Call for proposal to support the Tanzania Ministry of Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups (MOCDGWSG) to develop a National Integrated Early Childhood Development Training Package

UNICEF has now issued a Request for Proposals in order to select a supplier to support the Tanzania Ministry of Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups (MOCDGWSG) to develop a National Integrated Early Childhood Development Training Package The Ministry of Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups (MoCDGWSG) in collaboration with other key Ministries has developed the first National Multisectoral Early Childhood Development) Programme (NM-ECDP)2021/2022 – 2025/2026. The development of the NM-ECDP resulted from a long participatory process that involved stakeholders from the key ECD Ministries and Agencies as well as non-state actors. Currently, the program is disseminated in all 26 regions and 18 Councils of Tanzania's mainland, and through this implementation, several gaps have been identified that require joint effort to address them. One of the key priorities in the NM-ECDP is to strengthen the capacity of ECD workforce to deliver integrated ECD services to young children under eight years of age. Since ECD is multisectoral, most of the services provided are sector-specific and missing linkages and referrals across sectors. Recent evidence indicates that the majority of young children in Tanzania are at risk of not growing to their full potential. The Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey (2022) reports an under-5 mortality rate of 43 deaths per 1,000 live births . Stunting, which impairs cognitive development and school performance, affects 30% of Tanzanian children under 5 years of age (18% in Zanzibar). Nurturing parenting practices of early stimulation, nutrition, response to childhood illnesses, positive discipline, and male involvement remain suboptimal . Additionally, access to quality, comprehensive nurturing care services is lacking, especially for children with disabilities . Of the youngest children aged 24–59 months living with their biological mothers, 47% are developmentally on track in terms of health, learning, and psychosocial well-being . Those faring better are girls, (51% girls and 44% boys are on- track), younger children aged 24 – 35 months (58% vs 36% of children aged 48 – 59 months), and children of more educated mothers (61% secondary and above vs 32% no education) and children in wealthier households (65% highest quintile vs 37% lowest quintile). To address the situation multisectoral efforts are required including the provision of integrated services. This requires a workforce with the capacity to deliver integrated ECD services and care to young children aged 0 – 8 years. UNICEF, on behalf of the Ministry of Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups, invites an institutional consultancy to facilitate the process of developing the National Integrated Early Childhood Development training package. The package will cover the five inter-related and indivisible components of nurturing care: good health, adequate nutrition, safety and security, responsive caregiving, and opportunities for learning, hence it will provide ECD frontline workers with knowledge and skills to support parents/caregivers’ ability to provide integrated ECD services for holistic child development. This tender will be run through the UNICEF e-submissions system. By clicking on the blue ‘Express Interest’ button in the UNGM tender notice, the full UNICEF e-submission system instructions to bidders document (including instructions on how to access the tender documents and submit an Offer) will be automatically emailed to the ‘contact persons’ included in your UNGM registration. Alternatively, the full UNICEF e-submission system instructions to bidders document is publicly available on the UNICEF supply internet pages here: https://www.unicef.org/supply/index_procurement_policies.html . In the tender management site, if you navigate to the documents tab and opt in to confirm your intention to submit a Bid – you will then see the mandatory placeholders for documents that must be attached prior to submitting your Offer (you will also see if there are any mandatory questionnaires to complete). As such, you are recommended to `opt in` well before the submission deadline so you are clear exactly what documents are required to be uploaded prior to completing your submission. Please note that in order to access the tender documentation through UNICEF’s e-submissions system, vendors must: (i) be registered with UNICEF in UNGM as a company/NGO; (ii) have successfully completed all mandatory information currently required by UNGM when registering. Please ensure that any files submitted as part of your Bid are not corrupt or damaged in any way. Please exercise particular caution when using compressed files. Any corrupt or damaged files may lead to your Bid being invalidated. All vendors are strongly recommended to regularly log in to the UNICEF e-submissions system to check for any deadline extensions, new clarifications, new correspondence or updated tender documents relating to this tender.