Catholic Relief Services CRS seeks to recruit Consultancy to design a graduation approach for the girma project – Magaria – Dungass (Niger)

Context :

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Niger received a five-year grant from USAID (FY19-FY23) for the implementation of Girma, a food security and livelihood improvement project for vulnerable rural households of the departments of Magaria and Dungass in the Zinder region.

Girma means dignity, prestige and growth in Hausa, and will work with individuals, households, communities, and the government as equal partners to improve the nutritional status of the target households and ensure their stable and diversified livelihoods. Girma will help communities grow with dignity and pride in what they do together in different sectors. Indeed, Girma targets vulnerable populations in an area where food security, nutrition, access to drinking water, access to natural resources and especially the extent of poverty (especially among women and youth) are a major concern.

It is in this context that Girma decided to use the graduation approach for the most vulnerable households in the targeted communities.

Graduation is an innovative approach for helping the most vulnerable households move out of poverty into sustainable livelihoods. Pioneered by BRAC in Bangladesh and rigorously proven in ten countries under the CGAP/Ford replication project, Graduation is now implemented in over 40 countries.

A graduation intervention has five components:

1.  Consumption support
2.  Access to savings
3. . Technical training on a new livelihood
4. Start-up capital provision
5.  Personalized coaching and mentoring

Technical Assistance Justification :

CRS Niger has a strong experience in implementing ‘traditional’ food security projects, but not in graduation. In addition, the graduation intervention will not be implemented alone, as it is often the case, but will be integrated into a broader set of interventions delivered to the entire community. To carry out this innovative approach, CRS Niger will therefore need external expertise in several phases. This SOW describes the design support needed in the first phase, which is excepted to lead into a second phase of implementation support.

In its first year of operation (Refine and Implement phase) Girma seeks technical assistance to define a graduation package adapted to the context of the targeted departments and aligned with other project interventions, and to propose an operational approach that articulates with the project’s other activities and actors.

Objectives :

1. Identify:
   1. The profile of households and individuals (men, women and youth) who may be involved in the graduation component, including people having disabilities
   2. A limited range of viable livelihoods for these households
2. Propose a graduation package for Girma specifying the components and their sequencing
3. Integrate:
   1. The targeting process of the graduation component into Girma’s general targeting strategy
   2. The staffing of the graduation component into Girma’s general systems and organizational chart
   3. The integration strategy with CRS Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) programming
4. Propose a technical assistance plan for the implementation of the graduation component

Tasks to be performed by the consultant(s):

• Desk review on rural poverty/vulnerability in Niger
• Orientation meeting / presentations with the Girma staff
• Identification of the characteristics (composition, assets, activities and capacities) of the most vulnerable households in the project area, who will be targeted for the graduation approach
• Definition of targeting criteria and development of a targeting approach integrating graduation into Girma’s overall targeting strategy
• Definition of a graduation package adapted to the context and aligned with the government’s ‘social safety net’ transfers and with other Girma interventions
• Writing the job description, profile and recruitment tools for community coaches for the graduation approach, with two options: a) mentoring by dedicated community coaches; b) mentoring by SILC agents
• Drafting the Terms of Reference for a later-phase technical assistance plan that includes the following activities:
  o Finalization of a training curriculum for staff and graduation officers
  o Training of trainers on the curriculum
  o Technical support plan

Deliverables :

A final report including:

• A detailed description of the characteristics of the households to be included in the graduation program
• A detailed description of the graduation package
• A detailed description of the targeting criteria and targeting process for the graduation approach
• A Job Description for Community Coaches
• The Terms of Reference for a technical assistance plan for the first two years of implementation

Submission of a technical and financial proposal

The bidding consultants must submit a technical and financial proposal to CRS Niger, either individually or as a team or as a firm/NGO. Applications can be written either in English or French.

The technical offer should include: (i) a one-page summary of the objectives and deliverables of the consultancy, including any changes or improvements that the Consultant proposes to improve the Scope of Work; (ii) the technical design and methodology proposed for the Technical Assistance, as well as a detailed work plan; (iii) finally, the technical offer must present the relevant experience of the consultant, the schedule and timing of the service, and references to similar services already performed by the consultant. The consultant’s Curriculum Vitae must be attached to the submission.

The financial offer must be presented in the form of a table specifying the total amount and the detail of the costs of the service.

Responsibilities of CRS Niger :

• Make available to the selected consultant the necessary documentation on the project, on CRS and on the Girma project area;
• Make available to the selected consultant the financial means required for the full performance of the service as agreed in the service contract;
• Deploy one project staff (the Resilience Sector Lead) for supporting the consultant’s activities;
• Monitor the implementation of the study in the field;
• Participate in briefing and debriefing meetings with the consultant;
• Provide support in the organization of a feedback workshop with stakeholders;
• Evaluate and assess the level of compliance with the commitments contained in the service contract.

Consultant’s responsibilities :

• Conduct the consultancy according to the terms of reference (context, objectives and deliverables listed above) and to the technical offer validated by both parties;
• Participate in briefing and debriefing sessions with project staff;
• Respect the workplan validated by CRS;
• Provide a draft report;
• Consider the comments provided by the project team on the draft report before finalization;
• Provide a final report.

Consultant’s profile :

The consultant(s) must have:

• Demonstrated experience in design and implementation of the graduation approach
• At least 10 years’ professional experience in rural development
• A very good knowledge and working experience in the Sahel
• A Master’s Degree (or equivalent) in a relevant field for the study

Counting and analysis of offers and selection of the consultants :

Although it is expected that one of the applicants will be selected as a result of this call, CRS has the right not to accept any of the offers submitted. Individuals, teams and NGOs/firms are all allowed to apply for this consultancy. The evaluation of the offers will cover both the technical and the financial part. The technical offers will be evaluated on a total of 100 points. Only technical offers with at least 65 out of 80 points will be considered for the financial evaluation. The evaluation criteria are in order of importance:

 Technical offer: 80 points :

•  Methodology: 25 points
•  Understanding the mandate: 10 points
•  Expertise of the Consultant: 25 points
•  Implementation Schedule: 15 points
•  References (to similar services): 5 points

Financial bid least distant: 20 points :

The expenses incurred by the applicants to respond to this solicitation are under their entire responsibility.

After the result of the overall analysis, the technical commission chooses the contractor to conduct the service.

Deadline :

Consultants wishing to respond to this announcement are invited to send their technical and financial proposals no later than 5 August, 2019 COB to NigerRecruiting@crs.org, clearly mentioning in the e-mail subject “Advertisement N°190767_Short-Term Consultancy to Design a Graduation Approach for the Girma Project.