TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR) TO CONDUCT NEEDS ASSESSMENT ON MENTAL HEALTH & PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT TO SOS CVE COMMUNITY (CHILDREN, YOUTH, STAFF & THEIR DEPENDENTS IN MEKELE) – SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia

Consultancy and Training

SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia

Introduction

SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia is a member of the International Federation of SOS Children’s Villages. It is a non-political, non-religious social development organization focused on the wellbeing and development of children. It was founded in 1974 and has been a development partner since then with positive outcomes in the lives of many children, families, and communities. SOS Children’s Villages Ethiopia works to address the needs of children, with particular emphasis on children who lost parental care and those who are at significant risk of losing the care of their parents.

SOS Children`s Villages is operating in Ethiopia in seven regions: Harari, Tigray, Amhara, Sidama, Somali and Oromia and Addis Ababa. Besides, the MA will expand its reach to new geographies such as Axum town of Tigray Region, Dessie town of Amhara Region, Semera town of Afar Region and Arba Minch Town in Southern Region.

SOS Children’s Villages Programme work towards its vision of a world where, “every child belongs to a family and grows with love, respect and security”. For the past 50 years, the organization has been working to build families for children in need, help them shape their own future and share in the development of their communities. Everything we do is based on the best interest of the child. We help vulnerable families care for their children, and we work to prevent the breakdown of parental care.

SOS CV Mekelle has been implementing various programs in Tigray regional state. These projects/programs have been providing the program participants and the surrounding communities with the different services like primary and secondary education and training, curative and preventive health services as well as day care services free of payment or with little payment.

The war in the northern region of Ethiopia that started in November 2020 has brought multiple effects on the overall wellbeing of the entire community where the war has taken place. The conflict involved multiple regions, which resulted in physical and psychologically traumatic events with short-term effects and lasting impacts. As part of this, SOS CV Mekelle program location community (children, youth, staff and their dependents) are negatively affected. 

Hence, SOS Children’s Villages Mekelle Program intends to conduct needs assessment on the mental health and psychosocial situation of its children; young people, staff, and their dependents in Mekelle areas of Tigray regional state.

More specifically, the planned need assessment is expected to look into the impact of the war on the mental and socio emotional wellbeing of the SOS CV community. Therefore, the study is expected to provide clear information on the gaps and challenges in this regard.

Purpose

The need assessment specifically focus on understanding the level of physical and psychologically traumatic impacts of the war of the SOS CV community (children, youth, staff and their dependents) in Mekelle to design tailored response strategy and plan and provide effective and efficient responses. Therefore, the program has decided to conduct need assessments with the objective of getting recommendations and other relevant information that will help to design appropriate response based on the findings.   

Major Objectives

The overall objective of this assessment is to identify the physical and psychologically traumatic needs of the target population for future implementation. Specifically, this MHPSS rapid need assessment is:

• To assess level the physical and psychological trauma among affected population of the SOS CV community and their dependants.
• To identify the urgent needs of MHPSS to the targeted community.
• To prioritize the identified needs as per their urgency for further action; and   
• To use the findings of the assessment to design the response strategy with SOS CV team.

Geographical Locations

The assessment is going to be conducted at Mekelle city of SOS CV community members. The total target of this project is 1670 individuals 

Deliverables

• A detailed inception reports on how to conduct the needs assessments.
• Defined methods and methodologies to conduct the needs assessment (clear tools).
• First draft needs assessment report.
• Final needs assessment report using SOS CV reporting template.
• Clear data analysis based on demographic factors.
• Record/Documentation of activities (e.g. interviews, FGD) carried out.
• Clear recommendation and MHPSS intervention strategies/plan; and
• Physical power point presentations on the overall needs assessment results

Roles and Responsibilities

The assignment of the professional external consultant/s is to produce quality needs assessment reports for SOS CV Mekelle Program. The consultant/s is/are primarily responsible for preparing the study design, study tools; monitor data collection processes and data entry into the preferred analysis software; prepare, review and edit the detailed status reports of the studies. The reports should clearly indicate the socio emotional conditions of the target population. To be more specific, the external consultant/s should cover the following important steps and functions for the assessment.

• Plan, design and undertake the study including:

             -Preparing detail work plan for the planned assessments

             -Review current available resources         

           -Identify and review relevant literatures

           -The research design, methodologies, data collection tools, data collection process, data analysis 

• Write and edit draft and final reports and submit along with relevant documents, data collection tools and the raw data to the SOS CV Mekelle program.
• Present recommendations for MHPSS intervention and response strategies based on the identified needs of the target;
• Make/s presentation/s on the preliminary results to SOS CV Mekelle Program management, gather feedbacks and as found appropriate, incorporate into the final report
• Incorporate inputs and feedback obtained from the programs, produce final reports both in hard and soft copy.
• Attend the brief orientation session organized by SOS Mekelle program before getting into the actual process.

Time Frame

The consultant/s should begin the work one day after the agreement is entered between the two parties. The first draft report is expected to be submitted to SOS CV Mekelle program location within two weeks after work agreement, and the consultant/s should allow up to 3 days for providing comments on draft report. The recommendation and intervention plan should be submitted three weeks after work agreement and the consultant/s should allow up to 2 days for including inputs on the intervention plan. The final report will be submitted no later than 30 days after signing of the agreement.

Logistics and Coordination

The consultant/s is/are responsible in coordinating and facilitating the task by making all necessary arrangements including transportation. SOS CV Mekelle Programs location will help in contacting the participants if required. 

Intellectual Property Rights

Any report, documents, or other materials prepared by the consultant/s for the assessments shall belong to and remain the property of SOS Children’s Villages Mekelle Program location. 

•  All documents and reports and other such outputs and information submitted to SOS Children’s Village Mekelle Program location under the terms of this agreement shall not be disclosed to any third or other party by the Consultant
• The Consultant/s shall not disclose or use the reports, documents or information to and for the benefit of any other party for purposes unrelated to the present agreement.
• All outputs under this contract shall become the property of the SOS Children’s Village Mekelle Program Location.

Compliance

• SOS Children’s Village Mekelle Program Location demands ethical conduct from the Consultant. Above all, the Consultant shall not encourage child or forced labor as well as inadequate working conditions neither for the Consultant’s employees nor from business partners.  Further, practices such as corruption, collusion, coercive  practice,  fraud  illegal  activities  (e.g.  arms, drug or people smuggling) are intolerable  for  SOS CVI  and its social  commitment.
• Those employees of Consultant involved in the needs assessment must have reviewed, understood and signed the SOS CVI’s Code of Conduct.
• The Consultant has reviewed and understood the SOS CVI’s Child and Youth Safeguarding Policy.
• The Consultant has reviewed and understood the SOS CVI’s Anti-Fraud and Anti-Corruption Guideline.
• The Consultant has reviewed and understood the SOS CVI’s Sexual Misconduct Regulation (Prevention and Protection against Sexual Harassment, Exploitation and Abuse), attached hereto.
• Should the Consultant suspect or become aware of an alleged or actual incident within SOS CVI or its member associations or work, the Consultant will report this through the online whistleblowing channel, who will investigate using their processes. The Consultant would be informed of the outcome and, if dissatisfied with the outcome, will investigate as appropriate, with consideration for national professional standards and laws.

Bid Content:

The bid submitted by the bidder/s must fully comply with the Terms of Reference and must contain a brief technical and financial part. The technical and financial proposal must be sealed separately. The complete bid document shall be submitted in hard copy.

 A.    Technical Part

The Technical Proposal is limited to a maximum of 10 pages, and should demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the tasks set forth above as well as the candidate’s/firms capability and capacity to perform the assignment. The following information should be provided in the technical proposal:

• In-depth description of the candidate’s/firm’s recent experience with assignments of a similar nature.
• Description of the methodology proposed to reach the outcomes outline above.
• Estimated days for preparation and completion.
• Up-to-date CV of the proposed professionals.
• The physical input (e.g. equipment), which would be used by the bidder to undertake the assessment.   
• Reporting schedules, etc.

The following information shall be disclosed as part of the technical proposal:

• Any information about the candidate/firm that presently or with the passage of time could impair the candidate’s/firm’s ability to provide the level of service required.
• Statement to certify that all the information provided in the candidate’s/firm’s bid is, to the best of its knowledge, accurate and complete, and that it is understood that any misleading or false information may result in disqualification of the candidate/firm at the sole discretion of SOS Children’s Villages Mekelle Program location.
• References – listing previous contracts of similar nature, providing a brief description of each.

 B.    Financial part/Mode of payment

 The financial proposal should be submitted in Ethiopian Birr in the format normally used by the candidate/firm sealed and stamped. It must provide sufficient detail to allow cost comparison and assessment. The candidate must, at least specify the cost of:

• Consultant fees.
• Per diem.
• Travel/transportation.
• Other direct costs.

The above specifications are minimum. Detailed budgets with clearly defined and descriptive cost notes are highly recommended. The financial proposal of the selected candidate/firm will be reviewed during contract negotiations to determine the final contract price. The contract will be drawn up during the negotiation stage.

The price list is to be worked out and should contain the costs of all expenses. Costs for unforeseen expenses should not be included in the calculation. Taxes will be borne by the firm and SOS CV Mekelle Program location will withhold 2% if the firm has got consultancy and professional license and has tax payer registration certificate, and 30% for those without. 

Required Skills From the Consultant

The consultant/s leading these assessment will be fully responsible for providing technical support and should have a thorough understanding of the current socio-emotional situation in the region and SOS CV in community in particular, humanitarian principles, NGO Code of Conduct, Sphere standards, Core Humanitarian Standards and so on.

The consultant/s should have at least 5 years proven competency and experience in conducting similar assessments in the region or any other place in the country. A social psychology or social science background with specific experience of socio emotional wellbeing study us of advantage. The consultant/s should have at least three and more relevant expert of the response sectors as a team member to guide the specific sector intervention recommendations. Specifically, the consultant/s should have:

• Excellent knowledge on Mental Health and Psychosocial support and interventions.
• Proven competency and experience in conducting MHPSS needs assessment or related mental health research and baseline surveys particularly related to socio emotional wellbeing management.
• A good understanding of recovery program from trauma after the effect of manmade or natural hazards.
• Excellent analytical, assessment and report writing skills.
• Good facilitation and interpersonal skills.
• Experience in monitoring, evaluation and reporting.
• Proven experience in conducting assignments in complex institutional environments.  
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Having the understanding on the local context of Tigray region, especially the language and other cultural settings is advantageous. 

Lien