National Consultant to conduct Baseline Study for the Women Resilience to Disasters (WRD) Programme in Malawi

Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. UN Women provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women Malawi Country Office is implementing a Women’s Resilience to Disasters (WRD) Programme aimed at initiating and providing a comprehensive package of services to strengthen women's resilience to natural disasters and threats, including climate change, contributing to sustainable, secure, and thriving communities in disaster prone districts in Malawi. The objective of the WRD programme in Malawi is to (i) support the development and adoption of gender-responsive decision-making and governance systems on DRR, and (ii) enable targeted action to build the resilience of women and girls. The programme will be implemented in three disaster prone districts that were heavily hit by Tropical Cyclone Freddy: Zomba, Blantyre and Phalombe. To achieve this, the programme will adopt the Sendai Frameworks’ the three main dimensions of disaster risk reduction (1) exposure to hazards, (2) vulnerability and capacity [population] and (3) hazard’s characteristics to prevent the creation of new risk, reduce existing risk and increase resilience. The programme will directly target 15,000 underprivileged and vulnerable women and girls including the elderly, those living with a disability and single mothers.

The country office therefore invites applications from suitable and qualified individual consultants to measure the status of all indicators and to understand the starting point of key elements of the work against which later progress will be measured.  This will enable programme indicators at output and goal/outcome level to be measured and tracked. The baseline report is to be used for monitoring benchmark of Indicator Tracking Tables and evaluating the programme implementation.

Description of the Programme

Goal of the programme: The lives and livelihoods of women and girls are resilient to disasters and climate change, contributing to sustainable, secure, and thriving communities. The main objective of the programme is that Malawi adopts gender-responsive decision-making and governance systems enabling targeted action for building the resilience of women and girls to current and future disasters and threats including climate change. Key indicators of interest are:

• # Number of deaths due to disasters (SDG 1.5.1, 11.5.1, 13.1.1)
• # Number of missing persons due to disasters (SDG 1.5.1, 11.5.1, 13.1.1)
• # Number of people whose livelihoods were disrupted or destroyed attributed to disasters (SDG 1.5.1, 11.5.1, 13.1.1)

OUTCOME 1:  Ministries of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare, Local Government, Natural Resources and Climate Change and the Department of Disaster Management Affairs [DoDMA] in Malawi use prevention, preparedness, and recovery policy frameworks, systems, and processes, which are gender-responsive,  evidence-based, and implemented as a result of local women’s and girls’ advocacy through women’s leadership and participation in disaster risk reduction; enhanced gender capacity for disaster risk reduction and resilience stakeholders; enhanced access to knowledge, guidance and expertise on gender-responsive disaster resilience; and strategic partnerships, networks, and advocacy for women’s agency and leadership in disaster risk reduction.

• Outcome indicator 1.1: Number of gender-responsive prevention, preparedness and/or recovery laws, policies, tools, and systems in place and aligned to international standard (the Sendai Framework).
• Outcome indicator 1.2: Number of National and district level DRR and climate resilience counterparts who (self-report to) routinely apply gender-responsive planning, implementation, M & E.

OUTCOME 2:  Women and girls have voice and agency and access to resilience services to withstand multiple hazards, recover from disasters, and increase their resilience to future crises through targeted action to build gender-responsive and inclusive early earnings systems, risk-communication, and preparedness; and link to and partner with locally appropriate mechanisms (e.g. self-help groups), services, and products (e.g. financial); and through strategic partnerships provide support for resilient livelihoods and businesses. Key indicators of interest are:

• 2.1 # of women and girls self-reporting increased disaster and climate resilience (MoV: survey in WRD communities covered).
• 2.2 # of women’s informal or formal businesses with increased climate and disaster resilience (self-reporting based on resilience indicators).
• 2.3 % of women in WRD communities using early warning systems

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the UN Women Representative and direct supervision by the Programme Specialist/Project Manager, the National Consultant will capture data and information that will enable the programme to establish the prevailing situation in the targeted three districts about gender responsive Disaster Risk Reduction. The specific objectives of the baseline study are:

• To collect data that will be able to determine the level of change on impact and outcome indicators between baseline and final evaluation.
• To provide information that will help improve the understanding of constraints and challenges faced by Tropical Cyclone Freddy survivors and their current state of needs.

Scope of the Evaluation

The baseline study of the programme is to be conducted by individual consultant for a duration of 20days spread over a period of three-months in Malawi where the programme is being implemented and the target programme districts from which data will be collected from are Blantyre, Zomba and Phalombe;   The baseline will examine all the relevant documents of the Programme, including results framework/logical framework of the programme, its Monitoring and Evaluation Plan, annual work plan etc.

Baseline Study Design

The approach will be formative (forward looking). Being a Gender-responsive study, it should apply mixed-methods (quantitative and qualitative data collection methods and analytical approaches) to account for complexity of gender relations and to ensure participatory and inclusive processes that are culturally appropriate. The key principles for gender-responsive studies at UN Women are: 1) National ownership and leadership; 2) UN system coordination and coherence regarding gender equality and the empowerment of women; 3) Innovation; 4) Fair power relations and empowerment; 5) Participation and inclusion; 6) Independence and impartiality; 7) Transparency; 8) Quality and credibility; 9) Intentionality and use of evaluation; and 10) Ethics.

Expected Deliverables:

• Draft and revised inception report
• Draft and revised Baseline Study report
• Both draft inception report and draft baseline study report will be reviewed by the Evaluation Management Group (EMG) and Evaluation Reference Group (ERG).

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Required Skills and Experience

Evaluation of Applicants:

Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of their qualifications (including an interview) and financial proposal. A two-stage procedure is utilized in evaluating the proposals, with evaluation of the technical proposal (including an interview) being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. The award of the contract should be made to the individuals whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable.
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Technical criteria and interview - 70% of total evaluation (max 45 points for technical criteria and max 25 points for interview). Total max 70 points:

• The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 45. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on desk review and following technical qualification evaluation criteria.

Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

• Only the financial proposal of candidates who have attained a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation will be further considered and evaluated.
• The total number of points allocated for the financial/price component is 30.
• The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened/ evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.
• Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 30
• (S - score received on financial evaluation; F min - the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round; F - financial offer under the consideration).

Note: 

• Only applications with all items mentioned above will be considered.
• The individual consultant who does not meet the above eligibility criteria shall not be considered for further evaluation. Necessary documentation must be submitted to substantiate the above eligibility criteria.

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