REQUEST FOR QUOTATION (RFQ) to conduct a Research assessment within six counties (Montserrado, Bomi, Gbarpolu, Grand Cape Mount, River Cess, and Grand Gedeh)

Date: _18- Apr-2025_________ Ref No.: 00024-RFQ-APR-FY25 Supplier/Service Provider: ____________________________________________

Please include the RFQ reference number above in all correspondence.

Plan International Liberia invites you to submit a quote in accordance with the requirement of the request for quotation. Quotes must be received by the Plan International Liberia Country Office no less than the date stated above.

Background Information on Plan International

Founded in 1937, Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation with no religious, political, or governmental affiliations. Our vision is a just world that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We engage people and partners to; empower children, young people and communities to make vital changes that tackle the root causes of discrimination against girls, exclusion and vulnerability; drive change in practice and policy at local, national and global levels through our reach, experience and knowledge of the realities children face; work with children and communities to prepare for and respond to crises and to overcome adversity; support the safe and successful progression of children from birth to adulthood.

To fulfil the promise of the 2030 Global Goals, our 5-year Global Strategy1 is designed to deliver significant change for girls and boys, putting a special emphasis on gender equality. We see clear links between fulfilling children’s rights, achieving gender equality and ending child poverty. Every girl and boy have the right to be healthy, educated, protected, valued and respected in their own community and beyond. We support these rights from when children are born to when they reach adulthood. We work to ensure that girls and boys know their rights, and have the skills, knowledge, and confidence to fulfil them. This approach inspires and empowers children and communities to create long-lasting change. Girls have the power to change the world. Our ambition is to work beside them and together we act so 100 million girls learn, lead, decide and thrive. Our global advocacy work not

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only focuses on international policy but also ensures national governments can meaningfully implement and uphold laws that advance children’s rights and gender equality at community level.

Terms of Reference

for

Research assessment to support the programme’s contextual understanding of facility readiness, community needs and service provider capacity for adolescent sexual reproductive health (ASRH) and gender-based violence (GBV) response in six counties within Liberia (Rural Montserrado, Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, River Cess, Gbarpolu, and Grand Gedeh)

Background

The Liberia Women Empowerment Project (LWEP) is implemented by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MGCSP) with the objective of empowering women and girls, improving positive social norms and enhancing community livelihood opportunities through sustainable interventions. The project will be implemented in six counties (Gbarpolu, Rural Montserrado, Bomi, River Cess, Grand Gedeh, and Grand Cape Mount). Within these counties, 498 communities representing 267,200 people will be reached over a three-year period (2024-2027). The project will be piloted initially in two counties- Gbarpolu and Montserrado-before it is scaled up and adapted in the four counties from month seven.

On 20th September 2024, MGCSP contracted Plan International Liberia (PIL) as the Lead service provider (LSP) for the implementation of:

• Component 1: Fostering positive social norms and community mobilization • Component 2: Enhancing basic services in health and education
• Component 3: Promoting resilient livelihoods through community led approaches

One of the project activities is to conduct an assessment on Gender, ASRH services, and health facility readiness to respond to instances of GBV, as well as identifying gaps in GBV response and ASRH at community, school, and health facility level within specific counties of Liberia.

Purpose and objective of the assignment

Plan International Liberia, LWEP seeks to hire a qualified Individual Consultant to conduct a research linked to key programme activities across two core areas:

1. An in-depth analysis of gender dynamics and social norms, identify gaps, and offering strategies for integrating gender across all components of LWEP, including collection of baseline evidence related to gender norms and GBV for the SASA! Together approach.

The assessment should adopt a mixed-methods approach to collect gender-disaggregated data (and other marginalised identities), analyse socio-cultural factors, and make recommendations for

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how planned activities could be implemented using the most effective gender transformative approaches. The assessment should also aim to gather data establishing the existing conditions, perceptions, and behaviours related to gender norms and GBV in target communities (Montserrado, Bomi, Cape Mount, River Cess, Gbarpolu, Grand Gedeh), providing essential data for effective monitoring, adaptation and implementation. The consultant should work closely with the LWEP MEL leads to align any research tools and ensure consistency with the programme MEL framework. In addition, the consultant should work with Raising Voices to determine the overall approach for the data collection and analysis related to the SASA Together! approach.

Within the final output, the evidence should also feed into suggestions for logical (also known as results) framework indicators for key themes (health, ASRH, GBV, education), recommendations for disaggregation (by age, gender, disability, socio-economic, etc.) within the indicators and targets, and baseline figures for programme monitoring. The final output should also provide recommendations and suggestions for incorporation in the programme communication and community engagement strategy. The primary objectives will be to:

1. Map existing gender norms, power dynamics, and social behaviours contributing to GBV.
2. Identify gendered gaps in access to resources, decision-making, and participation within LWEP’s thematic areas through an intersectional analysis.
3. Analyse socio-cultural factors influencing gender and marginalisation dynamics and barriers to women’s participation, including community knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to gender equality and GBV prevention and response.
4. Develop intersectional gender-responsive planning, implementation, and monitoring strategies for LWEP.
5. Provide evidence-based recommendations for integrating an intersectional and gender equitable approach across LWEP’s activities.
6. Determine community readiness for the SASA Together! approach, focusing on awareness, attitudes, and willingness to engage.
7. Provide actionable recommendations for adapting the SASA Together! methodology to the Liberian context.

The findings from this component will contribute towards;

• The programme’s Comprehensive Gender Assessment (Deliverable A11),
• Comprehensive Communication and Citizen Engagement strategy document (Deliverable 1B.1) and
• The programme’s Baseline, Midline and End line reporting (Deliverable D31).

2. A needs assessment, mapping and assessing capacity of ASRH health services, GBV response, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) actors and schools in target communities.

The assessment should identify gaps, analyse resource needs, and provide evidence-based recommendations for targeted GBV and ASRH interventions to improve service delivery, capacity building of health and GBV response workers, and potential health service integration with the existing education / schooling systems. In addition, the assessment should evaluate the capacity, facility readiness and effectiveness of existing health and GBV service provision and potential

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integration of services, guiding LWEP’s interventions to ensure accessible, integrated, and gender sensitive healthcare and GBV prevention and response. The assessment should focus on adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) and health as it relates to responding to GBV (psychological first aid, basic clinical best practices, survivor-centred care and the referral pathway), as well as assessing gender norms and the prevalence and/or experience of gender based violence in schools.

In addition, the assessment should explore health-seeking behaviours of women, girls and communities related to ASRH and GBV, perceptions of services, and current knowledge, attitudes and practices around ASRH within communities to feed into baseline data collection. The final output should include findings which identify gaps in GBV response and ASRH at community, school and health facility level and assess facility readiness for GBV. The primary objectives will be to:

1. Map existing health and GBV service providers and facility readiness, detailing service types, geographic coverage, existing infrastructure and capacity levels of health and GBV services, and CSOs and schools in health and GBV response.
2. Assess the current competencies of healthcare workers in ASRH and facility readiness to deliver ASRH and GBV services.
3. Analyze the enabling environment at community-level and any legal or policy frameworks surrounding ASRH.
4. Evaluate service capacity and resource needs across healthcare, CSOs, and educational systems and school infrastructure.
5. Analyze the opportunities and facility readiness to integrate ASRH service delivery with economic empowerment programming to create a holistic model of support for adolescents and young people.
6. Analyse the feasibility of integrating healthcare and GBV services for more holistic care. g. Provide evidence-based recommendations for strengthening healthcare and GBV response services (enhancing service quality, expanding coverage, and improving accessibility), capacity-building and resource allocation.

The findings from this component will contribute towards;

• The programme’s Needs assessments of Health, CSO actors and Schools (Deliverable A12), • Mapping and Capacity Assessment for GBV response service providers (Deliverable 1A.4), • Health facilities assessment and selection of target health facilities/service providers (Deliverable 2A.1) Baseline, Midline and Endline reporting (Deliverable D31).

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Scope of the assignment

Field study on core competencies for adolescent friendly services delivery.

Activities: the below non-exhaustive list of activities are expected from this assignment.

• Conduct a desk review of existing policies, guidelines, National Strategy that contains the basic package of SRH services at each level of health center and best practices on adolescent friendly health services and ASRH.
• Develop a participatory assessment framework and data collection tools. These include WHO’s Global Standards in Quality Healthcare Services for Adolescents use as a training package for healthcare workers on how to provide age and gender responsive and inclusive ASRH services
• Engage with key stakeholders, including healthcare providers, community health workers, adolescents, parents and caregivers and local leaders.
• Conduct focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and surveys to assess service providers’ competencies and challenges.
• Conduct a survey and focus groups discussions (FGD) with adolescents and youth to gain their perspectives on needs and current status of service provision.
• Conduct wider community engagement to explore social norms that either help or hinder adolescents and youth to access ASRH services e.g. status of enabling environment for ASRHR in the community.
• Analyse the policy environment related to ASRHR
• Recommend actionable strategies for improvement.
• Identify barriers to age and gender-responsive and inclusive adolescent-friendly SRH service delivery at both community and facility levels.
• Analyze gender, socio-cultural, and systemic factors affecting quality of ASRHR services.
• Provide recommendations for improving service provider competencies and adolescent engagement.

Evaluation method and criteria

Quotations shall be evaluated on the lowest price most technically compliant offer. Evaluations will cover Preliminary examination, qualification of the consultant, technical compliance of the offered service against the requirement, and financial evaluation will be conducted on quotations that are

found to be technically compliant. Subsequently, award will be extended to the Individual consultant with the lowest priced, most technically compliant offer.

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Qualifications or specialized knowledge required:

The following minimum qualifications and information are expected from the individual consultant. The consultant must demonstrate their experience and expertise across the following requirements:

• Have at least seven years of experience conducting similar needs assessments, particularly in the health and SRHR (ideally both, but SRHR as a priority), education, gender and CSO sectors. • Demonstrate expertise in mixed-methods research, capacity assessments, and gender focused evaluations.
• Show evidence of experience in Liberia or similar contexts, with an understanding of local languages, cultural dynamics, and socio-economic factors.
• Have a multidisciplinary team with gender balance and representation of local experts.

The consultant must demonstrate their capacity to train and ensure their field staff are aware of the following:

• Gender Sensitivity: Modules covering gender-sensitive communication, sensitivity around engaging and communicating with young people, handling discussions on sensitive topics, disability inclusion and intersectional analysis, and cultural competence.
• Ethical Data Collection: Training on informed consent, maintaining confidentiality, and safely referring GBV survivors to support services.
• Data Collection Tools: Training on digital survey tools, interview techniques, and quality assurance.

If the assessment exceeds three months, field staff must undergo refresher training to ensure data quality and ethical compliance.

The consultant must adhere to the following ethical guidelines:

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Safe Referrals

Establish referral pathways for GBV survivors who disclose experiences during interviews, ensuring their safety and support.

The consultant must adhere to and demonstrate the following Data Security and Quality Assurance requirements:

If successful, the consultant must agree to regular monitoring during delivery with performance assessed on the following factors:

Deliverables and Timelines

The assignment is expected to be completed within 15 – 16 weeks from the date of contract signing. A detailed work plan will be agreed upon with the selected individual consultant as in table below;

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Training of Field Staff

Train staff on age and gender-sensitive data collection, ethical considerations, safeguarding and culturally appropriate methods.

Week 4-5

Methodology and Approach

The consultant will use a mixed-methods approach, integrating both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques:

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The consultant should also draw upon Plan International’s ASRH

assessment tools for services and health providers.

Risk management plan:

The consultant must develop a risk management plan considering the below risks, and others wihich may present. The consultant should elaborate upon the below risks.

Stakeholder Engagement plan

The consultant will develop a comprehensive stakeholder engagement strategy , detailing involvement at each stage of the assessment for the below stakeholders, as well as the involvement of any local delivery partners.

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Communication and Dissemination Plan

The consultant should present how they intend to present key findings (including referencing the key deliverables such as validation workshops and reports), and who they will engage with and in what user-friendly or tailored ways.

Documents required for the assignment

Payment Terms

Please note that, if successful, Plan International’s standard terms of payment are 30 days after the end of the month of receipt of the invoice or after delivery of the order, if later.

Payment Conditions:

• Payments will be made upon approval of each milestone by Plan International Liberia, ensuring that the outputs meet the required quality and standards.

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• The total consultancy fee will be split based on the key deliverables outlined above. The payment amounts are percentages of the total agreed upon budget and are contingent on the timely completion and approval of the deliverables.
• Any additional expenses or changes in scope will require prior written approval from Plan International Liberia and will be paid separately based on the agreed terms.

Payment/Price Schedule

Payments to be made after completion of each deliverable in United States Dollars Table 1: Cost breakdown per deliverable/output

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7 Final Comprehensive Report • Final report

incorporating LWEP and

stakeholder’s feedback

with visual data (charts,

tables, maps) and

strategic

recommendations.

15%

The consultant must submit a detailed budget, covering the below cost items. Please note that payments will be issued contingent upon the successful completion of deliverables in United States dollars.

Table 2: Cost breakdown per component

Plan International’s Principles

The supplier must ensure compliance to Plan International’s Non-Staff Code of Conduct.

Clarifications

Invited individuals must ensure that their offer is complete and meets Plan International’s requirements. Failure to comply may lead to the offer being rejected. Please, therefore, ensure that you read this document carefully and answer fully all questions asked.

If you have any queries in relation to your submission, or to any requirements of this tender, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us on the address provided on the first page of this RFQ document.

Thank you for your quotation.

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Name Name Title Title Signature Signature Date Date

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