Terms of Reference: Short term Consultancy Services for Mapping and Project Inception Activities

Organization background:
BRAC is the world’s largest, and leading development organization dedicated to poverty alleviation and empowerment of the poor. Initiated in Bangladesh in 1972, BRAC now operates in 11 countries across Asia, Africa. To counter poverty and promote social empowerment, BRAC strategically integrates development programs in microfinance, agriculture, health, education, human rights and legal aid, community empowerment, and more. Stichting BRAC International is registered with RGB for NGO operations within Rwanda and started operations in Rwanda in 2022. 

1. Rationale of the assignment

According to the 5th Rwanda Population and Housing Census (RPHC) conducted in August 2022, 3.6 million Rwandans are adolescents and young people aged between 16 to 30 (27.1% of the population). Ushering this cohort of adolescents and young people into healthy and productive adulthood is critical for the country’s ability to achieve its development goals as per Rwanda’s Vision 2050 and Agenda 2030 as well as harnessing the demographic dividend (DD). Despite Rwanda’s progress in improving the health and well-being of its population, there is still a need for acceleration given some of the persistent challenges such as the rising rate of pregnancies amongst adolescents (~ 9% -HMIS 2021/22) with high prevalence in poor households posing significant health concerns. To address these challenges, there is a pressing need for accelerated and sustainable comprehensive approaches that tackle the root causes of youth health related issues. These approaches should focus on improving the knowledge and understanding of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRH&R), enhancing skills and decision-making power regarding bodily autonomy, promoting the use of SRHR services, and improving the livelihoods of adolescents.

The SIF-Funded Youth Empowerment Accelerator for Health (YEAH) integrates Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights within economic empowerment initiatives to prevent early and unintended pregnancies, by increasing access to sexual and reproductive health with emphasis on contraceptive services and reducing exposure to gender-based violence. By focusing on the holistic development of young people, the intervention aims to unlock their full potential and enhance their quality of life.

The YEAH model encompasses various strategies, including leveraging innovation and technology, engaging the private sector and investors, facilitating microfinancing opportunities, and fostering partnerships for scale-up. By bringing together these elements, the intervention seeks to create a comprehensive and effective framework for addressing adolescent pregnancies in Rwanda. 

A curriculum development consultant will be recruited to integrate existing SRHR material from UNFPA with existing BRAC curriculum that includes several themes, including SRH and financial literacy.

2. Duties and Responsibilities

The recruited consultants will work closely with the Project Manager. Specifically, his/her tasks include but are not limited to:

• Get familiar with the project documents, i.e., objectives, outcomes, outputs, monitoring indicators, planned activities and sub-activities including project work plan and monitoring and evaluation plan.
• Integrate SRHR content, particularly focusing on contraception and domestic violence prevention into the existing BRAC life skills curriculum.
• Finalize wireframe for partners and new groups with BRAC and UNFPA
• Review existing curriculum mapping and wireframes and create project specific versions that clearly outline scope and sequence, learning outcomes and skills outcomes
• At the direction of BRAC colleagues, assemble, edit and develop (as needed) curriculum content and any requested participant workbooks or graphics for groups indicated below in tasks
• Finalize formatting and production of training package material in collaboration with a designer (this can be external or if applying with a consortium or firm, part of the team)
• Participate in curriculum testing and feedback and complete adaptations needed
• Input into orientation of staff on curriculum delivery
• Final report on curriculum development process and outcomes
• Travel TBD 

Scope and process for the deliverables: The purpose of the curriculum project is to create curricula that deliver skills and knowledge needed to overcome gender inequalities faced by adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) and women in the target communities, especially related to economic empowerment, and to those in their enabling environment.

Activities:

• Review the curriculum sourcing for the project
• Gather open source curriculum to fill any identified gaps
• Create a curriculum map and wireframe
• Assemble, edit, and develop (as needed) lesson plans while accounting for contextual adaptations
• Adapt and update facilitator manual
• During testing of curriculum, support feedback processes and complete adaptations recommended
• Support local contextualization in partnership with BRAC staff
• Support creation of an orientation for the curriculum delivery
• Upon curriculum completion, act in supportive role for appropriate content translations with hired external translators
• Organize curriculum to be accessible and allow for ease of version control 

Do-No-Harm Approach: As BRAC adheres to the do-no-harm principle, the potential risks to participants linked to this analysis and mitigation plans to overcome risks should be outlined.

3. Expected Outcome

Due to the curriculum development activities, clubs will be able to deliver contents in the calendar year of 2024. 

4. Calendar of the assignment

5. Knowledge and skills required from individual consultant or firm /company

• Having academic qualification in Education, Curriculum development, Social Sciences, or relevant field
• Experience working in curriculum development. 
• Cultural sensitivity and understanding of the Rwandan context in the topics of SRHR.
• Able to work and provide the required assignment respecting the deadlines.
• Provide RDB certificate if it is a company.
• Completion certificate for a similar assignment.
• Fluency in English and Kinyarwanda.
• Excellent proofreading skills.

The following eligibility criteria shall apply:

• 3-5 years of experiencing leading the development of experiential curriculum and training materials in African contexts
• Experience with learner centered and engaging content, ability to support design of engaging visuals to enhance participant learning
• Self-starter with a proven track record of delivering high quality curriculum and training deliverables on time
• Knowledge of positive youth development principles, AGYW and women’s programming and youth employment
• Understanding of gender equality and social inclusion concepts and approaches in the international development sector
• Demonstrated ability to lead consensus building during collaborative processes to achieve a final product
• Ability to facilitate and relate to stakeholders at multiple levels
• Attention to cultural/historical context in curriculum development
• If the applicant is a firm, the names of the leading project manager will have to be specified, confirming their availability for the study.
• If applying as a consortium or firm, the team must consist of consultants of African origin and any team with exclusively African team members is preferred. 

6. Documents required

Interested candidates should apply by sending in PDF format the following documents:

• Technical proposal/work plan (to include staffing plan)
• Proposed financial budget for activities
• Academic qualification documents and CVs for the company team or individual consultant
• Proof of past work or completion certificates for the similar work by a recognized organization or company
• Letter of interest
• RDB certificate for companies or TIN number for individual consultants

Safeguarding Policy

BRAC is committed to safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share the same commitment. We believe every stakeholder and every member of the communities we work with has the right to be protected from all forms of harm, abuse, neglect, harassment, and exploitation - regardless of age, race, religion, and gender, status as an individual with a disability or ethnic origin. BRAC holds a zero-tolerance policy against sexual exploitation, discrimination, exploitation, abuse and harassment. Violations to stated policies will be subject to corrective action up to and including termination of contract.

Interested candidates should apply by sending all the required documents to anaise.nahayo@brac.net and cicely.khoubian@brac.net . The deadline for submission is December 8th 2023 at 17:00.