Consultant

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The assignment to be carried out by an individual evaluator (consultant) comprises of two assignments. The context, details and evaluation criteria of both assignments have been given below:

Assignment 1
A.i Context of Assignment 1:
Debt may be the most significant barrier to sustainable return and reintegration for returnees and potential migrants, and yet its significance is underreported, and it remains largely unaddressed by reintegration and development programming. Bangladesh has some of the most expensive labour migration corridors in the world. To finance their labour migration, most migrants in Bangladesh take loans from local money lenders, often using land – on which the migrant’s extended family depend for subsistence agriculture – as collateral. Where land is used as collateral, the inability to repay the loan can have a catastrophic impact; not just on the returning migrant, who is then pushed to take on additional loans and attempt more high-risk migration, but it also risks displacing entire families should the money lender claim the family land. Unpaid debts may also result in harassment by debt collectors, with previous IOM beneficiaries having been subjected to physical abuse and threats to their families, as well as creating significant psychological pressure that interferes with the pursuit of sustainable livelihoods. It may also result in a debt bondage relationship, including forced labour.

In this context, the objective of this project titled “Bangladesh: Debt Mediation for Returnee Migrants” was to contribute to improved reintegration approaches for returnees to Bangladesh through addressing concerns around debt liabilities of the returnees and building capacity of the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) and civil society actors to deal with such cases.

The project had two key outcomes:

1. The GoB and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Bangladesh consistently apply evidence-based policies to address the challenges associated with migration-related debt in support of the sustainable reintegration of returnees.

2. The households of the in-debt migrants, particularly female migrants who returned to Bangladesh benefit from the pilot debt mediation initiative.

A.ii Evaluation Purpose and objective of Assignment 1:

This ex-post evaluation will be conducted to assess the overall performance of the project, including the extent to which planned activities and outputs of the project were achieved and the level with which the outputs are likely to contribute to the expected outcomes and objective.

The evaluation is meant to document lessons learned and best practices for use by the project management to improve the implementation of future projects as well as for the donor to assess the relevance of the intervention, and impact of the action according to the criteria set out below.

A.iii Scope of Assignment 1:

The evaluation will be conducted by an external individual evaluator. The evaluation will cover the entire project period from 1 April 2019 to 30 June 2022. The geographical scope of the evaluation is limited to Cumilla and Munshiganj, and Dhaka Districts of Bangladesh.

The evaluation is expected to present recommendations, good practices and lessons learned that can be derived from the analysis. The evaluation will also assess the extent to which this project has incorporated cross-cutting elements and addressed relevant issues including gender incorporation, rights-based approach.

A.iv Evaluation Criteria of Assignment 1:

The final evaluation will use OECD-DAC criteria, namely: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, impact and coherence. The evaluator will ensure that the findings are analyzed with particular focus on gender and other cross-cutting issues.

A.v Evaluation Questions of Assignment 1:

Relevance:

– To what extent did the project respond to beneficiary needs, Government of Bangladesh priorities, IOM and other related global frameworks (SDG)?
– How did the project design incorporate relevant cross-cutting issues (i.e. gender, human rights and environment)?
– To what extent was the project adapted or been able to adapt to changing external conditions (COVID-19) in order to ensure project outcomes?

Effectiveness:

– Have the project outputs and outcomes been achieved in accordance with the stated plans?
– To what extent are project outcomes leading to the stated objective?
– What factors have contributed to achievement/failure to achieve results?

Efficiency:

– Was the project implemented in the most efficient way?
– Were the project activities undertaken and were the outputs delivered on time?

Coherence:

– To what extent did the project link with or contribute to other initiatives being led by the Government of Bangladesh, IOM and other partners that would contribute to improved reintegration approaches for returnees to Bangladesh through addressing concerns around debt liabilities of the returnees?

Impact:

– Was there any positive/negative effects/impacts produced by the project?
– Were the effects produced by the project intended/unintended?

Sustainability:

– Do the target agencies have any plans to continue making use of the knowledge generated from the project implementation?
– Is there any foreseeable long-term impact leading to future possibilities for activities that would build upon what the project promoted/achieved?

Assignment 2

B.i Context of Assignment 2:

Bangladesh has emerged as a major country of origin with more than 700,000 Bangladeshi workers migrating in 2018 mostly to the Middle East and Arab countries and the remittances sent by Bangladeshi migrant workers have also grown over time (from USD 1.2 billion in 1995 to USD 13.5 billion 2017)1 . At the national level, there have been renewed efforts from the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) and related stakeholders to strengthen migration governance to protect the rights and promote the welfare of migrant workers. The GoB enacted the Overseas Employment and Migrants Act 2013 and Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Policy 2016 and has been leading the migration discourse in global and regional platforms. IOM Bangladesh is supporting the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment (MoEWOE) and Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) in this effect through the implementation of capacity enhancement initiatives. IOM has conducted research and training to sensitize stakeholders on basic principles of ethical recruitment.

Similarly, overseas migration for employment plays a vital role in socio-economic development and poverty reduction in Nepal and is a major source of livelihood for Nepali youth. On average, every day 1,000 youths migrate overseas through formal channels. According to Nepal’s Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE)2 , in a span of 10 years between 2008/9 and 2016/17, 3.5 million labour permits were issued for Nepali migrant workers to work in over 140 countries. The Government of Nepal (GoN) has increased its efforts to reduce the vulnerabilities of migrant workers by introducing new policies and reviewing the existing Foreign Employment Act. A ministerial directive was introduced in 2015 which requires foreign employers from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and Malaysia to cover the cost of Nepalese migrant workers’ visas and airfare, popularly known as the “Free Visa, Free Ticket” scheme. This scheme significantly limits the service fees that recruitment agencies can charge migrants to no more than NPR 10,000 (USD 100) if the employers do not pay Recruitment Agencies (RAs) for their administrative cost. A survey conducted by IOM in 2018 on an electronics manufacturing company found that over 90% of migrant workers interviewed reported having paid recruitment fees between NPR 50,000 – NPR 170,000 (USD 500 – USD 1,700) to labour recruiters in order to secure employment.

Despite these efforts, many Bangladeshi and Nepali migrant workers continue to face vulnerabilities and exploitation in the destination countries from employers, and in some cases also in the host community. The challenges range from difficult living conditions to increased risks of abuse and harassment, especially of women. Practices such as the charging of exorbitant recruitment fees to jobseekers, false promises of jobs, and misleading information regarding the terms and conditions or nature of employment have been shown to lead to debt bondage, forced labour, and human trafficking.

Given this background, IOM Bangladesh and Nepal, with funding from IOM Development Fund, implemented the project ”Promoting Recruitment Industry Reform to Achieve Ethical Recruitment (PROSPER) in Bangladesh and Nepal”, from 1 December 2019 to 28 February 2023, to promote and strengthen the ethical recruitment system to ensure rights of migrant workers through the introduction and compliance of the IRIS standard . The rationale behind choosing Bangladesh and Nepal over other labour sending countries in South Asia were mainly because both Bangladesh and Nepal have received preliminary interest from private recruitment agencies (PRAs) to pilot testing IRIS. In addition, Nepal’s role as chair of the Regional Consultative Process on Overseas Employment and Contractual Labor for Countries of Origin in Asia (CP) and Bangladesh’s role as chair of the Technical Working Group on ethical recruitment have contributed to prioritizing Bangladesh and Nepal over other countries. The project intended to implement comprehensive capacity building interventions with selected interested private recruitment agencies and make national authorities and RAs aware of good practices in the regulation of recruitment agencies in both the countries. The objective and outcomes of the projects are stated below:

Objective: Contribute to safeguarding the rights of migrant workers, particularly female migrant workers, through the promotion of ethical recruitment practices in Bangladesh and Nepal.

Outcome 1: Private recruitment agencies and public employment services practice ethical recruitment by complying with the employer pays principle.

Outcome 2: Governments demonstrate commitment to improved regulation of recruitment agencies and public employment services.

B.ii Evaluation Purpose and Objective of Assignment 2:

This ex-post evaluation will be conducted to assess the overall performance of the project, including the extent to which planned activities and outputs of the project were achieved and the level with which the outputs are likely to contribute to the expected outcomes and objective.

The evaluation is meant to document lessons learned and best practices for use by the project management team to improve the implementation of future projects as well as for the donor to assess the relevance of the intervention and the impact of the action according to the criteria set out below.

B.iii Scope of Assignment 2:

The evaluation will be conducted by an external individual evaluator. The evaluation will cover the entire project period from 1 December 2019 to 28 February 2023. This project contributed to safeguarding the rights of migrant workers through the promotion of ethical recruitment practices in Bangladesh and Nepal so the evaluation will take place in these two countries. Ministries and PRAs in Bangladesh and Nepal were the key stakeholders during the implementation of the project and the evaluation protocol will be designed considering these stakeholders in these two countries. The specific people to be interviewed will be identified during the inception period of the evaluation.
The evaluation is expected to present recommendations, good practices and lessons learned that could be derived from the analysis. The evaluation will also assess the extent to which this project has incorporated cross-cutting considerations and addressed relevant issues including gender mainstreaming and a rights-based approach.

B.iv Evaluation Criteria:

The ex-post evaluation will be based in the following OECD-DAC criteria: relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, impact, and coherence. The evaluator will ensure that the findings are analyzed with particular focus on gender and other cross-cutting issues.

B.v Evaluation Questions

Relevance:

– To what extent did the project respond to the needs of both recruiting agencies & migrant workers, Government of Bangladesh’s priorities, IOM, and other related global frameworks (SDG, MiGOF)?
– To what extent was the project adapted or been able to adapt to changing external conditions (COVID-19) to ensure project outcomes?

Effectiveness:

– Have the project outputs and outcomes been achieved in accordance with the stated plans?
– To what extent are project outcomes leading to the stated objective?
– What factors have contributed to achievement/failure to achieve results?

Efficiency:

– Has the project been executed in a timely manner, in accordance with the work plan?
– Have the available financial and human resources been used optimally? To what extent were the resources (funds, expertise, and time) successfully converted into results?
– Was the project effective in building partner capacity? If so, how was the partner capacity built? If not, why not? If not, how can this be improved for future projects?

Coherence:

– To what extent did the project link with or contribute to other initiatives being led by the Government of Bangladesh, IOM, and other partners that would contribute to improved reintegration approaches for returnees to Bangladesh and Nepal through addressing concerns around debt liabilities of the returnees?

Impact:

– What significant positive or negative, intended or unintended, change(s) did the intervention bring or is expected to bring?
– Were the effects/impacts produced by the project intended/unintended?

Sustainability:

– What mechanisms have been put in place to ensure the continuation of the results achieved? What mechanisms could be put in place to be more likely to sustain the progress achieved?
– Do the recruiting agencies and government agencies have any plans to continue making use of the knowledge generated from the project implementation?
– Is there any foreseeable long-term impact leading to future possibilities for activities that would build upon what the project promoted/achieved?

Cross-cutting considerations:

– How did the project design and implementation incorporate gender considerations?
– Did the project effectively adopt a right-based approach?

Evaluation Methodology (Assignment 1 & 2):

The methodology will involve a combination of desk review and in-depth interviews as a means of gathering and triangulating data from agencies and stakeholders. Specifically, the following methodologies are proposed:

– Desk review of relevant project documents, including the project proposal and revisions; donor reports, other reports of the project including study reports, project budget and financial reports; relevant IOM strategies and guidance; and relevant national strategies and action plans.
– In-person interviews (KII) with government counterparts and project beneficiaries (fieldwork in Bangladesh and Nepal).
– Mixed methods (survey, KII, case study) will be used to assess the current state of the recruiting agencies and government bodies to handle ethical recruitment issues with improved quality.

The precise evaluation modalities, methods and sampling will be finalized by IOM and the evaluator during the inception phase.

Deliverables: Tangible and measurable outputs of the work assignment

Assignment 1: Evaluation deliverables

The evaluator will be responsible for providing the following deliverables:
– First deliverable: Inception report with at least evaluation matrix including refined evaluation questions, sub-questions, data collection tools and workplan including all collected data in excel or CSV format.
– Second deliverable: One draft report presenting the preliminary findings of the evaluation.
– Third deliverable: One final report incorporating IOM Bangladesh’s feedback.
– Final deliverable: Evaluation brief (according to the template) and partially completed Management response matrix

Assignment 2: Evaluation deliverables

The evaluator will be responsible for providing the following deliverables:
– First deliverable: Inception report with at least evaluation matrix including refined evaluation questions, sub-questions, data collection tools and workplan including all collected data in excel or CSV format.
– Second deliverable: One draft report presenting the preliminary findings of the evaluation.
– Third deliverable: One final report incorporating IOM Bangladesh’s feedback.
– Final deliverable: Evaluation brief (according to the template) and partially completed Management response matrix.

Travel required:

The consultant needs to travel within the country for data collection under assignment 1. And for assignment 2 the consultant will be required to travel Nepal for data collection.

Required Qualifications and Experience:

The offers will be evaluated in compliance with the following requirements:

• Advanced university degree in social sciences, with extensive theoretical and practical experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative research in Bangladesh – preferably in the field of labour migration.
• Proven technical capacity in data collection and analysis through STATA/SPSS would be added advantage.
• Ability to submit a concise and well written report in English based on the field information/results of the surveys, KII and Focus Group Discussions.
• Ability to gather information in an objective appropriate and sensitive way by actively listening, paying full attention to the situation and information of participants.
• Ability to enter, transcribe, record, maintain data/information in Excel.
• Ability to work independently and with minimum supervision.
• High-level of integrity.

Languages

• Excellent knowledge of spoken and written English and Bangla.

Desirable Competencies:

Values

• Inclusion and respect for diversity: respects and promotes individual and cultural differences. Encourages diversity and inclusion.
• Integrity and transparency: maintains high ethical standards and acts in a manner consistent with organizational principles/rules and standards of conduct.
• Professionalism: demonstrates ability to work in a composed, competent and committed manner and exercises careful judgment in meeting day-to-day challenges.
• Courage: demonstrates willingness to take a stand on issues of importance.
• Empathy: shows compassion for others, makes people feel safe, respected and fairly treated.

Core Competencies – Behavioural indicators

• Teamwork: develops and promotes effective collaboration within and across units to achieve shared goals and optimize results.
• Delivering results produces and delivers quality results in a service-oriented and timely manner; is action-oriented and committed to achieving agreed outcomes.
• Managing and sharing knowledge continuously seeks to learn, share knowledge and innovate.
• Accountability: takes ownership for achieving the Organization’s priorities and assumes responsibility for own action and delegated work.
• Communication: encourages and contributes to clear and open communication; explains complex matters in an informative, inspiring and motivational way

Other:

The Proposal should be written in English.

Appointment will be subject to certification that the candidate is medically fit for appointment or visa requirements and security clearances.

How to apply

How to apply:

Send the application to [email protected] with the subject line “CFA-16/2023/C/DHK1: Consultant” by 24 January 2024.

CFA link: Careers | IOM Bangladesh, UN Migration | IOM Bangladesh

Each Submission Must Include the Following:

I. Technical Proposal: Technical Proposal with detailed methodology, tools, and work plan.
II. Consultant (Individual) Profile: The CV of the expert including records on past experience in similar assignments and name of the references.
III. Details of previous work
IV. Submission of at least two samples of similar work undertaken by the applicant.
V. Financial Proposal: List all costs (including VAT) associated with the assignment. In addition, please kindly provide a breakdown of national and international travel costs, if applicable.

Please keep the attachment size under 8 MB.

For any clarification, please contact [email protected]

APPLICATION WITHOUT PROPER REFERENCE CODE MENTIONED ABOVE WILL BE DISREGARDED

Please ensure that your application is complete with the above-mentioned documents. As incomplete applications generate an immense administrative burden for our organization. As a rule, candidates who have not properly submitted their application with required documents will be excluded from consideration.

Any attempt for persuasion will be considered as a disqualification.

ONLY SHORT-LISTED CANDIDATES WILL BE CALLED FOR ASSESSMENT