Terms of Reference

Rapid Labour Market Assessments
Inclusion Works programme

1. Background

Sightsavers is leading a consortium of 11 partners to deliver a DFID-funded programme of work to promote the inclusion of women and men with disabilities in the formal employment sector. This programme covers 4 countries: Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda and has a global influencing component.

Initial design for each of the 4 country components has already taken place but to ensure we target our interventions strategically; it is critical to ensure we partner with the most strategic businesses in growing industries. To that end, Sightsavers is recruiting an expert in economic empowerment to conduct labour market assessments in each programme countries.

The rapid labour market assessments (RLMAs) are expected to answer key questions covering the following areas:

  1. Government and policy perspective
  2. Coordination systems
  3. Industry and employer perspectives
  4. Training and recruitment service provider perspective
  5. Job seekers perspective

See annex 1 for the full Rapid Labour Market Assessment Questionnaire

2. Purpose of the Rapid Labour Market Assessments

We are commissioning a consultant to lead the drafting of rapid country-level labour market assessments. The assessments will be conducted by the consultant directly but in collaboration with Sightsavers and/or consortium staff and a DPO representative in each country. This will facilitate technical capacity building amongst locally based staff.

The assessments will be finalised in collaboration with Sightsavers technical leads to directly inform programme strategy and implementation. Assessments will identify, for each country/project location, in which growth industries job opportunities exist. Information gathered will also identify the in-demand hard and soft skills for enabling persons with disabilities to compete for current and future job opportunities and will also consolidate a greater understanding of the barriers for employers and persons with disabilities with regards disability inclusive formal employment. In addition to collection of information using the rapid labour market assessment illustrative questionnaire (annex 1), the consultant will conduct analysis of the data and provide a set of recommendations that will inform the programme implementation. 

A validation workshop in each country will support the analysis. The primary audience for the reports will be programme planning teams in each country and the consortium partners. However, it is anticipated that the findings will have wide relevance and interest across several other stakeholders and will be shared accordingly within relevant sectors at national, regional and global levels.

3. Approach and Methodology

Phase one: 5 days
Initial desk review, assessment planning and development of data collection tools.

  • For each country, relevant programme documentation (including country level SITAN and advocacy planning information) will be made available to the consultant in order to conduct an initial scoping of knowledge available and identify critical knowledge gaps. This will support the development of an in-country assessment plan, in collaboration with the relevant local staff.
  • Through the desk review and liaison with relevant decision-makers and stakeholders, the consultant will be expected to use their expertise to identify key business leaders, government officials and business networks, with whom to consult as part of the assessments.
  • It is critical that people with disabilities are consulted as part of the assessment where relevant. Information on Disabled Peoples Organisations in each country will be provided.
  • The consultant will be responsible for developing relevant data collection tools to support the assessments.

Phase two: 12 days
Data collection using the detailed questionnaire and working with local staff.

  • The consultant will lead the data collection process, implementing the data collection tools with government officials, employers, business sector analysts, and job seekers and so to scope out the information that will be useful to inform the project’s interventions.
  • To ensure wider coverage of information sources the rapid assessment will use focus group discussions (FGDs), key informant interviews (KIIs) and consultative workshops to gather information. In each country, the consultant will facilitate a short workshop to validate findings from the RLMA with key stakeholders.

Phase three: 5 days
Analysis, report writing and recommendations.

  • A draft report and set of recommendations will be produced and shared with Sightsavers technical leads before finalization by the consultant. The report should be structured around:
    • Short introduction and country context
    • Emerging findings and key learning – in direct response to the areas outlined in annex 1
    • Recommendations and follow up discussion points
  • Guidelines will be provided on the branding (font and colouring etc) to be used for the report, and a template will be provided.

4. Outputs/ Deliverables

The consultant will produce an 8-12-page document for each country.

A final set of documents will be submitted by 24 June 2019 for feedback from consortium members. Any required revisions will be carried out in order to produce a final report for submission by 5 July 2019.

5. Timeframes

The synthesis is expected to take up to 22 days of consultant time. The applicant should provide an indicative plan with their Expression of Interest of how days would be planned to be used for the planning, visits, analysis and report drafting.

6. Payment terms

The consultant can invoice against the following payment schedule:
10% at the end of phase 1
10% at the end of phase 2
80% at the end of phase 3

7. Annexes

Annex 1: Rapid Labour Market Assessment detailed questionnaire
Annex 2: Inclusion Works project summary

Sightsavers Bangladesh Country Office invites applications from reputed individuals or consulting firms for ‘Rapid Labour Market Assessments Inclusion Works programme’ as per attached TOR.

Please send your proposal (electronic copy only) on or before 22th May, 2019, to mimran@sightsavers.org