Context
The COVID-19 pandemic has moved rapidly beyond an international health pandemic to heralding a global socio-economic crisis not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.[1] According to the ILO, the pandemic is devastating labour markets, and creating a disproportionate impact on certain segments of the population, [2] including women and youth.[3] Forcibly displaced populations, including refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), and hosting communities will be among the hardest hit.[4] The overwhelming majority of the forcibly displaced are hosted in developing countries with limited resources and capacities to respond to such an unprecedented situation.[5]
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, forcibly displaced persons were confronted with a range of challenges, including loss of assets and psychological trauma, limited access to rights and services including education, lack of economic opportunities, numerous protection risks and a lack of a planning horizon. Host communities, which tend to be among the poorest in their country, typically located in lagging regions, have had to pursue their own development efforts in an environment that has been transformed by a large inflow of newcomers.
These populations are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of COVID-19 as they face higher rates of unemployment and underemployment, may suffer from untreated pre-existing conditions, and often live in cramped settlements with no access to running water, electricity, or healthcare facilities. Many refugee and IDP workers are either self-employed or casual workers most often in the informal economy and will be disproportionately hit as they do not have access to paid or sick leave systems, and are less protected by conventional social protection mechanisms, notably health protection. The gender dimension across these populations is especially acute as women also have less access to social protection and will bear a disproportionate burden in the care economy, in the case of closure of schools or care systems. Moreover, in some settings, women tend to work in informal jobs more acutely hit by the crisis such as tea and coffee shops.
Furthermore, People With Disabilities (PWDs) among these populations, already at significant disadvantage in the labour market, will inevitably be more negatively affected by COVID-19 than others.
The COVID-19 crisis is also threatening peaceful coexistence within countries and between forcibly displaced and host communities. It will have an impact on social cohesion, specifically over access to services, livelihoods and especially health care, which might lead to increasing social tensions. Maintaining and further investing in social cohesion efforts will be particularly important for countries experiencing fragility resulting from forced displacement.
The Covid-19 response in Sudan:
The Transitional Government of Sudan set up a High-level Committee to lead and coordinate the national response to COVID 19. Within this the committee, the Ministry of Labour and Social Development (MoLSD) is co-leading the Aid, Transport and Services Committee. This Committee is responsible for provision of transport and food services to isolation centers, to cover the people under medical isolation during the first 14 days of Covid-19 Isolation period. As a precautionary measure to control the spread of the coronavirus, the government closed all airports, ports and land crossings and declared a public health emergency on 16 March 2020. The government further restricted intra-state public transport and imposed a countrywide curfew, currently between 6:00pm and 6:00am.
Moreover, the MoLSD has proposed a 6 billion SDGs (equivalent to $110 million at the commercial rate of exchange) program to support 30% of the population for one month, through a mixture of goods and cash. The Ministry of Finance is also working on a package of support including cash payments to most affected population groups, support for the unemployed, informal sector workers and public servants, subsidies for badly affected businesses and measures to prevent widespread defaults on loans and keep the banking sector solvent. Through the Ministry of Finance instructions, the public and private sectors, employees are working half time with full payments and in-kind support to the public sector was provided through the ministry’s poverty reduction unit. Yet, identifying and targeting the most vulnerable in the absence of reliable data remains a challenge.
Action is urgently needed to better understand the situation on the ground in the context of socio-economic impacts to be able to mitigate the plight of both forcibly displaced persons and host communities. Humanitarian assistance, in the form of food supplies, distribution of non-food items, and provision of healthcare, is of course critical, but insufficient to address the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and revive local economies. Therefore, it needs to be complemented by a development lens that is focused on the socio-economic dimensions of the crisis. The immediate short-term impacts are already placing millions of people in danger of falling into poverty,[6] and the situation will require major investment to support the recovery process, helping economies, local labour markets, societies and communities recover and ensuring that the most vulnerable are protected.
PROSPECTS Partnership Programme
In response to this context, UNICEF, UNHCR, ILO, and IFC, in collaboration with and supported by the Government of the Netherlands, are developing a joint and fully integrated approach to respond to the forced displacement situation in Sudan, called “Partnership for Improving Prospects”.
Based on the Multi-Annual Country Programme (MACP) – which will be shared upon request – the partnership will focus on delivering change within the forcibly displaced and host community populations in East Darfur and West Kordofan States. Going into these areas together, the partners acknowledge the limited access to services and work, limited freedom of movement, discrimination faced by forcibly displaced, poverty in the host communities, and high levels of vulnerability to shocks. The partnership promotes three interlinked objectives:
· Component 1 Education and Learning: Increased number of displaced and host community members provided with quality education and training.
· Component 2 Employment and Livelihoods: Increased number of (working age) displaced and host community members with enhanced livelihoods and/or employment in decent work.
· Component 3 Protection and Inclusion: Increased protection and inclusion for forcibly displaced and host communities.
· Component 4 New Ways of Working: Transformation in the way partners and other global - regional stakeholders respond to forced displacement crises.
ILO PROEPECTS Partnership Response:
ILO programming under the Education and Training pillar relates to:
- Identification of in-demand occupations and addressing corresponding training gaps and resource needs;
- Upgrading vocational training through improved training content and the use of innovative delivery platform(s); and
- Capacity building of training providers, trainers, and mastercrafts persons.
ILO programming under the Employment and Livelihoods pillar relates to:
- Improving local labour market governance through the identification of local economic opportunities in collaboration with local development committees (LDCs);
- Value chain development in agriculture, through for example employment intensive investments improving access to water, and other sector support interventions;
- Providing access to finance business development services and entrepreneurship and financial education/literacy training; and
- Strengthening fundamental rights at work through upstream advocacy and improving occupational safety and health at local level
ILO programming under the Protection and Inclusion Pillar relates to:
- Policy dialogue identifying points of entry for the expansion of social protection to refugees;
- A rapid assessment of the worst forms of child labour and the development of a pilot referral mechanism into general or vocational education;
- Employment Intensive Investment Programs (EIIP) to strengthen access to water and healthcare facilities; and
- Improving contributory participation/utilization rates of FDPs in national protection schemes.
Objective and scope of work
As the impact of the crisis deepens around the world, governments, social partners, multilateral agencies, donors and other national and international stakeholders, will need support through access to relevant data on the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 at national and locallevel. In the Sudanese context, data at each of these levels is missing rather acutely.
To that end, the purpose of the assignment is to support the ILO and national stakeholders and PROSPECTS partners more broadly through conducting rapid assessments in the intervention areas, and selected urban centres, on the impacts of COVID-19 on jobs, livelihoods and key elements of the local socio-economic environment, including social cohesion.
The assessment is expected to contribute significantly to the development of immediate responses that may contribute to repurposing of remaining funds for Year 1 activities or at least providing evidence to better guide decision-making for Year 1 work plans, and transitions between Years 1 and 2. In addition, the rapid assessment is expected to assist in informing medium-term post-crisis recovery strategies for the PROSPECTS programme, supporting governments, including local governments, social partners and other stakeholders in this process. It is possible that the crisis could undermine gains made in improved policy and programmatic responses to forced displacement, further reinforcing the importance of targeted interventions to support efforts to avoid such negative impacts.
The rapid assessments will therefore seek to:
Assess the current impact of the COVID-19 crisis, including government prevention and containment public health measures, on urban, peri-urban and rural labour markets (formal and informal) and the socio-economic environment in refugee and IDP hosting areas targeted by the PROSPECTS programme; and
Identify gaps eventual duplications in the existing mitigation measures as well as feasible means to improve coherence between these measures and develop concrete policy recommendations for the MoLSD and the TGoS.
Analyse the current capacity of the MoLSD and specifically the Aid Transport and Service Committee to effectively respond to the pandemic and support local populations, and identify capacity gaps.
Identify the needs of the targeted communities to inform the subsequent responses that may lead to repurposing of activities and work plans under PROSPECTS and guidance on potential action in both the short and medium-term. This may include for example:
o better understanding of the delivery of WASH services to refugee, IDP and host communities to consider developing Employment Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP) responses to support these services;
o review of either existing health care facilities and infrastructure in targeted locations or gaps in availability that might require additional EIIP support to government public health responses;
o better understanding the level to which COVID responses have closed down both formal and informal economic activities and what livelihoods activities might still be either functioning or possible or the demand for which increases, such as healthcare workers, etc. ;
o supporting public health awareness programmes in targeted communities;
o assessing cash assistance and social protection to all communities to identify gaps and challenges that may lead refugee, IDP and host community families to adopt negative coping mechanisms.
In relation to the point above on cash assistance and social protection, the pandemic may well create local socio-economic environments in which negative coping mechanisms, including child labour and other exploitative practices such as sexual exploitation, may appear and flourish. It may also lead to exploitation and abuse of vulnerable workers in the labour market (formal and informal). The assessments will therefore also seek information on these situations to better inform protection responses, especially in respect of the impact on women, children and PWDs.
Duties and responsibilities
Prepare an indicative and actionable work plan with time frame and an estimated budget for short and medium-term interventions.
Conduct desk research to review measures introduced by the governments (central and local), including those that extend to health protection measures and economic support on both the demand- and supply-side (sample reference sources could include ILO COVID-19 country profiles[7] and other relevant international and national sources).
Conduct brief mapping/ of existing or current assessments, in particular UNHCR and UNICEF, and review measures being implemented for forcibly displaced populations, for example, closure of camps and restrictions on movement, and integrated these where relevant in the ILO rapid assessment.
Develop survey questionnaires (see initial suggestions in Annex I of this TORS) targeting individuals, households and enterprises in rural and urban areas including cooperatives. The surveys should include questions to understand the impact of COVID-19 on local labour markets and socio-economic environments, and identify needs of forcibly displaced and host community populations to inform subsequent response actions as explained above.
Design a rapid sampling plan to determine the sample frame, size and method to use in identifying the sample in targeted intervention areas of the PROSPECTS programme. The sample must include affected populations as relevant: refugees, IDPs and host communities.
Based on the sample selection, conduct face-to-face, online or telephone surveys, collaborating with others as necessary to support this process, for example, UNHCR.
Compile raw data, clean and check these for consistency.
Analyse data, draft an interim report based on initial analysis of data and submit for comments and inputs.
Finalise the report based on comments and submit to the satisfaction of the ILO.
Expected deliverables and time frame
The rapid assessment will take a maximum of 3 months for completion from initial desk research to finalization of the report after incorporating comments from the ILO.
Deliverables
Indicative Deadline
Indicative Amount of Payment
Detailed work plan and composition of the surveying team
Within 1 week upon signature of the contract
10% of the total contract amount
Desk review, survey questions. and methodology including the sampling plan
Within 3 weeks upon signature of the contract
30 % of the total contract amount
Final report
Within max. 3 months upon signature of contract
60% of the total contract amount
Desired background qualifications, experience and competences
The consultant or service company should have the following experience, expertise and competences:
Experience in primary information gathering, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with government, private sector, multilateral agencies, and other relevant key actors;
Capacity to write high quality, concise and analytical reports in English and fluency in spoken Arabic;
Experience in conducting labour market and socio-economic assessments (supply and demand elements of labour markets)
Experience in research activities in forced displacement settings would be an advantage...
[1] “Shared Responsibility, Global Solidarity: Responding to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19”, United Nations, March 2020: https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/sg_report_socio-economic_impact_of_covid19.pdf
[2] https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/coronavirus/impacts-and-responses/lang--en/index.htm
[3] Transcript of video message by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, 9 April 2020: https://www.un.org/press/en/2020/sgsm20040.doc.htm
[4] “UNHCR warns social and economic consequences of pandemic may be worse than health impact”, Euronews, 10 April 2020: https://www.euronews.com/2020/04/10/unhcr-warns-social-and-economic-consequences-of-pandemic-may-be-worse-than-health-impact
[5] The forced displacement crisis has increased in scale and complexity in recent years. According to UNHCR, there were about 70.8 million forcibly displaced persons in 2018, of whom about 25.9 million refugees and asylum-seekers.
[6] Research reveals that the economic impact of COVID-19 could push a further half a billion people into poverty unless urgent action is taken: https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/dignity-not-destitution
[7] COVID-19 and the world of work, Country policy responses, ILO, Geneva, 2020: https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/coronavirus/country-responses/lang--en/index.htm
How to apply:
How to Apply:
Interested individuals / groups of researchers can respond to this request for proposals by sending an application to Helen Kirsch, kirsch@ilo.org; and Sean Paterson patersond@ilo.org; including the following documents:
o A technical proposal demonstrating an understanding of this TORs and including
o Suggestion of target areas to conduct the survey in (beyond target localities under the PROSPECTS program) and rationale for surveying these areas
o Draft work plan identifying key phases (including deadlines)
o The number of data-collectors and suggested data collection methodology
o An organigram of the team working on this survey (including CVs – equal representation of female and male team-members is a strong asset)
o A financial proposal outlining the
o Daily rates of different members of the team
o Costing of survey conduct including logistical arrangements