Consutant to Design Behavioural Change Interventions for Ending Stigma and Discrimination against Women and Girls with Disabilities

Persons with disabilities (PWDs) experience stigma and discrimination universally, driven by multiple attitudinal barriers, prejudice and stereotypes, which limit both the full exercise of rights of PWDs and sustainable development.  Women and girls with disabilities are particularly impacted from intersectional stigma and discrimination based on gender and disability.  COVID-19 has further exacerbated stigma and discrimination and their impacts. 

Although many interventions have addressed stigma and discrimination faced by PWDs, there have been few evaluations of their effectiveness and impact; some that have been tested and showed promising results have not been scaled up; they have tended to focus on raising awareness rather than actively aimed at changing behaviour; and existing studies have had both methodological and conceptual limitations (Werner & Scior 2016).

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in collaboration with UN Women is launching a global initiative to respond to the growing intersectional inequalities faced by women and girls with disabilities. Taking a whole-of-society approach, engaging civil society, relevant government institutions, national human rights institutions and women influencers, the initiative aims to address key concerns of employment/economic empowerment, social protection and violence against women and girls with disabilities. The project involves the design and piloting of a global diagnostic tool for ending stigma and discrimination against women and girls with disabilities that will be implemented in the following countries: Palestine, Moldova, Bhutan, Cambodia, Pakistan and Samoa.

UNDP seeks a behavioural change consultant to design interventions aimed at changing mindsets and behaviour rooted in stigma and discrimination against women and girls with disabilities, to be piloted in the project countries. This work will be carried out in coordination with the work undertaken to develop and test the diagnostic tool. 

The Independent Contractor will provide support to the project through UNDP and is tasked with the following:

• Undertake desk review of recent research and interventions designed to change mindsets and behaviour underlying stigma and discrimination against women and girls with disabilities, and/or other forms of stigma and discrimination (gender, HIV, LGBTI, ethnic and religious minorities etc.), and advise on recommended methodologies and approaches to be applied to interventions related to gender and disability;
• Based on the desk review and recommendations, and in consultation with country offices, design a set of interventions to be piloted in country offices to address stigma and discrimination against women and girls with disabilities (in particular as it impacts areas of employment, economic empowerment, social protection and/or SGBV) through changing mindsets and behaviours, and measure their impact;
• Support project country offices in implementing the pilot interventions.   (At this stage support is planned on a remote basis.  Depending on circumstances, in-country support may be agreed at a later stage in which case travel and accommodation costs will be supported from the project outside the funding for this TOR);
• Conduct a webinar to share experiences and lessons learned from the pilot interventions;
• Produce an end-of-assignment report summarizing the outputs from the consultancy with recommendations for future application of behavioural change interventions.

OUTPUT AND DELIVERABLES:           

The outputs for this assignment are expected as follows:

• Initial workplan and methodology for the assignment;
• Desk review of recent behavioural change research and interventions addressing stigma and discrimination, and recommendations for methodologies and approaches to be piloted under the project;
• Design of behavioural change pilot interventions for each participating country under a coherent and common framework facilitating measurement of impact;
• Technical and advisory support to participating countries in implementation of the pilot interventions;
• Webinar to share experiences from the pilot interventions and lessons learned;
• End-of-assignment report summarizing the outputs from the consultancy with recommendations for future application of behavioural change interventions

Intellectual Property:

In terms of the Intellectual Property Rights related to this assignment, kindly refer to Clause 3 under the attached IC General Terms and Conditions.

• Demonstrates integrity and fairness, by modeling the UN/UNDP’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Ability to work in multicultural environment.

Education and Experience

• Master’s Degree in behavioural science, psychology, sociology or a related field;
• At least 5 years’ experience in conducting research and/or applying behavioural change approaches in the field of development, preferably in relation to addressing stigma and discrimination (whether in relation to gender, LGBTI, HIV/AIDS, ethnic/religious minorities or against other groups); 
• Demonstrated experience of designing and implementing effective behavioural insights methodologies, tools and approaches;
• Experience as an advisor on projects in relation to persons with disabilities (PwDs) and/or on gender equality projects, on topics including but not limited to women’s economic;empowerment/employment, and/or response to SGBV is highly desirable;
• Experience working in the Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe and/or Arab States regions is desirable.

Language

• Fluency of English language is essential.

INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENT

The contractor will work under the overall guidance and supervision of UNDP RBAS Governance and Peacebuilding Team Leader but will also liaise closely with the Regional Advisors for Rule of Law and Human Rights in UNDP Bangkok and Istanbul Regional Hubs and relevant UN Women focal points, with UNDP and UN Women focal points in participating countries, and with OPDs and other relevant stakeholders in those countries.

DURATION OF THE WORK AND DUTY STATION

Duration

The assignment shall be completed within a maximum of (60) working days over a period of (11) months . It is estimated to commence on 15 December 2020 and the assignment will be completed by 31 October 2021 at the latest.

Duty Station

Duty Station: Home-based.   By agreement with UNDP and UN Women, missions to support participating countries may be conducted to the extent feasible in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.  UNDP and/or UN Women will be responsible for the travel-related costs of such missions.

If any unforeseen travel outside the individual home-based city is requested by UNDP and not required by the Terms of References (ToR), such travel shall be covered by UNDP in line with applicable rules and regulations and upon prior written agreement. In such cases, the individual shall receive living allowances not exceeding the United Nations (UN) Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) rate for such other location(s).

SCOPE OF PRICE PROPOSAL AND SCHEDULE OF PAYMENTS

Interested candidates should provide lump sum fees for requested services with detailed breakdown.  This amount must be “all-inclusive”. Please note that the terms “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, travel costs, living allowances, communications, consumables, etc.) that could possibly be incurred are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal. Also, please note that the contract price will be Deliverables/Outputs based – not fixed – subject to change in the cost components.

The contractor will be paid an all-inclusive Deliverables/Outputs based lump sum amounts over the assignment period, subject to the submission of Certification of Payment (CoP) duly certified or an invoice and confirmation of satisfactory performance of achieved work (deliverables/outputs) in line with the schedule of payments table hereunder:

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS.

Candidates wishing to be considered for this assignment are required to submit the following documents interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Please group them into one (1) single PDF document as the application only allows to upload maximum one document:

a) Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP;

b) Curriculum Vitae or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;

c) Brief statement of proposed methodology and approach to the assignment;

d) Financial Proposal that indicates the daily rate/fee of the candidate, in US dollars; Incomplete proposals may not be considered.

All necessary information including: Complete Procurement Notice, the Selection Criteria, and Annexes are found on the following link under Procurement http://procurement-notices.undp.org/

Interested individual consultants must submit the abovementioned documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications to Job advertisement website https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm not later than 14  November 2020 , Candidates that fail to submit the required information on or before the set deadline will not be considered. 

Please do not submit financial proposal in this stage. Financial proposal shall be requested from Candidates who are considered technically responsive

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF THE BEST OFFERS

This selection criteria will follow the Combined Scoring method – where the qualifications and methodology will be weighted a max. of 70% and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a max of 30% ; using the following evaluation criteris. 

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Step I: Screening and desk review:

Applications will be first screened and only candidates meeting the following minimum requirements will progress to the pool for shortlisting:

• Master’s Degree, in behavioural science, psychology, sociology or a related field;
• At least 5 years’ experience in conducting research and/or applying behavioural change approaches in the field of development, preferably in relation to addressing stigma and discrimination (whether in relation to gender, LGBTI, HIV/AIDS, ethnic/religious minorities or against other groups); 
• Fluency of English language.

Step II : Technical Review:

Shortlisted candidates will undergo a technical evaluation and a submission of a proposal to tackle the assignment. 

Technical Evaluation Criteria max 100 points (Weighted 70):

This selection criteria will follow the Combined Scoring method – where the qualifications and methodology will be weighted a max. of 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a max of 30%; using the following evaluation criteria

Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 100 points)

• Criteria 1: Master’s Degree, in behavioural science, psychology, sociology or a related field – Max 10 points;

• Criteria 2: At least 5 years’ experience of researching and/or applying behavioural change approaches in the field of development, preferably in relation to addressing stigma and discrimination (whether in relation to gender, LGBTI, HIV/AIDS, ethnic/religious minorities or against other groups);– Max 30 points;
• Criteria 3: Demonstrated experience of designing and implementing effective behavioural insights methodologies, tools and approaches – Max 15 points;
• Criteria 4: Experience as an advisor on projects in relation to persons with disabilities and/or on gender equality projects – Max 20 points;
• Criteria 5: Experience working in the Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe and/or Arab States regions is desirable – Max 10 points.
• Criteria 6: Methodology and Approach to the assignment-Max  15 points

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% of the total technical points would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Financial Criteria – 30% of total evaluation

For those offers considered in the financial evaluation, the lowest price offer will receive 30 points. The other offers will receive points in relation to the lowest offer, based on the following formula: (PI / Pn) * 30 where Pn is the financial offer being evaluated and Pl is the lowest financial offer received.

Step III: Final Evaluation

The final evaluation will combine the scores of the desk review and the financial proposal with the following weights assigned to each:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis methodology (weighted scoring method), where the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Technical Criteria weight: [70%]

Financial Criteria weight: [30%]

Only Individual Consultants obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70%) on the Technical evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.