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Terms of Reference
“Multi-sector analysis of gaps, needs and program approaches for Cox’s Bazar refugee and host communities”
1. About The International Rescue Committee
The IRC has been present in Bangladesh since October 2017. Since the IRC obtained its legal registration to work in Bangladesh in March 2018, it has moved quickly to expand integrated emergency health and protection response through both direct and partner-based programming focused on primary healthcare, women’s protection and empowerment (including GBV and VAWGs), sexual and reproductive health, and child protection. IRC plans to further strengthen and expand its program both geographically and sectorally in the coming months including host communities in Cox Bazar.
In order to build an evidence base from which to expand current and planned program, the IRC is seeking a consultant/ team of consultants/ organization to support assessments of health, child protection, and WASH programming for the primary target group as women, youth and children. For the purposes of this assessment, the IRC would like to specifically focus on primary and sexual and reproductive health in refugee camps and settlements sites in Teknaf and Ukhia and surrounding host communities; child protection, especially life skills and social/emotional learning for refugees and host communities; and filling critical quality and hardware gaps in WASH in host communities.
2. Context Overview
On August 25, 2017, violence broke out in Myanmar's Rakhine State following a military counter-offensive that targeted Rohingya militants associated with the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). This triggered a massive efflux of Rohingya – an estimated 725,000 have fled into Bangladesh to seek refuge from the extreme violence since August 2017. The total estimated refugee population in Cox’s Bazar district, including prior arrivals, is 919,000. The majority of Rohingya refugees live in one of three main camps of Kutupalong, Balukhali (Ukhia Upazila) and Leda (Teknaf Upazila) near the main crossing points from Myanmar. The host community surrounding camps has also suffered under the weight of the influx.
The speed and scale of the influx has resulted in an extreme humanitarian emergency, with the previously available service providers under severe strain due to the massive increase of people in the area. Living conditions in the camp are dire, with severe overcrowding and insufficient basic facilities; with limited opportunities for income generation, refugees are reliant on humanitarian assistance for food and other life-saving services such as primary health care. A situation of statelessness imposed over generations has rendered the Rohingya population seriously vulnerable, even before the severe traumas of this most recent crisis. As the crisis drags on for over one year now, the outlook remains bleak, as sites remain congested and ill-equipped to handle monsoon rains and cyclone seasons, with few options for evacuation, while repatriation remains untenable without the citizenship, legal rights or safety of the Rohingya people guaranteed.
Meanwhile, the mass influx of people has had a huge impact on the local surrounding hose communities that were already some of the poorest in Bangladesh. Problems include, deforestation to create the camp plots, degradation of water supply, overuse of road infrastructure, crowding at public health services, and crowding out of local unskilled labor, all of which can lead to the disintegration of good feeling and empathy that greeted the refugees on their arrival a year ago.
3. Objectives of The Assessment
The assessment’s overall objective is to inform the design of IRC’s health, child protection and WASH intervention strategy in Cox’s Bazar, targeting both refugee and surrounding host communities.
Its specific objectives are:
- Document the current landscape of health, child protection, and WASH service provision in Ukhia and Teknaf subdistricts of Cox’s Bazar. This would include capturing the various service provisions, offered by both the government and non-government organizations, in the refugee camps as well as in the surrounding host communities. This will also include documentation of service coverage, accessibility & barriers to access the services; gaps in the current service provisions.
- Conduct a partner mapping exercise including a stakeholder mapping in both the refugees and surrounding host communities. This will include capturing both the formal and informal structures and power holders and the inter-dynamics present amongst the key stakeholders in the targeted refugee and surrounding host communities.
- Based on the above, develop a needs and gaps assessment matrix, indicating geography and sector specific (health, child protection, and WASH) analysis. This should further direct/recommend the IRC on possible entry points and brief program approaches/strategies for the entry points.
Research Questions
To achieve these objectives, the study will seek to answer the following core research questions:
- Which actors are currently involved in the provision of health, child protection, and WASH services to communities in the Rohingya response and surrounding host communities?
- What are the strategies and methodologies through which these actors provide health, child protection, and WASH services to refugee and host communities?
- What gaps currently exist in health, child protection, and WASH actors’ ability to provide services effectively and in line with global standards, best practices and community needs?
- What are the barriers (gender and age segregated) to clients in refugee and host communities to accessing health, child protection, and WASH services?
- What are the clients’ perceptions of health, child protection, and WASH services available to them?
- What are the best strategies and methodologies for IRC to pursue programming in health, child protection, and WASH sectors as part of our new business development and in line with IRC’s global strengths?
4. Scope of Work
A. Methodology: The assessment will take the form of an exploratory research, focused on a review of key documentation, key informant interviews and focused group discussion with key health, child protection, and WASH stakeholders, supplemented by field visits in host and camp, with the goal of creating an evidence base from which IRC can make programming decisions about the specific direction and focus of programming within each sector.
The methodology proposed involves two stages:
Literature review:
The literature review will aim to appraise the current status of health, child protection, and WASH needs, gaps and service provision in Cox’s Bazar camps and immediately surrounding host community areas. Key areas to review include:
- Review of the IRC’s Strategic Action Plan (SAP) 2018-2020 and relevant program frameworks;
- Relevant health, child protection, and WASH sector strategies development by both government and non-government organizations (particularly donors and UN organizations), as available/appropriate.
- Available data on health, child protection, and WASH needs, gaps and service provision from existing assessments produced by UN, NGOs and government
- Review of Annual Development Plans and Department/sector specific plans developed by the local government (Union Parishad) and administration (upazilla and district) particularly targeting surrounding host communities. Relevant national plans to complement such plans.
Key Informant Interviews and Focus Group Discussion:
Informed by the results of the literature review, conduct face-to-face interviews with key informants in Cox’s Bazar from district and upazila administration and union parishad; UN; INGO; and LNGO representative as well as with IRC Technical Advisors to collect relevant data to meet the objectives. Focus groups should be done in host communities, and as needed in camps.
B. Geographic Coverage:
Refugee Communities:
- All major refugee camps and settlement camps in Cox Bazar where there is significant gaps in service provisions and presence of limited actors;
Surrounding host communities
- Palong Khali andRaja Palong union in Ukhia sub district, Nhilla union in Teknaf sub district;
The IRC is not expecting to include all the proposed areas for the assessment; based on the timeframe and scope of work, the consultant/team of consultant/ organization should propose geographic scope to be considered as part of the assignment.
C. Sectors:
- Health
- Child Protection
- WASH
- Education
5. Key Competency Required:
- At least Tertiary level degree in related fields; ideally with a team that has expertise in all the mentioned sectors;
- At least 5 years’ experience working in humanitarian or development contexts, with a knowledge of refugee settings highly desirable;
- Excellent written and verbal English skills. Strong commend in local dialect or with capacity to bring team members with such skills;
- A proven track record of delivering high quality consultancy work on similar issues
- Previous experience working in the Rohingya refugee response and/or with surrounding host community is also highly desired.
6. Responsibilities
The IRC will be responsible for the following tasks/ assistance for smooth completion of the assessment:
- Provide all existing relevant information and documents including internal strategy documents
- Provide comments and necessary adjustment on proposed work
- Review, comments and feedback on draft assessment report.
- The IRC will not provide any technical and equipment support during the whole period of the study. Limited office space can be provided in the IRC’s Cox’s Bazar/Ukhia office for the consultant teams during the assignment period.
The consultant/ team of consultants/ organization will be responsible for
- Lead the design of the assessment and the development and piloting of appropriate questionnaires, interview guides, etc. IRC Technical Advisors may be including in the drafting of tools as needed.
- Conduct literature review and primary data collection
- Lead data analysis.
- Draft final report, to be presented and reviewed in conjunction with Technical Advisors.
- Coordinate with IRC’s Bangladesh and technical teams throughout all stages of the project
7. Expected Deliverables
- Concise and self-explanatory high quality final report, written in English addressing all the above mentioned specific objectives of the study. Report must include list of all the documents reviewed as reference.
- Brief synthesis of the report (Maximum 5-7 pages) in English
- A final power point presentation summarizing the outcome of this assessment
8. Timeline
The assessment is expected to be completed by end of December 2018 (maximum one month).
9. Guideline for Application
The proposal should comprise with the following sections and given page limit. The proposal should comprise with only the following sections and given page limit. Proposal will be accepted only through email in soft copy form (signed scanned copy). No hard copy proposal will be accepted.
Topic |
Maximum Page Limit |
| Technical Proposal | |
| Cover Page | 1 |
| Table of Content | 1 |
Understanding of the Assignment. This section should clearly demonstrate the:
|
4 pages |
| Work schedule | 1 |
| Team composition (detailed CVs of the team members should be annexed) | 1 |
| List of key/similar past assignment conducted by the consultant/team/organization | 1 |
| Any other relevant information (to be determined by the consultant/team/organization) | 1 |
| Financial Proposal | |
| The financial proposal should be inclusive of all the relevant cost for the assignment, overheads and inclusive of VAT and applicable Tax. | |
10. Ownership of Materials to be developed
The IRC will have the sole ownership of all the supplies and resources and report to be produced under this assignment. It is the consultant’s responsibility to ensure that no resources can be accused for plagiarism and due acknowledgement and necessary permissions are taken from the relevant agencies as appropriate and applicable.
11. Application Instruction:
Submit your letter of interest along with proposal to bd.Tenders@rescue.org by mentioning subject line “Multi-sector Assessment” by December 05, 2018. No hard copy proposal will be accepted.