Consultancy for the Development of an Operations Manual and Procedural Guidelines... Tender

Procurement Summary

Country : Barbados

Summary : Consultancy for the Development of an Operations Manual and Procedural Guidelines for Delivery of Social Services

Deadline : 31 Aug 2018

Other Information

Notice Type : Tender

TOT Ref.No.: 26110467

Document Ref. No. :

Competition : ICB

Financier : United Nations Secretariat

Purchaser Ownership : -

Tender Value : Refer Document

Purchaser's Detail

Purchaser : UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND
1st Floor United Nations House Marine Gardens Christ Church Tel: 467.6000 Fax: 437.6596
Barbados
Email :unicef@caribsurf.com
URL :http://www.unicef.org/

Tender Details

Tenders are invited for Consultancy for the Development of an Operations Manual and Procedural Guidelines for Delivery of Social Services in Dominica.

UNICEF works in some of the world-s toughest places, to reach the world-s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

How can you make a difference?

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

Dominica is a small island developing state (SIDS) in the Eastern Caribbean with a fragile economy and high vulnerability to hurricanes, tropical storms, floods and landslides. Hurricane Maria, a powerful Category 5 hurricane which caused widespread destruction throughout the country in September 2017, has further severely impacted the Dominican economy. All the 10 parishes in the country, are estimated to be moderately to severely affected. This brings additional challenges to those parishes already below national poverty rates of 28.8 % that ranges from 38.1% to 47.2% in St. Andrew and St. Joseph respectively. Please see Table 1 below for detail breakdown of poverty rates by parishes.

As a result of the recorded high poverty rates, Government of Commonwealth of Dominica (GoCD) established a social protection system across different sectors from Health and Social Services to Education to Labor and Public Works. The programmes in the respective Ministries aim to address social and economic vulnerabilities of the poor, elderly, children with specific education needs, as well as to promote active work for youths.

Table 1

Parish of Residence

Poverty Rate

(Percentage of Poor Individuals in Parish)

City of Roseau

12.8

Rest of St. George

16.3

St. John

10.2

St. Peter

23.7

St Joseph

47.2

St. Paul

32.6

St. Luke

17.5

St. Mark

27.3

St. Patrick

42.7

St. David

40.4

St. Andrew

38.1

All Parishes

28.8

Since Hurricane Maria struck Dominica, UNICEF support focused on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene; education, child protection, psychosocial support to affected children and duty bearers. UNICEF also supported the recovery efforts with a Joint Emergency Cash Transfer (JECT) programme jointly designed and implemented with the World Food Programme (WFP). This cash transfer programme has led to further understanding of the needs of the social protection framework in Dominica and the key needs for strengthening this system to improve its capacity for service delivery in both regular and emergency operations.

BACKGROUND:

Joint Emergency Cash Transfer (JECT) programme jointly designed and implemented with the World Food Programme (WFP) has been the most recent and substantial engagement with social protection in Dominica that provides links to not only lessons learned in humanitarian response but how it linkages can be made to the national social protection system. This has resulted in an acceleration to the reform of social protection programmes due to the country-s commitment and urgency to invest strategically in emergency preparedness.

A World Bank report on Dominica social protection assessment has identified key recommendations to strengthen the social protection programmes on the island. These recommendations include the development of tools and manuals, establishing institutional mechanisms, considering legal provisions and exploring integration of services to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of financial and human resources.

For the JECT, the programme targeted a total of 8, 000 of the poorest families in the country, including 6, 000 children, and operated from December 2017 to March 2018. The programme was implemented in partnership with WFP and was designed to build on the existing structure of Dominica-s main national social assistance programme, the Public Assistance Programme (PAP), which benefits about 2, 200 households of the poorest population in the country.[1] The JECT is a vertical and horizontal expansion of the PAP.

The institution responsible for the PAP implementation is the Social Welfare Department (SWD) within the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MHSS). The PAP provides monthly transfers of cash to the most vulnerable men, women, and children in the country. For people to be eligible to receive support, they have to apply to the MHSS either directly by writing a letter or by apply at the Village Councils which are set up across the different Parishes. There are about 100 settlements lead by the Village Councils in the 10 parishes which include development committees. Payments of the cash grants were made through the Village Councils.

In addition to the cash transfers, the UNICEF Eastern Caribbean Area (ECA) office has invested in providing technical expertise to the Government of Dominica to strengthen institutional capacity to deliver transparent, accountable and effective social protection programmes. The JECT was initially implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Social Services, Family and Gender Affairs, however, social services were transferred under the Ministry of Health and Social Services in April of 2018. This merger indicates the commitment of GoCD to invest in strengthening the linkage between home-based social welfare services and primary health care services.

This restructure has given rise to both a need for revision of existing systems and processes, as well as an opportunity to ensure that consideration of the needs of children are met by both health care personnel and social welfare officers all within the context of reforming and strengthening social protection system. It also serves as an opportunity to review other social transfers provided by other social sector Ministry and how best to achieve an integrated social protection system optimal for families and their children protecting against social, environmental and economic vulnerabilities.

OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSULTANCY:

Following a request for support from the Government of Dominica, UNICEF has planned to provide a broad range of assistance to streamline current practices within the SWD as well as to advance the integration of primary health and social services. Assistance is planned to cover improved data management, emergency preparedness and technical training of key technical staff. A first area of support will be to revise and better articulate existing operational practices under the PAP as well as in relation to coordination with relevant other social assistance programmes across the social sector ministries.

The consultancy will produce draft operations manual for the PAP as well as a set of standard operating procedures for coordination of social services between the various programmes under the SWD and other government social protection programmes. The aim in producing these documents is to put into writing many of the current practices and processes to increase accountability and ensure roles and responsibilities are identified to inform future responses to emergency are timely and effective. The documents will also seek to address different aspects of case management, with an expectation that the documents will cover the following topics as a minimum:

· vulnerability assessment

· intake selection

· reassessment and case monitoring

· internal reporting

· data management and record keeping

· referral pathways

· communication and feedback mechanisms

The operational manual for PAP and SOP for social services will include procedures for operation in the event of an emergency response is activated, integration of existing social service to those beneficiaries of the PAP, especially health services, and referral services to other social welfare department programmes. Education social and cash transfer programmes can also be considered as part of the integration of social services.

Within the scope proposed above, the breadth of the SOP is expected to be discussed and agreed with staff of the SWD during the consultancy.

The outputs of this consultancy will be used as a core tool to review and revise actual practice of existing staff as well as training and guidance for new social welfare officers and relevant village level officials.

The consultancy will be managed under the overall supervision of Social and Economic Policy Specialist of UNICEF ECA with inputs and direction from the Dominica UNICEF field team.

PROPOSED METHODOLOGY:

Below is a proposed methodology to be considered based on the recent experience from the JECT and subsequent communication with government on priority capacity needs. The operations manual and SOP for social services will be grounded in experience and perceptions of government staff who are responsible for all aspects of programme management and implementation.

Preparation of the documentation will at a minimum but not limited to involve four areas of consultation and research, including:

· Brief secondary research on best practice in the Eastern Caribbean region, including discussions on common standards and approaches between countries as well as a review of the Dominican JECT documentation and lessons learned.

· Consultation with key partners (WFP and the World Bank) and other Ministries (Planning, Ecclesiastical Affairs and Education) regarding

· Communication with relevant health staff and social welfare officers within the MHSS on existing processes and remaining needs or gaps.

· Field visits to village councils, health care facilities and beneficiary households to understand current practice within social assistance programmes as well as related coordination with health, education and child protection services.

It is expected that this review and consultation will identify and incorporate potential improvements in current processes. In this regard, particul

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