Tender for a global learning review and mapping of the IR graduation programme, June 2023

Islamic Relief Worldwide

Islamic Relief is an international aid and development charity, which aims to alleviate the suffering of the world's poorest people. It is an independent Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) founded in the UK in 1984.

With an active presence in over 40 countries across the globe, we strive to make the world a better and fairer place for the three billion people still living in poverty. As well as responding to disasters and emergencies, Islamic Relief promotes sustainable economic and social development by working with local communities - regardless of race, religion or gender.

Our vision:

Inspired by our Islamic faith and guided by our values, we envisage a caring world where communities are empowered, social obligations are fulfilled, and people respond as one to the suffering of others.

Our mission:

Exemplifying our Islamic values, we will mobilise resources, build partnerships, and develop local capacity, as we work to:

• Enable communities to mitigate the effect of disasters, prepare for their occurrence and respond by providing relief, protection and recovery.
• Promote integrated development and environmental custodianship with a focus on sustainable livelihoods.
• Support the marginalised and vulnerable to voice their needs and address root causes of poverty.

At the international level, Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) has consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council and is a signatory to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Code of Conduct. IRW is committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) through raising awareness of the issues that affect poor communities and through its work on the ground. Islamic Relief are one of only 13 charities that have fulfilled the criteria and have become members of the Disasters Emergency Committee (www.dec.org.uk), and is certified by CHS.

IRW endeavours to work closely with local communities, focussing on capacity-building and empowerment to help them achieve development without dependency.

Please see our website for more information http://www.islamic-relief.org/

Background and Context

The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of ending extreme poverty by 2030 has remained a great challenge. While much has been accomplished in the last few decades, more people have now been pushed into extreme poverty and acute food insecurity due to multiple shocks including Covid-19, conflict, climate change and the recent cost of living crisis arising from the war in Ukraine.

The World Bank estimates that by the end of 2022, about 685 million people could still be living in extreme poverty.[1] Many of these families depend on insecure and fragile livelihoods, including casual farm and domestic labour. Their income is frequently irregular or seasonal, putting labourers and their families at risk of hunger. Self-employment is often the only viable alternative to menial labour for the ultra-poor, yet many lack the necessary cash or skills to start a business that could earn more than casual labour. Those in extreme poverty also often lack basic assets and/or have low return on these assets, underpinned by inequality, and risk and vulnerability to hazards. In short, their deprivation is not just monetary but multi-dimensional.

Those remaining in extreme poverty are overwhelmingly socially disadvantaged either due to age, gender, disability or other minority status. Half of them are women and about 44% are children. Among this group, women-headed households (twice as likely to live in extreme poverty), widows and orphans are particularly vulnerable to being left behind, as are older people living in poverty, people with disabilities or those that face social exclusion. Due to their extreme poverty and vulnerability, age or social exclusion and discrimination, they are often unable to equally access or benefit from either NGO livelihood activities, including microfinance and are often also neglected in social protection and safety net schemes administered by local government.

There have been countless programmes including food aid, training, microfinance, cash transfers etc, seeking to increase income and build sustainable livelihoods of the extreme and ultra-poor, albeit with mixed success. Government efforts to reduce poverty, like social safety nets or public work programmes, were unable to bring people out of extreme poverty. Without targeted support to graduate them out of extreme poverty, millions of vulnerable people remain at risk of being left behind experiencing food insecurity, exploitation and destitution.

The graduation approach. One approach that has proven successful in the fight against poverty is the graduation model. Also called cash-plus programming or economic inclusion, the graduation approach promotes economic opportunities and social inclusion to give the extremely poor and most vulnerable a big push towards sustainable livelihoods and resilience.

Graduation programmes provide an integrated and well-sequenced package of support including consumption support, access to savings, mentoring, livelihoods training, and an asset transfer can lead to increased consumption, asset and income diversification, and some level of empowerment. The graduation model, targeting the most vulnerable, proposes that with the right mix of interventions, offered in the right sequence, households can “graduate” from extreme poverty into sustainable livelihoods within a defined time.

The Graduation Approach was first developed by BRAC in Bangladesh in 2002 through its Targeting the Ultra-Poor programme. The TUP programme helped to address the needs of those who were too poor for microfinance services by developing a uniquely targeted, time-bound, and holistic approach that helps graduate households on to sustainable pathways out of extreme poverty, earning it global recognition, as the Graduation Approach.

From 2006 to 2014, the approach was pilot-tested in ten sites in eight countries worldwide by organisations supported by the World Bank’s Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and the Ford Foundation. Rigorous impact evaluation results show strong gains in income, consumption, food security, assets, savings, health, social identity, and women’s decision-making among ultra-poor households[2].

Graduation programmes have since been adapted and rolled out across 75 countries to varying degrees and settings. Governments in several countries have incorporated Graduation in their poverty programmes, including India, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Paraguay, and Burkina Faso – as well as international agencies like WFP, UNHCR, UNICEF and IFAD. Global funders of Graduation include USAID, DFID, and the World Bank. The success of the ultra-poverty graduation model is backed by bodies of evidence rigorously gathered through the conduct of randomised control trials (RCTs), an impact evaluation approach that has won its main proponents a Nobel Prize in Economics in 2019.

Graduation model in IR. Islamic Relief Worldwide works in more than 30 countries across Africa, Middle East & North Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe. Many of the countries in which IR operate are fragile and conflict affected states.

The primary groups of people that Islamic Relief serve are the most disadvantaged families – often, but not always, single headed families – and those hard to reach communities. The aim is to secure holistic and long-lasting changes for these people so that they will be able to break free from poverty and vulnerability. To do this, Islamic Relief promotes a community-based integrated programme approach – combining humanitarian emergency response, orphan sponsorship, long-term programming, and advocacy – with the aim of enabling marginalised and vulnerable families and communities to meet their basic needs, secure their food security and livelihoods and strengthen their resilience.

Through the years, Islamic Relief has implemented numerous multi-sectoral programme interventions that have elements of the graduation approach.

One of the most notable projects is the Alternative Livelihoods for Orphaned families (ALO), for which Islamic Relief has won the Bond Innovation Award in 2019. The ALO project’s overarching aim is to ensure sustainable development and social dignity of orphaned children and their families.

Implemented in northern Bangladesh, the ALO project targets widows and orphaned children[3] living in extreme poverty, providing them with a mix of support including productive cash transfers with building knowledge, skills, rights-awareness, social solidarity, and institutional linkages. This multiple support package has enabled families to build diversified assets, protect their children’s rights, and lead their own sustainable development efforts.

The ALO model directly benefitted over 30,000 beneficiaries in Rangpur, helping them to increase their household incomes by over 250% on average over a 3-year period – with some projects seeing average incomes increased by more than 400% and in 2 cases more than 500% over a 4-year period.

The external evaluation (2018) of the ALO project concludes that “the households have increased their incomes; and productive assets. Overall, the ALO project facilitated targeted households comprehensively on their food security and livelihoods, education, health and nutrition, empowerment, and resilience.”

The ALO model emerged out of a challenge to transform an existing Islamic Relief child sponsorship programme which provides monthly cash transfers, ranging from £18 to £35 per family, to over 60,000 orphaned families globally. Whilst these are helpful in supporting orphaned families meet essential needs and pay for school expenses, the cash received is used for consumption purposes and does not lead to developing livelihood activities by orphan guardians, who are often widows, thus introducing dependency. Underpinned by ALO project’s success and learning of extreme poverty graduation models and child-centred community development approaches, Islamic Relief introduced a new model in 2018 under the Orphan Sponsorship Programme that provides better livelihoods support for orphan and vulnerable children’s families. The new model integrates the best examples of livelihoods programmes into the sponsorship programme, including the graduation model. This new funding window provides opportunities for several IR country offices such as Afghanistan, Mali, Niger, Malawi, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Kenya to replicate the ALO model or implement programmes for orphan and vulnerable children based on the graduation approach.

In addition to widows, orphans, vulnerable children and families, the graduation approach in Islamic Relief has been adopted in food security, livelihoods and disaster risks reduction programmes in varying degrees and with some good outcomes.

A comprehensive mapping of graduation projects has yet to be done in Islamic Relief. A quick search in IR project database in 2022 up to November, however, shows that about 151 projects in Asia, West Africa, East Africa and Middle East regions were listed as graduation projects by IR country offices. It is to be noted though, that this listing is made through country offices’ self-assessment based on varying understanding of what constitutes as a graduation model.

In Islamic Relief, graduation programmes consist of a mix of the following components, with the first 4 components expected to be core of any graduation project implemented in a sequential manner:

CORE Components:

• Training on how to manage the chosen productive asset/IGA or run, manage and build a small business (farm or off-farm).
• A productive asset transfer to spur income generation; it is a one-time transfer either through in-kind (e.g. livestock or goods), cash grants or interest-free loans provision.
• Frequent (usually weekly) coaching visits to reinforce skills, build confidence, and help participants handle any challenges.
• Establishment of self-help groups for rightsholders to mobilise themselves, share experiences, learn from each other and increase their own agency.

SUPPLEMENTARY Components:

• Basic food or cash support to stabilize households and reduce the need to sell the new asset in an emergency.
• Health education or access to healthcare to stay healthy and able to work.
• A savings account to help people put away money to invest or use in a future emergency.

Graduation programmes may also include other components according to specific contexts and to enhance impact such as:

• Rights awareness and linkage to service providers and social protection entitlements
• Integration of disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation to support anticipation of disaster and climate risks and develop plans for protecting assets and livelihood means at household, community and wider levels
• Child clubs to promote child rights and protection awareness, extra-curricular activities, peer-education support, community service and social and leadership skills.
• Adult literacy classes to teach basic reading, writing and numeracy skills to empower rightsholders and enhance opportunities in everyday activities.

Based on its experiences and lessons derived, Islamic Relief identifies the following essential elements in successful graduation programming:

• Comprehensive targeting. Targeting is one of the most crucial aspects of a graduation programme. It must involve a careful and rigorous process that identifies the ultra-poor families based on a set of contextualised vulnerability criteria, including households where there are disabilities, where girls are disadvantaged, and where women are exploited or marginalised. Targeting must also involve local stakeholders including the local community and the government, whenever possible.
• Group formation and empowerment. Mobilising families living in extreme poverty into self-help groups, of between 10 and 30 persons is also a key success strategy in Islamic Relief graduation programmes. The self-help groups become platforms for the delivery of a range of interventions to achieve economic, financial, governance, protection and social inclusion outcomes.
• Livelihood development: Supporting targeted families to self-select an appropriate, locally practised income generating activity (IGA), delivering hands-on technical training on the selected IGA, and cash or asset transfer to procure IGA assets.
• Internal savings and credit and asset multiplication. Promoting micro-savings and micro-loans, building up a group revolving capital fund by recycling cash-transfers in instalments, promotion of internal lending from group pool fund for second, third, and further IGAs, and establishing group insurance or solidarity fund (takaful).
• Robust support by experienced staff: Coaching or mentoring of households and self-help groups to help them resolve challenges, manage livelihoods effectively, reflect on their experiences, deepen their learning and, and adopt positive behaviours.
• Social empowerment. Building key life skills, raising awareness on social issues (e.g. rights, health, education, and protection) to promote self-belief, community inclusion and positive behaviour changes.
• Links with local government and service providers Linking and influencing local government to improve access to social protection entitlements.
• A strong monitoring and learning framework. Setting clear graduation indicators, developing a MEAL plan, regular learning and reviews, and lessons sharing to measuring households’ progress towards graduation in regular intervals and to demonstrate the programme’s impact and effectiveness.

Objectives of the global learning review

The purpose of this review is to assess the application of the graduation model throughout Islamic Relief globally – looking at key results, modalities, methodologies, best practices and learnings to help inform a graduation model guideline and associated toolkit for implementation going forward for future programming.

Consultancy Goals

The consultancy goals will include the following:

• Islamic Relief will be informed of the extent, nature, key results (outcomes/indicative impact) best practices and learnings derived from its graduation programme.
• Islamic Relief will be able to utilise this information to inform its programme (including development of graduation model toolkits), policy, advocacy and planning towards achieving its strategic objectives and support funding positioning for graduation programming.

The specific objectives of this review are to:

• Map out the recent and current projects in IR based upon the graduation approach. The criteria for identifying projects to include in this study will be agreed with the consultant as part of the inception period.
• Based on a sample number of projects, evaluate the strength of the project implementation against Islamic Relief’s core components of the graduation model, namely:
• Comprehensive targeting.
• Group formation and empowerment.
• Livelihood development.
• Internal savings credit and asset multiplication.
• Robust support by experienced staff.
• Social empowerment.
• Links with local government and service providers.
• A strong monitoring and learning framework.
• Based on a sample number of projects, evaluate the sequencing and appropriateness of the project interventions, approaches, and methodology.
• Identify lessons learned and good practices to inform future projects based upon the graduation approach in IRW and wider sector. This will include identifying what works well, what does not well and what could be done better. This can be done through a face-to-face and/or virtual workshop with representatives of different IR graduation model project countries participating.
• Develop an implementation guideline and/or toolkit for graduation programmes in IR which may be used as the basis of training packages and training programmes to be developed for graduation implementors. An internal working group consisting of IR staff with experience of implementing graduation models will be formed to help and guide the process.

Methodology and approach

Consultants are invited to propose specific methodology as part of this call. In general, it is envisaged this project will involve document reviews, emailing, conducting a participatory learning review (through a mix of face-to-face and online workshops). The exact methodology will be discussed and agreed between the consultant and IR.

• Please refer to annex 2 for the specific scope of assignment highlighting key questions this desk review seeks to answer and suggested final report outline.
• The consultant is expected to propose a suitably robust methodology through which areas highlighted in annex 2 can and will be most readily extracted, analysed, synthesised and reported back on, within a 45 working daytime period,
• The proposal should also consider that some projects may not have evaluation reports and other baseline or endline data; whilst other projects are ongoing and may not have final reports – under such situation, the consultant should consider and propose suitable alternative methodology which can be used to determine project details and provide indicative, relevant and credible findings and recommendations.

Policy Framework

The consultant will be expected to work within and abide by Islamic Relief’s policy frameworks on communications, information management, human resources etc. and will be obliged to sign an agreement assuring the confidentiality of data and information utilised and collected in pursuance of the consultancy. The consultant will be sensitive and compliant to any requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The report will be produced for an internal audience but may be edited and adapted for external publication by IRW for wider communication and learning purposes.

Reporting Framework and Schedule

Brief reports (written or oral) on progress against implementation plan weekly for the duration of the project.

Deliverables

Deliverables for this project would be;

1. Written inception report and schedule agreed with Global Programme Impact & MEAL Manager within one week of commencement.
2. Participatory group learning review that could be facilitated through face-to-face and online sessions – the exact format will be discussed with the consultant but could involve something as follows:
3. Exposure visit to IR Bangladesh: 4-5 days – consultant to design and facilitate a participatory learning and review visit involving IR staff undertaking the exposure visit.
4. A series of online learning workshops (which could be spaced out):
5. Day 1 - sharing reflections from exposure visit with wider colleagues (2-3 hours).
6. Day 2 – Online learning and reflection on wider projects/countries experience of graduation model/s.
7. Day 3 - Reflections on the learning review paper (2-3 hours) and action planning.
8. Narrative account, not exceeding 32 pages describing the extent, nature, best practices, and innovations (internal and external) and learnings derived from graduation programmes since 2018.
9. Executive summary incorporated in the above, not exceeding 3 pages.
10. Draft Graduation Model implementation guideline/toolkit and training package for IR.
11. Data base in MS Excel format of all projects and programmes examined, including country, project PIN code, project name, brief description, dates, budget, donor.
12. Presentation of findings to key people from country and regional team, IRW and IR partner representatives.
13. Webinar of findings and lessons learned, delivered to a wider IR audience.

Accountability

The consultant will be responsible for conducting the activities and delivering the outputs set out in these terms of reference and will coordinate all activities with and through the Global Programme Impact & MEAL Manager. The Global Programme Impact & MEAL Manager is responsible for facilitating access to all relevant and available documents (proposals, donor reports and evaluation reports) and wider staff necessary for the consultant to conduct these activities and deliver the outputs.

Required competencies

Required competencies of the consultant would be:

• Have a broad understanding and experience of conducting participatory learning reviews, evaluations, outcome and impact assessments and reviews using a variety of methodologies and conducting desk reviews and studies.
• Must have experience in accessing and managing large bodies of diverse data and extracting relevant information from them and drawing appropriate conclusions and recommendations.
• Must be able to converse with stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds in order to elicit specific information.
• Will have either significant technical and/or practical field-based or relevant academic experience of the graduation approach, cash plus programming or economic inclusion in the context of international humanitarian and development programmes and be able to use this knowledge to construct effective enquiries and order information received.
• Will write informatively and succinctly in English.
• Respect the values of Islamic Relief.
• Possess strong qualitative and quantitative research skills.

The chosen evaluation team will be supported by IRW Programme Quality (PQ) team, the IR Regional teams and IR country teams.

Project outputs

The consultant is expected to produce:

• Produce a detailed work plan and inception report developed with and approved by IRW, setting out the detailed methodology, relevant technical standards to be used as reference for the evaluation, sampling strategy and deliverables prior to commencing the desk review.
• Facilitate a participatory learning process that may be attended by representatives from IR country offices that had implemented or are implementing different projects based on the graduation model. – the exact format will be discussed with the consultant but could involve something as follows:

1. Exposure visit to IR Bangladesh: 4-5 days – consultant to design and facilitate a participatory learning and review visit involving IR staff undertaking the exposure visit etc.
2. A series of online learning workshops (which could be spaced out):
   1. Day 1 - sharing reflections from exposure visit with wider colleagues (2-3 hours).
      1. Day 2 – Online learning and reflection on wider projects/countries experience of graduation model/s.
      2. Day 3 - Reflections on the learning review paper (2-3 hours) and action planning.

• Draft an implementation graduation module guideline and training package with the support of an internal working group consisting of identified graduation practitioners within IR.
• Develop the work plan, inception report, draft report, final report, presentation, etc., and communication language in English.
• A full report with the following sections:
• Title of Report: Global Learning Review & Mapping of IR Graduation Programmes
• Consultancy organisation and any partner names.
• Name of person who compiled the report including summary of role/contribution of others in the team.
• Period during which the review was undertaken.
• Acknowledgements.
• Abbreviations.
• Table of contents.
• Executive summary.
• Main report – max 32 pages – (please see indicative layout below – consultant is invited to propose most suitable report structure layout).
• Annexes
• Terms of reference for the review.
• Profile of the review team members.
• Review schedule.
• Documents consulted during the desk review.
• Persons participating in the review – with appropriate consent for names to be published or specific names should be anonymised highlighting just role, organisation and gender.
• Additional key overview tables, graphs or charts etc. created and used to support analysis inform findings.
• Bibliography.
• Anonymised copies of all data collected in Excel or appropriate format which would enable cross-checking and any additional analysis.
• A presentation of draft findings and recommendations will be made by the consultant remotely to IRW Programme Quality team, Regional Desks and country teams. Please allow 1.5 hours for this session.
• A final webinar will be delivered by the consultant to a wider IR audience to share the key findings and lessons learned.

Timetable and reporting information

The project is expected to run for a maximum of 45 working days over a 4 month period, starting by mid-May 2023 and ending before the beginning of December 2023.

Date

Description

Responsibility

4th July 2023

Tender live date

IRW

18th July 2023

Final date for submission of bid proposal

Consultant

19th – 26th July 2023

Proposals considered, short-listing and follow up enquiries completed

IRW

27th July – 4th August 2023

Consultant interviews and final selection (+ signing contracts)

IRW

7th – 11th August 2023

Meeting with the consultant and agree on a methodology, sampling, plan of action, working schedule

IRW

18th August 2023

Submission of Inception Report (at least 7 days before commencing the review)

Consultant

21st August – 1st September 2023

Desk Review & Data Collection

Consultant

4th - 8th September 2023

In country participatory learning review visit

Consultant

11th – 15th September 2023

Online learning workshops

Consultant

29th September 2023

Analysis of review data and submission of the first draft of report + implementation guideline to IRW for comments

IRW

2nd – 6th October 2023

Initial Presentation of Findings + Guideline

Consultant

6th October 2023

IRW responses to draft report + guideline

Consultant

Please note, the above timetable is indicative only and will be discussed with the consultant during the inception period.

Reporting information:

Contract duration: Duration to be specified by the consultant (max 45 days preferred)

Direct report: Global Programme Impact & MEAL Manager

Job Title: Consultant: Desk Global Mapping and Learning of IR Graduation Programmes

The consultant will communicate in the first instance with and will forward deliverables to the IRW Programme Quality team.

Proposal to tender and costing

A consultant interested in carrying out this work must submit the following items as part of their proposal/bid and this should including the following:

1. Detailed cover letter/proposal outlining a methodology and approach briefing note
2. Résumé/or CV or outline of relevant skills and experience possessed by the consultant who will be carrying out the tasks and any other personnel who will work on the project
3. Example(s) of relevant work done of similar evaluations in PDF
4. The consultancy daily rate (fill in appendix 1)
5. Expenses policy of the tendering consultant. Incurred expenses will not be included but will need to be agreed in advance prior to contract award (fill in appendix 1)
6. Be able to complete the assignment within the timeframe stated above
7. Be able to demonstrate experience of participatory learning reviews, mapping and toolkit / guideline creation for similar work

Terms and conditions

The consultant would provide financial proposal outlining detailed break up of costs and charges. There would be formal agreement on payment schedule and funds transfer process once the consultant would be selected. Payment will be made in accordance with the deliverables and deadlines for this project so are as follows:

• • 40% of the total amount – First upfront payment - 30% of the total amount – submission of the first draft of the evaluation report - 30% of the total amount – submission of the final evaluation report including all outputs and attachments mentioned above

We can be flexible with payment terms, invoices are normally paid on net payment terms of 30 days.

Additional information and conditions of contract

The following additional information will be expected from the consultant and be pursuant to the conditions printed beneath as well as the terms and conditions in the consultancy contract.

1. The ToR document is between the consultant and Islamic Relief Worldwide
2. Islamic Relief Worldwide is a legally registered charity under the laws of the United Kingdom charity registration number 328158
3. This document covers the research project identified and described in this document and related correspondence and may not be expended for any other purposes without the prior written approval of Islamic Relief Worldwide, Head of Programme Quality
4. The project will be carried out under the auspices of the Islamic Relief Worldwide, Programme Quality Team. The lead researcher will be working in the capacity of a freelance consultant or an organisation.
5. Collected data, information, reports and reference documents should be submitted, along with any audio files and transcripts collected.
6. Intellectual Property Rights to all research, and data, conducted and collected and the final report belongs solely to Islamic Relief Worldwide.
7. In case of contraventions or breach of any of the terms of the agreement, any outstanding payments to the Lead Researcher or the organisation will be withheld.

During the consultancy period,

IRW will only cover:

Consultancy fees

Any travel costs to visit IRW or any of our country offices if required.

IRW will not cover

Tax obligations as required by the country in which he/she will file income tax.

Any pre/post assignment medical costs. These should be covered by the consultant

Medical and travel insurance arrangements and costs. These should be covered by the consultant.

[1]https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview

[2] Banerjee, A. et al. 2015. A multifaceted program causes lasting progress for the very poor: Evidence from 6 countries, in Science vol. 348 issue 6236, 15 May.

[3]‘Orphan’ in IR means without a father.

To access or download the tender documents please follow the link below;

https://www.islamic-relief.org/tenders/category/open-tenders/

How to apply

Consultancy contract

This will be for an initial period that is to be specified by the consultant commencing in July 2023 (exact date to be mutually agreed). The selected candidate is expected to work from their home/office and be reporting into the Head of Programme Quality Department of IRW.

The terms upon which the consultant will be engaged are as per the consultancy agreement. The invoice is to be submitted at the end of the assignment and will be paid on net payment terms 30 days though we can be flexible.

All potential applicants must fill in the table beneath in Appendix 1 to help collate key data pertaining to this tender. The applicant must be clear about other expenses being claimed in relation to this consultancy and these must be specified clearly.

For this consultancy all applicants are required to submit a covering letter and CV’s of all potential consultants including the project lead.

A proposal including, planned activities, methodology, deliverables, timeline, and cost proposal (including expenses) are expected.

Other relevant supporting documents should be included as the consultants sees fit.

All applicants must have a valid visa or a permit to work in the UK (if travel is required to the UK). A valid visa/work permit is also required for those areas required to be visited as part of this consultancy.

This consultancy is open to any persons, freelancers, sole traders, consultants, SME’s, large organisations and corporations including NGO’s.

Tender dates and contact details

All proposals are required to be submitted by Tuesday 18th July 2023 at 1.00pm UK time pursuant to the attached guidelines for submitting a quotation and these be returned to; tendering@irworldwide.org

For any issues relating to the tender or its contents please email directly to; tendering@irworldwide.org

Following submission, IRW may engage in further discussion with applicants concerning tenders in order to ensure mutual understanding and an optimal agreement.

Quotations must include the following information for assessment purposes.

1. Timescales
2. Full break down of costs including taxes, expenses and any VAT and be able to provide best value for money
3. References (two are preferred)
4. Technical competency for this role
5. Demonstrable experience of developing a similar piece of work including a methodology

Note: The criteria are subject to change.

Appendix 1

Please fill in the table below. It is essential all sections be completed and where relevant additional expenses be specified in detail. In case of questions about how to complete the table below, please contact; tendering@irworldwide.org

Cost evaluation for consultancy for a global learning review and mapping of the IR graduation programme, June 2023

Full name of all consultants working on this project

Full company trading name

No of proposed hours per week

No. of proposed days

Preferred days

Non preferred days

Earliest available start date

Expected project finish date

Day rate (required for invoicing purposes) £

Total cost for consultancy in GBP (less taxes and expenses) £

Expenses (flights) £

Expenses (accommodation) £

Expenses (transfers) £

Expenses (in country travel) £

Expenses (visa) £

Expenses (security) £

Expenses (food) £

Expenses (print/stationary) £

Expenses other (please specify) £

Total expenses £

Total VAT or taxes £

Total cost for consultancy in GBP (inclusive of taxes and expenses) £

Note

The applicant is expected to take responsibility for paying full taxes and social charges in his/her country of residence.

Appendix 2

The learning review should respond to the following questions and any others deemed appropriate by the consultant, supported by evidence, triangulated data and views of key project participants and relevant wider stakeholders. Please note, these questions will be refined with the successful consultant.

Graduation Model Application:

• Is the package of support sequenced?
• Does the intervention include the basic graduation components?
• Does the intervention follow the recommended implementation timeline?

Comprehensive Targeting:

• Is the intervention in line with the needs and highest priorities of the most vulnerable groups (men and women, boys and girls)?
• Does the intervention target the ultra-poor, including households where there are disabilities, where girls are disadvantaged, and where women are exploited or marginalised?
• Was the targeting process participatory and did it involve local stakeholders including the local community and the government, whenever possible?

Group Formation and Empowerment:

• Have ultra-poor families been mobilised into self-help groups of between 10-30 persons?
• Are these self-help groups effectively helping to deliver the wide range of interventions to achieve economic, financial, governance, protection and social inclusion outcomes?
• Are the self-help groups well governed and meeting regularly? Will they continuing beyond the project period? Are they grouped together into apex bodies?

Livelihood Development:

• Are the sustainable economic activities selected appropriate and relevant?
• Are the income generating activities (IGAs) making a profit or loss?
• Is there a real increase (after considering inflation) to monthly income and expenditure of households relative to baseline/relative to extreme poverty line? What is the median income/expenditure?
• Did the rightsholders self-select the appropriate, locally-practised IGA?
• Was hands-on technical training and coaching on the selected IGA provided?
• Was the cash transfer to procure IGA assets of the right value and distributed at the right time?
• Has market system training been provided?
• Have linkages to markets and support services been facilitated, are they accessible to rightsholders and being accessed?
• Has consumption support been provided? Is this of an appropriate amount and was this delivered on time?

Internal Savings & Credit & Asset Multiplication:

• Have micro-savings and micro-loans been set up and are they accessible to the rightsholders and being used?
• What is the average size of household savings relative to baseline?
• Has the number and value of productive assets increased? Are households encouraged to have multiple IGAs? How many IGAs are there on average per household? Has there been any internal group lending from the group pool fund for second, third and further IGAs?
• Are internal loans offered on an interest-free/service charge fee free basis?
• Has an appropriate group insurance or solidarity fund (takaful) been established and taken up by rightsholders?

Robust Support by Experienced Staff:

• Are the projects staff suitably trained and experienced in the graduation model approach?
• Are staff provided foundation training on the graduation model approach at project inception/planning phases?
• Have coaching or mentoring of households and self-help groups taken place to deepen their learning and help them resolve challenges, manage livelihoods effectively, and adopt positive behaviours?
• Do staff carry out regular check-ins with project participants?
• For how long in average does this support continue across different projects? When does it start and when does it end?

Social Empowerment:

• What social empowerment activities have been undertaken?
• How effective have these been in building key life skills, raising awareness on social issues (e.g. rights, health, education, and protection), which promotes self-belief, community inclusion and positive behaviour change among participating households?

Links with Local Government & Service Providers:

• Has an apex body of SHGs to link and advocate with the local government administration been established?
• Has this body resulted in enhanced social protection, protection services, agriculture and livestock extension and technical services, land claims/allocation, schooling stipends, WASH, disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation planning?

A Strong Monitoring & Learning Framework:

• Is household’s progress towards graduation being monitored at regular intervals?
• Are there clear graduation indicators set?
• Is there a robust MEAL plan in place?
• Are indicator results regularly tracked?
• Do regular learning and reviews take place?
• Are results from monitoring and review processes (e.g. process and result monitoring and PDMS) used to make improvements and adjustments to project activities and
• Are lessons learned shared with others?
• How has impact data and evidence been used for adaptive management of the project?

To access or download the tender documents please follow the link below;

https://www.islamic-relief.org/tenders/category/open-tenders/