Provision of project documentation services-Consultancy

IRC Background

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees required to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the humanitarian field by implementing high-impact, cost-effective programs for people affected by crisis and by using our learning and experience to craft policy and practice. To achieve that vision, the Technical Excellence Unit provides technical assistance to country program staff and shares what we learn to influence global health.

Project Background

The IRC’s WISH2ACTION (W2A) is a flagship family planning (FP) programme in partnership with Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) with the aim to deliver 20% of the UK’s FP global commitments. The program is being implemented by consortium agencies in 16 countries across Africa and Asia in two lots to provide a comprehensive package of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). The W2A Program focuses on increasing the number of additional FP users while simultaneously reducing maternal mortality and reducing related complications. The priority populations include adolescents (10-19 years), persons living in severe poverty within the humanitarian setting, hard to reach communities and persons living with disability. The focus reflects the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO formerly DFID)’s principle of “leave no one behind”.

The IRC’s W2A program delivers Integrated comprehensive contraceptive services in crisis-affected regions in Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, and Uganda targeting internal displaced person, refugees, and surrounding host communities. As of October 2021, the W2A program provided 337,853 FP services providing 252,618 couple years of protection in the four countries. The Program delivers services through various channels including static clinics, mobile outreaches, and community-based distribution (CBD).

1. Static clinics: IRC works with both public and private facilities, including IRC-owned facilities, in the refugee camps and host communities to provide contraceptive services. IRC strengthens the capacity of these facilities through provider trainings, provision of equipment and supplies such as commodities, supportive supervision, and technical assistance.
2. Mobile outreaches: IRC has also established mobile outreach teams that take services closer to communities. The teams are comprised of both service providers and community mobilizers who provide mobilize clients for services.
3. CBD: IRC works with community volunteers, village health volunteers and health extension workers who are trained and supported to provide FP awareness messages in the community, mobilize clients for services, distribute short term methods and refer clients for high level services. Community mobilization approaches used include mass media, door-to-door campaigns, mother to mother sessions, father to father sessions, peer to peer sessions, sessions with persons with disabilities, boda boda talks and use of music, dance, and drama.

Scope of Work:

The overall purpose of the consultancy is to synthesize and document the lessons learnt and good practices from the implementation of the W2A project initiatives in Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia, and Uganda as part of the programmatic learning and improvement of comprehensive integrated family planning in humanitarian setting. It will aim to identify and document approaches and good practices relevant to a wider scale or have a potential to become so for some select outputs. This will be backed up by stories and testimonies of change, where necessary and will aim to capture and share practices and experiences to build a collective knowledge network and inform learning from the experiences.

The assignment will focus on the following areas, but not limited to:

1. Working with community gate keepers (including religious scholars), satisfied clients and FP champions to generate community support and demand for FP services.
2. Strengthening the capacity of community health volunteers/workers to provide SRH/FP information, distribute short term methods, including Sayana Press, and refer clients for SRH services.
3. Integration of SRH service delivery into women and girls’ safe spaces.
4. Clinical mentorship to services providers to enhance uptake of LARC.
5. Reaching young people with SRH/FP services.

Specifically, the consultant is expected:

1. To identify from the existing reports, implementing partners, and field exercise the good practices and lessons learnt for identified outputs for this review.
2. To undertake further in-depth analysis and documentation of the lessons learnt and good practices.

Key Tasks

The key tasks for this consultancy that will enable the consultant to achieve the above objectives will be to:

1. Develop a detailed inception report clearly demonstrating full understanding of the TOR, with proposed methodology and relevant instruments to achieve the objectives of the assignment.
2. Review relevant documents.
3. Develop relevant tools for data collection.
4. Interview the identified key informants and other respondents. Part of this should be to take client centered approach on evaluating results, lessons learned and best practice from the perspectives of clients (recipients of WIS2ACTION services).
5. Undertake documentation of strategies/models based on expected outputs that will be identified from review of documents and interviews.
6. Determine and document lessons learnt based on an agreed upon set of critical questions.
7. The consultant will conduct field work to program areas and beneficiaries to collect evidence on the selected promising good practices for documentation.
8. Document four good practices in accelerating action to increase access to comprehensive contraceptive services by mobilizing communities and strengthening youth friendly service provision and skills based sexual reproductive health information and capacity building for adolescent girls 10-19 years, person living with disability and hard to reach beneficiaries. The compendium of four good practices should focus on effective and scalable interventions.
9. Prepare stories of change and social impact case studies by:

oConducting field work to identify and unique experiences by project beneficiaries, implementing partners, IRC country staff and other stakeholders.

oIdentifying and documenting unique, special, and interesting stories (Stories of change/ success stories) about individuals, processes, models, strategies, or events. This would require focus on the story behind the result, program success and challenges.

10. Dissemination of the lessons learnt and good practices.

Expected Deliverables

The deliverables will include:

1. An inception report covering the consultant’s interpretation of the TOR, aspects to be documented, document types, approach, work plan, and itemized budget.
2. Conduct data collection from both primary and secondary sources (virtually and/or physically in-country) and data analysis.
3. Written monographs/articles of assorted document types such as technical briefs, success stories and case studies. The monographs/ articles should include aspects that will be identified through a participatory approach.
4. Presentation of draft monographs/ articles to relevant staff and stakeholders for validation.
5. A process report detailing the process and methodology used, including interview notes and transcripts, limitations, and reference documents among others.
6. Presentation of the final outputs in a dissemination forum that will take place virtually.

Note: IRC has sole ownership of all information and materials related to the consultancy and shall only be shared or reproduced with written permission of IRC.  

Timelines

The consultancy will take place between January and March 2022, for approximately 50 days, including travel to the selected countries and project sites. The consultant will work under the supervision of designated program staff at country and regional levels however, the quality of the deliverables produced will be the sole responsibility of the consultant.