Request for Quotes: Consultant to deliver facilitation training for CanWaCH’s Gender Equality Trainer Program in French

1. Summary and Background:

The Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health (CanWaCH) is currently seeking a consultant to deliver a targeted Facilitation Training in French to complement our flagship Gender Equality Training Modules (GETM). 

The goal of this Facilitation Training is to enhance participants’ confidence and capacity to facilitate their own training session(s) on gender equality within their organizations, including sharing the lessons learned, key resources, and takeaways from the GETM.  

The Facilitation Training has been developed in English and includes robust facilitation learning materials and virtual modules to bolster participant facilitation skills and deliver gender programming in an engaging and empowering manner. The selected consultant will use the content and materials developed in English and translated by CanWaCH to facilitate the training in French.

2. Project Description and Scope 

2.1. CanWaCH is seeking a consultant to deliver a 3-day (3 x 3 hours) Facilitation Training in French in a virtual setting for up to 25 Francophone participants. The consultant will use the Facilitator’s Guide developed for the English Facilitation Training.

2.2. The Facilitation Training includes a Facilitator’s Guide to bolster participant facilitation skills and deliver gender programming in an engaging and empowering manner. The selected consultant will use the existing guide to deliver engaging sessions in French. Adaptation of content to suit facilitation styles and preferences can be discussed. The modules for this training include: 

• Module 1: Understanding Yourself: Understanding yourself, as a facilitator and communicator, is key to building confidence and fostering participant engagement. This module will cover self-awareness, active listening and synthesis skills development in order to create a strong foundation for future growth and development. This session will be augmented with a discussion about understanding the impact that your identity plays in how the content is delivered and received in different contexts.
• Module 2: Facilitation Foundations: Building upon the self-awareness skills, module 2 provides a scaffold from which participants can design and deliver interactive and empowering sessions. 
• Module 3: Facilitating Gender Equality Training: Participants will explore what is unique about facilitating gender equality training (contextualization and resistance management), and how to integrate best practices into the facilitation foundations from module 2. Managing group dynamics will be a core component of this session. A pre-event survey should surface challenges that participants are specifically interested in focusing on, and a section of this module will be designed to tangibly address those, including providing follow-up resources.
• Module 4: In-person vs. Online training: We will model best practices for facilitating in a virtual environment and demonstrate key tools and techniques that participants can implement following the session to immediately enhance their training sessions. Understanding the facilitator-producer relationship, environmental engagement, and leveraging the platform.
• Module 5: Learner Practice Session: It is important to create a safe and fun practice environment for participants to try new skills and enhance existing capabilities. During the facilitation foundations module participants will have the opportunity to sign up for a section of the ‘scaffold’ that they wish to practice, and one which they wish to observe and offer constructive feedback upon. Observation is a fundamental skill for all facilitators and having participants do so in this session serves two key purposes: actively reinforcing the lessons from the previous modules, as well as providing a practice opportunity for observation and synthesis.

2.3. Part of the Facilitation training includes a module focusing on facilitating Gender Equality training, highlighting specific challenges and tools and strategies to deal with them. Therefore, in order to successfully facilitate this training, the consultant should be knowledgeable about Gender Equality in the development sector and will be expected to be familiar with the CanWaCH’s Gender Equality Training Modules (GETM) in order to include lessons and examples and from it in practice exercises. Access to the GETM facilitator guide, presentations and all other relevant material will be provided. 

2.4. As part of this work, CanWaCH is seeking a consultant who can provide additional one-on-one coaching sessions to interested participants to improve their facilitation skills and support cascading the GETMs in the following 2-4 weeks after the facilitation training has been completed. 

2.5. The intended audience for this facilitation training will be experts working in gender equality in the context of global health and/or past participants of the GETM. 

2.6. By the end of this program, participants should:

• Be equipped to deliver engaging gender equality training in their workplace and in other sector spaces;
• Benefit from in-depth and personalized training and feedback regarding their facilitation skills;
• Acquire increased confidence in their group facilitation and presentation skills.

3. Project Timeline

3.1. The training will have to be delivered in the fall of 2024. Ideal dates are in October, with specific dates to be negotiated with the successful consultant.

3.2. Anticipated schedule (subject to discussion with consultant):

1. Week of July 29, 2024
   1. Selection of successful Consultant and negotiation of contract
2. Week of August 5, 2024
   1. Initial meeting with CanWaCH for a comprehensive review of project scope, materials available, deliverables, and work to date
3. Week of September 2nd, 2024
   1. Finalization of the training content;
   2. Preparatory pre-training meeting.
4. Fall 2024
   1. Launch of registration 
   2. Delivery of Gender Equality Facilitation Training in French 
   3. 1-on-1 Coaching Sessions 

4. Budget

4.1. All quotes must include proposed costs to complete the tasks described in the project description and scope. Please provide the consultant hourly rate and estimated available hours on a weekly or project basis. Please note that CanWaCH will provide the following:

• Translation of the existing materials of the CanWaCH Facilitation Training 
•  All technical and logistical support for training sessions

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

5. Bidder Qualifications

The successful Bidder should possess significant group facilitation experience, especially in facilitating online trainings and creating inclusive and accessible spaces. The ideal consultant will also have experience, knowledge and expertise in gender equality and/or global health. A portfolio of relevant work may be requested. As this training will be delivered in French the bidder must be Francophone and/or fully bilingual as there will be no simultaneous interpretation for this session.

6. Quotation Evaluation Criteria 

CanWaCH will evaluate all quotes based on the following criteria. To ensure consideration for this Request for Quotes, your quote should be complete and include all the following criteria:

• Consultant Expertise: Bidders will be evaluated on their demonstrated knowledge as it pertains to the scope of this project;
• Previous work: Bidders will be evaluated on examples of their work experience pertaining to the subject matter;
• Value and cost: Bidders will be evaluated on the cost of their proposal based on the work to be performed in accordance with the scope of this project.

Through our work and our procurement processes, we value and prioritize where possible creating inclusive spaces and engaging with diverse voices and perspectives. We encourage organizations and businesses led by women (in all their diversity), Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, members of racialized groups and the 2SLGBTIA+ community among others to submit quotes. Although not required, bidders may choose to self-identify in their proposal. 

7. Submitting a Quotation

7.1 All proposals in response to this RFQ are due no later than 11:59 PM ET on Sunday July 28, 2024.

7.2 The selection decision for the winning bidder and to bidders who were not selected will be made no later than Thursday August 1st, 2024.

7.3 Upon notification, the contract negotiations with the winning bidder will begin immediately. Contract negotiations will be completed no later than Thursday, August 15, 2024.

7.4 Bidders should submit their proposal to the attention of: 

Erin Jex, Acting Director, Programs and Operations [email protected]