Terms Of Reference For The Development Of Community Engagement Strategy
1. Introduction
About Plan International
Plan International Rwanda opened in January 2007 and is currently working in the Eastern and Southern Provinces of Rwanda in the districts of Gatsibo, Bugesera and Nyaruguru and operating in all five refugee camps in Rwanda.
Plan International Rwanda has a Country Strategy (2020-2024) of which the overall goal is" To contribute to the access to comprehensive ECD services and the reduction of SGBV so that vulnerable children and young people, particularly girls grow up, develop and realise their rights to make decisions about their lives in protective, healthy, resilient and inclusive environments in both development and humanitarian settings". This country strategy focuses on four Country Programmes (CPs):
(i) Early Childhood Development, (ii) Child Protection, (iii) Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights and (iv) Disaster Risk Management and Resilience. We have adopted Youth Economic Empowerment and Gender Transformative Programming as cross-cutting thematic areas and enablers to support the four country programs.

2. Background and rationale
Community engagement is the most effective element to achieve sustainability in dealing with natural and man-made disaster risks. Emergency management processes are often centrally planned and implemented, and they sometimes follow a top-down approach that does not engage host communities in their own emergency management processes. Communities are the best judges of their own vulnerability and are capable of making the best decisions regarding their well-being by building a safer and resilient society.
The government alone cannot and will not be able to manage and handle all types of disasters with its machinery without active participation by the people.

Natural disasters severely hinder the progress and achievements of sustainable development while, at the same time, physical infrastructure that we are constructing may itself constitute a source of risk in the event of future disasters. This is particularly true in the case of earthquakes, where the majority of victims are killed by their own collapsing houses. From the perspectives of environmental degradation, human intervention, and security aspects, disaster risk management is a pressing issue for all of us and should be undertaken on a comprehensive basis.
Experience shows that although effects are said to be caused by natural and man-made disasters, it is evident that vulnerability of elements at risk is very high and therefore disaster risk management processes can be inappropriate or ineffective when communities are not consulted and involved actively in the entire process.
Gaillard (2010) argues that disaster preparedness will not be effective without the engagement of communities, and urges DRR practitioners and academics to learn from community development approaches ‘enhancing capacities, reducing vulnerability and building resilience requires increasing participation of local communities, as has long been encouraged in development research, policy and practice’ (p.224).
The rationale of developing the strategy for community engagement is linked to the need of having a community fully engaged in all processes of disaster risk management with confidence to build themselves a disaster resilient community as it is well recognized in global agreements signed in 2015 such as The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and The Paris Climate Agreement.

• The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 calls for a whole-of society approach to disaster risk reduction (DRR). It encourages governments to seek the active contribution of relevant stakeholders including women, children and youth, persons with disabilities, poor people, migrants, indigenous people, volunteers, the community of practitioners, and older persons when shaping and implementing DRR policies, plans and standards.
• The Paris Climate Agreement affirms “the importance of education, training, public awareness, public participation, public access to information and cooperation at all levels on the matters addressed in this Agreement
Community engagement strategy shall be designed to be practical and action-oriented, providing a variety of approaches and tools that exemplify how exposed communities to various hazards will be fully involved in all stages of disaster risk management.
The strategy shall provide some guidance to Government, United Nations Agencies, International NGO’s, the Private Sector and other stakeholders on how to engage communities in every step of disaster risk management in Rwanda and they should include how disaster risk management actors interact with communities to build a disaster resilient country.

3. Objectives
The objective of this assignment is to develop community engagement strategy which will:
• Help the disaster risk reduction and management’s actors understand the importance of reaching all sectors of the community as well as levels and types of engagement methods and techniques,
• Outline the steps for effective community engagement based on disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM).
• Provide templates and resources to help readers develop a community engagement plan. This strategy will consider desired results for DRRM and identify key actions and required roles.
• Provide templates and other resources to assist in determining next steps and evaluating success.

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4. Scope of work
The consultant will:
• Provide comprehensive explanation of the principles and core values that guide community engagement in DRRM;
• Detail the purpose and intended use of community engagement strategy;
• Outline how to identify and analyze the community and stakeholders involved in DRRM;
• Present and describe different levels and types of community engagement approaches;
• Provide step-by-step guidelines for designing, developing implementing and monitoring a community engagement plan,
• Provide examples, resources, and templates to assist DRRM Actors throughout the development and implementation of the community engagement process,
• Provide guidance on how to plan, budget for, monitor DRRM activities at specific levels;

5. Deliverables
The consultant shall be expected to submit the following:
• Inception report with a detailed and clear work plan;
• Draft community engagement
• Consultation report. Institutions to be consulted include MINEMA, MINALOC, LODA and sampled districts (to be agreed upon during the inception meeting),
• Validation report,
• Final Community Engagement Strategy.

6. Work organization and support
The consultancy is jointly led by MINEMA and Plan International Rwanda. While PIR will ensure facilitation of the assignment, MINEMA will oversee the technical implementation of the assignment and its strategic and timely delivery. Regular joint meetings will be held for guidance and supervision purposes.
Government stakeholders to be consulted include MINALOC, LODA, Non-government stakeholders include RRC, FBO, INGOs and LNGOs involved in in community-based disaster risk management.
The deliverables will be approved by MINEMA before authorizing PIR to pay at each stage.
Given the multidisciplinary requirements of the assignment, and given the necessity of full understanding of Rwandan legal, institutional and organizational settings, the assignment shall be performed by a locally based and experienced company.
The company shall prove experience in performing similar assignment is developing public policies, strategies, plan and other strategic tools. The company shall also prove experience of performing DRRM related assignment(s).

7. Qualifications and requirements
In addition to company proven experience, collectively the company should present a team of consultants with expertise and work experience in the following fields:
• PhD or Masters in disaster management, emergency management or humanitarian aid
• PhD or Masters in social work, social protection, social sciences, and Development Studies,
• PhD or Masters in Education, Education with Geography, Education with social sciences
8. Timing
The assignment should be completed within 3 months after the signing of the contract.
9. Reporting and supervision
The consultant will report to the Permanent Secretary of MINEMA, and directly supervised by both the Director of Prevention and Mitigation Unit and the Director of Response and Recovery Unit.
1. Consultant competence
The consultant shall prove experience in following fields with at least 3 years
• Ability to develop disaster risk prevention, mitigation and adaptation measures;
• Experience to develop strategies in community development programs;
• Experience in working closely with the community in development programs;
• Familiar with the national policies, strategic planning and programs;
• Fluency in English with excellent writing skills;
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills with good team management.
1. Selection criteria
The consultant will be evaluated against a combination of technical and financial criteria. For the technical proposal, the following table indicates criteria and weights for evaluation:
Criteria Weight
Expertise
• Experience of the Firm/Company/Individual consultant: Reputation of Organization Credibility / Reliability (at least two years of registration and present official documents);
• Capability vis-à-vis the assignment: Completion of similar/related assignments: Community engagement, DRRM, public policy, strategy (at least two certificates). 20%
Methodology
• Level of understanding the task by the consultant;
• Presentation of task details well included in the bidding document;
• The scope of task clearly presented according to the terms of reference;
• Details on developing the community engagement strategy with respects to all phases of disaster risk reduction and management (prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery) and considering stakeholders. 30%

Qualification
• Notified copies of degrees in areas of interest as indicated above;
• Signed CVs with certificates to prove the experience of experts 50%
TOTAL 100%
The technical proposal shall be submitted with a detailed financial proposal. The firm company to be selected will be the one:
• with higher marks on technical proposal (meeting all requirements) and
• with lower proposed budget.
While Plan International Rwanda will fully decide on the financial evaluation, MINEMA shall be involved for the technical evaluation and selection.

10. Payment Modalities:
The payment will be done as follows:
• Approval of the inception report: 30%
• Submission and approval of the final draft: 40%
• Submission and approval of the final document: 30%

11. Performance Indicators:
The following performance indicators will be used to evaluate the work undertaken by the consultancy firm and certify the payment of installment payments:
• Timeliness of submissions of the expected outputs in line with the substantive requirements of the present TOR and in line with requests from the immediate supervisor;
• Value of services rendered in relation to their costs;
• Readability of the community engagement;
• Receptive/responsive to feedback from the client staff members;
• Quality of analysis and methodologies used;
• Relevance and utility of community engagement strategy.
• Administrative documents such as;
• Copy of company registration certificate(RDB Certificate);
• CV of designated personnel/Consultants;
• Copy of VAT registration certificate;
• RRA & RSSB Clearances

Submission Procedure
Kindly submit your offers clearly marked “CONSULTANCY FOR DEVELOPPING COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY” separating Technical and Financial Proposals in sealed envelop by not later than 6th January 2023 at 12:00 pm.
Remark: Plan International Rwanda will close its Offices for short break starting from 22nd December 2022 to 3rd January 2023. It is in that regard, the interested bidders are requested not to submit their the proposals in this period.
Done on 16th December 2022
Submissions should be addressed to
The Chairperson -Tender Panel
Plan International Inc. Rwanda
Golden Plaza Building, Floor # 4, KG 456 St
P.O. Box 6211, Kigali, Rwanda.