Antecedentes

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The Spotlight Initiative is a global partnership to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls. It was launched in September 2017 by the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General and the European Union (EU) High Representative and Vice President (HRVP). It is a visible political and financial investment from the EU in the multilateral relationship with the UN and in gender equality. The Spotlight Initiative in Africa will be implemented in 8 countries (Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zimbabwe). The focus for the African initiative is GBV, SRHR and Harmful Practices (HP) In Zimbabwe the SI implementation will be by six UN agencies Namely, ILO, UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women (RUNOs).

The overall vision of the Spotlight Initiative in Zimbabwe is that women and girls realize their full potential in a violence-free, gender-responsive and inclusive Zimbabwe. The Spotlight Initiative will directly contribute to Zimbabwe’s achievement of three of the country’s prioritized Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Goal 5 on Gender Equality, Goal 3 on good health and well-being and Goal 16 on inclusive and peaceful societies. The programme will contribute to the elimination of SGBV and HPs through the creation of a broad partnership with Civil Society, Government, Private Sector, Media, among others; and build a social movement of women, men, girls and boys as champions and agents of change at the national, subnational and community levels. A specific focus will be on reaching and including in the programme women and girls who are often isolated and most vulnerable to SGBV and HPs due to intersecting forms of discrimination. The programme will also seek to address the SRHR needs of all women and girls using a life-cycle approach.

Background

The Zimbabwean economy has changed phenomenally over the years, with the informal sector having more influence over the country’s revenue inflows. This scenario has given birth to community-initiated projects that have sustained our economy during trying times. Despite their positive contribution to the country’s economy, most informal traders at community level lack the requisite skills to formalise and upscale their businesses. These existing skills gaps have to be urgently attended to, in order to concretise the country’s efforts and ambitions of modernizing and industrialising its economy through science and technology by 2030.

The Government of Zimbabwe, through the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development is tasked with the capacitation of citizens with viable technical and business skills that are essential for the development of livelihoods, enterprises, and even new value chains (in addition to growing existing ones). In this regard, the role of the Ministry’s training centres is key in ensuring that a large section of the nation, who are currently unable to access conventional training programmes and institutions due to failure to meet standard entry requirements, and inability to meet the financial costs of training, are catered for and capacitated adequately enough.

In order to effectively deliver on its community skills training mandate, the Ministry needs to develop and utilize a responsive, needs based curriculum that will meet the training needs of community members with content that is up to date and relevant for the current and anticipated business environment. The importance will be on ensuring that the final training curriculum equips trainees with the necessary skills to enter into their chosen area of business interest, and enables them to develop key capabilities related to successful entrepreneurship development.

In today's knowledge economy, curriculum development plays a vital role in providing guidance to training activities by defining the type of training content to be delivered, and the methods to utilize when delivering the training. This has a number of operational advantages as this will ensure that training information is of the expected standard, and that a mutually expected and measurable outcome is realized. Trainers will also have a reference point from which all their training activities will be drawn from, thereby allowing the same expected standard of training to be delivered regardless of who is doing the training.

It is within this background that UNDP and the MOWACSMED seek to engage a consultant to led the review and updating of the curriculum for the MOWACSMED training centres.

Deberes y responsabilidades

Overview of Assignment.

In line with the background provided above, it is necessary for the ministry to review and update the current training curriculum utilized at the training centres. The exercise will attend to existing gaps in the current training curriculum being used at the Ministry’s training centres.

Strategic skills development is essential in creating competent and skilled community-based entrepreneurs who will play a key role in the realisation of the nation’s developmental goals set out in key guiding frameworks, namely National Development Strategy One (NDS 1) and Vision 2030 which looks at realising the attainment of an upper middle-income economy by 2030. Additionally, with the current focus by Government being on leaving no person or place behind, the development of a modern, standard training curriculum for the Ministry’s training centres will help ensure that communities at the grassroots also get to benefit from modern skills training methodology and content. This will be instrumental in boosting community development efforts in the mainly marginalised areas of the country.In addition to the foregoing, curriculum development can also aid in trainer recruitment exercises, as the course content can act as an effective guide to the requirements of the trainer needed. This is useful in employing the best possible candidates to ensure that training delivery is of the expected standard.

Objectives for the Curriculum Development exercise:

• Develop a standard set of courses that will help ensure that participants across the country acquire the same knowledge and skills from the same courses, regardless of which training centre they would have attended;
• To provide standardized guidance to training staff on work and training procedures to follow when delivering their mandates;
• Ensure that training activities are needs based and are relevant to address the identified skills gaps prevailing in the communities;
• To provide guidance on knowledge dissemination and skills development, standard attitudes and values essential to personal development and necessary for living in and contributing to a developing and changing society.

Scope of Work.  

In line with the highlighted project background and activity overview, the consultant is expected to undertake the review and updating of the training curriculum for the MOWACSMED training centres. Specific tasks include:

• Inception Report- The IC to submit an inception which indicates their understanding of the assignment. The report will also highlight the proposed approach, methodology and workplace with timelines;
• Review of current training curriculum: Review the current curriculum that is being used at the training centres to identify any gaps that are there in relation to current skills training and manpower development trends. Current TVET guidelines to be used for gap identification. This will include field visits to selected training centres to assess type of infrastructure available that is being used for training activities;
• Consultation and Stakeholder Engagement - The consultant to engage with key stakeholders from the Ministry and other identified partners to give feedback on the curriculum review exercise and get input on issues to be implemented in the proposed new training curriculum;
• Produce the draft updated curriculum - The consultant to develop a draft training curriculum to be shared with the Ministry and stakeholders for input and recommendations;
• Validation of training curriculum: the consultant to present the draft curriculum at a validation workshop. Post the workshop, the IC will incorporate inputs from the validation workshop and submit the final curriculum;
• Submission of final curriculum and activity completion report: The consultant to submit the final curriculum incorporating all necessary findings and input from the Ministry and stakeholders. Also, the consultant is expected to submit an end of activity report.

Expected Deliverables:

The expected deliverables for the consultancy are:

• Inception report;
• Desk review report/Gap Assessment report;
• Draft updated curriculum;
• Validation workshop report;
• Final training curriculum and a recommended Implementation Strategy;
• End of Activity report

Institutional Arrangement / Reporting Relationships

The Technical Consultant will be under the direct supervision of the UNDP Governance and Peace Building Team Leader in close liaison with the Programme Manager and the MOWACSMED, Community Development Department.

Duration of Assignment:

The duration of the consultancy will be for 25 working Days over a period of 2 months

Payment Terms:

Note that all payments to the IC are dependent on the satisfactory completion of deliverables.  Payment is linked to deliverables as indicated  below:

Payment of 20%

After submission of Inception Report and Approved by MOWACSMED and UNDP

• Inception report submitted
• Inception meeting convened 

Payment of 40%

After submission of Desk Review and Gap Analysis Report as well as Drafting of  updated curriculum and approved by MOWACSMED and UNDP.

• Desk Review undertaken
• Consultation with key stakeholders undertaken
• Visits to selected training institutions undertaken
• Draft curriculum submitted incorporating views and inputs from key stakeholders.

Payment of 40%

After Validation has been convened and validation report produced as well as Final curriculum and end of activity report submitted

• Draft curriculum presented at a validation workshop;
• Validation report produced;
• Final curriculum submitted and approved;
• End of activity report submitted.

General Conditions: Procedures and Logistics

The consultant is expected to work from their own premises and liaise with, UNDP, MOWACSMED and the SI RUNOs as necessary.

For the entire period of this project/contract all travel (if necessary) (within Zimbabwe) related to any contract emerging from this RFP, including all travel for consultations and discussions, meetings for planning and execution of potential works etc. will have to be borne by the Contractor and must be included in the Financial Proposal submitted. The Contractor is responsible to make all relevant travel arrangements, including hotel, transportation, and other relevant costs.

UNDP may, as a courtesy, facilitate through the provision of a letter of certification that travel is related to this project/contract, provide/indicate names of hotels/guest houses used by UN, but all arrangements are the responsibility of the Contractor, both financially and action-wise.

Policy both parties should be aware of:

• UNDP has a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and abuse;
• Members of the contracting company are not entitled to payment of overtime. All remuneration must be within the contract agreement;
• No contract may commence unless the contract is signed by both UNDP and the Contractor;
• The data and information collected during this data is sole and full ownership of the Spotlight Initiative;
• No member of the contracting company may travel prior to contract signature;
• Members of the contracting company will not have supervisory responsibilities or authority on UNDP budget.

Competencias

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity;
• Integrity;
• Professionalism.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Community Development, social sciences, human rights, gender/women's studies, international development, or a related field is required;
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree;
• A project/programme management certification would be an added advantage;
• Advanced qualification and skills in quantitative and qualitative data collection, analysis, and presentation.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of experience, in conducting community development sector diagnoses as well as developing policies and regulatory frameworks;
• Possess demonstrated and well documented experience in carrying out extensive skills training curriculum development consultancies or related assignments;
• Have substantive experience in conducting research and policy analysis covering skills and manpower development, devolution, gender mainstreaming, disaster risk management, climate change or any other related cross cutting issues;
• Experience in development work ideally with an understanding of gender and women’s rights issues;
• Demonstrated substantive experience in working with developing countries and undertaking policy and programmatic work in the area of expertise mentioned above;
• Demonstrated experience working on policy and programmatic issues with Central Government and civil society org
• anizations;
• Experience or strong familiarity with the work of UNDP and/or other multilateral, bilateral and civil society development partners.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.

How to apply

Latest CV highlighting the relevant experience. Prospective candidates could apply either as a team or as individuals. When applying as a team, the CVs of all experts in the team should be provided, along with the application;
    Updated P11 Form template of which can be downloaded from this website - http://www.sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc;
    A detailed technical proposal on undertaking the tasks and evidence of previous work;

Please group all your documents (CV, P11, Technical Proposal and certificates) into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document. Incomplete applications will not be given consideration.

Applicants must reply to the mandatory questions asked by the system when submitting the application

Please note that only applicants who are short-listed will be contacted.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTING THE BEST OFFER

Interested candidates are expected to submit both the Technical and Financial Proposals. Complete applications will be evaluated based on Cumulative Analysis as per the following scenario:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and;
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation. In this regard, the respective weight of the proposals is:
  • Technical Criteria weight is 70%
  • Financial Criteria weight is 30%

The technical proposal should include:

• Curriculum vitae of the IC;
• Brief presentation of the individual consultants’ experience on similar assignments;
• Proposed Approach and methodology for carrying out the assignment.

Individual Consultants will be evaluated based on Cumulative Analysis as per the following scenario. 

Technical Competence (70%)

• Qualification of consultant Academic qualification (10 points);

• Professional experience of consultant (30 points);

  •  Relevant professional experience at the international level in drafting training curriculums, manpower development policies; and other related theme

  • Substantive experience in conducting research and analysis for sustainable development

  • Experience in conducting capacity needs assessments.

• Methodology and Approach (30 points);

  • Understanding of scope of work demonstrated through detailed and comprehensive plan and approach for accomplishing the task
  • Technical sound proposal

Financial (Lower Offer/Offer*100) (30%) 30 points.

The award of the contract shall be made to the Consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as: Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the Terms of Reference.

“UNDP is committed to gender equality in its mandate and its staff, and equal opportunities for people with disabilities. Well qualified candidates, particularly women and people with disabilities are especially encouraged to apply”.