Antecedentes

Armed conflict in Donbas region (Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts) has adverse impact on social and economic sphere of the country. In addition to human causalities, hundreds of lives supporting social and economic infrastructures are damaged in the conflict zone. According to UNDP preliminary damage assessment report as of September 2014, in total 1,968 vital social economic infrastructures, including 561 social service facilities, were destroyed in Donbas region.

The damaged social infrastructure facilities include social care service infrastructures such as critical healthcare institutions, social centres for orphans, people with disabilities, lonely elderly people and other vulnerable groups as well as basic social services such as kindergartens, schools, health centres, etc. The key problems and priority needs for early recovery of social services for vulnerable people in the conflict-affected areas include lack of access to critical social services, and lack of capacity of local authorities and social service providers.

In order to address the situation UNDP launched the project “Early Recovery of Social Services and Peacebuilding in Donetsk and Lugansk Oblasts” that aims at:

1. restoration of the critical social care infrastructures and services for most vulnerable groups, and

2. strengthening of the capacity of local authorities to plan and manage critical social services in integrated and community-based manner.

   To achieve these objectives, the project will repair, reconstruct and modernize the social institutions and facilities for the most vulnerable groups, and will develop the capacity of local authorities and social service providers to manage and provide social services in their respective areas.

   The reconstruction and modernization of the institutions will correspond to the best practices, including implementation of the principles of universal design meaning accessibility and usability safety of the services as well as buildings and premises for all people, regardless of their abilities or disabilities.

    To achieve these objectives, the project will repair and reconstruct, among others, a range of schools and kindergartens:

3. Secondary School, Svyatogorivka village, Dobropillia raion, Donetsk oblast’

4. Secondary school #10, Bilytske, Dobropillya city council, Donetsk oblast’

5. Kindergarten “Rosynka”, Bilozerske, Dobropillia, Donetsk oblast’

6. Secondary school of Serebrianka village, Artemivsk rayon, Donetsk oblast

7. Secondary School #9, Lysychansk, Lugansk oblast'

8. Secondary School #5, Rubizhne, Lugansk oblast'

The reconstruction of these educational institutions must correspond to the best international practices, including the approach of “inclusive education”: involvement of children with disabilities into the normal schooling system. To assist in that, the project is going to involve the Consultant, whose role is to support the management and personnel of the educational facilities through consultancy, training and methodological recommendations, aimed at implementation and/or improvement of the access of children with disabilities to the schools and kindergartens, as in terms of physical arrangement of the environment and equipment, as well as in terms of the design of the services and qualification of the personnel.

Overall Objective of the Assignment

The objective of the assignment is to provide advisory support to the management of educational institutions in modernization / improvement of their service provision, in line with modern approaches and best practices in providing the inclusive education for children with disabilities and according to the principles of universal design.

Deberes y responsabilidades

Scope of Work

Consultant will perform the following activities for the successful completion of the assignment:

1. Conduct 6-day inception visit to the social institutions. During the visit the Consultant should:
   1. assess the existing conditions of service provision, capacity, strengths and weaknesses of the institutions and capacity of personnel through desk review of available documents and interviews with the staff of the institutions, clients  and /or their relatives, local authorities. 
   2. discuss with the institutions’ management and personnel, and the Project Specialist on Social Services the concept  of modernization / improvement of the educational institutions according to community and clients’ needs, modern approaches, best practices and principles of universal design on organizing the inclusion of children with disabilities into the educational process.
2. Prepare the report with short description of existing conditions of the social institutions   community and clients’ needs as described in 3.1a and concept of their modernization/ improvement (up to 3 pages for each school).
3. Develop detailed recommendations on modernization/improvement of educational institution in order to implement the inclusive education, that should include but not limited to the following:
   1. the list of services with short description of each service and minimum  requirement to their provision;
   2. requirement to premises of the institutions for ensuring the accessibility and usability for children with disabilities;
   3. recommendations for required equipment and its specifications (for instance, , equipment and appliances for rehabilitation and development of children and for accessibility and usability of premises);
   4. recommendations for capacity development of personnel of the institutions (including list of essential trainings, useful manuals, techniques, methodical recommendations etc.).

The volume of the report should be sufficient for full understanding and further implementation of the recommendations by the reader, whose competence in the area of inclusive education is basic or medium. 

1. Conduct training of personnel of the educational institutions on approaches, techniques etc. of inclusive education.
   1. develop a training package that should include training programme, PowerPoint presentations and handouts and should be submitted to the Project Manager/Project Specialist on Social Services not later than one week before the date of training;
   2. conduct two-day training to personnel of the educational institutions (in two or three two-days long training events, conducted in the region of the schools’ location).
2. Provide the follow-up advisory support to the institutions’ management and personnel during the process of modernization/improvement of institution through correspondence and telephone and skype contact or travel (on request).

Regional coordinators of the project will support the Consultant. The Project will assist the Consultant in arranging the necessary meetings, missions and training, including the printing out of the educational materials; the Consultant should inform the Project about his/her needs in organization of the abovementioned events two weeks in advance. Participation of the Consultant in organizing the training is not required.

Tentative Timeframe

Deliverables

1. Inception Report which includes description of existing conditions of the educational institutions and concept of their modernization/ improvement in order to implement the inclusive education. The report should be submitted not later than 10 calendar days after beginning of the assignment.

2. Midterm Report which includes recommendations as described in 3.3 and training report as described in 3.4. The report should be submitted not later than 40 calendar days after beginning of the assignment.

Final report of up to 7 pages, which includes report on activities, conducted during the reporting period as described in 3.5. The report should be submitted not later than 60 calendar days after the beginning of the assignment.

Proposed payment schedule

UNDP will pay the negotiated amount in three tranches according to the following payment schedule:

1. the first payment upon approval of the Deliverables 4.1– (20%);

2. the second payment upon approval of the Deliverables 4.2 – (50%);

3. the third payment upon approval of Deliverables 4.3 – (30%)

4. All information and products produced by consultants under this project will remain property of UN team in Ukraine

Monitoring and Progress Controls

Consultant will work under supervision of the Project Specialist on Social Services and oversight of Project Manager in close cooperation with Donetsk and Lugansk regional coordinators and the Consultant on strategic planning.

Electronic and paper versions of the structure, first and final drafts of developed documents should be submitted for clearance by Project Manager no later than abovementioned fixed dates.  

Competencias

Corporate Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
• Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Experience and qualifications requirements

1. Higher University degree in Social Sciences, Public Administration, Psychology, Sociology, Pedagogy, Medicine or other relevant discipline.

2. At least 5 years of experience in social services/social policy, with the focus on inclusive education.

3. Experience in organizing and conducting seminars /workshops/trainings.

4. Perfect knowledge of Ukrainian and Russian.

   experience in provision of consulting services for international organizations would be an asset.

   Competencies

• Good presentation and speaking skills;
• Good writing skills;
• Computer literacy inclusive of Power Point using skills.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals

Applicants shall submit the following documents:

Financial proposal

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, linked to deliverables (see paragraph 4). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Evaluation criteria

1. Educational background – 20 points max

                  {20pts. – PhD, 15 pts. – Specialist/Master’s degree; 10 pts. - Bachelor’s Degree};

2. At least 5 year in experience in social services/ social policy in the area of inclusive education – 25 points max

                  {25 pts – 10 years and more; 20 pts – 7-9 years; 15 pts – 5-6 years};

3. Experience in organizing and conducting trainings – 10 points max

      {10 pts. – 10 and more trainings; 5 pts. – 5-9 trainings);

4. Language Skills (Ukrainian and Russian Languages) – 10 points max

                  {10 pts – fluent};

5.Experience in provision of consulting services to international organizations – 5 points.

Maximum available technical score - 70 points.

Evaluation method:

Cumulative analysis

Contract award shall be made to the incumbent whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) having received the cumulative highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria weight: 70%

* Financial Criteria weight: 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum 70% from the maximum available technical score would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal and will equal to 30. All other price proposals will be evaluated and assigned points, as per below formula:

30 points [max points available for financial part] x [lowest of all evaluated offered prices among responsive offers] / [evaluated price].

The proposal obtaining the overall cumulatively highest score after adding the score of the technical proposal and the financial proposal will be considered as the most compliant offer and will be awarded a contract.

MANDATORY - Please enter your financial proposal specifying a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables. Payments are output based i.e. upon satisfactory delivery of the agreed products and services as specified in the TOR above in English only or attach to CV/P11 in one .pdf file during next stage
(5000 words or under)

MANDATORY - Please enter your Letter of interest, explaining why do you consider yourself the most suitable for the work. In English only. In other languages please attach to CV in one file during next stage.
(5000 words or under)

MANDATORY - Please attach to CV in one file during next step the list of past research work conducted and example of written work/report produced.
(50 words or under)