Consultant Request for Mental Health Support for ENGAGE Partners

A. Introduction

Pact is an international development nonprofit that works on the ground in nearly 40 countries to end poverty and marginalization. We partner with local organizations, businesses, and governments to build lasting solutions for thriving, resilient communities. Our vision is a world where everyone owns their future. Pact has worked in Ukraine since 2006 in the areas of governance, capacity development, and health. Building on a decade of experience, we address key challenges facing civil society organizations in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian civil society sector holds a pivotal role in driving the country’s European integration and actively contributes to the promotion of democracy, human rights, and social justice. Since 2016 ENGAGE has supported national, subnational, and local CSOs in order to find activists to counter corruption, promote the principles of transparency and accountability, and contribute to the implementation of indispensable reforms.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, ENGAGE pivoted its activities to help partner CSOs adapt to the challenging operating environment and make an impact as influencers, watchdogs, conveners, and communicators in areas of civic education, the rule of law, anti-corruption, European integration, policy analysis, countering Russia’s disinformation, and the protection of vulnerable and marginalized groups. In light of the increased psychological stress and emotional strain experienced during wartime, ENGAGE partners identified the critical importance of supporting the mental well-being of partner organizations’ staff.

This Consultant request (CR) is a part of the Activity to Enhance Non-Governmental Actors and Grassroots Engagement (ENGAGE). The purpose of ENGAGE is to increase citizen awareness of and engagement in civic activities at the national, subnational, and local level.

The goal of this CR is to hire a Ukrainian consultant to prepare and perform the mental health support program for human resource specialists of ENGAGE institutional CSO partners (up to 30 CSOs), as well as develop the approach, conduct educational activities for ENGAGE partner CSOs under the suggested curriculum, and provide direct mental health support to the concerned staff of the partners.

B. Scope of Work

Considering that mentally resilient workforce is crucial for sustaining effective operations, even in the face of the challenges posed by Russia’s all-out war and responding to partners’ challenge to manage staff mental health, ENGAGE will launch a tailored mental health support program to assist ENGAGE partners’ teams cope with exhaustion.

Expected Result: CSOs ability to address newly emerging needs of Ukrainian citizens increased.

Purpose: to equip ENGAGE partner CSOs with the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively manage staff mental health, ensuring that their members can maintain both productivity and social connections even in challenging circumstances.

Objectives:

• To equip human resource specialists within institutional partner CSOs with tools and competences to fulfil their role as focal points in navigating their organization to addressing colleagues’ mental health concerns;
• To provide direct external mental health support to concerned staff of institutional partners.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Task 1: To develop a comprehensive curriculum outline for the mental health support  program for human resource specialists of ENGAGE institutional CSO partners (up to 30 CSOs). The outline can include, but not limited to the following aspects:

• key educational curriculum modules, ensuring a logical flow and progression of topics;
• identified topics to be covered in each module;
• clearly defined learning objectives and outcomes of each module;
• methods and approaches to be used for each module based on the module’s content and objectives, estimated durations;
• anticipated results and methods to assess whether results are achieved;
• the outline must contain room for topics and questions suggested by the participants base on their specific needs, in the case of which details regarding these elements will be developed later.

Task 2: To prepare agendas, evaluation forms, and other materials for each educational activity as relevant (readings, videos, etc.).

Task 3: To conduct all the educational activities for human resource specialists of ENGAGE partner CSOs under the suggested curriculum.

Task 4: To develop recommendations for further mental health support activities for partner CSOs.

Task 5: To develop approach and provide direct mental health support to concerned staff of partners.

Task 6: To prepare final report on the implementation mental health support program for human resource specialists and direct mental health support to concerned staff of partners (in English and Ukrainian).

The mental health support program should be built from the perspectives related to the operations of the civil society organizations in Ukraine.

Deliverables:

1. Final concept of curriculum for mental health support program for human resource specialists of ENGAGE CSO partners, including detailed implementation plan.
2. Final concept of approach to providing direct mental health support to concerned staff of partners.
3. Agendas, presentations, evaluation forms, packages of compulsory and recommended readings (can also be videos, etc. as appropriate) designed for individual use by each participant and for potential share within the organizations where the participants come from, as well as other materials relevant within education.
4. Curriculum on mental health support for human resource specialists of ENGAGE CSO partners implemented.
5. Recommendations for further mental health support activities for partner CSOs developed.
6. Direct mental health support to concerned staff of partners provided during the contract period.
7. Final report on the implementation of mental health support program for human resource specialists and direct mental health support to concerned staff of partners (in English and Ukrainian). Lists of participants, results of evaluation forms, video recordings of online activities, if appropriate, should be included in the reports as annexes.

Place of Performance: All services required under this solicitation will be performed in Ukraine.

Period of Performance: All services required under this solicitation will be delivered from December 26, 2023 to September 30, 2024.

C. Qualifications

• Expertise in Mental Health education, background in mental health education and training, including a thorough understanding of mental health issues related to the operations of the civil society organizations in Ukraine.
• Proven experience in providing direct mental health support to individuals or groups.
• Technical knowledge, skills and expertise in designing and organizing training sessions and trainings both online and offline.
• Demonstrated experience in developing evaluation forms and other assessment tools, ability to analyze them and produce well-structured and consistent reports.
• Excellent writing and presentation skills.
• Fluency in English is preferable.
• Demonstrated experience in similar contracts is a plus.

D. Eligibility

All proposals which fail to comply with the basic minimum requirements outlined in the solicitation shall be eliminated. See Sections C and E.

E. Application Instructions

Proposals must be submitted electronically to kbondar@pactworld.org no later than 17:00 on December 14, 2023 (Kyiv time). The subject line should contain: “Proposal under Consultant Request P4767-2024-07.” The proposals expected to be submitted from an individual consultant as an individual/private entrepreneur.

Documentation required for application:

• Resume/CV. A short profile of an applicant featuring expertise and experience relative to the goals and objectives of this RFP.
• Resume of a consultant or all experts engaged into the implementation the task if it is more than one person.
• Technical Proposal: An outline of the curriculum (as per the recommendations and details provided above) and a description of the approach for offering direct individual mental health support to the concerned staff of our partners.
• Financial proposal (budget) in Excel file (in UAH currency). Clearly stated Level of Effort (consultancy days) with requested rate per day, and per each of the seven Deliverables. Please suggest the due dates (deadlines) for the each of seven deliverables.
• Portfolio of similar works if any.
• Reference letters.

Pact may require additional, more detailed budget information prior to issuing a subcontract.

Questions: All questions or clarifications regarding this Consultant Request must be in writing and submitted to kbondar@pactworld.org no later than 17:00 on December 07, 2023 (Kyiv time). The subject line should contain: “Questions to Consultant Request P4767-2024-07” Questions and requests for clarification, and the responses thereto, will be circulated to all Consultant Request recipients who indicate an interest in this Consultant.

F. Evaluation Criteria

Pact will evaluate applicants using the follow criteria (total – 100 scores):

– Qualifications (Expertise of an applicant and ability to perform tasks outlined in this CR) – 40

– Technical Proposal (Comprehensiveness, consistency, relevancy of the suggested concept) – 35

– Financial Proposal (Cost effectiveness) – 25 scores

G. Terms and Conditions

Disclaimers:

• Pact reserves the right to modify by written notice the terms of this solicitation at any time in its sole discretion. Pact may cancel the solicitation at any time.
• Pact may reject any or all proposals received.
• Issuance of solicitation does not constitute award commitment by Pact.
• Pact reserves the right to disqualify any quotation based on applicant’s failure to follow solicitation instructions.
• Pact will not compensate applicants for their response to the solicitation.
• Pact reserves the right to issue an award based on initial evaluation of applications without further discussion.
• Pact may choose to award only part of the scope of work in the solicitation or to issue multiple awards the scope of work.
• Pact reserves the right to waive minor proposal deficiencies that can be corrected prior to award determination to promote competition.
• Pact may contact applicants to confirm information and that the proposal was submitted for this solicitation.
• Pact may contact listed past performance references without notice to the applicant. Pact also reserves the right to contact other past performance information sources that the applicant did not list in the proposal.
• By submitting a proposal, the applicant confirms they understand the terms and conditions.
• Information pertaining to and obtained from the applicant as a result of participation in this solicitation is confidential. The applicant consents to the disclosure of the documents submitted by the applicants to the reviewers involved in the selection process. Please note that all reviewers are bound by non-disclosure agreements.