Consultancy Service on INSTITUTIONAL GAP ASSESSMENT INCLUDING GENDER CLIMATE ASSESSMENT 76 views

1.      Project Synopsis

2.      Background

HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Ethiopia is a registered charity operating in the working areas of Skills, Jobs and income, Voice inclusion and Cohesion, Water, Food and Climate, and Emergency Responses.

Skill and Knowledge for Youth (SKY) is one of the projects in HELVETAS Ethiopia which have been implemented for the last 7 years in Amhara National Regional State. SKY facilitates short term skill plus trainings and secure employment for youth in partnership with both public and Private Training Providers. SKY applies an innovative and efficient and effective approach called result Based Financing which links payment with results/outcomes.  SKY also applies a flexible training approach which created a room for youths which cannot attend training in the traditional approach.

Currently, HELVETAS has launched the third phase of SKY with a border objective of institutionalization of the RBF approach and other successful approaches in to the public and private TVET system. The project has a duration of 01/07/2022-31/12/2025 and it will have a regional focus with showcase implementations in four zones of Amhara National Regional State (South Gondar at D/Tabor, North Gondar at Debark, West Gojam at F/Selam and Awi Zone at Injibara). The project aims to contribute to bridging the gap of young women/girls and socially disadvantaged youths to enter in strong career paths through improved opportunities for nontraditional short-term skills training in market demanded occupations & find wage (self-) employment with a gainful income.

Obviously, young women /girls and socially disadvantaged youth face a challenge on getting one step shopping from registration up to gainful employment linkage due to many challenges; availability of childcare center, lack of sustainable financing model on TVETS, inclusiveness of training materials and facilities, capacity gaps on both public and private TVETs and lack of adequate financial institutions. Thus, SKY III gives prior attention on institutionalization of Gender transformative approach and result based financing model by exploring potential opportunities and capacity gaps of project partners and short term training providers (Public TVET and PTP).

Therefore, institutional gap assessment including gender climate assessment will be conducted on potential public  and private partners like Bureau Labour and training, Bureau of women children and social affairs, Bureau of finance  and their respective lower structures,  Chamber of commerce and sectorial association council, Women entrepreneur association, Microfinance institutions (MFIs), public TVET colleges, Private short term- training providers (PTPs) etc…, and other actors to identify the challenges in creating sustainable, scalable, inclusive, efficient and effective opportunities for short term trainings of youth (women and disadvantaged youth) to create  self and wage employment with gainful income.

Thus, SKY III project seeks engage an experienced consultant that could conduct institutional gap assessment, investigate and evaluate with gender & social inclusion lens, and gender climate assessment of the selected institutions, both private and public partners.

3.      Purpose /Objective of the Assessment

This Institutional gap assessment aims to increase employment opportunities for youth through institutionalizing an innovative financing system of TVET (the Result Based Financing-RBF), which is inclusive, demand-driven, and interlinked knowledge and skills development system responding to the needs of the labor market. In this regard, it targets to build the capacity of relevant government agencies; Bureau of Labor and Training, Bureau of women, children and social affairs, Bureau of Finance, private and public TVET institutions, MFIs, chamber’s and potential employers with a particular focus on disadvantaged groups.

The other purpose of this institutional gap assessment is to come up with a workable idea to institutionalize a sustainable financing model for private training providers (that could initiate a local entity (could be an NGO or a private organ). This local entity shall have the capacity and the will to raise funding which can sustainably finance private training providers with the RBF approach for providing skill training and job placement service (wage or self) for women and disadvantaged youths.

Objectives

The main objective of the assessment is to explore and understand the constraints and gaps of skill training providers (public and private) & project partner institutions with the application of result based financing approach and other innovative and inclusive tools and approaches. In order to have the full understanding of the agenda gender climate assessment should be part and parcel of the study at all levels.

Ensuring a sustainable financing model for private training providers as a component needs to identify strategic partners and developing a workable model. Thus, the other objective of the assessment is to identify potential collaborators which have the interest and will to work with HELVETAS to realize and institutionalize a result based sustainable financing model for private skill training and job placement service providers.

Specific objectives:

• Identify the capacity gaps of main project actors in relation to provision of quality skill training and creating better employment opportunity for youth with a high focusing lens for women.
• Assess the inclusiveness of public TVET Institutions and private training providers (PTPs) regarding training materials, curriculum, soft skill packages and training facilities for disadvantaged groups and women
• Identify potential partners (NGO’s, private entities) with can own RBF approach and ensure a sustainable financing program for women and disadvantaged youths
• Develop/formulate a model that can institutionalize the RBF approach in the private skill training and employment service environment. ( A sustainable financing Model for financing private training providers in order to give skill training and employment service for women and disadvantaged youth)
• Study the local situation and develop a model that can sustainably finance private skill training and employment service providers for women and disadvantaged youth
• Analyze the existing policies and directives, working procedures, curriculum, training material, training facilities, training provider staff perception, and the whole training environment in terms of gender transformative perspective and identify the capacity measures that needs to be addressed to realize the objective of the project.
• Identify the limiting factors and potential measures which enhance the enrollment and employment (self or wage) of women on non-traditional skill training programs.

4.      Scope of the study

The assessment should be conducted in Amhara National Regional State with key partners from the government line bureaus and their lower structures (labour and training, women children and social affairs and finance), public TVETs, PTPs, MFIs, chambers, NGO, MSE’s and industries and other concerned bodies regionally and the four-project intervention zones, (South Gondar-D/Tabor, North Gondar-Debark, Awi -Injibara and West Gojjam- F/Selam).

5.      Research Methods

A descriptive research design with quantitative and qualitative approaches are proposed. To capture relevant information and to triangulate the findings of the gap assessment study variety of methods and data collection tools would be used. The consultant shall employ the following data collection tools:

• Structured Questionnaire (assessment tool)
• Reviewing of existing literatures,
• Individual interviews,
• Focus group discussions (FGDs),
• Key informant interviews and,
• Workplace observation

There should be a detailed methodology taking into consideration of the local context and the sample size, sampling techniques and proposed tools will be discussed and approved by the SKY team before the commencement of institutional gap assessment study.

6.       SKY Project Management Unit (PMU) Duties and responsibilities

• Review submitted technical and financial proposals; select and recruit the competent consultancy firm for the job.
• Provide all the documents and other related literature of HELVETAS  SKY project available as relevant to the task.
• Follow-up the process of the assessment.
• Conduct consultative meetings with the consultant during the contract period.
• Provide comment on the tools and methods suggested by the consultant.
• Make regular consultations on pertinent issues with the consultant, and provide with new ideas and adjustment when necessary.
• Review and ensure that the assessment report is relevant to the objective and meets the standard quality requirements.
• Organize a debriefing session that will help to comment and suggest on the findings of the assessment.
• Final review, approve and endorse the final assessment report.

 7.       Consultant duties and responsibilities

key tasks to be performed by the consultant(s) will be to:

• Develop an inception report detailing; among other things, the process and methodologies to be employed for the assignment. It should include interview schedules and important time schedules for this exercise, a list of stakeholders targeted for participation, assessment tools and presented to HELVETAS Ethiopia SKY project for review and further inputs before proceeding to the field for data collection.
• Undertake desk review of relevant documents including the project documents, HELVETAS Ethiopia Country program strategy documents, project documents, existing Amhara National Regional State Labour & Training guidelines.
• Design data collection methodology as appropriate, guided by the objectives and scope of consultancy; including international guidelines and relevant framework(s). The data collection tools will be critiqued (with SKY project team) before being refined and finalized.
• Conduct a comprehensive field-based assessment (using both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods) based on the purpose and objectives of the assessment. The consultant should undertake a multi-stakeholder analysis, including relevant line sector bureaus, youth and women groups, Vocational Skill Training providers, formal and informal sectors, industries, Chamber of Commerce, and any other relevant stakeholders to help gather information that will inform decision making in TVET program
• Write and present a draft report, capturing key findings for SKY project team for a review before producing a second draft.
• Present a draft report (2nd draft report) to SKY project office and other stakeholders in a validation workshop to facilitate sharing of the assessment results with a view of incorporating inputs from stakeholders in the final draft.
• Finalize the report by incorporating inputs from HELVETAS and stakeholders and submit a final assessment report to HELVETAS Ethiopia SKY project office.

8.       Expected Outputs

The assessment will result in the following major outputs (with in the project frame):

• Capacity gaps (with in the project framework) of main project actors; Labor and Training, BoFEC, WCSA, MFIs, chambers and others in relation to creating better employment opportunities are identified
• A list of potential organizations (NGO’s and private organizations) which are consulted and agreed to own the proposed sustainable financing model with the approach of RBF for financing skill training and job placement service by private training providers
• model that can institutionalize the RBF approach in the private skill training and employment service environment. (A sustainable financing Model for financing private training providers in order to give skill training and employment service for women and disadvantaged youth)
• Gaps and potential measures of the existing policies and directives, working procedures, structures, training materials, curriculum, training facilities, Trainers and other personnel’s in training centers in terms of implementing gender transformative approaches are identified and detailed
• Inclusiveness gaps and barriers of young women, girls and highly vulnerable groups in public and private training providers in short term skill training are identified and capacity measures and mitigation mechanisms are recommended
• Gender consideration of the training environments in public and private TVET, whether gender inequalities persist in the institutions, and how it impacts the participation and achievement of women/girls
• Gender transformative nature of the training curriculum, training materials, facilities, and procedures will be noted and done accordingly
• The level of women’s enrollment on non-traditional training programs and the limiting factors are documented for action.
• Key gender issues that can be identified & addressed within the scope of SKY III project and propose intervention activities.

9.      Deliverables and Timeline

The Expectations from the Consultant:

a)      Inception report:  containing description of the context, define the scope of the assessment, methodology to be used, Work plan and interview guides, List of stakeholders for consultation, Description of tools (framework, questionnaire etc.) and presented to HELVETAS Ethiopia SKY project for review and further inputs before proceeding to the field for data collection.

b)      Draft report:  containing contextual analysis, Findings from the analysis of existing capacity and the areas of gaps against the key result areas. It will also Suggest capacity development plan to bridge the gap between the desired and existing capacities. list of stakeholders consulted, and methodologies used will also be presented.

c)       ) Final report taking into consideration the inputs received and acceptable to HELVETAS SKY Project team containing:

• The findings of the institutional assessment, identification of strengths and capacity gaps; and recommendation for the project’s key government partners
• Identification of priority areas for capacity strengthening in the institution recommended.

Time frame/ schedule

The consultant should accomplish the inception report within one week and first draft assessment report within 20 working days after signing the agreement of the assessment. Thus,

• Every applicant should consider the potential of changing the time frame based on different circumstances which limit the quality of gap assessment study, but, only with the decision of HELVETAS
• A regular meeting will be scheduled between the two parties (the consultant and the PMU) to create common understanding on data gathering tools, review of documents, data gathering, findings and conclusions…etc

10.  Payment Modality

• 30% on submission of inception report detailing; the process and methodologies to be employed for the assignment,
• 45% on submission of the first draft report and
• 25% on the final submission of the report and with the approval of the PMU.

11.    Ethical Considerations

• The study is expected to respect basic ethical principles of HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Ethiopia and international standardized research codes of ethics.
• All research/study participants need to be informed primarily about the objectives and process of the study.
• All the study related documents including data gathering tools, checklists and forms will be HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Ethiopia SKY project office property.

Academic qualification and experience

The consultants who meet the requirements should submit expression of interest, which should include the following:

• The lead consultant with MA/MSc or above in the areas of Vocational management, education, economics, sociology, social work and/or related fields.
• The other two experts with MA/MSc in different disciplines one in gender and social studies is mandatory

Experiences and Other Requirements

• One-page Cover letter that describes how the candidate’s previous experience matches the consultancy objectives as well as its interest for the consultancy.
• Technical proposal (not more than 10 pages) which contains the interest and motivation of the consultant or firm, clear framework, methodology and approach, work plan, and any other relevant information regarding the specific assignment.
• Copy of renewed trade license, tax related registration certificates, etc.
• CVs, including detailed work experience and education
• The consultant should complete the whole work within the given time frame and deliver the required documents.

Financial Proposal: The consultant should prepare and submit a detailed budget plan. The cost may cover items including travel, professional fees, per diem and other expenses, payments for data collectors, data processors, and secretarial services, applicable tax, etc. This should be presented in a separate envelope and should indicate the breakdown of the proposed cost.

Competencies

• Excellent knowledge and skills of reading, writing and speaking in English.
• Must display a high standard of ethical conduct and exhibit honesty and integrity
• Gender-sensitive behavior and attitude.