TENDER NOTICE FOR CONSULTANCY SERVICES

Title of the Tender: Hiring an Individual Consultant to Develop Adolescent Girls and Young Women Health and Nutrition Facilitator Guide. 

Tender Reference Number: CRS-Rwanda 005-FY24-TN/2023

Procurement Method: National Open Competitive Tender

Date of Issue: November 14, 2023

Deadline for submission: November 28, 2023

Terms of Reference for Hiring an Individual Consultant to Develop Adolescent Girls and Young Women Health and Nutrition Facilitator Guide.

1. About Catholic Relief Services (CRS) 

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development works are accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance, and peacebuilding. The Country Program has over 80 staff and implements its projects through local and international partners, with strong coordination/collaboration with Government of Rwanda structures. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has been working in Rwanda since 1961. CRS Rwanda’s key programming areas include youth empowerment, agriculture, early childhood development, economic strengthening, justice, and peace building. To achieve this, CRS collaborates with the government of Rwanda, donors, the Catholic church, private sector, and civil society organizations. 

2. About STRONG Project

Globally, adolescent girls and young women are considered high risk groups for being underweight, overweight, obese, and having anemia, and must be a priority group for interventions that aim to improve nutrition at scale. The overall project objectives are ‘Adolescent girls and young women live healthy, productive lives and break the cycle of intergenerational malnutrition.’

STRONG Project is a 5-year, $10 million/year project that will work to improve nutrition outcomes for the target group in seven countries: Guatemala, India, Liberia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Timor-Leste and Zambia. The project overall goal is Project will target three avenues of change; namely Improving service delivery in health care, education, agricultural extension, and community-based services to meet the needs of AGYW, in furnishing products and supplements to fill critical nutritional and micronutrient gaps for them, and in supporting positive health and nutrition behaviours among AGYW and those in their spheres of influence. 

In Rwanda STRONG project will be implemented in 5 districts in Rwanda namely Kayonza, Rwamagana, Nyarugenge, Rulindo and Nyamasheke and will work closely with other partners including Government institutions (MINEDUC, MoH, MIGEPROF, MINALOC, MINAGRI), nutrition implementing partners including USAID Gikuriro Kuri Bose (GKB) and local civil society organizations     .

3. Purpose of the Consultancy

CRS seeks to hire a skilled and experienced individual consultant to support the Develop Adolescent Girls and Young Women Health and Nutrition Facilitator Guide. The guide will be used by project stakeholders at school, health facility and community levels to ensure AGYW are receiving services and skills that support the improvement of their nutrition status. The guide is expected to be contain interventions on Health, Nutrition, Agriculture, and social behaviour changes targeting 10 to 19 years older AGYW. This facilitator guide should be customized to be used by teacher mentors, school nurses and Health care workers (HCWs) who will be supporting Health clubs at schools, Nurse at Youth corner and Community health works at Community level through AGYW Saving and Internal lending Community (SILC) groups.

4. Scope of work

• Conduct desk review and need assessment over 5 districts of implementation including 294 targeted schools and 81 health centers: Conduct desk review of existing health, nutrition, agriculture and social behaviour change (SBC) materials in Rwanda context and conduct a need assessment to relevant stakeholders including but not limited to ministries, schools, districts, UNICEF, NGOs and health facilities in five targeting project districts and summarize relevant information for the guide.
• Present the needs assessment report, summary of facilitator guide contents as well as design of the guide to the project technical team.
• Reflect on project technical team feedbacks.
• Develop facilitator guide with components on Health, Nutrition, Agriculture, and key SBC topics with relevant illustrations.
• Lead the presentation of the developed facilitator guide and SBC topics the project technical team.
• Lead the validation workshop of the developed facilitator guide and SBC topics with Rwanda Health Communication Center (RHCC) of Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) bringing together relevant stakeholders.
• Submit the final version of the guide with RHCC’ and stakeholders’ feedbacks addressed.
• Develop training presentations.
• Lead the training of trainer session across 5 districts to project targeted
• Submit final assignment report and facilitators guide (with annexes of all related materials in both English and Kinyarwanda versions).

5. Expected deliverables.

• Inception report (With detailed implementation plan and specific timelines.
• Draft facilitator guide as well as health, nutrition and agriculture SBC materials are submitted and approved.
• Validation workshop of guide and SBC materials are conducted.
• Final Version of the facilitator guide with SBC materials in both English and Kinyarwanda submitted and approved.
• Training of Trainers (ToT) conducted across 5 targeted districts.
• Final assignment report submitted and approved.

6. Qualifications for the Consultancy and Required Experience:

Education and Experience

• Holder of a master’s degree in public health, Nutrition, Medicine, Nursing, Agriculture, with strong background in working with local / international NGOs.
• Demonstrate experience of at least 5 years of working experience in health promotion, nutrition, SBC specifically in the field of Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW).
• The consultant should possess a strong background and in-depth knowledge on Improving service delivery in health care, nutrition education, agricultural extension, and community-based services to meet the needs of AGYW, in furnishing products and supplements to fill critical nutritional and micronutrient gaps for them, and in supporting positive health and nutrition behaviors among AGYW and those in their spheres of influence.
• The consultant should have demonstrated research and analytical skills, including the ability to collect, analyze, and interpret data related to AGYW health services. Proficiency in both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
• Experience engaging with stakeholders.
• Experience in working with international NGOs and especially those working in the youth field will be an advantage.
• Strong analytical and communication skills.
• Demonstrate proof of previous experience in similar assignment.

Personal Skills

• Strong critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills
• Strong relationship management skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to write reports and development of teaching materials.
• Excellent written and spoken skills in English and Kinyarwanda.

7. Timeframe

This assignment is expected to be conducted from November 2023 and completed in February 2024. 

8. Reporting and Working language.

The consultant(s) will report directly to the project technical team that will be led by Staff from CRS. All reports/documents should be produced in English and Kinyarwanda version.

Key contact for CRS Rwanda: STRONG Project Manager. 

9. Reporting and working language

The consultant will report directly to the CRS, designated technical TEAM. All reports/documents should be produced in English and Kinyarwanda Versions.  

10. Confidentiality

All documents and data will be treated as confidential and used solely to facilitate this assignment.

11. EVALUATION OF THE CONSULTANT 

• Evaluation criteria and methodology

The consultant will be selected using the quality and cost-based selection and the evaluation will be conducted against the following criteria:

• Administrative Evaluation

• The consultant should be legally operating as consultant
• VAT and/or Tax clearance certificates if applicable
• Bid validity period. 

• Technical Evaluation 

N.B : The minimum technical score for the consultant to pass the technical stage is 70%.

• Tw = % Weight of technical score (80%)
• Fw = % Weight of financial score (20%)
• The financial score for each consultant will be calculated using the following formula:
• Financial score (FS) = (LF x 100)/ Fi
• LF = The lowest financial proposal.
• Fi = The proposal to be evaluated. 

• Financial evaluation

• The winning consultant will be determined by combining the technical score and financial score as per the following formula:
• Final score (S): (TS x Tw%) + (FSxFw%) where:
• S= Final score
• TS = Technical score
• FS = Financial score
• Tw = % Weight of technical score (80%)
• Fw = % Weight of financial score (20%)

• Financial proposal submission form

Note:

• The cost should be inclusive of required taxes ( 15% WHT or 18%VAT Tax)
• All Rwandan consultants must quote in Rwandan Francs
• CRS will cover expenses related to the trainings for project stakeholders
• The consultant will cover related expenses including transport, communication, accommodation among others during the assignment period. 
• Bids must remain validity for 90 days 

12. Application process 

Interested individual consultant are encouraged to send their applications to rwandabids@crs.org no later than November 28, 2023, at 11:00am Kigali time. The title of the email must include: “Develop Adolescent Girls and Young Women Health and Nutrition Facilitator Guide.’’ and the application document should include the technical proposal and financial proposal in two PDF documents. A late submission will not be considered. 

Length of the bid document 

Interested bidders should submit technical and financial proposal documents that do not exceed 10 pages maximum without annexes. 

Done at Kigali, November 14, 2023 

Hans Fly

Country Representative