Country: Georgia
Closing date: 25 Oct 2015
Eurasia Partnership Foundation (EPF) invites proposals from qualified organizations or individuals to conduct a series of trainings on environmental issues for young people involved in its Youth Integration Program.
EPF expects this assignment to be conducted during**November 2015,**depending upon the availability of the consultants selected.
About EPF
Eurasia Partnership Foundation’s mission is to empower people to effect change for social justice and economic prosperity through hands-on programs, helping them to improve their communities and their own lives. To achieve its mission, EPF strives (1) to strengthen the capacity of individuals and institutions, empowering them to address pressing issues and (2) to mobilize relevant stakeholders in issue-based dialogue, through raising public awareness and creating various coalitions, platforms or working groups, so as to effect positive change.
EPF’s work is guided by the following approaches: (1) creating opportunities for civic participation in public policy making, (2) engaging youth, (3) fostering culture of corporate and community philanthropy, including through formation of public-private-NGO partnerships, (4) promoting evidence-based advocacy and decision making, and (5) building confidence across religious, ethnic, and community divides. Some of EPF’s flagship programs include: (1)Engage and Monitor for Change, (2) European Integration, (3) Youth Integration, (4)Social Enterprise and (5) Open Door Grantmaking. Together, they feed into achieving the Foundation’s mission and provide opportunities for Georgians to engage in social, economic, and political developments, in order to effect substantive and sustainable positive change at the local and national level.
Background Information
Over the years, EPF’s Youth Integration Program has greatly contributed to increased civic engagement of young people residing in 29 communities of Georgia. Currently, the YB Program covers the following towns and communities: Akhaltsikhe, Akhalkalaki, Akhmeta, Aspindza, Poti, Borjomi, Chokhatauri, Dedophlistskaro, Gali, Gardabani, Gori, Gudauta, Khobi, Khoni, Lanchkhuti, Marneuli, Martvili, Kazreti, Ninotsminda, Ochamchire, Sokhumi, Tkibuli, Tserovani, Zemo Bargebi and Upper Adjara.
To achieve the desired outcomes, EPF has been following the Youth Bank (YB) methodology, an innovative way of increasing youth participation through creating groups of young people (aged 16-21) in a given community (the Youth Banks) and empowering them with training and resources to find, fund, and oversee small youth-led initiatives that address salient for local communities issues. The YB concept is founded on the premise that involving young people in projects they design and manage is the most potent way to develop civic participation among youth. Thus, grantmaking serves as a mechanism with which young grantmakers improve their self-esteem and learn about leadership, team-work, fair decision-making, problem-solving, communications, financial and narrative report-writing, and event management. The uniqueness of the YB model is that young people are given the opportunity to independently undertake all the activities involved in the YB grantmaking cycle without constant supervision from adults. Each year, the YBs fund roughly 110 local youth-led initiatives in their communities, which range from 500-800 GEL in value and could address needs as diverse as cleaning a community park through promoting gender equality to preparing first-time voters for elections.
EPF’s experience of the past three years demonstrated that local youth is experiencing difficulties in envisioning what types of interventions would best address the community needs. The experience also showed that the vast majority of communities covered by the YB program have similar needs that are consistently highlighted in the results of the YB needs assessments. These are: environmental degradation, low levels of general education, and lack of healthy lifestyle. One of the lessons learned has been that the youth require support to gain expertise in those fields that are identified as priority areas by local communities. This way, the youth will be better able to respond to the needs.
Goal and Methodology
The overall goal of the requested training on environmental issues is provide additional capacity building to the 210 Youth Bank members (aged 16-21) from the above noted 20 municipalities of Georgia (excluding Abkhazia), so that they are better able to design small-scale projects that address their communities’ environmental needs. The training should also help the participating youth in learning how to connect responses to local environmental problems with those on the global level. EPF expects that the training will enhance the participants’ environmental literacy and ability to guide their peers while drafting youth-led initiatives promoting environment-friendly policies and practices.
The training should present what are the main environmental challenges (e.g. quality and scarcity of water resources, deforestation, soil degradation leading to landslides, urban and air pollution, etc.) and provide specific examples of small-scale projects on environmental issues. It should combine theoretical presentations and practical exercises to ensure that theoretical concepts are utilized in practice.
EPF requires that the Consultants will complete the task by end of November 2015. The Foundation expects that the Consultants will suggest the most effective and efficient method of delivering such training to its 210 beneficiaries, who are spread across Georgia. At any point, EPF can bring together up to 105 young people for a two-day-long activity, as long as the Consultants are able to suggest a methodology, which will ensure that the capacity building takes place in groups of not more than 25 trainees and envisions common activities for all trainees present at the venue. The Foundation is open to any other suggestion from the Consultants, as long as trainings are completed on time and the suggested workplan is not associated with excessive spending.
Timeframe and Deliverables
Expected duration of the assignment is two weeks.
The consultants will produce the following deliverables:
- A module for a two-day-long training in line with the RFP, including training materials in Georgian and Russian.
- Training of 210 youth
- Final report, which will include the following sections:
a) Brief description of the context of the training; b) Description of the goal and objectives of the training; c) Description of methodology of the training; d) Outcomes of the training; e) Recommendations; f) Annexes, including the training program, etc.
The report will be the sole property of EPF, which will retain the right to use it for internal and external purposes.
Budget
The budget for this assignment should not exceed USD 5,000 (Gross) for training services including development of training material. This sum does not include expenses for accommodation, interpretation and meals at the training side. These expenses will be remunerated by EPF upon submission of relevant documents. Price competitiveness will be one of the considerations during the selection process and all proposals exceeding the maximum will be ineligible
How to apply:
Request for Bids
The bids will be accepted both from individuals and organizations, locally, as well as internationally. Applicants should submit a proposal that includes:
- Detailed description of the Consultant’s qualifications, with a list of previously undertaken similar assignments;
- Copy of similar training modules developed by the applicant during the past five years;
- Description and justification of the proposed teaching methodology including description of tools and techniques that will be used during the training;
- Draft training program and budget.
Only complete applications will be considered.
Selection Criteria
EPF will select the winning candidate among the organizations or individuals submitting a complete bid by the proposal deadline. The selection criteria will include the following:
- Degree to which proposal adheres to the RFP
- Quality of the proposed methodology
- Qualifications of the bidding organization and the individuals involved, including past experience in undertaking similar trainings, and
- Cost-effectiveness of the proposal.
Submission
The deadline for applications is October 25, 2015, 18:00 Tbilisi time (GMT+4).
Proposals should be submitted by e-mail to Tamuna Tsertsvadze, Program Associate at ttsertsvadze@epfound.ge. Please indicate Environmental Training for Youth in the subject line of your email. Request a confirmation of the receipt of your application, if it is not provided to you within 24 hours of the submission.
Questions about this call should be directed to Mariam Kobalia, Program Manager, mkobalia@epfound.ge
EPF senior management, program, and evaluation staff will review the proposals. The decision on the selection of the winning consultants will be announced by November 1, 2015.
