RFQ FY21- 072 Disaster Risk Management Mentorship Package

Confirmation of your availability to deliver this work by the end of May 2021 will be required for this opportunity

Background Information on Plan International

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected. Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 75 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.

Read more about Plan International’s Global Strategy: 100 Million Reasons at https://plan-international.org/strategy

Background information on the project

Over the last 82 years, Plan International has maintained its commitment to making a lasting impact on the lives of the most vulnerable and excluded children. One of the ways Plan International aims to achieve its ambitious goals of focused gender transformative programming and evidence-based influencing is through upskilling of our programme and influencing staff both in humanitarian and development settings. This has been identified as a key strategic enabler, under the workstream ‘Values based and mission driven leadership, people and culture’.

In 2017 Country Offices (COs) reflected on key skill areas which they need to build to support staff capability. Plan International is currently working with 6 key skill areas as part of the Upskilling programme:

1. Gender transformative programming

2. Disaster Risk Management (DRM)

3. Influencing

4. Partnerships

5. Monitoring, Evaluation and Research

6. Youth Advocacy

The DRM team have made significant investments in building technical team capability and capacity in Emergency Response through a range of learning resources and interventions- including the creation of professional development pathways. These pathways seek to build the knowledge, skills and experience of Plan International staff in core technical areas such as Child Protection in Emergencies (CPiE), Education in Emergencies (EiE), Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) and Gender in Emergencies (GiE). The DRM Mentorship Programme is one of the professional development opportunities Plan International offers to build technical staff capacity in these key areas, particularly at the Country Office (CO) and National Office (NO) level.

Plan International recognises mentorship as a powerful learning and change intervention that works with the mentee’s goals to help them realise their potential. In 2019 CPiE and EiE piloted a Mentorship Programme that sought to address the learning needs of more junior technical specialists, providing them with a bespoke learning approach that could be tailored to their individual needs, thereby addressing gaps in skills and experience. Mentors acted as a ‘thinking partner’ or ‘professional friend’ that could help mentees with problem solving, personal development, career planning and building their skills, knowledge and interpersonal skills.

Following the evaluation of these pilot projects, Plan International is now looking to review its technical sector Mentorship Programmes and develop a more detailed and comprehensive ‘Mentorship Package’ which can be integrated into its professional development pathway offering and which can be adapted in line with the specific competencies required of each technical sector/area. Staff from Plan International’s COs/NOs will apply to the Mentorship Programme, using the package to guide their application process, onboarding, mentorship experience (including the shadowing of a more senior member of staff) and final evaluation. Participants will be selected from across the 55 COs/NOs where Plan International operates in line with selection criteria that will be determined as part of this consultancy.

Purpose

The purpose of the contracted party is to advise, redesign and improve Plan International’s Mentorship Programme and create a package which can be adapted for each technical sector. This package will provide mentors, mentees and management with a clear process and personalised learning offer so that:

a) mentees and their managers are clear on what the mentorship process consists of and should achieve, and

b) mentors can support their mentees effectively throughout the process.

The contracted party is expected to collate and review existing tools and resources (both internal and external to Plan International), identify gaps and develop a new DRM Mentorship package in collaboration with the Plan International DRM technical team, Learning and Development (L&D) staff and HR at the CO and NO level.

The new mentorship package will include:

• Clear guidance on eligibility for the Mentorship Programme (including enrolment and completion procedures)

• Onboarding and guidance resources for both mentors and mentees

• Reflection process documents and procedures

• M&E framework to monitor and assess the impact of the package

• Guidance on how to address safeguarding issues throughout the mentorship process

Scope

The contracted party shall be delivered through remote, desk-based work in collaboration with members of the Disaster Risk Management, Learning & Development and HR teams through remote workshops and meetings.

Methodology

The contracted party will be responsible for ensuring all work is carried out in line with Plan International’s Code of Conduct and local legislation. All methodologies and tools used and developed throughout the consultancy will be proposed by the contracted party and reviewed by Plan International.

Expected outputs

The contracted party is expected to ensure the following outputs:

OBJECTIVE 1:

Review existing mentorship programme resources including:

• Internal documents and evaluation reports relating to previous mentoring experiences

• Interviews with NO and GH technical staff, including those involved in previous versions of the mentorship programme

• Interviews with Regional and Country Office staff who have mentorship programmes in place and/or would be involved in the roll-out of a new mentorship offer (ie. HR Business Partners, Regional Technical Specialists, etc.)

• External documents and resources (including identifying any resource gaps that may exist)

OBJECTIVE 2:

Compile resources to create a technical sector mentorship package including:

• Enrolment procedures and documents (including clarity on the selection process, role of the manager and role of respective CO HR departments)

• Starter pack for mentors and mentees

• Reflective journal templates and ‘performance tracking’ documents for both mentors and mentees

• Integration of technical sector/area competency frameworks to track progress

• Process and documentation for shadowing a senior member of staff on an accompanied deployment

• Onboarding resources and materials for mentors, including guidance on managing the mentor/mentee relationship, best practice examples, etc.

• Formal review process and next steps

OBJECTIVE 3:

Develop an M&E Framework for the mentorship programme

Deliverables

• Work plan (including methodology, timeline, and budget)
• Mentorship Package
• M&E Framework

The contracted party will share all notes, materials, and data collected from all steps with Plan International.

Duration and Time

The contracted party will be contracted up to a maximum of 11 days, between the period of March 2021 and May 2021.

• Objective 1: Review existing mentorship programme resources (3 days)
• Objective 2: Compile resources to create a technical sector mentorship package (7 days)
• Objective 3: Develop an M&E Framework for the mentorship programme (1 day)

Management Arrangements

The contracted party will be identified and contracted by Plan International. Plan International will be responsible for overall management of the contract. The DRM Technical Team at Plan International will provide technical oversight and support to the contracted party and support progress on deliverables.

Technical Reference Group

A technical reference group composed of Plan International staff from the DRM technical team, the L&D team and Regional and Country Office HR staff, will support the contracted party in the following:

• Provide support to the contracted party by making introductions to key informants, sharing key resources and materials, making linkages to relevant initiatives, and supporting the dissemination of surveys and other data collection methods

• Provide feedback, comments and edits to relevant drafts of key deliverables

Experience

Required

• Expertise designing and delivering mentorship programmes and developing mentoring skills and behaviours.

• Experience in developing guidance and ability to distil various viewpoints into cohesive guidance and processes.

• Experience developing tools and processes to track progress and develop personal development plans using technical sector competency frameworks

• Experience and knowledge of designing programmes for multi-cultural teams in INGO settings

• Experience or understanding of shadowing staff on an accompanied deployment

• Strong research and analytical skills.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.

• Knowledge of the Child Protection in Humanitarian Action Minimum Standards and Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies, Minimum Standards for Education: Preparedness, Response, Recovery, and their role within the child protection and education sectors, particularly in humanitarian contexts.

• Computer skills, including MS Office, Excel, PowerPoint, online survey tools.

Preferred

• Previous experience working in the humanitarian sector

• Demonstrated experience in planning and conducting capacity building projects (either multi-sector, CPiE, EiE, GiE, CVA or other humanitarian thematic areas).