Adolescents and Youth Empowerment in Rohingya Refugee Camps and Host Community in Cox's Bazar

 

Title of the assignment

Adolescents and Youth Empowerment in Rohingya Refugee Camps and Host Community in Cox's Bazar

Purpose

The purpose of this project is to   empower adolescents and young people, with focus on building their capacity on community engagement to foster their sense of agency and responsibility as community members, prevention of risk behaviour and promote inclusivity ensuring adolescents and youths have opportunities and are not marginalized or discriminated against

Location

Cox’s Bazar.

Estimated Duration

1st July 2024 to 30th June 2025 (1 Year)

Reporting to Technical Supervisor of this assignment

SBC Specialist -Team Lead in Cox’s Bazar with daily support from SBC Officer

1. Background

Adolescents and youth (adolescents- 10-19, Youth – 15-24) in the Rohingya refugee camps and host community of Cox’s Bazar are confronted with formidable obstacles that profoundly impact them and limit their ability to participate and their views to considered. These obstacles encompass limited opportunities for quality education, persistently high rates of youth unemployment, inadequate healthcare provisions, engagement in risky behaviours such as substance abuse, smoking, pervasive gender inequality, social exclusion, and unrest of social cohesion. Despite being change agents' young people often find themselves bereft of platforms through which they can express their opinions, actively participate in decision-making, and avail themselves of essential services. Community arts, media literacy and effective community engagement skills endeavors to confront these challenges by empowering young individuals, amplifying their voices, and fostering an environment conducive for positive transformation.

2. Objectives, Purpose, and Expected Results

The primary objective of this project is to empower adolescents and young people, with focus on building their capacity on community engagement to foster their sense of agency and responsibility as community members, prevention of risk behaviour and promote inclusivity ensuring adolescents and youths have opportunities and are not marginalized or discriminated against.  This contract will actively seek and identify the most marginalized and disadvantaged adolescents, will support efforts to address discrimination and improve equitable access to services and information.

A multifaceted approach that integrates various community-based interventions would be applied including community arts, Realtime data collection on youth related issues, dialogue, and capacity development. The aim is to nurture artistic talents, engaging adolescents in data-driven advocacy for critical issues and equipping them with the skills needed to foster personal growth, enhance leadership skills, and facilitate a deeper connection between adolescents and their communities to lead positive change within their communities. The recent community art initiative by UNICEF in partnership with Gorai Films demonstrates that the community art effort has empowered adolescents to gain confidence in expressing themselves, find inner peace, and aspire to achieve their dreams on a larger scale. An article [1]has been published by national daily newspaper The Daily Star titled “Music as a panacea for pain in Rohingya refugee camps” revealed the effectiveness of this program to support Rohingya youth in preserving their culture while promoting harmony and social cohesion between Rohingya refugees and the host community. This initiative involves exchanging social values and norms through arts, media, and culture to enhance human security and cultural understanding. Through collaborative art projects, insightful youth surveys, and tailored capacity development workshops, we seek to inspire a generation of empowered and socially conscious adolescents and youth who can contribute actively to building a brighter future for their communities and beyond.

The expected result of this contract is to implement an adolescents and youth-focused interventions entails prioritizing areas such as self-care management, effective communication skills, mental well-being, sexual and reproductive health (SRH), adolescent nutrition, and adolescent/youth risk behaviors with a goal of ensuring equitable access to information and skills. Furthermore, we aim to foster talents through expressive arts providing hands-on arts experience and development of social change agents who will actively work towards influencing shifts in violence against children including adolescents, with a particular focus on addressing issues such as child marriage, substance abuses, and the transformation of harmful gender norms.

3. Description of Assignment

The assignment focuses on engaging adolescents through co-creation approach with the objective of empowering, engaging them to develop effective communication skills, preventing risky behaviors, and enhancing their sense of agency and responsibility as community members. The assignment includes the following tasks.

Tasks

End products/ deliverables

Time Frame and payment schedule

Task 1:  

 

Enhancing the Capacity of Adolescents and Youth in community engagement skills, media literacy, self-care and risk perceptions.  

 

Deliverable 1:

• Formative assessment report – on engagement with Adolescents and youths to discuss the programme goals and get feedback on their perspectives
•  Training package covering basic life skills development tailored for adolescents and youth and facilitation materials
• Pretesting report of the integrated training package with Rohingya and Host adolescents and youths
• Translated package into Burmese and Bengali language, including facilitation materials Training of trainer's manual to build capacity on leadership roles, interpersonal skills, and basic life skills, 300 adolescents and youths.

30%

Task 2:

 

Engaging adolescents and youths through community arts interventions

Deliverable 2:

• Talent hunt report - Organize a talent hunt for adolescents and youths in Rohingya camps and host community
• Select talented adolescents and youths per identified skills in music, painting, and drama/craft – puppet show

• Community art training guide - Develop a community art skill training guide and organize the specialised training as per the art form for adolescent and youth.
• Engage with 600 adolescents and youth through various community arts forms to enhance their   hands on art skills respectively. The adolescents and youths will also be trained on basic life skills to reduce risky behaviours, and influence harmful social norms
• Audio-visual documentation of the community art activities such as poems, stories, or other creative expressions produced by adolescents into an art anthology or magazine. The collection can be used in publications such as calendar and other forms and distributed within the community and beyond.

40%

Task 3:

 

U-Report management

Deliverable 4:

• Selection of adolescents and youths be trained on U-report – Target 400
• FGD report - Conduct focus group discussion with selected adolescents and youths to discuss issues to be covered through the U-report polls
• U-report polls - Develop content for U-report and create 10 U-report polls for the period of 10 months- One poll per month.
• Engage with U-reporters to collect feedback from adolescents and youths on monthly -Target 3,700 adolescents and youths to be engaged regularly
• Compile and analyse data collected through U-Report surveys
• U-report findings – generate   report highlighting key findings, trends, and insights related to issues covered by the polls, which will be circled back to adolescents for development of the action plan. for the findings will also be shared with local authorities, NGOs, and the community to drive positive change.

30%

5. Reporting requirements

• Inception report within 14 days of commencing the assignment
• Regularly meeting with UNICEF in line with deliverables requirements
• Interim reports on the capacity building, community art initiatives and u-report throughout the contract period.
• Key findings from the analysis of U-report data on monthly basis.
• Final report within last month from signing the contract.

7. Qualification requirement of the Company/institution/organization

• Demonstrated understanding of adolescent and youth development. This includes knowledge of relevant theories, best practices, and evidence-based interventions
• Record of accomplishment of implementing adolescent and youth intervention programs. This may include previous projects, case studies, or partnerships with organizations focused on youth development
• Capacity to provide training for adolescents and youth, equipping them with essential life skills and leadership development.
• Extensive experience in designing, implementing, and evaluating programmes in adolescent engagement with focus on social and behaviour change communication interventions
• Institutional record of accomplishment in applying social, and behaviour change communication, knowledge management and exchange, capacity strengthening, advocacy and research and evaluation, and integration of cross cutting commitments such as gender, disability, disaster risk reduction in training materials
• Experience in working with UN agencies in an L3/L2 emergency/Rohingya response would be an asset.

7a. Qualification requirement of the team (optional)

• At least 10 years’ experience in adolescent and youth programming, five of which should be in developing country or humanitarian programme context
• A team leader with at least a master’s degree social sciences, or research and demonstrated expertise in behaviour change communication
• Strong organizational skills, analytical capabilities, able to work in a fast-paced environment, demonstrated ability to handle multiple tasks
• Proven experience in the use of participatory, qualitative, and quantitative assessment/analytic methodologies
• Expertise in budgeting and budget analysis especially as it relates to assessing Value for Money
• Experience managing analysis, synthesis, documentation, and dissemination of lessons for a range of stakeholders

 

 

8. Evaluation Process and Method

 

EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR TECHNICAL PROPOSAL

 

 CATEGORY

POINTS

OVERALL RESPONSE

• Understanding of, and responsiveness to, UNICEF Bangladesh Office requirements.
• Understanding of scope, objectives, and completeness of response.
• Overall concord between UNICEF requirements and the proposal.

 

(10)

METHODOLOGY, AND DETAILED TIMELINE

• Compose a technical narrative, outlining the strategies to accomplish the tasks, along with detailed timeline.
• Present concise paragraphs summarizing 3-4 instances of similar work undertaken within the past five years in addition to CV. These summaries should encompass details of previous endeavors, such as the adolescent/youth engagement, developing adolescent/youth package, adolescent/youth capacity development, experience with digital data collection tools, data management approach, and quality control systems.

 

(40)

30

 

 

10

 

 

ORGANISATIONAL CAPACITY and PROPOSED TEAM or PERSONNEL

• Proven experience in adolescent/youth interventions like adolescent life-skill development, adolescents healthcare and adolescent/youth leadership and empowerment etc. with an in-depth knowledge of theories, frameworks, and evidence-based strategies related to behavior change interventions
• Demonstrated expertise in enhancing the capacity of adolescents and youth
• Strong data collection and analytical skills, including the ability to critically evaluate and synthesize diverse sources of information.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present complex concepts clearly and concisely.

(20)

5

 

 

 

5

 

5

 

5

    TOTAL MARKS

 

70

For this RFP, the Technical Proposal has a total score of 70 points. Bidders must score a minimum of 50 points to be considered technically compliant and in order for the Financial Proposals to be opened. Financial proposal has a total score of 30 points.

 

The final selection of the bidder will be based on a quality and cost basis as specified in the RFP.