Request for Proposal (RFP) for services to improve the socio-economic well-being of vulnerable Jordanian women in host communities in Irbid and Zarqa governorates.
~~Dear Sir/Madam,
Subject: Request for Proposal (RFP) for services to improve the socio-economic well-being of vulnerable Jordanian women in host communities in Irbid and Zarqa governorates.
1. The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) plans to procure services to improve the socio-economic well-being of vulnerable Jordanian women in host communities in Irbid and Zarqa governorates as described in this Request for Proposal and its related annexes. UN Women now invites sealed proposals from qualified proposers for providing the requirements as defined in these documents.
2. In order to prepare a responsive proposal you must carefully review and understand the contents of the following documents:
i. This letter and Proposal Instruction Sheet (PIS) including
ii. Instructions to Proposers (Annex I) available from this link http://www.unwomen.org/~/media/commoncontent/procurement/rfp-instructions-en.pdf
iii. Terms of Reference (TOR) (Annex II)
iv. Evaluation Methodology and Criteria (Annex III)
v. Format of Technical Proposal (Annex IV)
vi. Format of Financial Proposal (Annex V)
vii. Proposal Submission Form (Annex VI)
viii. Voluntary Agreement for Promoting Gender Equality in the Workplace (Annex VII)
ix. Proposed Model Form of Contract (Annex VIII)
x. General Conditions of Contract (Annex IX)
xi. Joint Venture/Consortium/Association Information Form (Annex X)
xii. Submission Checklist (Annex XI)
3. The Proposal Instruction Sheet (PIS), below, provides the requisite information (with cross reference numbers) which is further detailed in the Instructions to Proposers (Annex-I – see above link).
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~~Annex II
Terms of Reference
UN Women Country Office for Jordan
INTRODUCTION
UN Women is grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls, the empowerment of women, and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.
UN Women Jordan currently supports projects that promote the economic participation of Jordanian women and works to improve access and effective participation of marginalized Jordanian women in economic and public life by addressing the barriers that have led to their exclusion.
BACKGRUND/PROBLEM ANALAYSIS
As outlined in the Jordan Response Plan (JRP) 2015, the influx of Syrian refugees into Jordan has exacerbated existing social vulnerabilities. According to the National Aid Fund (NAF), which targets vulnerable Jordanians, the indirect and direct impact of the Syria crisis has resulted in an additional 20,000 Jordanian families enrolled in their cash assistance programmes, at a cost of an additional US$4.23 million annually. Those at particular risk are poor households, female-headed households, survivors of violence, children deprived of parental care, children in conflict with the law, children engaged in child labour, and persons with disabilities. Violence against childrenin schools is high for boys and girls, and women are reporting increasing levels of violence at home’. Moreover, the JRP 2015 highlights challenges related to unemployment: ‘the influx of Syrian refugees has resulted in availability constraints in jobs and income generating opportunities, particularly in the governorates of Mafraq, Irbid and Amman. From 2012 to 2013, the unemployment rate increased in Mafraq (10.7 to 14.5 per cent) and Irbid (11.7 to 13 per cent), settling above the national level (12.6 per cent in 2013). In 2013, the unemployment rate for women was about twice that of men and for youth between the ages of 15-24 it stood above 30 per cent.’
Access to safe and decent economic recovery activities can mitigate protection threats, including through diminishing individuals’ and families’ reliance on negative coping mechanisms to meet their basic needs. For example, global data shows that when women have access to employment opportunities, household economies benefit and household spending on health care and education increase, both key social dividends for human resilience. In line with this and with the overall guidance of the Jordan National Resilience Plan 2014-16, and specifically the JRP 2015, and through a resilience and social cohesion framework, UN Women is launching its project, improving the socio-economic well-being of vulnerable Jordanian women in host communities. The main objective of this project is to improve the socio-economic well-being of vulnerable Jordanian women living in Irbid and Zarqa governorates.
More specifically, the project is aligned with the following elements of the JRP 2015:
Livelihoods and Food Security sector – To protect food security to save lives, and enable livelihoods to cope with and recover from the impact of the Syria crisis, as well as strengthen the capacity to adapt to future shocks.
Resilience Strategic Objective 1: More and better job opportunities created for vulnerable women, and young men and women.
The project strongly integrates the JRP’s cross-cutting priorities of youth, gender equality, social cohesion, environmental sustainability and capacity development.
PURPOSE
UN Women is seeking innovative and impact-oriented initiatives. This fund seeks to support the promotion of gender equality in Irbid and Zarqa governorates through linking women to income generation and employment opportunities, while enhancing key life skills and linking them to decision-making structures. The project has three main components:
a) Enhance Jordanian women’s economic empowerment through access to decent employment;
b) Support women’s political representation and engagement in local level decision-making;
c) Enhance women’s access to life skills and other key skills areas;
Applicants are expected to articulate clearly how they will achieve tangible results in these areas:
- Income generation and self-reliance interventions: Supporting women’s engagement in the labour market will focus on providing vocational and business skills training and creating income generation opportunities for Jordanian women living in host communities in Irbid and Zarqa governorates. The focus will be on, where possible, entry into the formal labour market. Applicants are expected to present innovative employment models. The emphasis should be on identifying entry points for women’s sustainable employment in particular in areas with high unemployment and high numbers of refugees in order to support the building of social cohesion.
- Strengthen capacities for inclusive and effective women’s and girls’ participation in decision-making processes at the local level on issues affecting their lives: This should focus on supporting women living in host communities in Irbid and Zarqa governorates to be active decision-makers in their communities by providing trainings and support related to rights, confidence and business skills. Support should also be given to link women to decision-making forums at the community level, including creating or maintaining/supporting mechanisms that link women to elected leaders, allowing them to articulate their priorities and call for these to be addressed in local initiatives, plans and budgets.
Please be aware that the fund prioritizes proposals that reflect the following four key aspects:
- Contribute to social cohesion between Jordanians and Syrian refugees.
- Are undertaken through strong national leadership.
- Link livelihoods to environmental sustainability and natural resource management.
- Has measures in place to mitigate anticipated risk of gender-based violence related to the project’s activities throughout the project cycle.
TIMEFRAME
The fund is for ten months.
GUIDANCE FOR PROPOSALS
Proposals should reflect the following sections to be considered:
Section Description/Guidance
Executive Summary An overview of the project and its aims.
Project Duration and Geographical Focus Projects should be ten months in duration and target both Irbid and Zarqa governorates.
Context and Justification Please include information on the operating context, including information related to the challenges that your project is seeking to address, taking into consideration the specific needs of women, girls, boys and men.
Organisational Profile Please describe your organization history, registration details and relevant experiences working on issues relevant to women’s socio-economic empowerment.
Expected Results Please describe the outputs and the outcomes of your proposal. Please also describe clearly the strategies as well as the activities intended to address the main objectives/components of this project as outlined in this TOR.
Logical Framework This should include: goal, outcome, outputs, activities, indicators, means of verification and targets/baselines (sex disaggregated where applicable) for each indicator. The logical framework should be based on the one provided below.
Workplan Please indicate responsibilities and timeframes for each of your activities.
Partnerships Please list any organizations you are planning to partner with to carry out your proposal (this could include other civil society organizations, international NGOs, and private sector or government entities if relevant).
Management Plan Please outline the personnel that will be implementing this project.
Monitoring and Evaluation This section should detail the plan for the monitoring of the project, and whether an external evaluation will be undertaken (and when). This should also include information on reporting to UN Women – frequency and type of reports submitted (e.g. progress or final).
Budget The budget proposal should include details of budget allocation, i.e. the amount required to achieve each output.
SUMMARY SHEET
Deliverables
Key deliverables over a 10 month period:
1. Employment opportunities provided to at least 150 women living in host communities in Irbid and Zarqa.
2. Vocational and business skills training provided to women living in host communities in Irbid and Zarqa.
3. Life skills, business skills and training sessions provided to women benefiting from employment opportunities.
4. Communication plan and knowledge product on supporting women’s employment in Jordan’s host communities (outline, draft and final report to be approved by UN Women).
5. A final narrative and financial report.
To achieve the above deliverables applicants are expected to articulate clearly how they will achieve tangible results in the following areas:
Income generation and self-reliance interventions: Supporting women’s engagement in the labour market should focus on generating providing vocational and business skills training and creating income generation opportunities for Jordanian women living in host communities in Irbid and Zarqa governorates. The focus will be on, where possible, entry into the formal labour market. Applicants are expected to present innovative employment models. The emphasis should be on identifying entry points for women’s sustainable employment, in particular in areas with high unemployment and high numbers of refugees in order to support the building of social cohesion.
Strengthen capacities for inclusive and effective women’s and girls’ participation in decision-making processes at the local level on issues affecting their lives: This should focus on supporting women living in host communities in Irbid and Zarqa governorates to be active decision-makers in their communities by providing trainings and support related to rights, confidence and business skills. Support should also be given to link women to decision-making forums at the community level, including creating or maintaining/supporting mechanisms that link women to elected leaders, allowing them to articulate their priorities and call for these to be addressed in local initiatives, plans and budgets.
Payment will be based on a schedule of deliverables, with payment conditional upon the satisfactory acceptance of deliverables by UN Women.
Activities/
Tasks Activities include, but are not limited to, the following:
• The provision of employment opportunities for vulnerable women living in Irbid and Zarqa. In doing this the contractor will need to use a formula to assess vulnerability and identify from that group those willing and skilled to undertake employment opportunities. The vulnerability criteria will be developed in consultation with and approved by UN Women. As much as possible employment should build skills and link women to public spaces and the formal economy.
• The provision of business skills training provided to women living in host communities in Irbid and Zarqa. Where relevant, and linked to the above, the contractor will provide women with key businesses skills, including conducting training in financial book-keeping, management, marketing, etc.
• The provision of the following to women benefiting from employment opportunities: i) life skills for enhancing engagement in decision-making processes at the local level on issues affecting their lives, and ii) business skills. This will include identifying the needs among the project participants, and from this building or bringing on those equipped to provide life skills.
• Applying a gender-based violence early warning system to ensure that supporting gender equality results does not result in backlash, and ensuring the linking of any protection cases to service providers in the area.
• The production of a communication strategy and knowledge product on supporting women’s economic empowerment in Jordan’s hosting communities.
Personnel / Qualifications At a minimum it is expected that the following personnel will be needed to undertake this work:
Project Manager: Providing project oversight, quality assurance;
Project Assistant: Undertaking the support work of the project;
Finance Officer;
Life Skills Trainer.
Roles and responsibilities of the parties The contractor will be responsible for delivering the above results. UN Women will join the contractor for key events and will work with the contractor to ensure that necessary visibility is provided to UN Women and its donors.
Timeframe and location Projects should be ten months in duration and target both Irbid and Zarqa governorates.
Payment will be based on the following schedule of deliverables, with payment conditional upon the satisfactory acceptance of deliverables by UN Women.
Deliverable Payment (as % of awarded budget)
Full workplan and communication strategy 10%
Procurement of key livelihood infrastructure (as set out in the proposal) 20%
Beneficiary list: Names and details of all participants to be provided with employment opportunities 10%
Delivery of training and employment opportunities for a duration of at least 8 months 20%
Life skills and business provided to women benefiting from employment opportunities through training sessions 10%
Knowledge product on supporting women’s employment in host communities (outline, draft and final report to be approved by UN Women) 10%
Upon project completion: final narrative and financial report 20%
Communication and reporting obligations The contractor will be to develop and implement a communication strategy in line with UN Women’s contractor rules and regulation, and approved by UN Women.
The contractor will be asked to submit quarterly reports to the UN Women Recovery Specialist on progress and results. The reports may cover such aspects as progress made in the provision of the services, identification of unforeseen issues or areas of concern, delays in the provision of the services, causes of such delays and proposed measures to correct such causes. To receive payment for a deliverable the contractor will be required to submit an invoice with proof of the deliverable.
A final financial and narrative report will be submitted upon complete delivery of the services procured. This should be delivered within 3 months of the closing of the project. Upon satisfactory receipt of the reports, final payment will be provided.