TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR INSTITUTIONAL CONTRACT

Title of the assignment

Alternative care study in Bangladesh

Purpose

To understand the situation and demographics of children in institutional care arrangements in Bangladesh, as well as the capacity of these institutions providing care, in order to provide recommendations for policy formulation and programme development focusing on family-based alternative care models

Location

Bangladesh-National and field level involvement for data collection all over the country

Estimated Duration

7 months, from 1 August 2021 to 28 February 2022

Reporting to Technical Supervisor of this assignment

Child Protection Specialist, Child Protection Section, UNICEF Bangladesh

1. Background

Adverse impacts of institutionalization on children’s developmental outcomes and well-being is widely recognized. Realizing this, many countries in the world are taking different initiatives to reduce the numbers of children living in institutional care and, whenever possible, to prevent institutionalization in the first place, or to reunite children with their families in line with their obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the UN Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children. When institutionalization is not in the child’s best interest, Department of Social Services under the Ministry of Social Welfare and UNICEF joined together to conduct a study on Alternative Care of Children (including children with disabilities) in Bangladesh under “Fostering Rights and Empowerment Among Most Marginalised Adolescents and Children with Disabilities in Bangladesh” project with European Union. The study will be conducted through the Child Sensitive Social Protection in Bangladesh Project (CSPB), Phase-II between UNICEF and the Ministry of Social Welfare.

The Government of Bangladesh is committed to protecting the rights of the child and ensuring appropriate alternative care: kinship care, foster care, other forms of family-based or family-like care, residential care or supervised independent living arrangements as opposed to institutional care for children in disadvantaged situations and for children without parental care. Recourse to alternative care should only be made when necessary, and in forms appropriate to promote the child’s well-being, aiming to find a stable and safe long-term response, including, where possible, reuniting the child with his or her family.

In Bangladesh, accurate and reliable numbers of children living in alternative care are not known. Accountability and follow up mechanisms to ensure standard of care in those institutions are also not well established. An appropriate referral mechanism is also lacking in these institutions. The Children Act 2013 provides for a Child Welfare Board led by District Deputy Directors and Upazilla Chief Executive Officers (UNO) at district and upazilla levels respectively; however due to the fact that these boards are not established in all district and upazillas, the role vested to these boards for ensuring standards of alternative care and to promote child well-being are not consistently implemented. Official records typically capture only a small fraction of the actual number of children in residential care, and children living in privately-owned centers are often not counted. Options for family-based alternative care such as foster care, adoption, kinship care and other family-based care options are also limited for children without parental care and who have been orphaned.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to invest in efforts to produce useful, accurate and comprehensive listings of all existing residential care facilities and to undertake, at regular intervals, thorough counts of children and reasons for living in these facilities in order to help strengthen official records. Periodic data collection about the well-being of children in residential care will also be necessary to follow up. All of this information will serve to strengthen government capacity to design effective care reform and respond to the specific needs of children living in residential care to be raised up in a family type environment according to the best interest of a child and CRC.

To begin addressing this gap, DSS under MSW and UNICEF are commissioning this study to provide information about the current landscape of institutional care in the country. To complement this study,a follow-up survey on selected measures of well-being, utilizing a representative sample of children living in residential care, will be conducted every two years by DSS and MSW using tools and questionnaires developed under this study. This will assist in providing a more routine picture of progress regarding children in institutional care in the country.

1. Purpose, Objectives and Expected Results

The overall purpose of the study is to understand the situation and demographics of children in institutional care arrangements in Bangladesh, as well as the capacity of these institutions providing care.

The specific objectives of the study include:

1. To conduct a census of residential care facilities and a profile and enumeration of children in residence at the facilities, considering age, gender, mental and physical ability level, special needs, geographic home of origin, profile regarding the child’s institutionalization, etc.
2. To assess the budget and funding sources in facilities/institutions; organizational structure and operating environment; protocols, care standards, or standard operating procedures; qualifications, performance and quantity of staff of the institutions; type, level, and quality of services provided for children and/or families (considering reintegration); and referral mechanisms;
3. To understand views of the situation and care of children living in residential care facilities from children, family members of these children, service providers, government officials, and other relevant stakeholders;
4. To design well-being data collection tools for DSS and MSW’s routine follow-up with the children living in residential care facilities.

The expected results of this study will provide the Ministry of Social Welfare, DSS and UNICEF information for developing a strategy for de-institutionalization policy for family-based alternative care. The recommendations that culminate from the study findings will address how best to develop out a family-based care model and a mechanism for periodic follow-up. This will help ensure evidence-based policy and programmatic decions-making for children without parental care, orphans and any other children who will need family-based alternative care.

1. Description of Assignment

Scope

The agency which will conduct the study nationwide with any private or government residential care institution housing girl and/or boy children between the ages of birth to 17 years. The census of institutions should cover any that is currently housing children or has in the last 6 months. Staff to be considered in the capacity assessment include full-time, part-time, and volunteer roles, spanning executive leadership to administrative and logistics support roles.

Methodology

The study will be a mixed methods study, with both mapping and census, quantitative methods and qualitative methods for best achieving the purpose and specific objectives. The contracted agency will propose a detailed methodology, with sampling strategy for each method, including expected limitations and ethical considerations, given the vulnerability of the participating children and sensistivity of the topics to be explored. 

For the census, the methodology should be “rolling” in order to account for the transition of children, with the acknowledgement that this will be cross-sectional data point, which can be replicated over time. Initial consultations with key stakeholders and document and literature reviews will build out the listing, which will need to be supplemented with on-the-ground knowledge at the lowest levels.

Children in the care facilities (10+ years) are expected to be interviewed/surveyed, in addition to a sample of family members of these children. Other individuals that will be included in the primary data collection effort include: service providers, government officials, and other relevant stakeholders. The following list of specific stakeholders should be accommodated in the methodological proposal:

• Ministry of Social Welfare
• Department of Social Services
• Ministry of Women and Children Affairs
• Department of Women Affairs
• Orphanages run by public and private funds
• SOS Children’s village Bangladesh
• Save the Children
• World Vision
• Aparajeyo Bangladesh
• Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers Association
• Families for Children
• Dhaka Ahsania Mission
• Association for Community Development
• Hope Foundation for Women and Children of Bangladesh
• Manusher Jonno Foundation
• BRAC
• And any other relevant organization.

The contracted agency will be complemented by the engagement of a national technical committee (TC), formed by DSS for national ownership, which will include participation of experts and representatives of NGO/INGOs. This TC will provide overall technical guidance on the development and implementation of the methodology, data collection tools, analysis, report writing (including recommendations development).

Key tasks

The contracted agency which will be awarded with the contract will be responsible for carrying out the following tasks:

• Gather and review existing background documents, reports, international conventions, guidelines and literature relevant to alternative care for children hold initial consultations with key stakeholders; and provide written overview of the documents in the inception report
• Develop inception report with detailed study design, methodology (any sampling, limitations, ethical considerations), data collection and analysis tools, and reporting template.
• Obtain ethical approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB) in Bangladesh.
• Present inception report, methodology of study, tools to the national TC and update the committee about progress of the assignment over time.
• Assist in organizing the national TC meetings and preparation of committee meeting notes
• Finalize the data collection tools in consultation with TC members, reflecting feedback.
• Oversee pilot testing of data collection tools and finalize the tools. Create database(s) and analysis frameworks.
• Carry out data collection (mapping/census, enumeration and demographics of children, institutional capacity assessment), with travel to the field for data collection and consultation.
• Carry out data cleaning, reflecting all final data.
• Analyse data and present information from primary data collection as well as secondary data review and analysis of documents.
• Prepare presentation of key preliminary findings, creating tables and charts to present to national TC for vetting of data analysis and report
• Take action to filling in data gaps identified after the initial data analysis and national TC’s feedback.
• (Based on the study findings) Develop data collection tools and implementation guidelines for the

follow-up well-being survey and finalize in consultation with national TC.

Ethical and other considerations:

This study will be held to the highest standards employed by UNICEF. This means, the agency will abide by the following:

• UNICEF Procedure for Ethical Standards in Research, Evaluation, Data Collection and Analysis and UNICEF Strategic Guidance Note on Institutionalizing Ethical Practice for UNICEF Research
• The agency is expected to explain ethical considerations for the study, specifically spelling out how these above guidelines will be followed/met including training of all data collectors and supervisors in terms of guidance on ethics and communication skills.
• Special focus should include ethical considerations/ strategies to prevent or avoid COVID-19 infection and spread. 
• Ethical clearance letter should be attached in the annexure of the final report.
• Any sensitive issues or ethical concerns arising during implementation should be raised with UNICEF right away. 
• The final report should include a section that describes the exact way ethical considerations were identified and addressed as part of design, implementation, and analysis/writing.
• All data collected through this study as well as reports and dissemination materials are the intellectual properties of UNICEF and shall not be used for purposes other than those approved by the registered Institutional Review Board during the ethical clearance. 
• Additionally, the study should be human and child rights-based and gender sensitive. All applicable data will be disaggregated by sex, age, and ability level.

1. Deliverables

The six main deliverables of this ToR are the following:

No.

Deliverable

Deadline

1

Inception report including methodology, data collection tools finalized and accepted by DSS and UNICEF

By end of August 2021

2

 Completion of mapping and census of residential care facilities report

By end of October 2021

3

 Completion of residential care facility institutional capacity assessment and submission of related draft report

By end of November 2021

4

 Submission of draft full study report, addressing objectives 1-3 (inclusive of census and capacity assessment components - deliverables 2 and 3) and inclusive of policy and programmatic recommendations

By end of December 2021

5

 Final full study report (of deliverable 4), including a 10 page summary report/policy brief and accompanying Powerpoint Presentation

By end of January 2022

6

Data collection tools and implementation guidelines for routine follow-up survey of children in institutional care to be implemented by DSS and MSW

By mid February 2022

1. Reporting requirements

Child Protection Specialist of UNICEF Child Protection Section will be the main focal person for maintaining the coordination between UNICEF, national TC, DSS and CSPB Project. All deliverables have to be submitted to UNICEF focal person who will facilitate approval and acceptance of deliverables from DSS and CSPB project. UNICEF will facilitate approval of the reports within two weeks of submission of each draft report.They will be accepted only after the Department of Social Services and Child Sensitive Social Protection in Bangladesh (CSPB) project-phase II reviews and approves.

The agency which will be awarded with the contract will have to maintain close liaisoning with the National Project Director of CSPB project and the Director General of Department of Social Services for field missions to access information with service providers.

Reports/tasks & deadlines are given below:

An example of the final full study report should include:

1. Table of contents, list of annexes/figures/tables, etc.
2. List of Acronyms
3. Executive Summary (2 – 5 pages)
4. Introduction & Background
5. Methodology, including ethical considerations and limitations
6. Findings
7. Conclusion and recommendations
8. Annex (including data collection tools, IRB approval letter, etc.)

1. Payment Schedule

Payments for the contracted work will be executed in accordance with the following schedule:

• 30% of total fee upon submission and approval of the inception report, including methodology and data collection tools;
• 15% of total fee upon submission and approval of the mapping and census of residential care facilities report;
• 20% of total fee upon submission and approval of draft study report, addressing objectives 1-3 (inclusive of census and capacity assessment components - deliverables 2 and 3) and inclusive of policy and programmatic recommendations
• 20% of total fee upon submission and approval of final study report (of deliverable 4), including a 10 page summary report/policy brief and accompanying Powerpoint Presentation, and all final (English and Bangla) data collection tools and raw and analysed data;
• 15% of total fee upon submission and approval of data collection tools and implementation guidelines for routine follow-up survey of children in institutional care to be implemented by DSS and MSW

1. Qualification requirement of the company/institution/organization

7a. Qualification of the agency: 

• International firm with experience in conducting social science research, including large-scale quantitative social/economic surveys as well as rigorous qualitative data collection, including high quality data collection tool design;
• Experience on capacity assessments and developing capacity building plans, including the costing thereof;
• Technical understanding of social service systems with the focus on social welfare, child protection, community development and social protection/ social assistance;
• Experience working or conducting research or assessments of residential care facilities
• Strong experience conducting research with children, particularly vulnerable, orphaned, in conflict with the law, or otherwise marginalized;
• Extensive experience and expertise in mapping workforce, policy and legal analysis;
• Extensive knowledge and experience with statistical data analysis, and demonstrated competency in analysis using statistical software;
• Extensive knowledge and experience in qualitative data analysis techniques;
• Strong report writing skills in English;
• Familiarity with UN systems and procedures, management and monitoring tools is desirable;

7b. Qualification requirement of the team (optional)

Professional requirements of the individual(s) and/or team(s) for the assignment including required experience, skills and qualifications are required as given below:

• Team members with postgraduate degrees in social science, social work, child development, anthropology, sociology, law, finance and other relevant disciplines
• At least one team member with private and public institutional capacity assessment expertise, ideally in Bangladesh
• At least one team member with legal and policy analysis expertise in the area of  human rights, children rights, rights and protection of children with disabilities
• At least one team member with 5+ years working experience in and knowledge of the area of social service workforce strengthening or child protection programme management
• At least one team members with 5+ years in monitoring, evaluation, and research (quantitative and qualitative) of programmes related to child protection system strenghtening and with vulnerable and hard-to-reach children

1. General conditions: procedures and logistics

Policies both parties should be aware of:

• No contract may commence unless the contract is signed by both UNICEF and the institutional Contractor.
• No contract related activities may commence unless the contract is signed and received by both parties.
• Office space will be provided by UNICEF for use during the assessment and UNICEF premises will be available for the meetings and consultations.
• The institutional Contractor will be responsible for all support required to complete the assignment including accommodation, meals, transportation, and tools of trade (including computers).
• The institutional Contractor will not be entitled to the use of UNICEF transportation.
• Members of the institutional Contractor company are not entitled to payment of overtime.  All remuneration must be within the contract agreement.
• Members of the institutional Contractor company will not have supervisory responsibilities or authority on UNICEF budget.
• No additional payment request beyond the approved budget will be authorized by UNICEF.