during interviews and focus-groups;
– make transcripts of the focus group discussion and interviews (in Russian or English);
- help EHRA staff member to validate data of the report prepared by EHRA with respondents.
Soft copies of all collected data and minutes of interviews should be shared with EHRA via DropBox or GoogleDrive. In case of using quotes from individuals, the consultant must have a signed informed consent from each interviewee.
TIMELINE
All tasks should be completed in the period from 17th of January till 30th April, 2020.
Selection of the consultants will be done by the Commission in EHRA, based on the following Evaluation criteria:
Relevant experience in harm reduction/drug policy field or/and social research field data collection (50 points)
Wide range of contacts on national level (with community of PWUD, law enforcement, health and harm reduction services) (30 points)
Fluency in written Russian and/or English (20 points)
HOW TO APPLY
The candidates are invited to submit their CV and letter of interest with suggested respondents list, and state the daily rate in EUR (should be provided in EHRA’s template) by e-mail referenced under title “Technical Consultant” to Eliza Kurcevic at eliza@harmreductioneurasia.org by 12th January 2020, 24:00 EET.
Results will be announced by January 17th, 2020. Each candidate will be contacted individually.
Payment
Payment for the work of the consultant under this ToR will be decided based on the results of the tendering process. The work under this ToR for the consultant should not exceed 10 working days altogether per country over a period of three and a half months including the collection of national data sources, organization of focus groups and interviews with key respondents and validation of data of the report. The stated daily rate should be confirmed by the consultant. The final daily rate could be the subject to agreement between the parties. In case the consultant can’t confirm the stated daily rate or EHRA is not being able to agree the daily rate with the consultant, EHRA reserves the right not to sign the contract with the expert and approach the next candidate in line in accordance with the results of the tendering process.
Any questions regarding the participation should be sent to eliza@harmreductioneurasia.org
Daily rate template.