Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Consultancy Tender Announcement

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Consultancy Tender Announcement

TERMS OF REFERENCE

 

Consultancy: Labour Market Assessment in Ankara and Gaziantep

 

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is a non-governmental, humanitarian organization with 60 years of experience in helping to create a safer and more dignified life for refugees and internally displaced people. NRC advocates for the rights of displaced populations and offers assistance within the camp management, shelter, education, food security, legal assistance, and water, sanitation and hygiene sectors.

The Norwegian Refugee Council has approximately 5000 committed and competent employees involved in projects across four continents. In addition, NRC runs one of the world’s largest standby rosters -NORCAP, with 650 professionals, ready to be deployed on 72 hours’ notice when a crisis occurs.

 

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Consultancy Tender Announcement NRC Programme Intervention in Turkey

In January 2016, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) established a new Country Office in Ankara to manage its assistance to refugees in Turkey. In addition to this, its field office in Gaziantep has existed under the Syria Response Office since 2012 and provides cross-border assistance in northern Syria.

Since its establishment, and with close collaboration with local authorities and international and national humanitarian actors, the NRC Turkey Office conducted a number of activities both via direct implementation and through partners. NRC started implementing its humanitarian response in different fields – livelihoods (unconditional cash for basic needs and vocational training), education and shelter&NFIs – targeting refugee population mainly in Ankara but also in other provinces (Adıyaman and Hatay in cooperation with AFAD; Kilis in cooperation with IBC).

As part of NRC’s humanitarian and recovery programme activities, NRC started to implement a livelihoods project – funded by UNHCR and the Norwegian MFA – focused on providing Syrian refugees and vulnerable host community with technical skills relevant to economic activities in Ankara and Gaziantep provinces.

 

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Consultancy Tender Announcement Target group

NRC, within the above mentioned project, aims to support Syrian refugee population (90%) and vulnerable host community members (10%) aged 16- 40 (both men and women) to secure safe and decent livelihoods and thereby contribute to improve their economic self-reliance and the social cohesion between the two communities. In addition to that, the project aims to place a specific percentage of the trainees into formal jobs within three months of the end of the technical and vocational training courses. This would be achieved also by the provision of subsidized work permits to the beneficiaries.

Purpose of the labour market assessment

The main objective of the labour market assessment is to define and develop tailor-made livelihoods interventions on the basis of quality data, in order to ensure that NRC support is informed by the availability of opportunities within the job market. NRC intends to carry out geographically specific labor market surveys to determine appropriate areas of trainings, therefore mapping these against market sectors requiring employees with different skills. For this purpose, it is crucial to identify the skills of the target group, the main value chains in the targeted areas and the types of activities that are needed for livelihoods recovery of the different categories (Syrian men and women, other refugees and vulnerable host community) of people. In carrying out the assessment, gender and protection analysis is to be applied throughout the study.

 

The consultant or consultancy company, hereinafter referred to as «the consultant», should answer the following key questions

• What types of activities are needed for the livelihoods recovery (ex. Employment, self-employment, upskilling, Turkish language proficiency, retraining, etc.) of the different categories of refugee population/vulnerable host community (Syrian men and women aged 16 to 17; 18 to 29 and 30 to 40)?
• Among the economically feasible sectors, identify those in which Syrian refugees can have the highest potential and can bring an added value.
• What are the main sources of legal employment for refugees in the targeted areas nowadays?
• Considering the private, public and no-profit (NGOs, associations) sectors in Turkey and the trends in the Turkish economy and the labour market, what are the types of businesses/agencies that could hire Syrian refugees/vulnerable host communities in the target provinces during the next 10 months?
• What are the main value chains in the target areas?
• What are the knowledge/vocations/skills required mostly by the labour market (including registered Syrian companies/businesses/NGOs) in the target provinces?
• What are the key and most potential and marketable skills that the refugee population can be trained in the targeted geographical areas and economic fields?
• Are there any policies and practices relating to employment and enterprise development that affect livelihoods opportunities for Syrian refugees/vulnerable host communities in those areas?
• What are the catalyzers and barriers in pursuing the proposed business and employment opportunities applying gender analysis?
• What mechanisms need to be put in place to support the recovery of the refugee population livelihoods?
• What are the measures that the Government of Turkey and namely the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Development could put in place for fostering the absorption of the refugees’ workforce by the local labour market?
• What are the opportunities and capacities for livelihoods recovery within the local economy?
• What are the protection challenges arising from livelihoods strategies as well as the specific needs of individuals and groups, such as women at risk, older persons and persons with disabilities?
• What changes are required for longer term recovery of refugee populations to reduce their vulnerability?

 

Scope

The consultant should provide the following:

• Assessment and analysis procedures and tools developed in collaboration with NRC Livelihoods staff taking the refugee population perspective and knowledge into consideration.
• Comprehensive livelihoods and labour market study report.
• One-day workshop showing findings including limitations and recommendations of the survey.

 

Methodology

The contracted consultant will define the methodology and approach in the “Expression of Interest” into a brief inception report. The methodology will be expected to include elements of desk review, consultation with key stakeholders, and ideally, participatory design.

The consultant is expected to conduct field visits to Ankara and Gaziantep. The field visits, ideally including a set of interviews with both refugees, vulnerable host community and companies/agencies, will be used to gather information on both private sector representatives’ demands and on skills that refugees possess. In the methodology part of the Expression of Interest, the consultant should clearly state the sampling methodology and estimated number of companies/agencies and refugees to be interviewed during the field visits.

The contracted consultant is expected to conduct a comprehensive desk review prior to field visits. During the desk review stage, the consultant may reach a list of companies in Ankara and Gaziantep from secondary data resources such as Turkstat, IŞKUR, Turkish Chamber of Commerce etc. NRC will facilitate the outsource of secondary data information.

In the Expression of Interest, the consultant is expected to provide a comprehensive methodology for both scenarios.

NRC staff will have the rights to monitor and join the field staff of the service provider in order to follow the process. NRC will also contribute to the assessment methodology and will work along the service provider for its adaptation. NRC will be responsible of ensuring quality control of the assessment through monitoring of the data collected and field visits along with the consultant’s staff. NRC will facilitate as much as possible the relationship building with the relevant entities for obtaining secondary data/statistics.

The consultant is responsible to request all permissions needed to carry out the primary data collection.

 

Outputs

The consultancy should produce the following deliverables:

• Inception report (Outlined methodology and approach, Work plan, Planned stakeholders to consult and sampling size)
• Assessment and analysis procedures
• Assessment and analysis tools
• Draft of Final Study Report for review and incorporate comments into a quality final report
• Final assessment report (not more than 20 pages.) Summary report (not more than 4 pages)
• One electronic file of the clean (final) qualitative and quantitative data collected
• Hold a debriefing workshop with NRC and other partners showing findings of the survey (in Ankara).

 

Timeframe

The consultancy assignment should be conducted within the time span of total one month, starting from 13^th March 2017. Details of the assignment schedule are to be provided by the consultant(s), taking into consideration the above mentioned scope of consultancy activities and in agreement with the identified NRC’s persons-in-charge for the consultancy supervision (Livelihoodss Project Manager).

 

Budget and Payment

Bids shall include detailed budgets that are based on the scope of work and proposed work streams. The agreed sum shall cover all fees and costs incurred in conducting the consultancy tasks.

The lump sum will be paid in one instalment upon submission and approval of the finalized consultancy outputs.

 

Consultant’s Qualifications

The candidates are expected to meet the following requirements:

• The consultancy should be undertaken by an individual consultant/company with proven experience in conducting Labour Market Assessment particularly focused on Technical, Vocational Education and Training, as well as income opportunity in the Turkish context;
• Excellent skills in report writing, analysis and providing recommendations.
• Having already contacts (or having sourced out the similar secondary data/statistics in the past) with Turkstat, IŞKUR, Turkish Chamber of Commerce etc. or similar agencies is preferred;
• Previous experience in M&E and data management with humanitarian organizations is an asset;
• Extensive experience (3 years minimum) in the field of Monitoring and Evaluation and information management in Labour Market Assessment targeting refugees in areas affected by the Syrian crisis is required;
• Extensive knowledge of the situation of refugee population (especially Syrians) living in urban areas of Turkey is required;
• Previous first-hand experience in field researches in Turkey and in training and leading a team of enumerators/assistant is required;
• Links with Syrian community representatives/Syrian civil society members who can be used as enumerators will be an asset

 

Application Process

In order to participate to this call, please submit your detailed Expression of Interest in PDF format to sara.buzzoni@nrc.no and nihan.gumrukcuoglu@nrc.no by noon (Ankara Time Zone) on the 7^th of March 2017. All the enquirises regarding this call shall be directed to the above e-mail addresses and should clearly indicate the application ID – Labour Market Assessment/03/2017 in the subject title.

Interested persons/companies should send the application (Expression of Interest) consisting of the following (All in English Language):

• Cover Letter summarizing qualifications and experience relevant to the proposed consultancy;
• Updated detailed CV of the consultant with an indication of whether the consultant is a part of a registered business;
• Proposed methodology, tools and approach including the information on interviews and sampling for both companies and refugees&host community;
• Work plan;
• Proposed budget in TRY for the complete service (please provide separate costs for Ankara and Gaziantep respectively):

For each location, the consultant should provide detailed breakdown including the cost of each field staff in each location per day and their transportation costs (and any breakdowns for the relevant stages of this consultancy).

• Clear contact points, including Skype address.

 

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Consultancy Tender Announcement NRC encourages all qualified candidates to apply, irrespective of race, nationality, gender, age etc.