Background

Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), a national legal aid and human rights organization was established in 1986. Initially its work was limited to providing free legal services to the disempowered particularly women, working   children and workers in Dhaka city. But over the last thirty-five years, ASK has evolved a more comprehensive approach to the promotion, protection and prevention in the area of legal and human rights. ASK’s strategies to promote human rights awareness and community activism; offer legal aid through mediation and litigation while survivors are given psycho-social counseling; investigations into human rights violations and their documentation are supplemented by systematic documentation which together lead to media campaigns, policy and legal reform to defend human rights, and public interest litigation to ensure rights of a large group of people.

About ASK

To strengthen human rights culture in every sphere of life, ASK's strategies specifically focus on ensuring gender equality, women’s human rights and children’s rights. At the same time, its concern for civil and political rights is expressed through legal aid to victims/survivors of arbitrary arrest, taking a stand against unlawful evictions, extra judicial killings, torture and death in custody, condition of prisoners and interests of religious and ethnic minorities.
ASK is currently implementing projects with or funded by Danish Embassy, Swedish Embassy, Switzerland Embassy, UNFPA, UN Women, UNDP, Save the Children, TDH Netherlands, Plan International, MJF.
ASK executes activities through direct implementation and partnership with like-minded local NGOs, Community based organizations (CBOs), schools, lawyers and local cultural organizations. Currently ASK covers 47 districts of Bangladesh. ASK has no political affiliation and adopts a non-partisan approach in defense of human rights. It is a membership-basedorganization with founder members, general members and executive committee members. ASK has consultative status with UN ECOSOC.

Objective of this consultancy

The overall objective is to produce a project document for ASK for the next phase of its ongoing project Strengthening Democracy by Promoting Human Rights Culture in Bangladesh;

• Review the five years (i.e. Year 2022-2026)Strategic Plan of ASK
• Analyze Human Rights situation in Bangladesh
• Prepare and review five years activity plan and budget for the next phase in consultation with ASK staff
• Prepare a logical framework for the next phase
• Prepare a grant winning Project Proposal for ASK

Focus Points

The consultant will focus upon the following areas

• The justification or rationale to be incorporated to the proposal for the next phase
• Highlight and explain the difference of programme from the existing phase
• Methodology of the likely impact to the next phase

Required competency of the consultant/firm/organization

Preferably an advanced university degree (Masters or equivalent) in Development Studies/Gender and Development/Law or in relevant field.

Given the scope of the work, the consultancy needs to be accomplished with an experienced professional who has expertise in development research/field to human-rights & feminist activism /social movements support programmers, understanding of the current funding scenario and funding opportunities, human resources management and organizational development expertise. S/he must have a pertinent academic background in human rights, law, organizational development and strategic planning field, proven capacity to facilitate active learning processes within and external to the organization and previous working experience in programmeproposal development.  S/he should have an understanding about Human Rights based programming approach and Legal Aid services.

The consultant needs to have the skill and experience to know the priority/strategic vision/need of different donors which can focus on the proposal.

If a group of professionals are interested to apply, the team members should include preferably gender and program experts. Proposed team members should have experience of similar work with other reputed organizations. The level of effort for each consultant has to be proposed based on objectives, methodologies and deliverables.

Methodology /Process

Consultant will use a systematic and scientific methodology to develop the proposal. The brief description of the methodology is given below:

Clarify ASK’s expectation through consultation: Before submitting the inception report, the consultant will consult with the Executive Director and Executive Committee of ASK. This consultation is to clarify understanding about the assignment and ensure proper support from ASK when the consultant will be engaged with the assignment.

Review literature, related papers and documents of the organization: Based on the scope of work, a document list will be prepared by theconsultant and agreed upon with the ASK contact person. ASK will provide the documents to the consultant only which is available and related with ASK, and can provide any additional documents which they think relevant and important for this assignment.
The consultant has to review the strategic plan (2022-2026) of ASK to understand detail about the organization’s mission, vision and objectives.

Prepare tools for the assignment: Consultant will developassessment tools/ checkliststo conduct interviews, discussions etc. Consultant will review existing; relevant and participatory tools which are available and develop new tools considering the organizational context. Consultant will also prepare a workshop plan. 

Conduct IDI (In-depth Interview) from various segments of the organization: Key Informant Interview will be one of the main methods for this assignment. Through a consultative process, the consultant will prepare a list of key informants- that will include Executive Committee members, Executive Director, Sr. Management staff, Mid-level Management staff, front-line staff and field staff. The list will be categorized based on management staff, program staff, finance and accounts staff, MKL staff, procurement staff, human resource staff.
FGD with the partners/stakeholder: Consultant will consult with the partners/ Government/ Community stakeholders. FGD will be organized in this relation. Consultant will discuss with ASK to identify the key informant or the FGD participants.

Conduct Workshop: A two-day long ‘Workshop on Development of Project Proposal’ will be organized in Dhaka. The Consultant will facilitate the workshop. A total of 16-20 participants will participate in the workshop. The workshop will mainly include Sr. Management, Mid-level management staff (6-8 maximum)

Analyze all information and prepare a draft proposal: Based on the analysis and findings, the consultant will develop a draft proposal. Consultant will share the draft proposal with ASK for their feedback. ASK will give written feedback on the draft proposal. The draft proposal can be shared with the existing core funder as well and will take their comments, it will be helpful for incorporate their interested areas for future funding.

Sharing findings through a presentation: The draft of the proposal will be presented Executive Director, Sr. Management and representative of the Executive Committee of ASK through a de-briefing meeting.

Incorporate feedback and finalize the report:  Based on the feedback to the draft proposal and discussion in the debriefing meeting, the report will be finalized. The final report will include all annexes.

Deliverables:

The deliverables of this assignment are:

• An inception report containing the detailed methodologies and Work plan.
• A completed and comprehensive Logical Framework for the proposed project.
• First draft of all proposal-related documents (including but not limited to project concept note, full proposal and budget).
• Final draft of all proposal-related documents as per identified Donor requirements (including but not limited to project concept note, full proposal and budget).

Timeline for the consultancy:

The first draft of the project proposal to be submitted by six weeks; and on the basis of ASK’s and Donors’ feedback the proposal to be finalized by next two weeks.

The Expression of Interest (EOI) and Financial Proposal

The EoI should include:

• Contact details
• Up to date and detailed CV of the consultant(s)/firm with brief descriptions of similar assignments (Maximum 2 pages highlighting relevant experience);
• A clear overview of how this work will be approached, the methodology proposed and the outputs generated, with a clear timeline for each of the specified activity;
• The EOI, excluding the consultant CVs, should not be more than 6 pages long, should have 1.15 spacing, and use Times New Roman typeface with a minimum font size of 12.

Financial proposal should be submitted separately detailing relevant cost breakdown. Financial Proposal should be inclusive of relevant field cost, if any. No field cost would be reimbursed separately. 

The EOI and Financial Proposal are to be sent by email to ask@citechco.net.
Last Date of Proposal Submission: 30 April 2021.

Key contact person from ASK

Executive Director –ED of ASK will be the key contact person of the total assignment. Coordinator- MKAL will be the next contact person for operation and any support.

General terms and conditions

• ASK reserve the right to accept or reject any proposal without giving any verbal and/or written rationale;
• All reports and documents prepared during the assignment will be treated as ASK property;
• The reports/documents or any part, therefore, cannot be sold, used and reproduced in any manner without prior written approval of ASK; ASK or its representatives reserve the right to monitor the quality and progress of the work during the assignment.
• Terrorism and money laundering issues: If there any proof of engagement in any terrorism and money laundering issues, ASK reject the proposal without assigning any reason.
• Child Protection Policy, Code of Conduct and Sexual Harassment Protection Policy: The firm/organization/individual shall comply with the Child Protection Policy, Code of Conduct and Sexual Harassment Protection Policy of ASK. Any violation/deviation in complying with ASK's child protection policy, Code of Conduct and Sexual Harassment Protection Policy will result in termination of the agreement.

Budget and Mode of Payment

The Budget for this consultancy service is BDT 800,000 (including VAT and tax), payable in two installments; 1st installment 30% after receiving inception report, 2nd and final installment 70% following submission and acceptance of the final proposal.