RFP - Toolkit Development: National Society Partnership building for MSME preparedness

Background

Micro, small, and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs) are the backbone of economies and communities and MSME preparedness is a marker of resilient communities. They help their communities thrive by providing employment, supplying necessary goods and services, and creating social cohesion. These elements are more critical than ever when a disaster hits, However. MSMEs often operate within the informal sector and therefore are not covered by the existing formal protection systems of the country. In most cases, they have limited financial and human resources and access to relevant information to make risk-informed decisions and investments. Preparedness support from community-based organizations can position MSMEs to be resilient through recovery, especially during this time of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 which has presented many unique challenges to MSMEs.

Recognizing this challenge and need, the Global Disaster Preparedness Center (GDPC) created the Business Preparedness Initiative (BPI) - helping Red Cross / Red Crescent (RCRC) National Societies (NS) and partners support small and medium-sized businesses prepared for local hazards. BPI is composed of two core components - Atlas: Ready for Business mobile app and ‘Workshop in a Box.’ At no cost, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) can download Atlas and engage in participatory planning at their own time - generating a customized Crisis and Recovery plan upon completion. Complementary is ‘Workshop in a Box,’ which provides NS’ and interested implementing organizations with guidance and training materials to build partnerships and host preparedness workshops for SMEs. Civil society engagement is a significant indicator and component of success in achieving wider MSME preparedness through increased outreach efforts and effective investment.

To strengthen National Society and partnership capacity to support MSME preparedness across their communities, there is a need for a set of capacity building and partnership building tools for National Societies. These will support National Societies engagement with existing networks and potentially build new coalitions, allowing them to strengthen their connectedness towards implementing the Business Preparedness Initiative and help prepare MSMEs. These stakeholders can include trade organizations, Chambers of Commerce, community volunteers, the private sector, and a range of civil society organizations. By enhancing BPI’s toolkit with the tools to engage these stakeholders, there can be enhanced resources in local decision-making and collective influence supporting the process of MSME resilience.

In the current context of the pandemic, there is a shift towards a need for virtual partnership building to this end. National Societies are in need of new ways of inclusively engaging partners and facilitating relationships to have a collective impact. The priority and demand are to design, develop, and pilot a set of comprehensive tools offered to National Societies and implementing stakeholders to guide the building of partnerships on the community level in innovative, newly virtual ways.

About GDPC

The Global Disaster Preparedness Center is a joint venture between the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the American Red Cross. The GDPC aims to expand and enhance disaster preparedness capacities of the global RCRC network through a service-oriented, demand-driven approach. The GDPC focuses on three areas of service: knowledge management, technical assistance, and research. More information can be found at GDPC website: https://www.preparecenter.org/

About Livelihoods Resource Centre (LRC)

The Livelihoods Resource Centre is a joint venture between the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Spanish Red Cross. The mission of LRC is to assist IFRC members (and others) to provide awareness and livelihoods programming strategies to enhance community and individual’s capacity to restore and maintain sustainable livelihoods. The LRC focuses on four areas of service: knowledge management, technical assistance, advocacy, and research. https://www.livelihoodscentre.org/

Scope of Work

The aim of this consultancy is to contribute to the development and prototyping of a set of virtual and analog tools for community-based organizations in building partnerships to support MSME preparedness. This toolkit should be community-oriented, user- friendly, designed for contextualization, and provide the opportunity to effectively scale BPI across various contexts. The consultancy should present an approach to deliver the materials/tools beyond the traditional in-person meetings, engaging National Societies and implementing organizations virtually in the on-going process of (1) identifying key community-based organizations working in this field, (2) addressing the goal of MSME preparedness collectively, (3) implementing BPI across their communities, and (4) continuing effective engagement on the local level. The toolkit should be designed to be implemented without outside expert support and present viable, inclusive, and sustainable solutions to the priorities identified.

The consultant will deliver the following:

-Contribution and feedback on the content development and prototyping

-Develop a methodology for a community-based, partnership-building process which: (a) focuses on MSME preparedness and resilience, (b) aligns with and complements existing coalition-building processes and current BPI tools, linking with other partnership-building tools of implementing National Societies, (c) takes into account pandemic context learning from Covid-19 experience and need for virtual engagement, (d) takes into consideration the experiences and learning across the project countries in Latin America, through skype.

-Support piloting of the tools in a select country. Document the process and iteratively incorporate feedback into a finalized version;

-Develop and after incorporating the feedback from GDPC and LRC, submit the final toolkit that will help National Societies build effective partnerships across communities;

-Submit a final report on the process, comprehensively summarizing lessons learned, successes, and recommendations for improvement. An executive summary is to be included;

-Final presentation of the learnings to key stakeholders.

Specific outputs will include:

-Toolkit on Partnership-Building for MSME Preparedness

-Proposal for piloting

-Final report and executive summary of consultancy

-Presentation of findings

Timeframe

The duration of the consultancy will be September - November 2020, with the possibility of extension.

Qualifications

-Experience and demonstrated success in developing user-friendly toolkits, communication, and training materials that apply human-centered design principles, support inclusive community engagement.

-Experience in successful partnership-building / coalition building

-Experience and comfort working with mobile apps and virtual platforms

-Preference for experience in supporting communities and organizations to develop locally appropriate solutions to disaster risk reduction

-Demonstrated success in collaborating with a diverse set of stakeholders, including community-based organizations, local governments, international organizations, and private sectors

-Knowledge of MSMEs and their operating context is an asset.

-Familiarity with the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement and Latin America region is an asset.