Request for Proposals (RFP) for HLP consultancy service 

Place: Aden 
Deadline: 30 April 2026 

1.    About Afaq Shababia Foundation (ASF)

ASF is a registered national NGO with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, No. 271. Our mission is to contribute to youth and community development by implementing quality programs and building effective partnerships in accordance with best institutional practices. ASF started its work in Yemen in 2013 and has been implementing projects in 4 sectors: capacity-building, peacebuilding, governance, Economic Empowerment, and Protection.

2.    Background

Afaq Shababia Foundation (ASF) is implementing the project of "Promoting Inclusive Access to Justice in Yemen – Aden Governorate". It aims to support and strengthen the local justice system through a participatory and practical approach focused on conflict prevention and early resolution, and on enhancing the protection of rights, particularly in land and property disputes, with special attention to the most vulnerable groups. The project contributes to alleviating pressure on courts and prosecution offices, promoting social cohesion, and improving public trust in judicial institutions.

The project is based on three main outputs:

1- Strengthening civil justice and addressing land and property issues.
2- Promoting gender-responsive justice.
3- Expanding comprehensive protection for vulnerable groups. 

Through the project, the ASF team will facilitate with the Project Joint Committee (JC) to select a pilot site (a specific neighbourhood or area) for implementing participatory housing, land, and property (HLP) interventions based on community engagement and local empowerment. This aligns with The Voluntary Principles for Responsible Governance of Usership (VGGT), ratified by the Republic of Yemen in 2012, which emphasize people-centered, equitable, and phased interventions. Site selection is a crucial step in mitigating potential risks during implementation, particularly the risk of uncovering underlying conflicts or infringing on informal but legitimate usership rights of vulnerable groups. This necessitates a thorough, in-depth approach to ensure high-quality documentation and community trust. To achieve this, the ASF project team will work directly with the JC to develop precise technical and social criteria for site selection. These criteria will include the nature of existing conflicts, the level of community acceptance, women's participation, accessibility, security environment, and the feasibility of pilot implementation without causing harm. Based on these criteria, teams will conduct brief field visits to a number of candidate neighbourhoods to gather preliminary data through interviews with residents, observe conditions on the ground, and monitor indicators of property tension and community willingness to cooperate. Following the assessment, a concise report will be prepared, including a shortlist of two or three proposed sites. 
This report will be submitted to the Joint Committee (JC), which will discuss the options, assess the risks and benefits of each site, and then issue a formal decision selecting the pilot site. This decision requires written approval from all relevant stakeholders on the JC, including local authorities, the General Authority for Lands, community representatives, and women, to ensure shared commitment and both community and institutional consensus. After the decision is adopted, residents will be briefed on the scope of the pilot, its objectives, and the safeguards in place to prevent harm. 

This activity aims to develop a people-centred, inclusive, and participatory system for documenting Housing, Land, and Property (HLP) rights in the selected pilot location. The lack of accessible and reliable rights records is one of the root causes of land disputes in Yemen, contributing to recurrent tensions, forced evictions, and overlapping claims. In alignment with The Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) model—endorsed globally as a pro-poor and gender-responsive land governance tool—the project will operationalize a participatory enumeration process based on four inclusion criteria: ( right types, rights holders, evidence, and technology). The activity adopts a bottom-up methodology whereby residents, especially women, play a direct role in documenting their rights, thereby increasing transparency, strengthening social cohesion, and supporting future institutionalization of rights records. The process emphasizes the inclusion of informal but legitimate usership rights (in addition to formal ownership), equitable representation of women as rights holders, acceptance of diverse forms of supporting evidence, and use of accessible mapping tools compatible with low-resource settings.
In alignment with GLTN (2010), the participatory enumeration process will follow these steps:

• Pre-consultation with residents to secure broad community consent, ensure transparency, and encourage participation from both poor users and formal property owners.
• Co-designing an inclusive questionnaire with residents based on the four GLTN inclusion parameters (right types, rights holders, evidence, and technology), followed by pre-testing the tool to ensure clarity and contextual relevance.
• Participatory selection of enumerators, with an emphasis on forming women para-surveyor teams composed of women community leaders and women engineers, working in coordination with relevant authorities.
• Conducting field surveys jointly with community leaders and municipal officials. Enumerators will number each structure, document household members (husbands and wives) linked to the property, collect available evidence (documents or witness testimony), pinpoint the property on hardcopy maps, and record public service points (roads, facilities, water points, etc.).

This participatory model promotes community ownership of the HLP documentation process and ensures that vulnerable groups, particularly women, have a clear pathway to secure, defend, and formalize their rights.
Then the project will transform the participatorily enumerated Housing, Land, and Property rights (HLP) records from the pilot location into formally validated and jointly certified rights documentation, ensuring both institutional recognition and long-term sustainability. The co-certification process represents the integration of bottom-up community engagement with top-down institutional endorsement, reinforcing transparency, accountability, and equitable access to rights. Following the completion of the participatory enumeration mentioned above, the project will facilitate a structured joint inspection and validation process. This includes a public display period where residents can review preliminary findings and raise objections, followed by formal co-certification events led by community leaders and relevant authorities under the Joint Committee. This dual pathway ensures that HLP rights records are both socially legitimate and institutionally endorsed.

The co-certification process consists of two main stages:

1. Public Display and Joint Inspection

Preliminary HLP rights findings will be displayed on large community map signboards for a period of two weeks. This allows residents—including women, vulnerable groups, tenants, and property owners—to review, verify, and comment on the records. All competing claims appear both in the database and on the public signboards. Objections and requests for amendments are systematically documented and referred to the mediation mechanism.

2. Formal Co-Certification

After the inspection and mediation period, verified and undisputed HLP rights records are consolidated into a final database. Co-certification ceremonies will then be organized to officially recognize these records. Certificates will be endorsed and issued jointly by community leaders and relevant governmental authorities—such as GALSUP, MoPW, MoJ, and local authorities—through the Joint Committee. These certificates represent a trusted, community-validated, institutionally supported reference for rights protection, dispute prevention, and future formalization.

To achieve this, Afaq Shababia Foundation wishes to contract with a Consultancy service provider (Office/Company) to assist Afaq Shababia Foundation in developing a procedural manual and tools for conducting the field survey of Housing, Land, and Property Rights (HLP), according to the conditions outlined in this announcement. 

3.    Service objective

 Developing a procedural Manual and tools for the implementation and certification of the field survey in Housing, Land, and Property Rights (HLP) according to the conditions outlined in this announcement.

4.    Service provider's responsibilities and tasks

1.    Understanding the background and context of the consultancy service through a comprehensive desk review of relevant documents and websites, including project documents, legislation, local and international reports and manuals, previous studies, references, and official statistics available in the area of the consultancy service.
2.    Preparing a detailed inception report that includes the methodology, tools, stakeholders, proposed index, work plan, and timeline.
3.    Providing weekly progress updates and participating in weekly coordination meetings (in person or online) with Afaq Shababia Foundation team to monitor progress and review deliverables.
4.    Developing the content and tools of the manual using a comprehensive methodology proposed based on the technical proposal and the service provider's inception report (for example, reviewing reference documents in the area of the consultancy service, reviewing previous experiences in the area of the consultancy service, holding individual consultations (in person or remotely) with stakeholders selected by the service provider or suggested by Afaq shababia Foundation, etc.). 
5.    Developing a procedural and validated manual for the field survey of Housing, Land and property rights (HLP) includes, for example, the following stages: (preparation – structure and roles – consultation with stakeholders – selection of data collectors – development of data collection tools – field survey – data review and verification – presentation of results – certification of HLP right documents – joint validation of documents – working Tools, etc.) using the expertise of the service provider and stakeholders, and in accordance with The Voluntary Principles for Responsible Governance of Usership (VGGT) and The Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) model – internationally recognized as a tool for pro-poor and gender-sensitive land management – taking into account the local context. The development will be supervised and reviewed by the Afaq shababia Foundation's technical team.
6.    Present the initial draft and share it with Afaq Shababia Foundation team and the joint committee.
7.    Update the manual based on feedback from Afaq Shababia Foundation and stakeholders and submit the final approved version in an open format in both Arabic and English.

5.    Required outputs from the service provider:

1.     1. A detailed inception report that includes the methodology, tools, stakeholders, proposed index, work plan, and timeline.
2.    The final draft of the procedural Manual and tools for implementing and validating the field survey on Housing, Land, and Property rights (HLP), approved by Afaq Shababia Foundation, according to the conditions outlined in this announcement.

6.    Time frame:

Priority will be given to proposals submitted with a reasonable and short timeframe.

7.    Application requirements:
Those wishing to apply for this offer must submit a technical and financial offer:
7.1. Technical offer includes:
1.    Work methodology and service delivery plan. *Required.
2.    Initial outline of the Manual, for example (proposed table of contents, Methodology - total number of pages – Tools…….etc). *Required.
3.    Work plan. *Required.
4.    CVs of the service provider specialists who will be developing the manual. *Required.
5.    Service provider profile. *Required.
6.    Service provider legal documents. *Required.
7.    Documents demonstrating the service provider's previous experience in similar services. *Required.

7.2. The financial offer includes:
1.    Submitting a financially detailed offer in US dollars, including all the obligations described in this announcement. * Required.
2.    Quotation must be valid for a minimum period of 90 days. * Required.
8.    Criteria for selecting the Service Provider

The service provider will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

1.    Previous qualifications and experience. (20%)
2.    Work methodology (30%)
3.    The time frame for implementation (10%)
4.    Financial offer (40%).

9.    Payment method

1.    Payment will be made via a bank cheque/bank transfer from one of the certified by ASF in one payment 100% after the completion of Service and preparing the required reports within the final approval by Afaq Shababia Foundation and after obtaining a financial claim and completing all procedures.

10.    Special conditions:

1.    The above prices must be in USD.
2.    Prices must be valid for 90 days from the date of submitting the quotation.
3.    Afaq Shababia Foundation is not obligated to choose the lowest price offer.
4.    Afaq Shababia Foundation has the right not to proceed with the requirements of this announcement if the results of this announcement do not meet all the foundation requirements.

11.    Quotations Submitting
Those wishing to apply should send this certified advertisement on each page with a separate technical and financial offer attached before 11:59 P.M on Thursday  30/04/2026 in a sealed envelope addressing the name of the advertisement and name of the service provider to the headquarters of Afaq Shababia Foundation located in the governorate of Aden -  Khormaksar - District - Aden Hotel tour - International Bank of Yemen building - Apartment 36 or send via the following email: procurment@asfyemen.org

Adding the title - the name of the service provider- to the e-mail address.

12.    Inquiries:
For inquiries about quotations, contact the Foundation’s office (phone number) 02/237952 during official working hours daily 9 A.M until 4 P.M, except on Fridays and Saturdays, or via the following email:
procurment@asfyemen.org