Service Design Consultancy

Section: Youth and Adolescents Date: 3, October, 2017 Title: Innovation Labs Content Evaluation Location: Beirut, Lebanon Reporting to: Chief of Youth and Adolescent Programme Contract type: SSA Duration: Four months (80 working days) Start date: As soon as possible Section Content Objectives NAWAYA  Lebanon’s Innovation Labs programme aims to educate marginalized Lebanese and non-Lebanese youth aged between 15-24 in the areas of technology and innovation, increasing their access to digital economy opportunities. As part of this effort, NAWAYA  in partnership with local NGOS, has been offering Social Entrepreneurship, Digital Skills and Business Development Training courses since May, 2016. NAWAYA  is looking to onboard a team of consultants to apply a user-centric approach to assess and evaluate the content, methodology and the impact of the 3 trainings and based on the findings co-design(with NAWAYA  and partners) new tool-kits, curricula and training-of-trainer modules.   Background Context of Youth in Lebanon Years of internal conflict have led to the build-up of sectarian tensions, which continue to plague Lebanon years after its wars have ended. In the years that followed the economy climbed saw periods of gradual prosperity and stability. The massive upheaval that occurred across the region since 2011 has resulted in the spillover of 1.1 million refugees into Lebanon (counting only UNHCR registered individuals) (UN Inter-Agency Coordination 2015). This unprecedented influx has pushed resources and utilities, which were already insufficient into even greater scarcity.   Today, approximately 27.4% of Lebanon’s total resident population is youth (aged 15-29). 24% of these youth are Syrian, 5% are Palestinian and the remaining 71% are Lebanese or of other nationalities (Spotlight on Youth, UNDP). There is currently an estimated 1,616,740 young people in Lebanon but a crowded labor market has made it very difficult to find employment for both the skilled and unskilled youth alike. Female youth are even further marginalized with most young females exiting the labor market early on and youth unemployment has hit a record high of 20.6% for the 14-24 age group. In the wake of one of the highest youth and unemployment brackets worldwide, it is now pertinent, more than ever before to ensure our youth are empowered and have access to education and employment opportunities.   “Spotlight on Youth in Lebanon”, a document prepared for UNDP’s Regional Arab Human Development Report, outlines several suggestions to create job opportunities for Lebanon’s youth and one of the main recommendations is “to actively address the skills mismatch present in the Lebanese economy by training labor for the current needs of employers and guiding youth towards prosperous career paths which would not require emigration “. The Livelihoods Working Group (June, 2016) document also points to the same logic; to increase employment opportunities for Lebanon’s marginalized youth by: 1- establishing SME support programs, specifically industry specialized arrangements and infrastructure and 2- investing in Innovation, R&D and Technology. Governments and aid agencies have started to recognize that to solve “new world” problems we must approach them with “new world” methods. Old methods can no longer accommodate the speed at which global plights are proliferating. New, nimble and more efficient methods must be deployed leading us to innovation, technology and entrepreneurship, the three pillars of our most recent program. As a response to this need, NAWAYA  Lebanon’s Youth and Adolescent section has been founded a new program called the Innovation Labs Network. Overview of the Innovation Labs Network Programme The Innovation Labs Network is a network of educational facilities composed of multi-purpose learning and working areas hosting innovation and digital courses and activities. Each individual facility is called an Innovation Lab; the facilities are spread throughout all Lebanese regions and accessible to marginalized Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian youth between the ages of 15-24. The Innovation Labs Key Activities are: 1-     Provide youth with innovation/digital training courses 2-     Enroll youth in Business Incubator program to grow their enterprises 3-     Provide youth with income generating opportunities through impact sourcing 4-     An open space/co-working where youth can work, design and experiment   (1)   Social Entrepreneurship Track   The social entrepreneurship training course brings the progressive concepts of Design Thinking and Business Development and puts them to the test in a marginalized context. By the end of 2017, NAWAYA  aims to reach 5,000 marginalized and vulnerable youth with social entrepreneurship trainings and fund 600 youth projects.   Once the trainings are done, selected youth projects go on to receive one-on-one specialized business coaching and mentorship. The groups are provided with up to $2,000 in seed-funding per project to pilot their initiatives and enterprises during the two month coaching period.   The social entrepreneurship trainings were launched all across Lebanon in March 2017 with two main implementing partners: The Nawaya Network and INJAZ Lebanon. The Nawaya Network outreaches and trains youth in South, Beirut and Mt. Lebanon while INJAZ does so in Tripoli, Akkar and Beqaa.   The trainings run for three hours daily from Monday until Friday, during which youth will receive a healthy meal and transportation costs.  Training timing will be determined for mornings, afternoons, or evenings based on youth needs and outreach in each area. Each group consists of 15-25 young boys and girls.   The Desired Outcome on Youth: -        Youth gain important skills to help them start small enterprises or community projects and better manage them -        Youth have an alternate source of income through their small enterprises -        Youth learn important soft skills and life skills that improve their awareness about critical issues (better managing relations with people and with themselves) -        Decrease in levels of hopelessness and despair     (2)  Digital Skills Training Track   The Digital Skills trainings teach at-risk Lebanese youth digital skills such as computer literacy, coding, market research, Photoshop and web/mobile app development. The program is targeted at providing high potential but disadvantaged young boys and girls with digital and soft skills training relevant for digital tasks to later connect the youth to relevant online income-generating opportunities.   Scope of work The consultancy will bring awareness to the important concepts, topics and modules to cover in the curriculum and the best way to deliver the material to the beneficiaries. The main objective of the assessment is to gain insight about and compile information on the training content, methodology and impact. The steps the consulting firm/consultants/consultants will go through:   Phase 1: Understanding the Curricula’s and planning for interviews, focus groups and sit-ins Phase 2: Focus groups, interviews, sitting through each of the sessions Phase 3: Compiling the information, and co-designing the new tool-kit, delivery methods and formats Phase 4: Compiling Feedback and submitting revised content material and tool-kits Phase 5: Delivering Training of trainers’ sessions   Project Deliverables   Phase 1: Understanding the Curricula’s and planning for interviews, focus groups and sit-ins Description: This phase of the project will focus on data collection through various methods and from different stakeholders Deliverables: Inception Report and Desktop Research -        Draw up a plan of action and timetable for accomplishing all tasks of the project; -        Identify the participants for the interviews and focus groups; -        Undertake desk and literature review based on available curriculum and material, reports, publications, and other case studies   Phase 2: Focus groups, interviews, sitting through each of the sessions Description: This phase of the project will focus on data collection through various methods and from different stakeholders -        Focus groups with targeted youth at different stages of the trainings cycle social entrepreneurship and digital skills trainings (pre/post pitches – pre/post business development – per/post digital skills) -        Focus group discussions with youth having completed trainings at each one of the locations -        Hold focus group discussions with programme trainers to identify best practices, challenges and opportunities. There will be three main focus group discussions: (1) Digital Skills trainers (2) Design Thinking trainers (3) Business Development trainers -        Interview NAWAYA  Partners (DOT, Nawaya, INJAZ) staff members to identify how to improve the curriculum content -        Sit through one full training cycle for design thinking, business development and digital skills trainings -        Interview youth at different stages of the training cycles Main focus areas to probe: -        Training timings, durations and locations (WHEN and WHERE) -        Training content and main topics for digital skills and social entrepreneurship and learning objectives (WHAT) -        Trainers teaching styles (WHO) -        Content delivery (videos, homework, theoretical frameworks, real life examples, in-class exercises, presentations…) -        Post training evaluation  -        Identify linkages and overlaps among different tracks -        Identify potential new training needs based on the feedback of the youth   Deliverables: Report on the quantitative and qualitative main findings of the focus groups, interviews and session sit-ins. The report should include infographic data representation with text analysis of the findings   Phase 3: Based on phase 2 findings, co-design the new tool-kits and material and test them with trainers and youth- 3 weeks Description: The firm/consultants/consultants will revise the already existing tool-kits, curricula and manuals and create new ones when applicable based on the findings of phase 2. Once the material is ready, the firm/consultants/consultants will run tests with youth groups and trainers to collect feedback on the draft content. -        Build on the already existing curricula and redesign Design Thinking, Business Development and Digital Skills training content which includes both a trainer manual and a youth manual -        Develop a selection criteria to select the youth teams to incubation -        Revise the Incubation curriculum that complement the Design Thinking and Business Development Curriculum -        Add a report on guidelines on how to distribute the training regarding days a week, hours per day, length of training, lengths of coaching, and length of full program -        The firm/consultants/consultants must redesign the post evaluation for the curriculum in order to measure the impact of the program after 1 months, 3 months, 6 months and 1 year -        Add soft skills to technical training segments   Deliverable 3: The consulting firm/consultants must deliver a preliminary draft training package for the social entrepreneurship and digital skills trainings that include but are not restricted to learning curricula toolkits(includes videos, case studies, exercises), student sheets, and trainers’ manuals.   Phase 4: Compiling Feedback and submitting revised content material and tool-kits Description: The firm/consultants is expected to incorporate the feedback of the test groups into the material and revise the drafts to submit the final versions of the all the documents Deliverable 4: Revised tool-kits, methodologies, youth manuals, trainer manuals     Deliverables and Schedules Deliverable and tentative schedule: Task Deliverables Effective working Days /location Timeline   Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4     Phase 1: Understanding the Curricula’s and planning for interviews, focus groups and sit-ins     Development of a specific action plan for the consultancy Action plan finalized and submitted 1 x         NAWAYA  reviews and agrees on plan N/A 2 x         Phase 2: Focus groups, interviews, sitting through each of the sessions       Interview partners and Nawaya  staff Meeting notes and summary 3 X         Run youth focus groups Meeting notes and summary 15  X           Run focus groups with Design Thinking and Business Development Trainers Meeting notes and summary 5 x         Sits through training full cycles Meeting notes and summary 60 x x x     Submission of the findings report Report on training guidelines, best practices and challenges 5 x         Phase 3: Based on findings, co-designing the new tool-kits and material and testing them with trainers and youth       Development of the new material Weekly report summary of progress 15     x     Testing new material Workshop reports 10     x     Submission of final content Weekly report summary of progress 5     x                     Phase 4: Compiling Feedback and submitting revised content material and tool-kits       Development of the new material Weekly report summary of progress 5     x           Timing Duration of assignment: 4 months, including preparation work and finalization outside of Lebanon. Start date: November 1, 2017   The consultants will make time to meet two weeks before the project start date and one week after the project end date to discuss the assignment (e.g. outcome, methodology and findings) with, at a minimum, the Youth Section at the NAWAYA  Lebanon Country Office and national team. These lines of communication and liaison will remain open for regular contact throughout the assignment, and staff will remain available to assist and participate in the assignment as necessary or appropriate Reporting Requirements In addition to the detailed deliverables outlined above, the consultancy team is expected to work with an international service design firm/consultants on deliverables, present findings to GIL Labs steering committee every two weeks and provide, as a local and international hybrid team, weekly reports to NAWAYA  focal point. Team Requirements This assignment requires a team of consultants reporting directly to the Chief of NAWAYA  YAD Section. The team will be led by the team leader in charge of managing the team and providing the methodological framework and support and guidance.   This team should lead the development of the methodology and materials needed for all phases of the assignment.   The composition of the team would need to combine the following expected profiles and experience:   -        At least 5 years of experience with focus group design, moderation and analysis -        Experience with humanitarian and/or development projects -        Has previously worked on at least one training of trainers project -        Advanced knowledge and experience in data gathering -        Has worked on at least 2 or more educational projects such as curriculum revision and creation, teaching methods research and trainings -        Proven ability in managing multi-sector projects and multi-cultural teams -        Strong writing and communication skills in English and Arabic -        Access to international startup and design ecosystems -        Access to digital skills academies or relevant internal talent -        Access to life and soft skills experts -        In-depth knowledge of the design thinking process -        Proven track record of work with startups, accelerators, incubators -        Advanced degree in economics, social sciences, business management -        3+ years of research experience Administrative Issues -        NAWAYA  will identify a focal point to act as a liaison officer to support the consultant team throughout the assessment and will help facilitate the contacts with national stakeholders and key ministries -        The consultant team will have a team leader working under the direct supervision of the chief of  Youth section at NAWAYA  Lebanon -        The assignment will be a combination of desk-based and field work, with frequent consultations, meetings and site visits throughout Beirut and the rest of Lebanon; the consultancy team is expected to be able to work independently, although NAWAYA  staff will assist within reasonable parameters to ensure the smooth running of the assignment -        The consultant team will have access to NAWAYA  Lebanon offices to undertake in-country work and meetings, where needed -        The consultancy team will organize their own transportation for field visits and local level consultation with NAWAYA  support as required -        The contractor is required to provide his/her own computer and communications equipment (laptops, telephones, etc.) -        Under the consultancy agreements, a month is defined as 21 working days, and fees are prorated accordingly; consultants are not paid for weekends or public holidays -        The consultant team is not entitled to payment of overtime; all remuneration must be clearly described in the contract agreement -        No contract may commence unless the contract is signed by both NAWAYA  and the consultancy team Evaluation process and method   Technical Evaluation Criteria: Service Providers are encouraged to ensure they meet the requested evaluation and qualification criteria; The technical evaluation will be based on a total score of 70 points, and 49 points will be the minimum score to determine eligibility.   Financial evaluation Criteria: Only bidders obtaining the minimum pass mark in the technical evaluation (49 points) will be considered for the financial evaluation; Service Providers should fill the attached table for calculation of the financial evaluation; Financial evaluation is composed of 30 points. Budget* Payment will be made as follows: 25% of the total fee upon the submission of the inception report outlining the implementation plan (expected at the beginning of November 2017) 25% of the total fee upon the submission of the draft training packages(Phase 3 Deliverable) (expected by end of December 2017) 50% of the total fee upon the submission and approval of the final training packages and training of trainers workshop(expected by end of January 2018) WBS: Grant Number: SM160539