Consultancy to support the development Referral network

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Consultancy to support the development (update/unifying) of the current referral network mechanisms involving User Centered Approach Steering Committee (UCA SC) organization members in addition to other Rehab service providers at national level, Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR), rehabilitation centers, other key service providers, with a focus on socio economic services, and the representatives of related ministries (Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Social Affairs, of education...) in the West Bank.

Under the projects: Multi-stakeholder Initiatives Towards more Effective Response to Persons with Disabilities Needs, and Demands in the State of Palestine and Fostering Multi-stakeholders Mobilisation for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in their Community in Marginalized Areas of oPt

CONTEXT
Given the many restrictions on its physical and economic means, the unstable political situation and a lack of centralized political authority, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has only very limited capacity to deliver social services or enforce existing legislation. This affects the estimated 308,000 persons with disabilities (PWDs) living in the State of Palestine disproportionately, limiting their scarce access to benefits and basic services. In the Gaza Strip, controlled by the de facto authorities and out of any influence by the PNA, ongoing conflict and poverty are steadily increasing the risk of disability and are having a negative impact on the availability, access, quality and sustainability of services. The situation has worsened since June 2007, as PWDs face even harsher consequences than the average population when confronted with the Government of Israel policy to enforce a blockade on the Gaza Israeli border and to strictly limit the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza including for medical reasons.

Handicap International (HI) started its work in Palestine in 1996, and has been working continuously in the West Bank since that time and in the Gaza Strip since 2002. The proposed action builds on the experiences and lessons learned from the AC 3 project in the West Bank and on a number of access to services projects implemented in Gaza.

Since 2010, HI and its partners in West Bank have focused their action on improving the quality of services for PWDs by strengthening technical capacities of the rehabilitation workers, and by ensuring improved access to assistive devices. Handicap International also worked to improve access to accessible transportation options and information about existing rehabilitation services.

The proposed action builds on the AC3 project and also includes several new components: the support to existing CBR programs in the West Bank; the focus on local multi-stakeholder collaboration bringing together locales authorities, DPOs, service providers and other community organizations; and the strengthening of linkages with mainstream service providers through referral networks and pilot initiatives to improve PWDs access to services.

Description of the current situation of PWDs: needs and rights are inadequately met by service providers and civil society throughout the State of Palestine. While civil society stakeholders have been developing service provision capacities, the lack of regulatory frameworks have undermined their quality and impact. Moreover, according to the service providers themselves, they are unable to cover the needs of PWDs for support and specific services, while mainstream services fail to include PWDs. In this sense, key rights of PWDs as outlined in the CRPD remain unfulfilled.

The Gaza Strip and the West Bank present context-specific challenges and, as a consequence, require different intervention strategies and activities.
However, there are common issues of concern for PWD in terms of quality, access and coordination of services, namely:
-Limited coverage of the full population of PWD by the existing services;
-Lack of technical capacity of rehabilitation service professionals on User Centered Approach (UCA) in centre policies and practices;
-Weak coordination mechanisms and referral systems between rehabilitation services providers and other mainstream actors;
-Lack of inclusive local initiatives aiming to improve PWDs access to mainstream services;
-Lack of support for disability service providers to implement strategic and sustainable plans for rehabilitation programs;
-Limited involvement of PWD families in rehabilitation;
-Social stigma and lack of proper information on disability and rehabilitation opportunities.

The project will respond to these common challenges in the West Bank and the Gaza strip, however the proposed action will also focus on some specific issues and target groups in each territory that relate to the different contexts and development stages of disability service providers.

In West Bank, the project aims to develop a more effective response and mechanisms for people with all types of impairments. Through this project, rehabilitation centers and DPOs will be supported to consolidate their implementation of the User Centered Approach (UCA), and referral mechanisms will be improved. In two specific target governorates, existing community-based rehabilitation (CBR) services will be supported technically to develop their approaches in line with the 2010 WHO CBR guidelines. At the municipal level, in 3 targeted municipalities, the project will support the creation of multi-stakeholder working groups and the development and implementation of inclusive initiatives.

DESCRIPTION OF THE REQUIRED SERVICE PROVISION
Within the frame work of the current projects Multi-stakeholder Initiatives Towards more Effective Response to Persons with Disabilities Needs, and Demands in the State of Palestine and Fostering Multi-stakeholders Mobilisation for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in their Community in Marginalized Areas of oPt Project and complementary to what have been developed during the past three years in the work of the UCA SC, the consultant will support the development of a referral system involving members of the UCASC, community-based rehabilitation (CBR) services, national rehabilitation centers, socio economic service providers , Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Social Affairs, and other Ministries representatives, such as Education. The consultant will work closely first with the UCA SC and the targeted rehabilitation service providers, and the CBR program supporting them to identify the needs of the current situation of the referral mechanisms, analysing the strengths and weakness. Accordingly, the consultant will then, based on the analysis of the current situation, but as well as on further analysis and mapping of other key stakeholders to ensure a comprehensive referral system (with a specific focus on socio economic service providers) , suggest work strategies, develop policies, and help them developing and ensuring a comprehensive referral system, to promote mainstreaming and enhance access to services for PWDs . Strategy for communication and coordination with the MSWG will be as well identified, to ensure the best implementation of the referral system. Crucial task of the consultant will be to monitor and follow up the implementation of the defined referral mechanisms with the different stakeholders of the UCASC and of the MSWG.

The expected referral system will target persons with disabilities to improve the continuity of social services among:
-Mainstream, specialized and support services
-Vertical transformation between the same services according to the age.
-Horizontal transformation between the different social services according to the needs.

The key stakeholders of should represent the multistakeholder approach include:
-Persons with disabilities and their representative organizations (DPO)
-Social services providers (focusing on, but not limited to, UCA SC members organizations, CBR programmes, national rehabilitation centres, and socio economic service providers)
Authorities (Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Social Affairs, and other Ministries representatives, such as Education)The expected referral system will respect and support the main characteristics of good social services : availability, affordability, accessibility, accountability and quality.

Specific objectives of the consultancy
Objective: within the scope of the project, to provide support to key stakeholders to analyse, develop and enhance current referral mechanisms, to ensure a comprehensive sustainable referral system, in order to promote mainstreaming and inclusion of PWDs , with a focus on access to socio economic services and the link between specialized and support services (e.g rehabilitation) and mainstream services.

Specific Objectives:
-Review of current situation of referral system
-Analysis and mapping of potential key stakeholders of referral system.
-Supporting key stakeholders (the UCA SC members organizations, CBR, and other service providers in addition to the responsible authorities) to analyse/ identify the needs to update and enhance the current referral mechanisms, to promote and sustain the implementation of a comprehensive referral system.
-Supporting rehabilitation centers in setting up and developing /update their current referral policies, protocols and administrative guidelines of referral mechanisms among each others and to others social services (especially socio economic services)
-Supporting CBR programs in setting up and formalization their current practices of referral mechanisms based on the scope of CBR matrix.
-Developing a strategy to design comprehensive sustainable referral mechanism, with a specific focus on access to socio economic services for PWDs
-Recommending methods to support the service providers in developing working strategies of referral mechanisms.
-Develop Monitoring , follow up and sustainability strategy of the implementation of referral system

Expected Out comes:
-Design and develop situation analysis methodology to evaluate the current situation of the referral mechanism already existing among the key stakeholders (the UCA SC members organizations, CBR, and other social service providers) considering the role of the responsible authorities
-Conduct the situation analysis of the current referral system in the west bank, describing the current referral system obtain all relevant information about how the current referral system is structured, how it is supposed to function, and how it functions in reality.
-Report on findings will be shared with UCA SC members, CBR, and rehabilitation centers and other key stakeholders (Ministries, socio economic service providers to get feedback and recommendations.
-Draft strategy and action plan based upon the situation analysis and recommendations by all referral stakeholders to improve the current referral mechanisms.
-Guideline for implementation of suggested referral system include suggested efficient referral process, roles responsibilities and tools to facilitate the referral process
-Include a strategy of coordination between the UCA sc CBR program and MSWG to promote the best implementation of referral system
-Include the design and development of a monitoring and evaluation and sustainability system of the referral system implementation
-Follow up and support for UCA SC members, CBR, other service providers in the implementation of the drafted plan in full coordination responsible authorities.

CONSULTANTS PROFILE
-Higher education in field of social services or closely related field (MSc or Phd).
-Knowledge and experience on social services (including but not limited to rehabilitation or health care) management/policy development.
-Knowledge and experience in organization development.
-Knowledge and experience on referral mechanisms.
-Five years of relevant work experience.
-Good social and communication skills, able to respect confidentiality.
-The consultant is expected to have a sense of personal security, be aware of the security situation and take respective action, especially when approaching check point
-Excellent English language skills (reading, writing and speaking).

SERVICE DURATION AND LOCATION
-Start date: August 10th 2014
-Mission end date: November 10th 2014
-Service location: West Bank.

REPORT
Number of Reports: two reports expected in the mission
-first one on the situation analysis situation findings, including the strategy proposed
-The second one end of mission report.

The reports should include:
-Executive summary.
-Methodology.
-Findings and discussion.
-Recommendations
-Plan and strategy proposed
-M&E plan
-Sustainability plan

Language: English

RESOURCE PERSON
Within the framework of the consultancy, the Consultant will be in collaboration with Handicap Internationals teams.

BUDGET
Once the short listing of applicants is done, Handicap International shall contact the shortlisted applicants to provide a full proper price quote with his/her financial expectations according to the services requested fitting with the below criteria:
-Price quote shall be in English and in ILS currency.
-Prices shall be inclusive of VAT.
-Delivery timeframe & payment terms shall be clear and mentioned in the quote fitting with the start/end dates requested by Handicap International.
-Price quote shall be signed and stamped.

Please send your CV with at least 2 references cover letter and a detailed technical offer no later than July 31st 2014 with the reference (Rehabilitation consultancy to support the development (update/unifying) of a current referral network mechanisms among User Centered Approach Steering Committee (UCA SC) organization members, Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR), other rehabilitation centers, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Social Affairs in the West Bank) to

[email protected]

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