SYRIA – CONSULTANCY FOR TECHNICAL ASSESSMENT & RETROFITTING DESIGN (F/M)

ABOUT THE MISSION

Deadline to respond to the consultancy : 02/01/2024

Start Date: 1st of March 2024

End Date: 30th of November 2024

Location: North West Syria

SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL (SI) is a humanitarian NGO which is committed to meeting the vital needs of populations faced with a major crisis of human or natural origin and to strengthening their resilience, particularly regarding Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, and food security.

After over ten years of conflict in Syria, the impact of present and past hostilities on civilians remains the principal driver of humanitarian needs. North East (NES) and North West Syria (NWS) contexts are both characterized by: (i) ongoing and protracted displacements with low return opportunities, into densely-populated areas where humanitarian assistance is overstretched, (ii) no availability of alternative durable solutions, such as eventual re-installation or re-integration within host community because of social and cultural related issues, as well as the will of authorities to protect local communities, (iii) the depletion of productive assets and savings, (iv) limited economic opportunities and (v) the widespread destruction and contamination of agriculture and water related infrastructure by past and recent air raids, shelling and explosive remnants as well as other infrastructures have had a profound impact on the population. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated a fragile situation with a potentially disastrous impact on vulnerability levels of communities across the region. Eventually, the area of intervention is facing a cholera outbreak since September 2022, which further demonstrate how public health is at stake.

ABOUT THE CONSULTANCY

Over a period of 18 months, the overall objective of the project, under the FPI grant, will be to enhance access to education and health services in Northwest Syria, following the earthquakes of February 2023. SI will support the restoration of the education and health systems in NWS, focusing primarily on facilities located in the districts of Harim, Idlib and Jisr Elshogur, in Idlib governorates as well as Jebel Saman in Aleppo governorate.

Under this consultancy, the Consultant must support SI to rehabilitate and improve school and public health facilities affected by the earthquake, ensuring they are structurally sound, safe, and conducive to impart education and health services as intended. This includes evaluating the current state of the facilities vis-à-vis their seismic strength, identifying areas of improvement, and developing a retrofitting plan, if required.

The main objectives of this consultancy are:

(a) Structural assessment, design and tender documents

(b) Carry out monitoring visits to the site for quality assurance of the retrofitting works.

SI will help and support the consultant for collecting data, drawings or any other information required, for implementing the activities under this consultancy, from the Local Authorities.

Structural assessment

The Consultant shall conduct a thorough structural assessment of selected earthquake-damaged schools and public health facilities. A full report should be prepared on the findings and used as the Design Basis Report in the next step.

Repairing/Retrofitting plan and Preliminary & Detailed design

After the DBR is approved by SI, the Consultant shall review the selected schools and health facilities against the seismic risk and required mitigation measures. The said review will encompass adequacy of existing structures against seismic loads, as well as an assessment of possible repairing/retrofitting measures that may be required based on BBB approach. A full report and recommendations should be prepared.

Preliminary Design: Explore a range of retrofitting and repair options applying SI’s BBB approach for each facility, considering both structural and non-structural elements, and evaluate the cost-effectiveness and feasibility of each solution, considering the building’s architectural and historical significance, as well as budget constraints and submit the findings with recommendations to SI for selecting the most appropriate retrofit option.

YOUR PROFIL

Type of Firm and Specialization Areas

The preferred firm shall primarily be an engineering/ architectural consultancy registered in NW Syria and well experienced in the design and retrofitting/restoration of public schools and health centers in post disaster recovery contexts.

This experience shall have addressed a broad range of simple buildings infrastructure for: hospitals and health centers; primary, secondary and specialist technical schools; public administrative facilities and public markets. These essentially will have been successfully addressed through close working relationships with local authorities, with strong emphasis on community participation in producing a culturally & climatically appropriate built environment.

Corporate Qualifications

The preferred firm shall demonstrate commercial qualifications for the NW Syria context by submission of currently valid Articles of Association, Chamber of Commerce Registration, tax payment certificate, corporate and employee police clearances and for the good governance context, no history of blacklisting by UN and/or any other international development institutions.

Years of Experience

The preferred firm shall demonstrate at least 10 years design experience for multiple public building sites. This shall include at least five years’ experience in design and construction for primary/ secondary schools and public hospitals/ community health centers.

Firms Key Attributes

The preferred firm will demonstrate a thorough familiarity with the relevant overarching National government regulations and standards and the specific standard buildings drawings and technical specifications for the Ministries of Health and Education. It also shall evidence of familiarity with disaster resilient planning and building design based on international best practice enabling a Build Back Better initiative and higher standards than those currently prevailing in NW Syria.

Moreover, the preferred firm must demonstrate a strong capacity for traumatized stakeholder engagement in multicultural participatory development team environment embracing National/Provincial government agencies, education/health officials and community members. This will be a very demanding project which expects timely, high-quality outcomes on all fronts

The Consultant’s team must comprise of at least one Project Manager and one Senior Structural Engineer/Designer.

In general, the consultant’s team should combine the following criteria:

• A solid and diversified experience in designing, supervision or construction of health facilities, schools or similar nature of services in NW Syria.
• Experience in the implementation of Humanitarian and development intervention in emergency and post emergency contexts in NW Syria.
• Experience in evaluation of related interventions (preferably in similar context from reputed donor agencies and international organizations)
• Full working knowledge of English and excellent report writing,
• A proven record of experience of similar nature of works.
• The Senior Structural Engineer/Designer should be licensed to certify building structure designs in NW Syria
• (Afrin and Azaz)