British Council

Platforms for Dialogue (P4D): Strengthening Inclusion and Participation in Decision Making and Accountability Mechanisms in Bangladesh

P4D Consultant Required for District Level Baseline Study

Terms of Reference (ToR)

Introduction

A strong civil society actively engaging with the state is now regarded as an end in itself and a public good, leading to better democratic practice and outcomes. Bangladesh has a progressive Constitution providing freedom for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and its citizens. However, many observers have opined that the space for dialogue and civil society engagement for development is shrinking due to various socio-political factors. These include: the rise of radical Islamic forces, an increased attitude of intolerance amongst political forces and government towards criticism, the failure of CSOs and civil society actors in representing the interests of their constituents, and a lack of awareness and ability to effectively use accountability mechanisms and tools provided under state policy and legislation.

The Bangladesh Government has made commitments to become more accountable and responsive to its citizens through its 7th Five Year Plan, the National Integrity Strategy, the Right to Information Act, Citizens’ Charters and the Grievance Redress System.

Platforms for Dialogue (P4D) is designed to support the Government to deliver its commitment in these policies and planning documents to improve services by strengthening accountability and engaging citizens and civil society in decision making.

P4D Objectives:

Impact: Democratic ownership strengthened and accountability mechanisms improved in Bangladesh.
Outcome: Promote a more enabling environment for the effective engagement and participation of the citizens and civil society in decision making and oversight.
Output: 1: CSOs ability to influence government policy and practice raised through better accountability to and more effective representation of all citizens' interests
Output: 2: Accountability and responsiveness of government officials raised through enhanced capacity building of decision makers and engagement with CSOs

Output 3: New tools and policy platforms for more effective dialogue between citizens and government are developed and utilised

The British Council is implementing P4D in partnership with the Cabinet Division. P4D is a three year, € 12.6 million project financed by the European Union which started in February 2017. P4D will find opportunities to increase accountability as set out in the Government’s National Integrity Strategy (NIS), the Right to Information Act (RTI, Citizens’ Charters (CCs) and the Grievance Redress System (GRS).

P4D will use a range of techniques to support the Government in the delivery of these policy commitments. It will promote collaborative dialogue, multi-stakeholder consultation, and institution and capacity building of citizens, civil society actors and government officials, including training in strategic communication.

P4D will work mostly at the local level with key players in government and civil society in its broadest sense. It aims to bring together citizens, local government representatives and officials of local administrations in Multi-Action Partnerships (MAPs) to identify practical solutions to locally identified issues, a process which at later stage can be scaled up to regional and national levels. Details of P4D can be found at:

https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/aap-financing-bangladesh-part2-annex1-20151214_en.pdf

British Council in Bangladesh
The British Council (BC) has been working in Bangladesh since 1952 and has operational centres in three cities (Dhaka, Sylhet and Chittagong) with 150 staff. BC engages with over 2.5 million people a year and has three key areas of work - Education and Society, English, and the Arts. BC through these areas engages with leaders, policy makers, influencers, opinion formers and civil society actors in Bangladesh.

An important element of the BC’s work worldwide is delivering high quality international development programmes for donors such as the EU, UKAid and the US State Department. The British Council is at present carrying out four development projects in Bangladesh. These are: 1) Platform for Dialogue an € 12.6 million project financed by the European Union 2) Promoting Knowledge for Accountable System (PROKAS) is a £ 15.5 million project funded by DFID; 3) SD-03 is a US$ 1.5 million Skill Development project funded by ADB and 4) Sudokkho is a £ 19.5 million skill and employment project funded by UKAid & SDC . The British Council was also involved with UKAid and SDC funded EEP/Shiree and UkAid’s Community Legal Service project (CLS) as consortium member.

Requirement

P4D wishes to appoint a research institution or a consultancy firm which can deploy a team of skilled and motivated staff to conduct a baseline study in 21 districts to identify stakeholders and gain insights into the power dynamics, affecting their awareness, attitude, and capacity regarding influence on government policy and practice through the use of existing government accountability and oversight mechanisms ( RTI, NIS, CCs and GRS).

Objectives

Overall Objective:
The baseline study will:

Provide the P4D team with an in-depth understanding of the wider environment with respect to the project’s objectives, strategy, inputs and implementation structure and determine a baseline benchmark for P4D to track progress to its objectives.

Specific Objectives:

To determine a baseline benchmark to track changes against project indicators and to thorough in interrogate the Theory of Change, Log Frame, Results Chains and Measurement Plans.
To carry out stakeholder analyses in P4D 21 districts to identify key stakeholders, assess their interests and needs, and clarify how these may affect the programme.
To gain insights into the perception of communities, elected representatives, local administration, CSOs and Civil Society actors on the standard of Government services and accountability tools and mechanisms (RTI, NIS,GRS, CCs) in 21 districts.
To gain insights into the perception of local administrations, elected representatives, civil society actors and constituents on CSOs’ governance and accountability mechanism.
To undertake an in-depth political economy analysis in 21 P4D districts in the context of P4D objectives
To gain insights into the awareness level and practices of communities, local government representatives, Local Administrations, CSOs and civil society actors in 21 P4D districts on the accountability tools and mechanism (NIS, RTI, CCs, GRS) introduced by the Government .
To consider effective ways of raising awareness among target audiences – including developing and understanding the ways in which people access information and their level of trust in those sources/channels and the potential for effecting attitude and behaviour change.

Scope of Work

The Scope of work shall comprise, but not be limited to the following

To set a clear project baseline such that results can be measured and evidenced
This baseline study is to be conducted in all 21 districts selected for P4D intervention
Literature Review:

Project Theory of Change, Log frame, Results Chain and Measurement Plan
Political Economy Analysis done by P4D during inception
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistic (BBS) recent documents on District Statistic
Books/literature/document on political, social history on P4D districts

Field study in all 21 P4D districts.
Field plan, study design and methodology and data collection tools/instruments will be finalised after discussion with P4D project team.
Consultation with LGI representatives, Local administration, CSOs and Civil Society actors will be carried out
Collection of community level information to meet the study objectives
Information analysis including a district wise

Political Economy Analysis.
Audience Analysis (audience profile, barriers to change, potential enablers of change, channels of communication etc.)
Stakeholder Analysis.

Methodology of the Assignment

The methodology will be proposed by the consultant based on their understanding of the assignment. It is anticipated that the consultant will take up both quantitative and qualitative methods for the Baseline assessment.

Deliverables

Inception Report:

Final Research Design and Methodology.
Tested Research checklists/guidelines/questionnaires
Implementation Plan
CV of Field Researchers

21 District wise baseline reports that include sections on:

Stakeholders mapping including category wise CSO lists with role and function.
Stakeholder perception on Government services and accountability tools and mechanism
Political Economy Analysis
Audience analysis (audience profile, Barriers to change, Potential enablers of change, Channels of communication etc.)

Field notes and duly completed data collection tools
A national baseline report aggregating information on the 21 districts
Presentation of the findings with the project team

Timeframe
The assignment is anticipated to begin in November 2017 and expected to be completed within 6 months from the signing date of the contract.

Tentative work plan

Activity	2017		2018
Activity	November	December	January	February	March	April
Identification and engagement of team members for the assignment
Submission and approval of inception report
Field visit and data collection in 8 districts
Analysis and report writing for 8 Districts
Submission of 8 draft district baseline reports
Feedback on draft reports on 8 districts
Field visit and data collection in 13 remaining districts
Submission & approval of final 8 district reports
Analysis and report writing for remaining 13 Districts
Submission of draft reports on 13 remaining districts
Feedback on draft reports on 13 remaining districts
Submission of final reports on 13 remaining districts
Submission & approval of national level aggregated Report

Composition of the Core Team for the Assignment required

Position	Quantity	Qualification
Political Economy Analyst; National (Principal Researcher)	1	PhD in Political Science or any other subject in social science discipline from a recognized university. 10 years’ proven experience in conducting qualitative and quantitative research for development projects Experience in research related to civil society engagement at the regional and local level is preferred. Experience in PEA is preferred. Ability to produce quality baseline report in English.
Monitoring & Evaluation expert; National (Co-Principal Researcher)	1	Minimum post graduate degree in social science discipline or any other relevant subject. 10 years’ work experience in development organisation/project as M&E personnel. Expertise in applying PRA tools in information gathering and analysis. Ability to produce quality baseline report in English Work experience in civil society engagement project and European Union funded project is preferred.
Communication specialist; National	1	Minimum post graduate degree in Communication or any other relevant subject from a recognized university 10 years’ work experience as a communication professional Ability to carry out audience Analysis Knowledge on mainstream media, digital & social media and traditional communication channels.

Technical and Financial Proposal Evaluation Criteria

Criteria, sub-criteria
1)Specific experience of the organization relevant to the assignment. (30)
a) Experience in Quantitative Research	10
b) Experience in Qualitative Research	15
C) Experience in carrying out research on civil society engagement	05
2) Adequacy of the technical proposal, proposed methodology and work plan (30)
Technical proposal , approach and methodology	20
Work plan	05
Organization and staffing (combination of core team)	05
3) Professional staff qualifications and competence for the assignment. (40)
Political Economy Analyst	15
Monitoring & Evaluation Expert	15
Communication Specialist	10
Total	(100)
The minimum Technical Score (TS) required to pass is: 70 points. However, the Proposal Evaluation Committee (PEC) may decide otherwise depending on the practical situation
Criteria for evaluation of Financial Proposals
The formula for determining the financial scores is the following: Sf = 100 x Fm / F, in which Sf is the financial score, Fm is the lowest price and F the price of the proposal under consideration.
The weights given to the Technical and Financial Proposals are: Technical proposal = weight: 0.7 and Financial Proposal = weight: 0.3

Management and Reporting

The P4D Research Monitoring and Learning (REL) Lead will be responsible for overseeing the consultant. He will provide relevant project documents, monitor adherence to specified deadline and provide feedback on the inception and draft reports.
The consultant/consulting firm(s) will be responsible for administering and supervising the baseline studies, including designing data collection tools, collecting data, drafting the final report. Logistics to carry out this study will be the responsibility of the consultants / consulting firm. P4D will reimburse logistics costs as per signed contract

Contractual arrangement:
The consultant will be contracted by the British Council through a consultancy contract. The ToR is subject to update and modifications as per project need.

How to apply
Interested consultant should submit both soft and hardcopies of a Technical Proposal and a Financial Proposal with a covering letter. Soft copies of technical and financial proposal in separate PDF files should be submitted to Dhaka.recruitment@britishcouncil.org with a CC to Salahuddin.Ahmed@Britishcouncil.org . Financial proposal should be in PDF file with password protected.
2 hard copies of technical and one hard copy of financial proposal should also need to be submitted in separate sealed envelopes to the following address:
Eamoinn Taylor | Team Leader | Platforms for Dialogue
British Council | Flat –B2 | House 13/B, Road 75, Gulshan 2 | Dhaka 1212 | Bangladesh

Deadline for proposal submission
Deadline for proposal submission is close of business on November 2, 2017

Interested Consultant should send a mail to Salahuddin.Ahmed@Britishcouncil.org before October 26, 2017 to receive invitation to the Pre-Proposal meeting.