Development Of A Practical Guidance Toolkit For Canadian Partners On Moving Beyond The Binary: Advancing LGBTQ+ Inclusion In Gender Equality And Health Programming

Request for Proposals
Development Of A Practical Guidance Toolkit For Canadian Partners On Moving Beyond The Binary: Advancing LGBTQ+ Inclusion In Gender Equality And Health Programming

Programming

1. Summary and Background The Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health (CanWaCH) is currently accepting proposals to develop a practical guidance toolkit on Moving Beyond the Binary: Advancing LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Gender Equality and Health Programming (henceforth referred to as the “Moving Beyond the Binary Toolkit”).

CanWaCH catalyzes Canadian collaboration to deepen effectiveness in improving women’s and children’s health in communities around the world. Our more than 100 members are instrumental in reducing maternal and child mortality, promoting accountability to women, adolescents and children, seeking innovation, generating research and supporting monitoring and evaluation.

CanWaCH’s Gender Equality Working Group, comprising over 25 of Canada’s leading gender equality experts, has identified a strong interest to deepen the community’s understanding and strengthen its ability to better support LGBTQ+ inclusion in our gender equality and health research and programming. Specifically, there is an expressed appeal from gender and health development practitioners for CanWaCH to:

● Increase our members’ and partners’ understanding of non-binary gender frameworks for engaging in gender and health research and/or programming

● Provide our members and partners with a practical toolkit that identifies associated tools, best practices and entry points to advance LGBTQ+ inclusion in their gender and health research and/or programming

● Widely disseminate the toolkit to our members and sector partners in order to increase capacity to strengthen LGBTQ+ inclusion in their gender and health research and/or programming

With these objectives in mind, CanWaCH is seeking a Consultant to develop a dynamic, accessible and user-friendly toolkit that will leverage and build upon existing resources while providing practical and technical guidance that reflects the specific funding and implementing context(s) that Canadian researchers and programming partners operate within.

2. Project Description and Scope CanWaCH is seeking a provider to:

1. Develop a practical guidance toolkit for Canadian research and implementing partners based upon best practices that will:

a. Compile and collate existing relevant resources on LGBTQ+ inclusion related to gender equality and health programming in an accessible and user-friendly format. Note: As a starting point, CanWaCH’s Gender Equality Working Group has gathered an extensive list of possible resources to be included.

b. Provide practical and technical guidance on how to integrate inclusive, non-binary language in research as well as program design, implementation and monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning.

c. Provide practical and technical guidance to advance the inclusion of LGBTQ+ populations within gender responsive and/or transformative health programs while adhering to the “Do No Harm” principle.

d. Be informed by, and place at the centre, the perspectives of LGBTQ+ people, communities and/or organizations in the Global South.

2. Facilitate a Webinar or Virtual Workshop to launch the toolkit and provide a knowledge exchange opportunity to CanWaCH members and partners.

3. For consideration: Conduct a review and recommend any revisions to a training session on Gender Diversity (content is pproximately 10 pages). Note: The inclusion of this scope of work will be decided upon during the contract discussions with the winning bidder.

3. Project Timeline

1. Week of December 1st: Selection of successful Consultant and finalization of contract

2. Week of December 7th: Initial meeting with CanWaCH for comprehensive review of project scope and deliverables

3. January 8, 2021: Provide feedback and recommendations to CanWaCH on training content, if agreed to within contract

4. Week of January 18th: Progress meeting with CanWaCH

5. February 11, 2021 at 2-3pm EST: Overview of Toolkit presented (via Zoom) by Consultant to CanWaCH’s Gender Equality Working Group

6. February 12, 2021: Completed Toolkit provided to CanWaCH Gender Equality Team for review and comment

7. February 15-19, 2021: CanWaCh to provide feedback for integration 8. February 22-March 5: Translation and design of Toolkit (Note: design and translation costs will be covered by CanWaCH and are outside the scope of this proposal) 9. Week of March

8: Launch of Toolkit to CanWaCH membership and sector partners via Webinar or Workshop facilitated by the Consultant (with technical and logistical support provided by CanWaCH)

4. Budget

4.1 All proposals must include proposed costs to complete the tasks described in the project description and scope. CanWaCH will provide the following:

● Translation of Toolkit from English to French or French to English (dependent on the language it is developed in)

● Design of Toolkit

● All technical and logistical support for the Webinar or Virtual Workshop (including Zoom, registration, promotion etc.)

4.2 All costs and fees must be clearly described in each proposal. If the organization submitting a proposal must outsource or contract any work to meet the requirements contained herein, this must be clearly stated in the proposal. Additionally, all costs included in the proposals must be all-inclusive to include any outsourced or contracted work. Any proposals which call for outsourcing or contracting work must include a name and description of the organizations being contracted.

5. Bidder Qualifications

Bidders should provide the following items as part of their proposal for consideration:

● Description of experience and expertise of LGBTQ+ inclusion within development and/or global health contexts.

● Specific examples or portfolio of relevant resources, publications, toolkits etc. that you have developed and attest to your specific skills and expertise in this subject matter area.

● List how many full time, part time and contractor staff in your organization.

● Testimonials from previous clients.

● Anticipated resources you will assign to this project (total number, role, title, experience)

● Confirmation that you will be able to meet all deadlines outlined in Section 4.

● Project management methodology, including all planning and consultation with CanWaCH staff. 6. Proposal Evaluation Criteria CanWaCH will evaluate all proposals based on the following criteria. To ensure consideration for this Request for Proposals, your proposal should be complete and include all the following criteria:

● Overall proposal suitability: proposed solution(s) must meet the scope and needs included herein and be presented in a clear and organized manner;

● Organizational Experience: Bidders will be evaluated on their experience as it pertains to the scope of this project;

● Previous work: Bidders will be evaluated on examples of their work pertaining to the the subject matter, as well as client testimonials and references;

● Value and cost: Bidders will be evaluated on the cost of their solution(s) based on the work to be performed in accordance with the scope of this project;

● Expertise and experience: Bidders will be evaluated based on descriptions and documentation of staff expertise and experience.

7. Submitting a Proposal

7.1 All proposals in response to this RFP are due no later than 11:59 PM EST on Sunday, November 29, 2020. Any proposals received after this date and time will be returned to the sender. All proposals must be signed by an official agent or representative of the company submitting the proposal.

7.2 The selection decision for the winning bidder and to bidders who were not selected will be made no later than Tuesday, December 1, 2020.

7.3 Upon notification, the contract negotiations with the winning bidder will begin immediately. Contract negotiations will be completed by Friday, December 4, 2020.

7.4 Bidders should submit their proposal to: Megan Aikens Director, Strategic Partnerships and Gender Equality, at [email protected]