Terms of Reference
International Consultancy service[1]to develop a multi-country platform prototype, virtual community of practice on skills and labour migration for knowledge sharing
Background and context
Labour migration has always been part of the socio-economic landscape of East and Horn of Africa. The sub-region is vast and complex, and it broadly covers Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda.
The East and Horn of Africa is also one of the regions with the largest increase in the number of migrants and refugees globally. Climate change and environmental degradation, armed conflict, and political, economic and food crises continue to force people to flee, resulting in a growing need for assistance. Mixed migration flows, which include refugees, asylum-seekers, displaced persons, and migrants pursuing family reunification, education or employment, put a strain on governments in the region as they struggle to cope with the large number of migrants crossing their borders and moving through their countries. The men, women and children making up these migrant flows frequently resort to unsafe modes of transportation and smuggling networks during their journey, exposing themselves to injury, violence, detention, exploitation and abuse.
Indeed, today, most East African countries participate in labour migration flows, whether as countries of origin, transit or destination. Demand in economic sectors such as agriculture, fishing, mining and construction as well as services such as domestic work, health care, cleaning, restaurants and hotels, and retail trade are significant drivers for labour migration within the sub-region and beyond.
According to the UN data, South Africa is the most significant country of destination in Africa, with more than 2.8 million international migrants residing in the country. The three countries hosting the highest number of international migrants in Eastern Africa in 2020 were Uganda (1.7 million), Ethiopia (1.08 million), and Kenya (1.05 million).
However, this migration is driven by cues and perceptions rather than systematic labour market intelligence that can help improve labour market alignment and thus strengthen prospects of labour migrants and their destination countries. For example, data indicate that low skilled labour migrants characterize most of the intraregional labour migration. Often, low skilled migrants are at more risk of abuse, precarious working conditions and lack of protection. Without much support and proper documentation of skills level, skills mismatch has severe repercussions for migrant works as potential labour/skill underutilization and or under employment is high.
Skills recognition and portability can help improve employment outcomes of both migrant workers and their destination countries. However, despite efforts individually taken by countries to improve labour migration through skills development programmes, these are mostly not well coordinated, with few opportunities for knowledge and experience sharing. As such, and in line with the numerous Bilateral Labour Migration Agreements (BLMA) signed within the regions and beyond. This effort is aligned and contributes to the AU call for Member states to put more efforts and leverage on capacity development and cooperation on migration issues: such as labour migration statistics development, and LMI to help in monitoring BLMAs and labour migration policies. In addition, the data and knowledge should be used to assist Member States to identify development strategies that can support orderly and regular migration, mobility and integration.[2]
To respond to this call, the ILO with financial support from the UK government’s FCDO has secured an inception fund to lay down the foundations for complementing capacity building and knowledge sharing efforts by supporting the work to establish digital knowledge exchange platform on issues related to Labour migration and skills development. As such, the ILO is seeking the service of a technical knowledge expert to assist with collecting information regarding user requirement and mapping out the content of an online multi country knowledge sharing platform. The information so gathered will inform the design of the prototype of the platform
Overall Objective of the project
The overall objective of the proposed Action is to strengthen the capacities of countries in East Africa and South Africa[3] to govern labour migration by using evidence-based policies, enhancing migrant workers’ qualifications and skills, and actively engaging the social partners for improved development outcomes.
The specific Objective:
Coordinate and conduct consultations with key stakeholders[4] and partners to determine user requirements, preferences, scope and nature of the online multi-country knowledge sharing platform. The information so gathered will inform the designing of the KSP (knowledge sharing platform) prototype which shall cater for exchange of knowledge, good practices and policy approaches among the East Africa and other geographical regions, reaching out to key stakeholders: Governments, employers, and workers’ organizations, research institutions and other Partner organizations working on labour migration and skills in the sub-region.
The platform envisioned will also be a repository of legislation and policy documents, national, regional and subregional frameworks governing skills and qualifications recognition in the countries of East Africa and South Africa that can be used as a point of reference and will promote policy and practice learning. The platform will be designed to also host a virtual community of practice in the future, which will promote a peer-exchange on labour migration and skills-related issues and capacity building activities. The platform will be hosted by the African Union Commission (AUC) and managed by them in the future. The linkages with other existing platforms.
The consultation, will work in close consultation and collaboration with Knowledge sharing platform design expert to ensure that the information so gathered inform the design of the prototype.
Tasks for the expert consultant
i. Design and implement user requirement consultation plan and tools to gather the interest, vision of the clients that will inform the design, features and scope of the platform
ii. Map and explore perceptions and experiences of prospective partners on requirements and features of an effective subregional multi-country, multi -function KS platform
iii. Map and analyses available similar existing platforms and information /content or lack thereof regarding Labour migration and skills that may be required for inclusion in the platform. This information will further inform the prototype design by providing the insights as to type and volume and means of sharing the information. To start with the consultant can visit and study KS platforms such as:
a. Africa Continental framework -ACQF
b. AUDA NEPAD knowledge portal
c. The Pan African Forum on Labour migration
d. And other relevant KS platforms
e. ILO’s skills KSP with specific focus on skills and migration portal/section
iv. Liaise with relevant institutions and social partners in target countries on possible knowledge gaps; knowledge sources and nature in which such content is stored for informing the design architecture
v. Based on own subject matter knowledge and experience recommend any other additional aspect of relevant information required for successfully hosting a multi country and multifunctional KS platform
vi. Based on findings in (i-iv) submit the consolidated report for review and closely work with hired IT company designing the Platform prototype to ensure all user requirements expressed by stakeholders are considered into the design.
Deliverables
The main deliverable from this assignment is a detailed report clearly indicating:
· Mapped similar platforms existing either amongst the regional members states, key clients and even beyond detailing their effectives or lack thereof (strengthen and weaknesses)
· Mapped potential current and future users in the region
· Details articulating user requirements depicting interest, vision, priority on how and what they wish to see on the platform design and operation, i.e. Functionalities, features etc.
· Mapped knowledge/content/information available on skills and Labour migration and how that information is currently being shared amongst key stakeholders
· Summary of findings and key recommendations to be considered by prototype designer/developer .
Duration of the assignment
The assignment should be carried out within 30 days during which the consultant should be able to deliver on all of the items listed in the ToR.
The proposed timeframes will be as follows
task /deliverable
7th day
17th day
25th day
30th day
· An inception report on the methodology, any tools to be used to gather information; list of consultations (identified partners and secondary data) to be done; platforms reviewed
· Draft Report detailing outcomes of consultations and reviews done including user requirements and available information and their sources that can be used for prototyping submitted for review
· Final report containing all the information as listed in the ToR, with comments from the validation incorporated
Payment schedule
The payment schedule for this assignment will be as follows.
- 25% of the agreed sum upon submission of the final inception report agreed upon by partners (ILO and AU)
- 50% of the agreed sum upon submission of the draft report for review by partners detailing all the contract items as listed in the ToR
- 25% of the agreed sum upon submission of the final Report incorporating the comments from key stakeholders and to the satisfaction of the partners (ILO and AU).
Specific Requirements and experience
The following profiles are required:
- Experts on skills and or Labour migration or both with 5+ years’ professional experience in the subject matter, with extensive knowledge of Labour migration dynamics in East and Horn of Africa
- Good understanding and experience of functioning of Online knowledge exchange platforms or community of practices
- Good research and analytical and reporting skills
*Qualifications and Experience
Academic Qualification:
Advanced university degree in economics, Education/skills Humanities, and related social science discipline
Experience
- Proven experience working on Labour migration, skills development at international level **
Competencies
· Good communication skills in English
· Good Interpersonal skills
Ownership and Disclosure of Data/ Information
All documents, data and information obtained in connection with this assignment shall be treated confidentially and shall not without the written approval of ILO be made available to any third party. All the documents provided by ILO, both soft and hard copies are to be returned to ILO upon completion of the assignment. All documentation and reports written as, and as a result of this assignment or otherwise related to it shall remain the property of ILO. No part of the package shall be reproduced except with the prior, expressed, and specific written permission of ILO.
Evaluation Criteria
The successful candidate will have a mix of expertise and qualifications in the focus areas related to this assignment. Evaluation of the suitability of the Consultant to work on this assignment will be made against the following technical criteria:
Evaluation Criteria
Maximum mark
A. Expertise/Qualification
Advanced university degree in relevant disciplines as highlighted in this ToR 10
Proven experience on Skills and Labour migration at the international level.** 10
Previous experience of assignment by ILO/UN or AU in similar contexts is an asset. 5
Fluency in English is a must. 5
Maximum Points 30
**
B. Proposed approach to deliver the ToR’s scope of work
Applicant demonstrates (via submitted technical proposal) their expertise working as a research consultant. The technical proposal includes a realistic action/work plan. The evaluation to assess the understanding of scope, objectives and completeness of response. 40
Quality of the sample report suggests that the applicant(s) possess the required level of knowledge, analytical skill and ability to write the final report of the activities. 30
Maximum Points 70
Total for Both Section A (30 Points) and Section B (70 Points) 100
**
Minimum Acceptable Score for the Proposal to be considered for financial evaluation. 70
Recommended presentation of Proposal
Interested individuals must submit the following documents/information:
Technical Proposal, specifying the understanding of the assignment, methodology, approach, proposed work and management plan, key personnel qualifications and relevant experiences; Sample(s) of accredited publication(s)/reports of similar work done previously. Personal CV, indicating all experience from similar assignments, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the candidate and at least three (3) professional references. ·
Financial proposal, the interested individual consultants are requested to provide a financial offer that is deliverable based AND includes separately professional fees related to the activity and costs for field mission dates and days, travel cost and daily allowance if needs be.
Copy of a recent contract to be submitted as an evidence of daily fees offered to the candidate for similar assignment by other agency (preferably by any UN agency, Multilateral Development Bank, or bilateral donors).
The ILO promotes equal opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive employment in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.
[1] The consultancy is restricted to international who meet the set criteria as per this ToR and quality and relevance of their submissions.
[2] This is contained in the recommendation of the POLICY brief I titled AFRICA LABOUR MIGRATION
OUTLOOK IN THE POST COVID-19 ERA: published in November 2020
[3] For the first design and prototype, the consultant will gather information from 2 east East African countries of Ethiopia and Kenya and South Africa. Expansion to include other countries will be taken at a later stage.
[4] The consultant will first map out the key stakeholders on skills and Labour migration from the starting three countries. The stakeholders will include but not limited to relevant AU unit /departments and their experts, relevant MDAs in the MS, Research institutions, (I) NGOs, skills institutions, Relevant departments or units in RECs, CoPs, Individual experts
How to apply
All interested Individual Consultants can send questions if any to the ILO’s Procurement Unit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ([email protected]) until 02 December 2021. Questions will be answered and shared with the interested organizations by Close of Business on 04 December 2021.
Completed technical and financial proposals are to be submitted to [email protected] by Close of Business on 09 December 2021.
More Information
- Job City Ethiopia
