UNICEF RWANDA
TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR AN INSTITUTIONAL CONTRACT:
Provision of Consultancy service on Capacity Building in Social Protection in Rwanda
Submitted by: GPS
- Background and Context
Rwanda’s Social Protection Sector is built on the Government's overarching Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS I) which aims to improve social and economic well-being and reduce poverty. The purpose of the Vision 2020 Umurenge Program (VUP) , one the three flagship programmes in EDPRS1, is to extend and improve results from social protection – the sector and related activities. The program purpose is “to accelerate the reduction of extreme poverty in target sectors”. It will contribute to national targets to reduce extreme income. In terms of access to health, Government efforts to extend health insurance coverage are bearing fruit with 38% of the EICV2 sample included in mutual insurance schemes and a further 5% covered by other forms of insurance. Inequalities in access to health care remain. Furthermore, certain groups remain vulnerable to a range of risks, including abuse, violence, seasonal shocks, price shocks and so on.
The Social Protection Sector is guided by a National Social Protection Policy (2005) and aims to provide effective social safety nets and integrated social protection programming with a focus on combating extreme poverty. The national policy framework for social protection was strengthened through the elaboration of a comprehensive Implementation Plan for the Social Protection Strategy (2011-2016). The Plan emphasizes the need for improved monitoring mechanisms to measure the impact of social protection programmes. To this end, a national coordination body, the Rwanda Local Development Support Fund (RLDSF), was created and is currently operational. Also leadership and technical teams and sub-committees of the Sector Working Group, which bring together all stakeholders across Government, development partners and civil society, have been put in place to ensure adequate coordination and harmonization of the sector.
In terms of social protection and labour markets, Rwanda has ratified 28 ILO conventions, including all fundamental conventions. The labour law (in conformity with international labour standards) highlights the prohibition of child labour, the prohibition of all forms of discrimination in employment and the protection against vulnerability.
- Justification
During and after a very successful Social Protection 5-day course held in October 2011 in Rubavu district, where 50 officials from many different levels of government were trained, the Government and DPs identified a gap in capacity around training. Given that social protection activities and policy are so visible and critical in the next 5 or more years of the country, and in the Sector Strategy that supports the EDPRS 2, it is important that the country is able to build up a cadre of professionals training in social protection, and able to train others in social protection. There is a need, therefore, to identify a group of people who can be trained to train others. This will reduce the need to rely on international staff and institutions to fulfil this need.
- Purpose and Objective
The purpose of this training is to build capacity within the Social Protection Sector at the national and district levels. The objective is to train a cadre of national trainers in social protection so that they can be mobilized for future training on social protection at all levels within Rwanda. This is in line with the sector strategy on capacity building and training roll-out.
- Methodology and Technical Approach
a. Training of trainers (ToT) course ToT is critical in ensuring that local knowledge is utilised and that training courses are not dependent on the availability of international experts alone. Twenty trainees will be identified by a sub-group of the Policy Sub-committee of the Social Protection Sector Working Group. Two of the trainees will be staff working within the social protection sectors of UN agencies in Rwanda. They will participate in a five day training course led by a team of social protection experts (both international and national) with experience of running ToT models and delivering training courses to development partners and national government staff. It is expected that 2 national experts will be involved in the course planning and delivery. These experts must be fluent in English and Kinyarwanda. They will help with course delivery and manual translation. The course will provide trainees with: • Course materials (in the format of a manual) on the topics agreed by an advisory team (made up of members of the SPSWG), including powerpoint presentations and accompanying text, key references, details on any planned exercises, group work, etc. This will be further developed throughout the training of trainers course, to ensure that the final manual provided to the cadre of trainers includes accurate and up-to-date information on social protection issues and programmes in Rwanda. • Step-by-step guidance on presentations to be included in the 4 day training course (see below) • Training in useful training techniques and teaching methods, including facilitation of discussions and participatory learning tools. MINALOC and UNICEF have jointly agreed that the trainees are identified from a range of sectors and institutions in order to maximise the ability to roll out the training over the coming years. It is important that people are trained who are comfortable in English and Kinyarwanda as it is expected that they will use the training and deliver subsequent training in social protection at a district, sector and cell level. The Policy Sub-committee, under the guidance of MINALOC, will be responsible for selecting the trainees (this will include 2 UN national staff working within the social policy and social protections sectors).
b. Training course on Social Protection A 4 day course on social protection will be provided by both the trainers and the trainees for up to 30 participants. This will enable the trainees to practice their newly acquired skills and learn more about the substance being taught.
Training topics to be included in the different training events will be identified on the basis of discussion in country and experience of conducting similar training events. The content should draw on global examples and debates, but as much as possible build on examples and experiences from Rwanda, drawing on available documents, as well as the knowledge of training participants and members of the SWG. Some indicative topic areas are provided below, however the consultancy firm will be responsible for developing this further.
Table: training course topics (for ToT and for SP course) Topic Session Content What is social protection and what can it do? Presentation Discussion/exercise: A review of definitions and main frameworks. Present and discuss the functions of social protection The evidence base for SP Presentation Explore the evidence for and against some of the questions asked in relation to SP: 1. Does SP generate dependency? 2. How can SP participants ‘graduate’? 3. What are the impacts of SP in equity, child outcomes, development, growth…? Social Protection Instruments Presentation Discussion/exercise: designing gender-friendly public works programmes Presentation of main instruments and the pros and cons: cash and food transfers; insurance schemes; rights based instruments; school feeding and public works Targeting the most vulnerable Presentation Discussion/exercise: Delivering cash transfers to the most vulnerable. We will discuss the UBEDEHE targeting system and think about ways to build in checks and balances. What are the range of targeting options and mechanisms available? What are the pros and cons of these? What delivery mechanisms are most appropriate? Graduating out of poverty Presentation Discussion: We will talk about the VUP programme as an example of this as well as other large scale comparative programmes such as the PSNP, Ethiopia. The presentation will present the novelty of social protection -- being the focus on building resilient livelihoods and graduating households off dependency.
Financing social protection Presentation Exercise How can SP be financed Monitoring and Evaluation Presentation Discussion: we will talk about the VUP M and E to date and ways we might improve it in the future. We can also think about MIS systems for both targeting and monitoring. What are the range of methods and instruments we can use to evaluate SP programmes? What are some of the pertinent questions we need to answer wrt to monitoring and evaluation? Child and Gender Sensitive social protection Presentation Discussion: designing child friendly systems and policies How do we make social protection child and gender sensitive? This requires a focus on the child, carer and family. Other topical issues Climate change; DRR; Informal SP
- Activities and Tasks
Many of the activities have already been described above. In terms of timeline: 1. The contracted institution will be in communication with MINALOC and UNICEF to identify and select the people that will be included in the training 2. The contracted institution will be in contact with potential, national institutions that will partner with them to help with translation within the training course and with the manual translation 3. UNICEF and MINALOC will identify the location of the training course 4. Contracted institution will prepare materials and draft manual for the ToT 5. ToT delivered and manual updated 6. Course of SP delivered by institution and newly trained trainers 7. Manual finalized, translated, printed and distributed (printing costs to be borne by UNICEF).
- Deliverables and Timeframe
The training events will take place in Rwanda in the 3rd quarter of 2012 in Kigali, preferably in the second week of November. The ToT course will run for 5 days; the full course for another 4 days. The ToT and course will run consecutively.
These training phases (first ToT followed by the full training course) will be linked to specific deliverables to be submitted by the International institution, as follows: 1. A detailed agenda for both courses which contain objectives and scope, description of training methodology/methodological approach, training tools performance criteria. 2. Power point presentations of all session to be provided in both courses
Draft training manual which will include the powerpoint slides, text for the slides, case studies, group work, etc.
Final training manual and workshop reports
Deliverables are to be written in English and submitted to the Task Manager in the due date, as per negotiated timeframe.
- Budget and Remuneration
Potential bidders should submit a fully costed proposal that includes: • Course design, planning meetings • Course development including development of a manual and presentations, updates to the manual and translation • Development of the ToT module • Delivery of training courses including costs for presenters, report writing • Travel and accommodation for resource persons • Administration including provision of reading materials, stationary, printouts.
- Qualifications and Specialized Knowledge
The institutions bidding should have established experience in training and teaching; expertise in social protection and experience of working in different African countries. The training team would be composed of no more than 3 international personnel: i) A Team Leader: international expert on social protection, a professional trainer, responsible for ensuring the quality of the overall programme; ii) a support trainer with experience in social protection and training others in teaching techniques and iii) an international specialist from UNICEF- Rwanda. In addition 2 national consultants with strong teaching experience will support the international team.
The International institution must demonstrate:
(a) Extensive knowledge of, and experience in training and/or teaching evaluation (b) 7- 10 years experience (knowledge of and experience) in working in the area of social protection; (c) Experience designing and leading training courses;
(d) Process management skills such as facilitation skills; (e) Knowledge of the role of the UN and its programming is desirable; (f) Language proficiency in English a must; (g) International experience and knowledge of Rwanda social context.
National Consultants should demonstrate:
(a) Extensive knowledge of, and experience in training and/or teaching (b) Process management skills such as facilitation skills; (h) Experience in social policy or social protection (i) Language proficiency in English (a must); knowledge of local languages is a must.
- Evaluation of proposal All proposals must be submitted by close of business on the 24th August, 2012
Following closure of the RFP, proposals will be evaluated by a UNICEF Rwanda evaluation team and MINALOC counterparts to assess their merits. The evaluation will be restricted to the contents of the Proposals and the reference checks.
First, the Technical Proposals will be evaluated. The Technical Proposal was allocated a total possible value of 70 points. Technical Proposals receiving 50 points or higher, will be considered technically responsive and the Price Proposal will be opened. Proposals which are considered not technically compliant and non responsive, will not be given further consideration.
Second the Financial Proposal will be evaluated. The total number of points allocated for the Financial Proposal is 30. The maximum number of points will be allocated to the lowest price proposal that is opened and compared among those bidders which obtain the threshold points in the evaluation of the Technical Proposals. All other Price Proposals shall receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.
UNICEF Rwanda will not be held responsible for any duties, taxes or other levies including Value Added Tax for which the Firm may be liable in the course of the contract. All duties, taxes, or other levies must be included in the fees as shown in the Financial Proposal. The cost of all items in the Financial Proposal shall be calculated and shown in USD
Evaluation criteria: CATEGORY POINTS 1. TECHNICAL CAPACITY Professional expertise and experience in Training for the development and delivery of training course. Experience in working in social protection, especially in Africa Ability to work in English; French and Kinyarwanda are assets (20) 2. STANDARD STRATEGY/METHODOLOGY Quality of proposed approach/methodology Quality of the proposed work plan and schedule of activities. (20) 3. PROPOSED TEAM - Team leader: minimum 10 years of relevant experience, qualifications. - Team members: minimum 5 years of relevant experience of similar scope and complexity, qualifications (15) 4. EXPERIENCE AND EXPERTISE Minimum 10 years in related business. Minimum 5 years experience in providing similar services to other International Organizations and/or Commercial Companies. Reference check (10) 5. OVERALL RESPONSE - Understanding of, and responsiveness to, UNICEF requirements. - Understanding of scope, objectives and completeness of response. - Overall concord between UNICEF requirements and the proposals. (5) 6. PRICE (30)
1- SEALED Proposals should be sent to Registry, tender box located at: UNICEF, Ebenezer House 1370 Boulevard de l’Umuganda, Kacyiru, District of Gasabo, Kigali 2- Electronic submission of bidders indicating ‘’Do not Open in Advance’’ on the Subject line should be sent to e-mail at : kigali@unicef.org 3- IMPORTANT – ESSENTIAL INFORMATION
The reference RFP/RWAA/2012/002 must be shown on the envelope containing the Technical Proposal and on the envelope containing the Price Proposal, as well as on the outer packaging containing both envelopes. The Proposals MUST be received at the above address by latest 24 August 2012 at 01hrs PM Kigali Time (GMT+2) Proposals received after the stipulated date and time will be invalidated.
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