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Date: / October 18th 2016ITT reference number: / ITT/SIN/ESD1/2016/0002
Dear Sir / Madam,
Save the Children invites your submission of a request for proposal to provide services in accordance with the conditions detailed in the attached documents. Save the Children intends to issue a research consultancy contract for the following service: Research: “Child-centred hazard, vulnerability and capacity assessment and planning in urban settings: current knowledge for effective tools development”
We include the following information for your review:
· Part 1: Proposal and Research Information
· Part 2: Conditions of Proposal
· Part 3: Terms and Conditions of Purchase (which will be signed by the successful Bidder)
· Part 4: Save the Children’s Child Safeguarding Policy
· Part 5: Save the Children’s Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy
· Part 6: The IAPG Code of Conduct
Your Expression of interest response must be received in the following format:
· Cover letter stating interest and qualifications
· CV(s) and/or introduction of institute, company and primary investigators
· Links to 1 or 2 sample research work products
· Fully complete the bidder response documents if you apply as a company
· Full proposal based on the descriptions of this research
Application deadline to return your expression of interest must be received at the email address below not later than November 23rd, 2016 ("the Closing Date"). Failure to meet the Closing Date may result in the proposal being void. Returned proposals must remain open for consideration for a period of not less than 60 days from the Closing Date. Save the Children is under no obligation to award the contract or to award it to the lowest bidder.
Should you require further information or clarification on the proposal requirements, please contact Maurits Meijndert in writing at the following email address: []
We look forward to receiving a proposal from you and thank you for your interest in our account.
Yours faithfully,
Maurits Meijndert
Regional Roving Logistics Manager, Asia
PART 1: PROPOSAL AND RESEARCH INFORMATION
Introduction
Save the Children is the world’s leading independent organisation for children. We work in 120 countries. We save children’s lives; we fight for their rights; we help them fulfil their potential. We work together, with our partners, to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives. We have over two million supporters worldwide and raised 1.6 billion dollars in 2011 to reach more children than ever before, through programmes in health, nutrition, education, protection and child rights, also in times of humanitarian crises.
Provisional timetable
Activity / DateIssue Proposal Notice
Return Full Proposal (Closing Date) / 18th October 2016
23rd November 2016
Proposal Review Committee
Bid clarifications as required / 24th November – 2nd December 2016
2nd December 2016
Award Contract / 3rd – 14th December 2016
"Go-Live" with Supplier / 15st December 2016
1. BACKGROUND
With the support of C&A Foundation, Save the Children have been implementing DRR projects in selected communities in five countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India and Mexico) to strengthen the resilience of children and mothers in urban and peri-urban areas. In addition, C&A is committed to supporting Save the Children to conduct research in order to build a robust knowledge and evidence base to inform its DRR programming and deliver results at scale. The purpose of this research piece is to complete a scoping of existing tools and frameworks for intervention to reduce children’s exposure to hazards and disasters in urban settings; and to further the development of effective tools to identify vulnerable children in urban setting and understand the hazards they face, and their vulnerabilities and capacities, and engage adults and children in reducing risks and building resilience.
The need for the right tools to assess, plan and design interventions in urban contexts are a consistent theme identified through previous scoping and research. As countries urbanize, research on the connections between growing urbanization, poverty and hazards is very important. Save the Children recognize the need to focus more on urban children. However, there is a limited knowledge in this area and Save the Children does not have the necessary tools for situational analysis, planning and design in urban contexts.
This research project consists of two phases: PHASE 1 - Conduct literature review and scoping research to investigate and document the current state approaches and tools for urban disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and children, the appropriateness, efficacy and adaptability of available vulnerability and capacity assessment and planning tools, and the needs of practitioners and PHASE 2 - adapt and/or develop, pilot and adapt child-focused assessment and planning tools for DRR programming in urban settings, based on the findings, priorities, and recommendations identified in PHASE 1.
The project will be divided into two phases. Researchers are invited to apply for Phase 1 now, and may also apply for Phase 2 later.
2. RATIONALE
Over half of the world population (54%) now lives in urban areas. This is projected to increase to 66% by 2050 with most of the increase in Asia and Africa[1]. Furthermore, Asia was home to just over half of the worlds urban population in 2014[2]. The unprecedented rate and scope of urbanization in Asia is one of the regions greatest challenges. Children, who make up a large percentage of the population, are one of the most vulnerable groups, particularly urban poor children. Over 1 billion children live in Asia, which accounts for 57% of the world’s children. Not only do urban planning regimes and development actors need to linkup in addressing these complex challenges, they need to do so from the perspective of the most vulnerable people in cities - children and the elderly. If governments, donors, investors, policy-makers, and the private sector are to collectively support and foster more resilient cities, there needs to be a common understanding of what constitutes a resilient city and how it can be achieved with the rights and needs of vulnerable groups, like children, fully considered in the process.
Previous research has identified that slum dwellers, child labourers, and street children are the most at risk in an urban setting. These children’s’ vulnerabilities are strongly tied to their poor quality living and working conditions and their lack of access to basic services such as clean water, education and health care (Brown and Dodman 2014). However, they also have unique capabilities that with the right support can be utilized to reduce the risks they face.
Much of previous efforts to reduce disaster risks have concentrated on preparedness, early-warnings and response, however, they have proved ineffective in reducing the risks faced by Asia’s urban poor children (Brown and Dodman 2014). Therefore, the first step towards effective risk reduction must begin with robust and participatory tools for assessment and planning, that provide in-depth understandings of vulnerability and an evidence base of how resilience and capacities can best be enhanced and supported.
Save the Children’s program teams who are currently implementing the C&A funded urban DRR projects have called for better tools to support the implementation of their projects. The tools the teams are currently using originate from program experience in predominantly rural contexts (e.g. decades of work in “participatory rural appraisal” which led to IFRC’s Hazards Vulnerabilities and Capacities Assessment tools), applied to the urban context with relative degrees of success. The major challenges noted with these most familiar tools is that:
a) They are designed for use with small groups with a high degree of agency in their local communities, and for high levels of participation;
b) The range of stakeholder and roles, power and decision-making structures, relationships and networks are more complex within urban settings than rural areas, and tools have not been differentiated to engage particular groups of stakeholders or how they might relate to each other;
c) The rural tools do not easily capture or analyse risks not associated with natural hazards that are more commonly seen in urban settings (e.g. road safety, violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect).
Save the Children has developed an urban situational analysis tool (USAT) to understand the depth & breadth of urban children’s circumstances. The USAT is expected to help Save the Children country offices understand the nature and dynamics of how the urban context shapes the challenges children face and provide a baseline of understanding for how to design more effective child-centred programs. It is expected to cover the differentiated analysis of slum dwellers, child labourers and street children. However, there is a lack of a DRR risk-lens in the current USAT. Therefore, the objectives of this project are firstly, to review the literature, examine the available tools, and understand the current state of knowledge, what exists and what works best with regards to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation program support tools for urban contexts. The he project will make prioritized recommendations for the adaptation and/or development of tools, for piloting and localization, in order to develop evidence-based approaches and practices for child-centred hazards, vulnerabilities and capacities assessment and planning with multiple stakeholders, in urban settings.
3. AIM, OBJECTIVES & RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This section can be revised with selected researcher(s), and upon consultation with key stakeholders, especially with education authority partners, and country office TA.
PHASE 1: LITERATURE REVIEW & SCOPING OF AVAILABLE METHODS AND TOOLS (4 months)
Aim:
Conduct detailed research to examine a) the current state of knowledge of urban DRR/CCA and children; b) to scope the purposes, target users, the strengths, weaknesses and adaptability of currently available tools for hazard, vulnerability and capacity assessment and planning, c) identify the current gaps and the capacities and needs of practitioners, d) make recommendations for prioritization of tasks for Phase 2; the adaptation and/or development and piloting of tools for child-centred urban DRR/CCA assessment and planning.
Objectives:
· Understand how INGO’s, local governments, and local community members can most effectively and efficiently assess exposure, vulnerability and capacities of children in urban settings, and engage children and adults in these processes.
· Explore existing approaches to hazards, vulnerabilities and capacity assessments and planning, explain how they can be adapted for use in urban settings and outline any gaps
· Investigate and document the needs of urban practitioners
· Explore and document the possible innovations in technological, data, citizen engagement and agile practices that need to be considered to reduce risk urban environments for children. For example, what is the utility of readily available advances in technology in urban areas (eg. social media and smart phones applications).
· Propose an ideal set of tools for different purposes in urban settings and propose a process for initial development of one or two prioritized tools.
Research Questions (For information – indicative only):
1. What are the existing frameworks and approaches to child-centred urban disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation intervention?
2. What tools and evidence for these tools are available for implementation of child-centred urban disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation intervention?
3. What tools do experts and practitioners think are needed for child-centred urban disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation intervention?
4. What tools should be prioritized for rapid adaptation or development and testing prior to implementation?
PHASE 2: TOOL DEVELOPMENT AND PILOTING (9 months)
Aim:
To develop, in partnership with practitioners, an effective, evidence-based toolkit for urban hazard, vulnerability and capacity assessment and action planning
Objectives:
· To engage a steering committee of urban practitioners (Save the Children and others) to ensure their involvement during tool development
· Adapt and/or develop draft tools for engagement of specific stakeholders in urban hazard, vulnerability and capacity assessment
· Pilot the tool in 2-4 selected countries in partnership with Save the Children DRR practitioners
· Refine, re-pilot and finalise a tool that identifies the most vulnerable children and enables urban planners and practitioners to design and deliver an effective programmatic responses
7. SCOPE of WORK and DELIVERABLES
PHASE 1: Scope of Work:
Scoping and adaptation of appropriate child-centred hazards, vulnerability, capacity (HVC) analysis and action planning tools for urban settings. The study is to be conducted in urban and peri-urban areas in selected countries in Asia. The exact locations and programmes best fit for this study are open to discussion with selected researcher or research service provider.
Ethical statement regarding human subjects: Note that any results that are to be published in a peer-reviewed academic journal will require approval by academic institutional human subjects or ethics board.
DELIVERABLES PHASE 1:
Applying best practices for iterative development of effective and development and testing of program implementation tools, propose what a full set of tools for different purposes might look like, recommend existing tools that these could be adapted from, prioritize one or two of these for Phase 2 development, and propose a process for initial development and testing of tools with participation of practitioners.
1. Research-into-Practice Brief (2,000 words, template to be provided) (for general practitioner audience)
This should summarize the existing evidence base for effective work in child-centered disaster risk reduction and resilience and climate change adaptation in urban settings.
2. Needs Assessment (up to 5 pages) appraise expert and practitioner appraisal of needs and priorities based on telephonic Interviews and Web-based Focus Group Discussions with practitioner informants (from Save the Children and other technical experts in DRR/CCA and Urban Planning) and from Save the Children practitioners and partners in urban areas in Bangladesh, China, India, and Mexico) to determine expert and practitioner perception of priorities needs.
3. Tools Scoping Report and Recommendations (up to 10 pages + appendices and references) which:
a. Summarizes existing frameworks for urban risk reduction and resilience, and child-centred community and school-based hazards, vulnerabilities and capacities assessment and planning tools
b. Compares existing tools; their purposes, strengths, weaknesses, appropriateness for adaptation, types of adaptation required