Consultancy for mapping study of digital service providers &...

Supporting Sustainable and Inclusive Growth in the Occupied Palestinian Territory through Digital Inclusion

Terms of Reference

Consultancy for a mapping study of all digital service providers and stakeholders

in the West Bank and Gaza Strip

• About ACTED

ACTED is an international non-profit, non-political and non-religious humanitarian organization established in Afghanistan in 1993 and headquartered in Paris, France. Operational in 35 countries, ACTED’s vocation is to support vulnerable populations affected by wars, natural disasters and/or economic and social crises, and to accompany them in building a better future. ACTED started its activities in the occupied Palestinian territory in May 2007, through food security interventions in the West Bank and then in Gaza. ACTED is currently implementing projects funded by ECHO, UNOCHA, AFD and DGD, which aim to protect vulnerable households in the West Bank and to strengthen civil society actors across the occupied Palestinian territory.

Project background

ACTED and its partner MA’AN Development Center are implementing a three year project  entitled “Supporting sustainable and inclusive growth in the Palestinian territory through digital inclusion,” in the West Bank and in Gaza, funded by AgenceFrançaise de Développement (AFD).

The project’s general objective is to bypass the obstacles to development in the occupied Palestinian territories by exploiting the potential of digital tools. The specific objective of the project is to enhance young Palestinians’ employability through the improvement of their digital perspectives. These objectives will be achieved through the reinforcement of capacities and coordination mechanisms for key digital stakeholders, improvement of access to digital literacy resources for young Palestinians, and the provision of resources and tools for Palestinian young entrepreneurs to materialize their business ideas.

The project creates employment opportunities and participate in creating offer and demand in the field of digital innovation, through the provision of support to young graduates in acquiring digital skills and competencies required to compete in  the labour market, and to young entrepreneurs in the creation of new online interactive learning platform which is at the centre of the project and constitutes a major innovative aspect.

The project allows access to digital tools and opportunities for two main target groups; unemployed young graduates and young Palestinian entrepreneurs. Women and people with disabilities are addressed as the most vulnerable groups to be targeted through the development of dedicated tools of digital innovation which appears as an undeniable opportunity to bypass traditional obstacles for these groups, for whom traditional vulnerabilities can be obliterated by digital interactions.

Enhancing young Palestinians’ employability through the improvement of digital perspectives will be achieved throughout these three main projects’ results:

Result 1. Key digital stakeholders have reinforced their capacities and are better coordinated at a national level.

Result 2. Young Palestinians have improved access to digital literacy resources that suit their learning needs and skills gap in labour market.

Result 3. Palestinian young entrepreneurs are provided with resources and tools for their business ideas to be realized.

SCOPE OF WORK

• Objective of consultancy

During the inception phase of the project, ACTED seeks aConsultant to conduct a mapping study of all digital service providers and stakeholders in West Bank and Gaza, in order to identify key actors at a national level. The consultant will also conduct an end market analysis to identify digital skills gaps and resources and propose scenarios for bridging this gap.

The objective of the mapping and the end market analysis is to enable the project team to efficiently identify the structures interested and capable in participating in the project

• To enable the project team to efficiently identify the type of support needed to be provided for identified structures (material support or capacity building) and the nature of  contribution that these identified structures are able and willing to provide within the project scope.
• To enable the project team to prioritize the skills gaps that are identified by the consultant in order to provide professional digital training aiming to bridge the gap between competencies of digital learning and digital needs in the labour market,
• To participate in digital entrepreneurship ventures.
• Suggested Methodology:

Phase 1

Desk review of available literature that can provide data and analysis of the ecosystem and social costs of each theme/ sector outlined in this TOR. This includes-but not limited to- policy briefs and research, academic articles, and primary source documents, annexes, associated documents, case studies, existing comparable interventions etc.

Phase 2

Meetings with relevant stakeholders such as local universities, incubators, companies, start-ups, employment centres, local and international NGOs, relevant line ministries and Local Employment and TVET Councils

Focus groups with the targeted beneficiaries (unemployed young graduates and young entrepreneurs) in addition to the most vulnerable group of women and people with disabilities in the targeted locations.

• Expected output:

The main output of the consultancy is to produce a survey report that includes::

1. Mapping report consists of an extensive assessment of the existing ecosystem in  Palestine focusing on the following:

• • A country-level benchmarking of active digital initiatives
  • Capacity and administrative assessment of existing Digital entrepreneurship service providers such as incubators, accelerators, and university programmes according to their mandate and programs, etc.
  • An overview of  main findings, lessons learned and recommendations of active incubators and digital entrepreneurship initiatives
  • Strategical recommendationsand best scenarios and endorsements to  be provided by the consultant based on the main findings in order to be considered for projects’ planning and implementation

1. End market analysis shall provide:

• A detailed overview of the digital competencies required by employers and of competencies acquired at university.
• Identify the gaps between competencies of digital learning at university and digital needs in the labour market.
• Propose interventions to bridge these gaps
• Deliverables:

• Timeline

The consultant will have a period of 90 calendar days to undertake the desk, field work, mapping, stakeholders meeting and end market analysis and submit the last draft of the study report.

• Location

The consultancy will be based in Palestine, covering West bank and Gaza Strip. In particular, the project targets Gaza Strip, Hebron, Ramallah and north-west Jerusalem.   

• Contract

The Consultant will be under contract with ACTED Palestine covering the period mentioned above.

However, ACTED reserves the right to cancel the contract awarded upon its terms and conditions.

The consultant will be line-managed by ACTED Project Manager or ACTED Country Director, in case of the former’s absence.

• Required qualifications and skills
• Professional expertise in producing research reports, analysis or equivalent combination of relevant experience
• Experience working with NGOs on producing survey reports communication materials
• Excellent coordination, organizational, management and communication skills
• Ability to work independently and under tight time constraints
• Capacity to provide professional deliverables; survey report and analysis.
• Experience in developing data collection tools for mapping and reportingof development projects
• Experience in developing information management systems for development projects, preferably in Digital inclusion.
• Familiarity with the digitalization ecosystem and main digital service providers and stakeholders in  Palestine
• Solid methodological and proven research skills.
• Familiarity with the labour market  issues, policies and economic empowerment in Palestine
• Experience working in research context of development projects.
• Excellent communication and written skills in English.

Desirable qualifications

-Experience in conducting baseline study surveys and  mapping analysis , preferably on digital inclusion and ICT sectors

-Minimum 5 years of experience working in socio-economic development projects, preferably on digital inclusion and  ICT sectors

Financial Proposal

- Prices are valid for 30 days

- The submitted offers should be in EURO including VAT. The contracted consultant  should be able to issue Payment request in addition to deduction at source certificate or will deduct a percentage of the final payment according to Palestinian Taxation department & laws.  

- Prices include all types of expenses such as transportations, etc.

- The remuneration is to be paid based on the following milestones clarified in the Deliverables table above

Terms and conditions:

- Bidding is open for Individual consultants and consultancy firms/entities with proven experience in relevant assignments

- Preferably, interested entities to be physically active in both West Bank and Gaza Strip. ACTED will contract one entity for the consultation assignment in both West Bank and Gaza Strip.

- in case the interested entities in WB do not have a branch in GAZA, it is legible the selected entity can subcontract a third service provider in Gaza Strip  in order to implement the consultancy mission in Gaza Strip.

- The interested entity must provide all administrative documents of the subcontractor (profile, contact details, technical experience, samples of produced documents and CVs).

- All formal correspondences and financial payments will be addressed to the main contractor who applied to this quotation.

- Interested consultants/entities must submit the proposals in 3 separated documents:

1. A detailed profile (CVs, brochure, flyer, 2 samples of previous produced mapping reports, surveys, research studies, etc.)

*Accident Insurance policy for the consultant or team who will work for this consultation assignment

1. Technical proposal (methodology, tools, timeframe, work plan etc.)
2. Financial proposal to be clearly reflecting the deliverables mentioned in the table above (detailed budget.

*Confirmation of ability to provide a VAT invoices otherwise 10% should be deducted

• in case of the consultancy firms/entity, in addition to all of the aforementioned 3 documents,must provide the following :  

1. Source of deduction
2. Registration certificate

• ACTED reserves the right to negotiate with the most competitive offer and request a best and final offer before awarding a contract.
• Successful entity will be responsible for all logistics related to implementing this assignment, including facilitation of meetings, workshops, and arranging transportation and any other activities or requirements. All related costs should be included in the financial proposal.
• Proposals and prices must be valid for 30 days after the date of the deadline of submission.
• The selection criteria will be considered as follows:

• • 20% for detailed profile
  • 30% for Technical proposal
  • 50% for Financial proposal
• Duration of the assignment 90 calendar days starting from the date of contract signature (in October2018)
• Proposals received after exact time and date specified for receipts will be considered late and will not be accepted for evaluation.
• All bids must be submitted  the in a sealed envelope or by E-mail consisting  of 3 separated documents: technical, financial offers  and detailed profile to [email protected] no later than 29th  September, 2018 at 13:00 PM