Education and Assessment Tool Design Consultant (International) At Catholic Relief Services

Request for Education and Assessment Tool Design Consultant
Support for I&P, Entrepreneurs et Development

Issued on: October 4, 2021
Reference Number RFP SN.145473.10.2021
For: Education and Assessment Tool Design Consultant (International)
Submission Deadline October 11, 2021

I. About CRS:
Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. We welcome as a part of our staff and as partners people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.

CRS’ programming is holistic and multi-sectoral in nature, including work in education; health and social services; agriculture and livelihoods; justice and governance; humanitarian relief; water and sanitation; protection; etc.
I&P, Entrepreneurs et Development (IPED), a French association affiliated with the I&P group whose vocation is to encourage entrepreneurship in Africa, receives public funding and subsidies to provide investment vehicles, small and medium-sized enterprises (“SMEs”) or entrepreneurship support structures with technical, operational human or financial support, as well as contributions to the improvement of their legal, economic and institutional environment.

II. Background:
IPED has signed a contract with the Mastercard Foundation, a contract for services under which the Foundation has engaged IPED to implement an education program with the following objectives:
• Rebuild and support the local private education and training sector: Provide access to immediate financing for SMEs facing liquidity issues and requiring support in any or all of the following areas: pivoting their business models, implementing new sanitary measures, developing additional pedagogical material, and procuring new tech-enabled tools.
• Accelerate SMEs’ digital transformation: Support SMEs with designing and implementing a strategy to facilitate e-learning and enhancing their program offerings with the use of new technologies.
• Broaden access to quality programs for disadvantaged students, with a focus on girls and women: Support SMEs with designing innovative mechanisms, including income share agreements, student loans, or scholarship programs, to promote broader access for disadvantaged students.
• Enhance impact management systems to better assess youth outcomes: Support SMEs with improving their impact measurement capabilities, including piloting the use of lean data tools to gain in-depth insights in areas such as the quality of education and employability. Results collected for and disseminated by the Program also aim to build an evidence base for the value of impact investment in private higher education and training, with the view to further dialogue and advocacy with local public authorities, employers, and other key institutions.
CRS has contracted with IPED to provide expertise and technical assistance to assess and build the capacity of target SMEs in designing and managing scholarship and support services to promote greater social inclusion for vulnerable populations. Furthermore, CRS is also responsible for identifying key stakeholders in each of the education ecosystems in Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Ghana, and developing an advocacy program that aims to advance dialogue and highlight best practices related to the thematic areas addressed by the Program.

III. Purpose:
CRS seeks a consultant with expertise in education to support the design of various assessment tools, including a template and guidance for contextual analysis as well as tools to be used by the selected SMEs to conduct their self-assessment. Once
the draft tools are elaborated, CRS local team will conduct a pilot test with 1-2 SMEs using the tools. Tools will be finalized afterwards by the consultant.

IV. Approach and Methodology:
The consultant will:
• Review various existing assessment tools, such as Youth Programming Assessment Tools and Manuals, CRS Holistic Organizational Capacity Assessment Instrument (HOCAI), CRS Youth Assessment Tool, CRS Rapid Community Assessment for Youth Employment, and CRS Youth Programming Design and Performance Standards Assessment Tool.
• Adapt existing assessment tools.
• Develop new tools for contextual analysis.
• Support the piloting of the tools.
• Recommend revisions to tools based on pilot.
• Undertake final revisions, as needed.
The consultant will address concepts of vulnerability and inclusiveness to be incorporated into the tools. The consultant will take a focused approach on education inclusiveness and scholarship funding to offer guidance and design templates and tools that could be used for contextual analysis and SMEs’ self-assessment. The tools will serve as a diagnostic for the SME to propose, improve and implement an action plan that includes asocial inclusion component.
The tool will be looking at the following two dimensions:
• The institutional analysis will focus on identifying the current state of inclusion and equity efforts and best practices for participant selection, program management, monitoring and follow-up. For example, evaluating the degree to which staff, systems, policies, and support programs are already in place and, if so, the level of their effectiveness, responsiveness, and success.
• The student level analysis will examine data related to enrolment, student or customer profiles (e.g., geographic origin, ethnicity, linguistic background, gender and disabilities), sales and customer satisfaction, available financial and psychosocial accommodations, transition to workforce support, and classroom or workplace culture and behaviours.
The consultant will also support CRS local teams to put together an Advocacy Plan to raise visibility about the project’s efforts around social inclusion. Advocacy activities include:
• Improve visibility of education SMEs, promoting their integration in the local agenda of education.
• Enhance program’s effects.
• Develop relations with governments, funders and other key partners.
• Show the key lessons and impacts of the overall program, in close alignment with key education stakeholders’ agenda.

V. Expected Timetable:
The specific timeframe will be based on the availability of the consultant, but all work on this consultancy must be completed by December 15, 2021. In order to meet this deadline, drafts of all revised/new documents must be submitted by November 30, 2021, at the latest. The internal pilot of the tool will depend on the SMEs selected by IPED, but preference will be to conduct that in early December.

VI. Deliverables:

• Deliverable 1- Finalization of methodological approach for contextual analysis

Due date – draft: October 15 (will be completed before consultancy begins)

Due date – final: October 31

• Deliverable 2- Methodological Approach for student-level analysis

Due date – draft: November 15

Due date – final: November 19

• Deliverable 3 -Assessment tool for institutional self-assessment and student-level analysis

Due date – draft: November 26

Due date – final: December 1

• Deliverable 4- Advocacy plan

Due date – final: November 30

• Deliverable 5- Facilitation materials to train staff on assessment tool

Due date – draft: December 2-6, based on the review of the program pipeline and on-going due diligence.

• Deliverable 6 – Recommendations for revisions to assessment tools based on pilot

  -Due date – final: December 10

• Deliverable 7 – Revisions and finalization of tools

Due date – final: December 15

VII. Location and Terms of Performance:

• Location: Remote
• Window of Performance: October 20, 2021 until December 15, 2021
• Total Duration of Performance: estimated up to 30 days over this period

VIII. Qualifications:

• Demonstrated knowledge / expertise in education; ideally in the field of youth development, vocational training; Youth Scholarship programs and social inclusion
• Familiarity with CRS strategies, approaches, priorities, and education programming;
• Excellent strategic thinking, organizational, and analytic skills.

IX. Reference Materials:

• Youth Programming Assessment Tools and Manuals.
• CRS Youth Assessment Tool.
• Rapid Community Assessment for Youth Employment. CRS Youth Programming Design and Performance Standards Assessment Tool. Any other documents, upon request.

X. Submission Deadline
All submission must be received by CRS no later than October 11, 2021 [11:59 PM for electronic submission to Kathleen Mackin kathleen.mackin@crs.org. The solicitation number indicated above must be included in the subject line.

XI. Payment Terms
Time and Materials CRS anticipates entering into a consultancy agreement with the selected consultant.

XII. Submissions should include the following information:
a. A copy of your CV
b. Two (2) examples of your written work
c. Three (3) client references with contact details
d. Daily Rate
e. Relationship disclosure
i. Describe any current or past relationships you or your organization may have with CRS.
ii. Describe any personal or familial relationships any employee of the Contractor has with any employee of CRS.

XIII. Agreement
Any resulting consulting agreement will be subject to the terms and conditions contained in the attached Form of
Contract (See Annex A).

Thank you,
Kathleen Mackin
Procurement Specialist
CRS