Study “AWARENESS AND ATTITUDES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS TO COMPREHENSIVE SEXUALITY EDUCATION”

REQUEST FOR QUOTATION

RFQ Nº UNFPA/UKR/RFQ/19/11

Dear Sir/Madam,

UNFPA hereby solicits a quotation for the following service:

                                                                                               Study

“AWARENESS AND ATTITUDES OF TEACHERS AND PARENTS TO COMPREHENSIVE SEXUALITY EDUCATION”

This Request for Quotation is open to all legally-constituted companies that can provide the requested services and have legal capacity to perform in Ukraine, or through an authorized representative.

1. About UNFPA

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is an international development agency that works to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every child birth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.  

UNFPA is the lead UN agency that expands the possibilities for women and young people to lead healthy sexual and reproductive lives. To read more about UNFPA, please go to: UNFPA about us

Terms of Reference (ToR)

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. Our mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled. UNFPA strives to prevent and respond to gender-based violence through its work with policymakers, justice systems, health systems and humanitarian partners. UNFPA has been working for Ukraine since 1997, having delivered technical assistance for programmes in sexual and reproductive health, gender equality and gender-based violence (GBV), youth empowerment, population research, and humanitarian response.

According to the concept of the New Ukrainian School, it aims to introduce new approaches to learning and educational content. Instead of memorizing facts and definitions, students will acquire core competencies that determine a person's ability to socialize well and to engage in professional and/or further learning activities. At the same time significant efforts are aimed at making teachers, as one of the key stakeholders of the reform, more motivated, allowing for their professional and personal growth and increase of their social status. It is also expected that the New Ukrainian School will initiate new, deeper involvement of the family into constructing educational and vocational directions for children and transform one-sided authoritarian communication from the teacher to the pupil into dialogue and multilateral communication between pupils, teachers and parents.

Teachers and parents play one of the key roles in creating and maintaining safe environment for children and many of them have a leading role in education, particularly comprehensive sexual education (CSE).

According to definition of UNESCO, comprehensive sexuality education –is a curriculum-based process of teaching and learning about the cognitive, emotional, physical and social aspects of sexuality. It aims to equip children and young people with knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that will empower them to realize their health, well-being and dignity; develop respectful social and sexual relationships; consider how their choices affect their own well-being and that of others; and understand and ensure the protection of their rights throughout their lives.

Still not all parents and teachers take part in CSE of their children/pupils in Ukraine and their knowledge and ability to communicate varies a lot. Aiming to ensure integrity of the reform of the New Ukrainian School, UNFPA is committed to support the model of CSE in and out of school. Thus, we a looking for the evidence to support national decision making on introducing an integrated model where teachers and parents may take the leading roles. This study aims to explore the opinions and needs of the parents and teachers who may potentially become key players in the integrated in/out of school CSE.

To explore the awareness and attitude of parents and teachers to comprehensive sexuality education (CSE).

1. To estimate the proportion of teachers and parents who support CSE in formal education, informal education and both in formal and informal.
2. To evaluate the readiness of teachers to implement and launch CSE at schools, to determine in which role and to which extent teachers are supporting CSE at schools, how they rate their abilities to communicate with pupils on the sensitive topics and level of knowledge and skills related to CSE.
3. To evaluate the readiness of parents to support CSE for their children, abilities to communicate with their children on the sensitive/intimate topics.
4. To determine the needs of teachers and parents to enable them to take the leading roles in CSE.

STAGE 1. PROTOCOL AND TOOLS DEVELOPMENT.

Desk review of the existing studies on attitude to CSE of parents and teachers. In collaboration with UNFPA office, national stakeholder and community, develop the study protocol and tools, including qualitative and quantitative research.  The attitudes should include teachers and parents commitment, understanding of boundaries and respect for others. The awareness should include skills and knowledge (ability to create and maintain safe, inclusive and enabling learning environment, use interactive approaches, communicate effectively, ability to reflect on beliefs and values, knowledge about health promotion, psychology and other relevant to CSE topics, different approaches and their impact). The sample size should be representative for Ukraine, but not less than 1000 respondents.

STAGE 2. DATA COLLECTION.

A survey and focus groups among teachers and parents will be conducted based on the calculated sample and according to the protocol. The study team, including interviewers, should be trained with regard to sensitivity of the survey and ethical considerations.

In quantitative part, structured or semi-structured interviews should be performed. In qualitative part, 10 FGs will be conducted in 5 regional centers of Ukraine (representing East/West/South/Center and North regions of the country).

STAGE 3. DATA ANALYSIS, REPORTING AND PRESENTING RESULTS.

The results of both qualitative and quantitative components will be analyzed in details and summarized in a Draft Report. 

The key findings of the study will be summarized in infographics and presented at the press-event. The final deliverables will be provided in English and Ukrainian.

 Deliverables:  Analytical Report; Infographics and PPT Presentation of the Key Findings.

STAGE 1. PROTOCOL AND TOOLS DEVELOPMENT (December 2019)

Deliverables: Study Protocol (including study hypothesis, sampling, methods and data analysis sections, questionnaires on the quantitative part and focus group guides, study timeline, ethics, SOPs for study team).

STAGE 2. DATA COLLECTION (January– April 2020)

Deliverables: Technical report on the fieldworks; Dataset in agreed format based on the results of the interviews; Transcripts of focus group discussions.

STAGE 3. DATA ANALYSIS, REPORTING AND PRESENTING RESULTS (May-June 2020).

Deliverables:  Analytical Report; Infographics and PPT Presentation of the Key Findings.

In response to the UNFPA announcement (request for quotations), interested companies or groups of consultants should prepare and submit their applications electronically to a secured e-mail address comprising a) technical and b) financial proposals.

Technical proposals should meet all the requirements of these terms of reference ensuring that the goal, objectives, deliverables and management arrangements of the evaluation are considered. A technical proposal should demonstrate the understanding of the assignment and explain the proposed approach to organizing and managing the works, methodology, data sources, sampling and data collection methods and tools, data analysis procedures and criteria for making judgments, as well as the proposed structure/contents of the study report and how it will be composed. The technical proposal should also provide a work plan and timeline, composition of the study team with updated CVs of all members, and links or soft copies of two most recent relevant studies performed by the proposed team. A sealed envelope with the technical proposal must be clearly marked “TECHNICAL PROPOSAL” and should NOT contain any financial information, otherwise they will not be qualified for consideration.

Financial proposals should provide detailed description of the proposed evaluation costs in Ukrainian Hryvnias with proposal validity term of 30 days, including:

• Hourly rates for each member of the team
• Proposed number of hours for each member of the team on this assignment and specification of work to be performed
• Operational support costs (e.g. travel costs, communications, interpretation/translation if any, expendables, stationery)
• Any other costs that need to be covered to make the study a success, with detailed justifications

Travel expenses should be based on the most direct and economical fares and should not exceed the applicable rates established by the United Nations for Ukraine. The financial proposal must be submitted together with the technical proposal in a separate sealed envelope clearly marked “FINANCIAL PROPOSAL”.

The applications must be sent to the UNFPA Country Office in Ukraine to the address and by the deadline as indicated in the request for quotations announcement. Applications received after the deadline will be returned to applicants unopened.

An evaluation committee will be established by UNFPA to evaluate all received applications. Applications will be reviewed in a two-stage process: technical proposals will be evaluated and rated before opening of financial proposals. Only those proposals found technically compliant will be subject to comparative financial evaluation.

The applications will be evaluated with 60% weight assigned to technical proposal score and 40% to financial proposal score, and according to the following criteria and scores:

Technical proposals (100 points max):

Overall response (20 points max)

• General quality and completeness of the proposal vis-à-vis the terms of reference and request for quotations requirements
• Applicant’s understanding of the study subject, purpose, objectives, scope, expected deliverables
• Applicant’s background, official registration, references etc.              

Proposed methodology and approach (50 points max)

• Proposed approach to organizing and managing the study
• Proposed methodology, data sources, sampling and data collection methods and tools, data analysis procedures and criteria for making judgments
• Proposed structure/contents of the study report and how it will be composed
• Proposed work plan and timeline
• Deliverables are addressed as per TOR; proposed timelines are met

Technical capacity of the Evaluation Team (30 points max)

• Range and depth of experience with similar evaluations
• Academic qualifications and job record
• Competencies and skills relevant for the evaluation (e.g. communications, analysis, data management, report writing, software use)
• Language proficiency

Only those technical proposals achieving the score of 60 points and above will be considered as qualifying for evaluation of the financial proposal.

Financial Proposals (100 points max):

Financial proposals should follow the results-based budgeting approach. They will be assessed based on their clarity, completeness, level of detail and appropriateness. The maximum number of points shall be scored to the lowest price proposal among all technically qualifying applications. Other financial proposals will receive scores according to the following formula:

The total score of each application will represent the weighted sum of its technical and financial scores as follows:

1. Questions

Questions or requests for further clarifications should be submitted in writing to the contact person below:

The deadline for question submission is Friday, November 15, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. Kyiv. All questions will be answered in writing and shared with all parties as soon as possible after this deadline.

2. Content of quotations

Quotations should be submitted in a single e-mail whenever possible, depending on file size. Quotations must contain:

1. Technical Proposal, in response to the requirements outlined in the service requirements / TORs. 
2. Financial Proposal, to be submitted strictly in accordance with the price quotation form.
3. Copies of registration documents.

Language of the proposal – English or Ukrainian.

Separate Technical Proposal and Financial Proposal should be submitted in pdf format by electronic method of transmission to the e-mail address indicated in the section IV and be signed by the bidding company’s relevant authority.

3. Instructions for submission

Proposals should be prepared based on the guidelines set in TOR, along with a properly filled out and signed price quotation form, are to be sent to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) secured e-mail address to  the contact person indicated below no later than: Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 5:00 p.m. Kyiv. Proposals sent to any other address will not be considered.

Please note the following guidelines for submissions:

• The following reference must be included in the email subject line: RFQ Nº UNFPA/UKR/RFQ/19/11. Proposals that do not contain the correct email subject line may be overlooked by the procurement officer and therefore not considered.
• The total e-mail size may not exceed 20 MB (including e-mail body, encoded attachments and headers). Where the technical details are in large electronic files, it is recommended that these be sent separately before the deadline.  

1. Award Criteria

UNFPA shall award a Contract with duration till July, 31, 2020 to the company with the proposal received the panel's highest score.

2. Right to Vary Requirements at Time of Award

UNFPA reserves the right at the time of award of contract to increase or decrease by up to 20% the volume of services specified in this RFQ without any change in unit prices or other terms and conditions.

3. Fraud and Corruption

UNFPA is committed to preventing, identifying, and addressing all acts of fraud against UNFPA, as well as against third parties involved in UNFPA activities. UNFPA’s policy regarding fraud and corruption is available here: Fraud Policy. Submission of a proposal implies that the Bidder is aware of this policy.

Suppliers, their subsidiaries, agents, intermediaries and principals must cooperate with the UNFPA Office of Audit and Investigations Services as well as with any other oversight entity authorized by the Executive Director and with the UNFPA Ethics Advisor as and when required.  Such cooperation shall include, but not be limited to, the following: access to all employees, representatives agents and assignees of the vendor; as well as production of all documents requested, including financial records.  Failure to fully cooperate with investigations will be considered sufficient grounds to allow UNFPA to repudiate and terminate the Agreement, and to debar and remove the supplier from UNFPA's list of registered suppliers.

A confidential Anti-Fraud Hotline is available to any Bidder to report suspicious fraudulent activities at UNFPA Investigation Hotline.

4. Zero Tolerance

UNFPA has adopted a zero-tolerance policy on gifts and hospitality. Suppliers are therefore requested not to send gifts or offer hospitality to UNFPA personnel. Further details on this policy are available here: Zero Tolerance Policy.

5. RFQ Protest

Bidder(s) perceiving that they have been unjustly treated in connection with the solicitation or award of a contract may submit a complaint directly to the Chief, Procurement Services Branch at procurement@unfpa.org.

1. Disclaimer

Should any of the links in this RFQ document be unavailable or inaccessible for any reason, bidders can contact the Procurement Officer in charge of the procurement to request for them to share a PDF version of such document(s). English version of request for quotations prevails.