Terms of Reference
Organization: Center for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population
Task: Mapping and Needs assessment
Background and context
Center for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population (C.CIHP) is a Vietnamese NGO registered under VUSTA since 2008. We are working in the fields of public health, health equity, gender and gender-based violence, reproductive and sexual health, and disability and mental health.
CCIHP will implement a 30-month project on disability entitled Inclusion.
Inclusion project:
About 72,000 persons with disabilities are living in Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue (TTH) and Quang Nam, among them more than 60,747 persons have severe disabilities. There are many efforts from Government of Vietnam (GVN’s), USAID, and other donors to support persons with disabilities in the last decade; however, people with disabilities, including children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in these provinces, particularly Quang Tri, are facing with various challenges including lack of access to rehabilitation and social services, and exclusion from participation due to policies and physical and social barriers. There is also lack of trained health professionals in rehabilitation, particularly specialized in occupational therapy, speech therapy, and assistive technology.
USAID committed to supporting persons with disabilities in eight provinces sprayed with Agent Orange through Inclusion project. CCIHP is selected to carry out activities of the Activity: Inclusion I in Quang Tri, TTH and Quang Nam.
The Activity’s goal: Improved Quality of Life of Persons with Disabilities in provinces heavily sprayed with Agent Orange.
The Activity has three main objectives:
- Health and Rehabilitation services are expanded; health status and quality of life of persons with disabilities are improved. This objective will be achieved through strengthening the rehabilitation service system, particularly in: 1) service delivery, including the services provided by Activity of Daily Living lab and/or transition house attached to hospitals/healthcare centers; 2) assistive products and assistive technologies development (including orthopedic devices such as prosthetics, braces, canes, walkers, hearing aids, etc.); 3) Capacity enhancement for rehabilitation practitioners;
- Social services expanded; social inclusion and direct support to persons with disabilities enhanced, This objective will be achieved through strengthening local capacity in providing specific services for persons with disabilities including 1) provision of home-based care for persons with disabilities; 2) provision of psychological health counseling for persons with disabilities and their families; 3) promoting independent living and developing a peer support network for persons with disabilities to facilitate social inclusion;
- Disability policies improved; public attitude is improved; barriers are reduced to ensure social integration of persons with disabilities. Policy implementation will be enhanced with support on policy dissemination, monitoring and assessment of policy implementation in key areas such as rehabilitation, physical access, gender equality/gender-based violence, etc.
As a prime awardee, CCIHP will manage sub- implementing partners through effective sub-granting, monitoring, evaluation and learning, quality assurance, and coordination procedures.CCIHP will be responsible for sub-awardee selection (up to 6 sub-awardees), management, including carrying out risk assessments of sub-awardees, developing objectives, tasks, and performance standards with the sub-awardees, and monitoring performance.
CCIHP is looking for a team of consultants, including one team lead and two researchers to conduct the needs assessment that aims to provide evidence to assist Inclusion I developing and implementing its activities.
MAIN OBJECTIVES, RESPONSIBILITIES AND DESCRIPTION OF THE ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1. Objectives of the assessment
General Objective:
The assessment is conducted in order to collect the necessary information that will assist the INCLUSION I project to develop provincial project documents and plan activities in Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam provinces.
Specific Objectives: Specifically, the needs assessment will have two components: mapping stakeholders and assessment for the needs of persons with disabilities and service system:
- To map out, and analyze scopes, coverage, capacity and experiences of stakeholders that are active or potentially able to directly or indirectly support the provision of rehabilitation, health, social services and policy improvement for persons with disabilities in these three provinces.
- To identify the needs of persons with disabilities in rehabilitation, health and social services, and factors that prevent these people from access to service and social participation.
- To examine the (a) capacity and readiness of professionals and organizations in providing services, (b) their needs in capacity building, equipment provision; and (c) policy to support their work to provide services for persons with disabilities.
- To Identify the current gaps, and potential barriers and challenges of rehabilitation, health and social service systems.
- To explore potential innovations to propose suggestions for potential sub-awardees to develop their activities
2.2. Scope of the assessment
- The mapping exercise will target stakeholders as below:
- Current implementing organizations: International Non-Government Organization (INGO), Local NGO, Disabled People’s Organizations, private sector entities have been working in these provinces. These include those who receive funds from USAID and those who receive funds from other donors, or sources.
- Potential organizations who are working in the field of disability and might be interested in providing services/ innovations in these three provinces.
- Academia: Universities, training institutes who are providing training on rehabilitation
- Government agencies: ministries, provincial departments.
- The needs assessment will target
- Direct beneficiaries:
- Persons with disabilities, particularly persons with severe disabilities, victims of Agent Orange and children with disabilities
- Families members
- In-direct beneficiaries:
- Service providers
- Service facilities: hospitals, district health centers
- Community people
- Local organizations/ associations of persons with disabilities
The mapping and needs assessment will focus on the following aspects:
- Health and Rehabilitation services:
- Service delivery
- Multi-disciplinary rehabilitation workforce
- Assistive products
- Social services:
- Home-based care for persons with disabilities;
- Psychological health/mental health support for persons with disabilities and their families;
- Independent living and developing a peer support network for persons with disabilities to facilitate social inclusion
- Disability policies
- Disability advance
- Public attitude
- Physical and social barriers
2.3. Methodology
The assessment is expected to be mixed method. To achieve its objectives, assessment will include the following:
- Desk review and secondary data analysis
- Qualitative method: Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with key informants and people with disabilities and their family members, and observations
- Small-scale quantitative survey: with people with disabilities and their family members.
2.5. Tasks/Deliverables/Output/Duration of the contract
Key Tasks of the consultant is as follows:
- Development of needs assessment proposal and assessment tools
Develop needs assessment proposal and assessment tools (in Vietnamese) to collect data in consultation with Inclusion I team, particularly Dsiability Technical lead, Chief of Party, and gender advisor.
- Data Collection:
Conduct data collection in collaboration with project team and partners in three provinces. The small-scale quantitative survey will be carried out with support from local people (tentatively health workers). The consultants will provide training and coordinate the survey. For the component of mapping exercise and needs assessment of children with IDD, the data collection will be mainly carried out by Includion I team.
- Analysis, validation of findings and Final report: The consultant(s) will conduct the analysis of data and validate the findings of the assessment with relevant stakeholders, local and international partners. The consultant will draft the preliminary report and finalise it after endorsement by Inclusion team. Report will be prepared in English. For the component of children with IDD, one independent researcher will conduct data analysis and writing and share it with the team lead for the final report.
Results of Assessment will also be used to provide information for Inclusion to develop provincial programs, and for sub-awardees to develop/ refine their proposals. This will also be used as supplement baseline data for later program monitoring and evaluation.
2.6. Key deliverables to be produced/Key deliverables:
The consultants are expected to present and validate the following deliverables:
- Assessment protocol, tools and plan for data collection developed (30 % payment)
- Presentation of key findings (PPT) (30 % payment)
- Presentation of the final narrative report (40 % payment)
III. QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
Team lead
Education
- Post graduate degree in public health/ health management/ rehabilitation, disability and social sciences
Experience
- A minimum of 4 years of relevant research experience in disability, health system, and rehabilitation preferable.
- Experience in conducting similar needs assessments;
- Objectivity and ability to analyze qualitative data and secondary data;
Functional Competencies:
- Strong understanding of rehabilitation and disability;
- Strong written and verbal communication skills in both Vietnamese and English;
- Excellent interpersonal skills and experience working collaboratively.
Team members (researchers)
Education
- Graduate degree in public health/ health management/ rehabilitation, disability and social sciences with at least 4 years of experience
Experience
- A minimum of 2 years of relevant research experience in disability, health system, and rehabilitation preferable.
- Experience in conducting interviews
- Experience in analyzing qualitative data and secondary data;
Functional Competencies:
- Reasonable understanding of rehabilitation and disability;
- Good written and verbal communication skills;
- Good interpersonal skills and experience working collaboratively.
IV. Time and application
Timelines and duration for consultancy:
This Mapping and Needs assessment exercise is tentatively carried out from November 2020 to January 2021.
It is estimated that the team lead will work 35 working days and two researchers will work for 20 days each.
Deadline and submission of expression of interest
CCIHP invites interested candidates to submit Expression of interest (EoI) and Curriculum vitae (CV) outlining relevant qualifications and experience by November 10, 2020, to Ms. Dung Nguyen: [email protected] [1].
The team lead and researchers can form the team together with other researchers or team lead or can apply separately.
The candidate for team lead needs to submit an example of similar pieces of work completed recently.