Terms of Reference–Scoping exercise into waged employment in Uganda

Background

There are currently thousands of capable, skilled, and employable young persons with disabilities in Uganda with no real opportunities of a more sustainable, decent and meaningful career. Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD) is in the process of designing a project to address this issue. The current project design aims to increase waged employment opportunities for people with disabilities in Uganda by breaking down barriers and reducing stigma throughthe capacity building of Disabled Persons’ Organisations (DPO’s); training Employers on disability awareness and inclusion; mentoring and training candidates with disabilities on employability and supporting them into employment; and setting up a database for disability employability.

Objective of the Consultancy

To undertake a scoping exercise to further understand the key barriers to waged employment for people with disabilities in Uganda and to inform approaches to remove them.

Specific Objectives of the Scoping Exercise

To gather evidence from the appropriate stakeholders regarding:

  • What are the specific Capacity Building needs of the 3 project DPO’s and prioritise areas of for development?
  • Recognise overlaps and possible collaboration
  • Discuss possible training methods
  • Prioritise capacity issues in line with the project objectives
  • What are the Key barriers that Employer’s face in employing people with disabilities?
  • Approach companies to discuss inclusion and the employability of people with disabilities in the workplace
  • Identify any barriers they feel are in place that prevent the employment of people with disabilities
  • Consider potential approaches to address these barriers
  • Explore the experience of people with disabilities in accessing training and waged employment.
  • What experiences and aspirations do people with disabilities have in relation to waged employment?
  • What do candidates feel are the main barriers to accessing waged employment?
  • How would they suggest these are overcome?
  • What are the perceived benefits of waged employment in particular?
  • What types of training have the candidates received before if any?
  • What different methods of training and mentoring for people with disability are there that take into account flexibility and accessibility requirements, but also looking at alternative non-traditional options?
  • Database for Disability Employability
  • Is there a gap in linking inclusive employers with skilled people with disabilities?
  • How might this be overcome?

Outcomes of the Scoping Exercise

  1. To identifyand prioritise capacity requirements needed by the DPO’s to ensure a successfully implemented project
  2. To understand the aspirations for waged employment of people with disabilities, with recommendations of best approaches to support where waged employment is the preferred livelihoods option
  3. To have a consolidated register of barriers to waged employment experienced by candidates and from employers preventing them from employing people with disabilities.
  4. To provide evidence of approaches suggested by employers and candidates to break down barriers between them
  5. The agreed benefits of a candidate/inclusive employer database, if this is considered a potential option

Scope of Work

The scoping exercise will look to engage with at least 100 potential candidates and at least 20 possible employers looking to improve their approach to awareness and inclusion. The key purpose is to provide evidence that informs the project methodology from the point of view of the stakeholders to ensure the best chance of success of all activities. The range of questions asked will differ depending on who is being interviewed. As much as possible, the interview questions should be open ended to encourage free thinking.

The consultant will also be expected to formulate (in collaboration with LCD) the interview questions and or questionnaires and a target number of interviews should be agreed.

Budget

The available budget for this contract is between the range of GBP £15,000 and not exceeding GBP £20,000 inclusive of all costs, fees and taxes. As part of the consultancy process the consultant is requested to submit a budget including a break-down of expected costs to complete the deliverables outlined above. The budget should be inclusive of any professional fees, taxes costs of information analysts, expenses and materials, data collection, validation and feedback workshops, and any other costs associated with the consultant’s carrying out and developing the deliverables.

Expected profile of the consultant

To successfully undertake this assignment, the Consultant(s) should meet the following minimum requirements. LCD will consider applications from individuals or agencies where one or more consultants may provide the requisite skills.

  1. Demonstrated competencies in evaluations and data collection with specific experience of working with people with disabilities.
  2. Experience in measuring and evaluating the impact of training
  3. Excellent organizational and analytical skills
  4. Excellent interpersonal skills to work with teams internationally
  5. Ability to work and deliver under strict deadlines and under pressure.
  6. Demonstrate the capacity to deliver on this assignment by presenting experience of similar deliverables.
  7. Familiarity with disability issues in the international arena
  8. Able to work with an interdisciplinary team to his/her own initiative
  9. Excellent spoken English is essential

Invitation to tender submission

Please ensure that your invitation to tender response is submitted by email by 8pm GMT on Sunday 24th September 2017 to

Interested candidates are invited to submit a tender with:

  1. CV and covering letter
  2. Outline of work – to detail a proposed structure and format of delivering the scoping exercise, plan for engaging stakeholders and proposed schedule
  3. Proposed fee - to be competitive and to include all consultancy fees andconsultant travel costs and fall within the suggested budget range.

The consultant will be selected from applicants responding to the advertisement. Consultants will be ranked according to a criteria matrix by a three person committee. The consultant with the highest average rating will be selected.

Leonard Cheshire Disability reserves the right to disregard any response submitted after the timetable deadline.

Any assumptions used in preparing responses should be clearly stated.

Leonard Cheshire Disability reserves the right to modify the provisions of this invitation to tender at any time prior to the scheduled date for written responses. Additional scope and requirements can be added. Notification of such changes will be provided to all vendors.

By submitting a response, you are confirming that you understand the requirements and have sufficiently addressed all aspects of the invitation to tender and that you have checked all stated details to be correct and as intended.

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