For Individual Consultant/Consortium of consultants

The TB Europe Coalition (“TBEC”), non-profit foundation registered in the Netherlands, is pleased to announce a call for expression of interest to develop operational guidelines and conduct in-country baseline assessments in line with MAF-TB checklist (tentatively in 5 countries of WHO/Euro region) and support civil society national activities to boost the accountability processes in the framework of the implementation of the current tasks of Regional project “PRO-ACT TB 2022” funded by Stop TB Partnership/UNOPS in relation to grant activities being “Challenge Facility for Civil Society Round 9”.

Background information of the project:

The aim of Challenge Facility for Civil Society (CFCS) grants, provided by the Stop TB Partnership[1], is to transform the TB response so that it is rights-based, gender-transformative, people-centered and accountable.

The CFCS grant for the EECA region supports community and civil society actors at national and regional levels to implement key actions to achieve the targets and commitments made in the Political Declaration on the Fight against Tuberculosis (Political Declaration on TB) which was endorsed at the UN High-Level Meeting on TB (UN HLM on TB). This Political Declaration on TB was signed by UN member states in 2018 - a set of clear goals, guidelines and commitments that countries agree to take on and implement to combat tuberculosis by 2030. In particular, this concerns improving access to diagnosis and treatment; protection of human rights and overcoming stigma and discrimination against people with tuberculosis; introduction of treatment models focused on human needs; socio-psychological support of patients; support for research and efficient use of financial resources.

CFCS grant serving to strengthen the engagement and effectiveness of TB affected, community-based entities at national level to progress efforts to identify and overcome barriers to access, and to advance partnerships between civil society and TB affected communities in neighboring countries.

The regional project “PRO-ACT TB 2022” led by TBEC focused on Europe region (particularly Eastern Europe and Central Asia) to enhance civil society and community coordination and capacity to strategically contribute to national and regional efforts and reaching the targets of Political Declaration on TB. The project addresses the regional and national operational dimensions of the meaningful involvement of affected communities and civil society in TB response and ensure the learning channel between neighboring countries to share evidence on effective approaches of community advocacy for sustainable TB finance and rights-based, gender-equitable and people-centered TB services.

The objective of the assignment:

To support meaningful engagement of civil society and TB affected community in the national processes related to implementation of the multisectoral accountability framework on TB (MAF-TB) and related MAF-TB checklists.

The MAF-TB aims to guide the strengthening of accountability by Member States, as well as multisectoral partners and stakeholders, at national, regional and global levels in order to accelerate progress to end the TB epidemic by 2030. Ensuring meaningful engagement of civil society and TB affected communities in the National multisectoral mechanism is a critical aspect to speed up a progress towards ending TB. The role affected communities and civil society play in TB response, including  oversight and input towards regular review over the implementation of the commitments of Political Declaration resulted from the United Nations General Assembly High-level meeting on TB cannot be overestimated .  

Individual consultant/Consortium of consultants, which meet qualification requirements is encouraged to apply for the call to support civil society and TB affected communities’ involvement in the MAF-TB related processes, with the particular focus on participation in MAF-TB baseline assessments in five pilot countries of the EECA region.

The scope of work:

• Conduct a desk review on MAF-TB background documents and existing approaches to develop a research protocol operationalizing the MAF-TB checklist, with the focus on the Annex 2 on civil society and communities’ engagement in the End TB response;
• Develop research tools: guides for focus-group discussions, key informant interviews, questionnaires - as needed for civil society and TB affected communities’ focused MAF-TB baseline assessment in countries;
• Develop a structure of the analytical report template to document the outcomes of the in-countries baseline assessments and a template for the regional report summarizing in-countries experience;
• In cooperation with TBEC Secretariat to develop the terms of reference for the National civil-society/communities-led research teams;
• Conduct a regional capacity-building session on research methods for the National civil-society/communities-led research teams in 5 pilot countries;
• Organize three regional supervisory meetings for the National civil-society/communities-led research teams in 5 pilot countries;
• Provide a feedback to the 1^st and 2^nd drafts of five in-countries report with baseline assessment results;
• Develop regional recommendations summarizing in-countries experience to inform the regional policy paper;

Duration of the assignment and remuneration provisions:

• The work is expected to start upon signature of the specific agreement with the individual consultant/ each of consultant from consortium.
• The duration of the agreement is September, 2020 – December 31, 2020.
• Payment will be made based on the results of the submitted report, provision of all deliverables to TBEC team and revision of report according to comments provided.
• Remuneration will be paid in US Dollars, so the individual consultant/ each of consultant from consortium should have a USD bank account.
• The individual consultant/ each of consultant from consortium will be responsible for the payment of taxes according to the laws of his(her) country of residence

Qualification requirements:

• University degree in public health, social and medical fields
• Demonstrated experience in development of the research methodologies, conducting research and preparing analytical reports
• Knowledge of the key international and national strategies and policies on TB, particularly communities, rights and gender approaches
• Expertize in the functioning of the National TB programs and National governance approaches
• Knowledge of the grass-root needs and networking with the civil society and TB affected communities across the region of eastern Europe and Central Asia
• Experience in development and conducting capacity-building events
• Experience of collaboration with WHO entities, Stop TB partnership and other international organizations and technical agencies
• Experience of working with the MAF-TB approach is a plus
• Languages: good knowledge of English and Russian (in case of consortium the language knowledge could be complementary distributed among the consortium members)

Conditions:

1. Individual consultants/Consortium of Consultants are invited to submit expression of interest for the consultancy services mentioned above.

1. TBEC offers the following type of cooperation:
2. Consultancy Agreement with an Individual Consultant/Expert/Each of consultant from Consortium. The Individual Consultant/Consortium of Consultants will be responsible for the payment of taxes according to the laws of his(her) country of residence. Remuneration will be paid in US Dollars, so individual consultant/ each of consultants from consortium shall have a USD bank account
3. The contract will be awarded on the competitive basis to Individual consultants/Consortium of Consultants with the highest qualifications and meeting all requirements described in Terms of References (ToR[1]). Individual consultants/Consortium of Consultants will be evaluated based on the qualifications.  
4. Consultancy fee for a given assignment will be based on the cost of the final product and will be negotiated with Individual consultants/Consortium of Consultants with the highest evaluation results.
5. Your expression of interest should contain the following documents:

• CV with proven experience and qualifications (in Eng/Rus, not more than 3 pages).
• Cover letter (in Eng/Rus, not more than 3 pages), should clearly describe the relevant experience and skills.
• In case of consortium application - alongside with the CV for each member of consortium, there should be a cover letter clearly outlining the role each member of the consortium will play conducting the assignment, complementarity of qualifications and skills and the approach to fulfil the assignment and deliver results.

Failure to meet this requirements will lead to automatic disqualification of application;

6. All documents for expression of your interest should be submitted electronically to Anna Medvedenko, Administrative Officer, TBEC, at the following address [email protected]
7. The deadline for receipt of your expression of interest: September 16, 2020, 6 PM, Kyiv time. Late proposals will be rejected.
8. Selected candidate will be contacted by September 21, 2020.  
9. The evaluation and selection will be conducted through procurement procedures set out in the TBEC internal policies.

[1] All the short-listed Consultants/Experts will be included in the TBEC Consultancy pool for potential future cooperation according to the Consultants’ expertize.

[1] http://www.stoptb.org/global/awards/cfcs/about.asp