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1. Background
The Rural Market Development Trust, RUMARK, established in 2002, is a Malawian institution, registered under the Trustees Act of Malawi. RUMARK’s mandate is to improve the yields and incomes of smallholder farmers by facilitating the availability and affordability of agro inputs through the development of reputable and capacitated agro-dealers across the country.
RUMARK is implementing the Youth Work in Agrodealer Development (YWIAD) project with financial and technical support from AGRA. This project seeks to transform Malawi’s agriculture by ensuring that smallholder farmers have easy access to productivity-enhancing inputs and associated agricultural services and create jobs for youths especially young women.
This will be done by strengthening and sustaining an inclusive input and output marketing system that creates job opportunities and increases income for smallholder farmers in Malawi especially youth, women and people with disabilities.
As part of its commitment to ensuring the safety and well-being of youth, project beneficiaries and all stakeholders, RUMARK is seeking to develop a safeguarding policy. This policy will outline the organization’s approach to preventing and responding to safeguarding issues such as harassment, exploitation, abuse, and discrimination as well as ensuring a safe environment for all employees, trainees, partners and beneficiaries.
2. Objective of the Assignment
The objective of this consultancy is to develop a comprehensive Safeguarding Policy for RUMARK. The policy should address key safeguarding risks, define procedures for reporting and responding to incidents, and outline clear roles and responsibilities for all involved parties.
3. Scope of Work
The consultant will work closely with RUMARK’s management team and other stakeholders to:
- Assess Current Safeguarding Practices: Review RUMARK’s existing procedures, guidelines, and frameworks related to safeguarding, if any.
- Consultation and Stakeholder Engagement: Engage with key internal and external stakeholders to understand the unique safeguarding needs and risks within the organization.
- Policy Development: Draft a safeguarding policy that includes, but is not limited to:
- Definitions, primary target and scope of safeguarding within RUMARK’s operations.
- Procedures for preventing, identifying, and reporting safeguarding issues.
- A code of conduct for staff, contractors, and partners.
- Confidentiality and protection of whistleblowers.
- Response mechanisms and disciplinary actions for safeguarding violations.
- Capacity Building and Training Recommendations: Provide recommendations on how RUMARK can effectively implement the policy, including any training needs for staff and stakeholders.
- Finalization of Policy: Incorporate feedback from RUMARK and finalize the safeguarding policy for adoption and implementation.
- Orient RUMARK management and staff on the developed safeguarding policy
4. Deliverables
The consultant will be expected to deliver the following:
- Inception Report: A report outlining the methodology and work plan for the consultancy, to be submitted within 5 days of the start of the assignment.
- Draft Safeguarding Policy: A draft safeguarding policy and a code of conduct for RUMARK’s review.
- Final Safeguarding Policy: A final version of the safeguarding policy and code of conduct, incorporating feedback from RUMARK.
- Implementation Plan: A detailed plan outlining how RUMARK can implement the policy, including training and capacity-building recommendations.
- Orientation: orient RUMARK Management and staff on the newly developed safeguarding policy and the code of conduct
5. Duration of the Assignment
The consultancy is expected to take place over a period of 6 weeks from the date of award.
6. Required Qualifications and Experience
The consultant should have the following qualifications:
- Degree in law, human rights, social studies, gender, rural development and any other relevance qualification
- At least 5 years’ experience gender and protection in youth programming
- Strong understanding of gender equality principles and practices, the gender equality sector, gender laws, policy priorities and key gender inequalities impacting children, youth men and young women in Malawi
- Demonstrable understanding of the concepts of Safeguarding of youths and other vulnerable groups, Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA), UN Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- Be familiar with legislation, government guidance, and national frameworks for safeguarding children and adults at risk
- Be able to provide in-depth technical analysis, and recommendations in safeguarding policies, procedures, reporting and report handling and organizational culture and change
- Proven track record of undertaking similar work
7. Reporting Requirements
The consultant will report to RUMARK management as well the AGRA safeguarding officer. Progress updates will be provided on a bi-weekly basis, with feedback sessions scheduled as needed.
8. Evaluation
Interested firms/consultants shall be evaluated against the following technical criteria:
a) Organizational Capacity .. …10%
Company profile, company accreditations, and certifications.
b) Experience in similar assignments …….. 20%
- Have solid experience in similar assignments,
- General management experience in related assignments or projects with proven results and sustainability approaches,
- List of current and past clients/references/agreements and their contact details.
c) Proposed approach, methodology and work-plan…….. 20%
Understanding of the project/assignment requirements, practicality of the proposed methodology relative to the context of the assignment, proposed work plan, staffing schedule, risk assessment and mitigation strategies integrated into the assignment, planning, appropriateness of the implementation schedule to the project timelines and project quality assurance measures. Demonstrate evidence to crowd in other stakeholders in the work for sustainability purposes.
d) Experience and Qualification of key personnel…30%
- Team leader- (15%)
- Other key Expert – (15%)
e) Financial Suitability… 20%
Total Score…100%
9. Application Process
Interested consultants are requested to submit the following:
- A cover letter outlining their approach to this assignment.
- CVs) of the consultant(s).
- A list of previous relevant assignments.
- Financial proposal outlining the consultant’s fees.
Submission is strictly by email to: rumarkinformation@gmail.com
Deadline for Submission: 30th September, 2024.
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