Consultancy for Livelihoods Learning Journey on Employment Support Programs

• Country: Jordan
• Summary: Consultancy for Livelihoods Learning Journey on Employment Support Programs
• JOT Ref No: 56108474
• Deadline: 21 Aug 2021
• Financier: Self Financed
• Purchaser Ownership: Government
• Tender Value: Refer Document
• Notice Type: Tender
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• Description:
• Tenders are invited for Consultancy for Livelihoods Learning Journey on Employment Support Programs. Background The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) assists refugees and internally displaced persons worldwide. DRC provides emergency aid and facilitate access to rights. DRC works in conflict-affected areas, along displacement routes, and in the countries where refugees settle. In cooperation with local communities, DRC strives for responsible and durable solutions. The DRC was founded in Denmark in 1956, and has since grown to become an international humanitarian organization with more than 7,000 staff and 8,000 volunteers. DRC vision is a dignified life for all displaced. All the efforts are based on our value compass: humanity, respect, independence and neutrality, participation, and honesty and transparency. DRC has been operating in the Middle East region for over a decade, running a combination of emergency, livelihood, protection and advocacy programs through Country Offices in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey with a Regional Office in Amman. Context for the work The Middle East Regional Office (MERO) Economic Recovery team has been coordinating over the last four years a regional Livelihood Learning Journey (LLHJ) supporting country teams in Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. This learning journey was initially primarily focused on refugee response activities in countries affected by the Syrian crisis, however as the response has evolved it has now been extended IDP integration activities in Syria and Iraq. The initial stage of the research was focused on identifying what was the specific role and added value of INGOs (and DRC more specifically) in livelihoods support programming in the middle-income context of the Syria displacement crisis. After the initial three-year period of the journey, the project was extended with funding from DANIDA to focus on operationalizing the learnings. In 2020, the particular focus was on DRC business support activities with the development of a program review, the setup of a series of webinar on key topics for business support, the identification of standardized programming models, and the development of tools, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and guidance notes. In 2021, DRC MERO aims to focus on Employment Support programming which typically consists of two main types of activities:  Provision to People of Concern (PoC) of market-based skills training, ranging from technical training to life / employability skills training;  Other complementary activities that aim to facilitate access to sustainable, decent employment opportunities (including work-based learning opportunities, employment matching, coaching and career counselling, legal information provision and legal aid on labor market regulations, networking, certification, as well as work with employers around inclusive hiring practices, decent work conditions, etc). As was the case with business support programming, the five countries in the region are all implementing employment support interventions. But each country has developed its approach organically and practices tend to vary largely from one country to another, which represents a key challenge for harmonization of practices, learning and identification of best practices and lessons learned. In particular, there exists a variety of program models, with similar names (eg. wage subsidies, wage-based learning, wage employment), yet significantly different program designs. There is a clear need for DRC to develop common program models for the Middle East, which capture and build on DRC-s experience and added value in this type of programming. There is also a need to identify more clearly in which contexts and under which conditions different types of employment support activities are relevant, feasible and effective in ensuring that people of concern are effectively integrated into local labour markets. The objective of this consultancy is to identify a common analytical framework (including common definitions) that can be used to represent the various program models in use in each of the countries in the region, as well as to capture a significant number of practical learnings from past experience and develop tools and guidance that could be used in the future for better programming. THE CONSULTANCY The DRC Middle East Regional Office seeks a consultant or consultancy company to act as learning coordinator and to lead this Regional Learning Journey on Employment Support and to involve country teams in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan accordingly. This Learning journey will happen through a series of outputs: Expected Deliverables  An inception report with a detailed methodology and timeline for how the Learning Journey will be undertaken.  The development and presentation of a detailed program mapping that outlines the ways in which employment support activities are currently implemented in each country, as well as their respective strengths, weaknesses and impact.  The organization of a series of 3-5 webinars for Economic Recovery (EcRec) staff in the region to discuss key topics (to be agreed with DRC) that will have been identified as challenges for employment support in the Middle East through individual discussions with country teams.  The selection (in agreement with DRC) of a selected number of promising program models for employment support and the development, based on the program mapping and the webinars, of a series of related guidance notes. These guidance notes could typically include: o Standard design recommendations for various program models, including considerations about Theory of Change (ToC), indicators o Discussion of available evidence based related to the impact for each model (including lessons learned and best practices); o Recommendations to future DRC teams, including discussions about external validity and identification of potential barriers to the rolling out/expansion in other countries. No primary data collection is expected under this consultancy, the information required should be sourced from key informant interviews with country teams, prior regional-level and country-level research undertaken under the Livelihoods Learning Journey from 2017 to 2020, and other internal and external evaluations.  The consolidation of relevant SOPs, tools and training materials related to each program model selected that will be eventually stored and disseminated through DRC MERO SharePoint.  A consolidated final report for the Learning Journey process. The final report could include the following components o Executive Summary o Overview of DRC employment support programming in the region o Discussion of the pros and cons of each model o Identifying any systematic changes that DRC could make to its systems or approaches that would enable the adoption of best practices, and facilitate the expansion of the program models. o Discussion of the Learning Journey process in itself and what could be reproduced or amended in the future. The final products will be reviewed for quality and final payment will be made upon submission of satisfactory deliverables. DRC Middle East Regional Office has sole ownership of all the final data and documents. Proposed Methodology The consultant or consulting team will propose a detailed methodology with its bid. The following elements are just indicative. The methodology and timeline will be further discussed and refined during the inception phase. Step 0 Inception  Submit an inception report for agreement by DRC Regional Team with final workplan and methodology Step 1 Data Collection and initial analysis  Conduct a desk review of existing and relevant information related to employment support programs  Conduct key informant interviews with key team members of DRC country teams (Economic Recovery Coordinators, Economic Recovery Program Managers, Economic Recovery Team Leaders, Head of Programs or other staff member who can be identified as a relevant informant, etc)  Develop and present an initial program mapping report The objective of the mapping is for the consultant to identify exactly what the current activities look like, where they are similar and where they are different, and what the relative strengths in each country are and possible areas that could be transferred. Using that mapping, the consultant will propose a selected number of standardized program models that are central to DRC work in the five countries (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon). Step 2 Facilitation and Learning Journey  Facilitate discussions between field staff through a series of webinars related to the different program models and key issues/challenges so to identify and capture program lessons learnt and best practices Ideally there would be three to five different webinars. During the webinars, country level best practices that were pre-identified in the Program Mapping step should either be validated or rejected, and a shortlist of transferable best practices for each model is to be identified. Step 3 Consolidation and analysis  Develop a series of regional level guidance notes related to the select program models  Present the findings back to the country teams in the final webinar  Consolidate relevant SOPs and tools  Consolidate all findings in the final report for the Learning Journey The consultant will then consolidate all data collected and undertake analysis of the findings to produce the required outputs and resources. Timeline The consultancy service is expected to start at the beginning of September 2021, with final deliverables to be submitted by the last week of December 2021. Tentatively, the timeline could look like the following (but the consultants will be asked to provide their own detailed timeline):
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