Call for manifestation of interest: International consultants ACCESSIBILITY At Handicap International – Humanity & Inclusion

Humanity & Inclusion is an international solidarity association, specialized in the field of vulnerability, in particular on disability. Non-governmental, non-denominational, non-political and non-profit, it works in all contexts alongside vulnerable populations, including people with disabilities, to provide them with assistance and support in developing their social participation and autonomy. Since its creation, the organization has implemented development programs in nearly 60 countries and intervenes in emergency and development contexts. Most of its projects include technical support to partners and institutions to improve the inclusion of people with disabilities affected by their interventions. To do this, HI has developed a pool of senior internal specialists in different sectors of intervention (see below), both in the field and at headquarters level.

I. Context of the creation of a pool of external consultants on ACCESSIBILITY

In addition to the technical support provided through our humanitarian and development projects, and in order to promote and have more impact on the inclusion of people with disabilities worldwide, HI decided in 2016 to develop an INCLUSION technical assistance service offer (consulting services) dedicated to the inclusion of people with disabilities. **

To date, HI has developed 3 types of INCLUSION Technical Assistance (ITA) services:**

1. ITA “Inclusive project or programming”: To make a project or an international cooperation organization more inclusive to beneficiaries with disabilities of humanitarian or development projects (NGOs, donors, international agencies…)**
2. ITA “inclusive employer”: To make an employer more inclusive of employees with disability (companies, NGOs, agencies, foundations, etc.)**
3. ITA “Inclusive public policy or service“: To make a public policy or service more inclusive to users and citizens with disabilities (institutional, local to national)**

Thus, from the initial assessment of the level of inclusiveness to long-term coaching, HI advises NGOs, donors, multinational companies and governments on the sustainable inclusion of people with disabilities, ensuring adaptation to local needs and contexts and to sectoral specificities.**

Wishing to develop more and more efficiently its technical support activities (in an HI project or under a consultancy) to other actors, HI launches this call for expression of interest for international consultants in the field of disability and inclusion. This call for expressions of interest concerns in particular specialists in ACCESSIBILITY, including the field of digital accessibility and communication.**

Objectives and targeted missions

Objectives of the call for applications

General objective

The general objective of this call for applications is to enable HI to strengthen its technical expertise in the field of inclusion and disability, in all its fields, contexts and sectors of intervention, in addition to the technical expertise of HI’s permanent teams.**

The specific objectives

• Facilitate the identification and contracting of external consultants for HI in the field of accessibility (infrastructure and digital)
• To feed and enrich HI’s technical response capacity in the field of accessibility**

The missions covered by this call for applications

The selected consultants should be able to carry out technical expertise missions in support of HI’s technical permanent teams at headquarters or in the programs, in the field of ACCESSIBILITY, including digital accessibility, for people with disabilities.

Ä within the framework of the implementation of one or several activities of a development project for which HI is the operator;

Ä Or in the framework of a technical assistance contract (consultancy) “Inclusion and Disability”, aiming at supporting a project team, a structure, a service or a policy to be more inclusive to disabled people.

Thus, the ACCESSIBILITY consultants integrated into the pool could be mobilized for the following missions

• Type 1 mission: Implementation/realization of an activity aiming at the accessibility of buildings or communication tools as part of an HI project activities, directly implements for people with disabilities: *Example: Carrying out an accessibility diagnosis of a partner school in an HI project on inclusive education*
• Type 2 assignments: Carrying out some or all of the HI technical assistance/consultancy to a mainstream organization/service/policy to be more accessible to people with disabilities. *Example: training of a general services and IT team on the challenges of digital accessibility in companies, as part of a “Inclusive Employment” technical assistance/consultancy agreement signed with the company.*
• Type 3 missions : Support to HI internal knowledge management on Accessibility Example: Elaboration of a capitalization document on the issue of accessibility of urban transport means, based on several experiences carried out by HI

Conditions of the call for expressions of interest

Eligibility

Any individual or group of individuals:

• Having a legal recognition of his consulting practices, and being up to date with his social contributions in his country of professional registration
• Having a recognized expertise in the field of disability and inclusion
• Not having had a negotiated breach of contract with HI in the last 2 years, as of the date of this call for expressions of interest.

The framework contract

This call for expressions of interest aims to allow the multi-year contracting of international consultants in the field of disability and inclusion.

A 3-year framework contract will be signed with each selected consultant, in which the administrative and financial conditions of solicitation of each signatory consultant will be set out.

These solicitations will be made by means of an order form.

The signing consultant commits to financial conditions, which will be indexed annually to the SYNTEX index, and which will be the subject of an amendment signed each year.

The consultants undertake to provide proof of any administrative and legal changes that may occur during the term of the contract.

HI undertakes to give priority to consultants who have signed this framework contract with HI, for any consultancy falling within the scope of this call for expression of interest.

However, neither the consultant nor HI commit to exclusivity or to an obligation of collaboration during these 3 years.

Desired expertise

In particular in the following fields of intervention:

• Accessibility of buildings, infrastructures and urban spaces
• Accessibility in emergency contexts (shelter, WASH, refugee camps, etc.)
• Digital accessibility, websites, mobile applications, files and ICT in general
• Accessibility of mobility solutions and means of transport
• Accessibility of early warning systems (in the field of Disaster Risk Reduction)

And/or on cross-cutting skills such as :

• Managing an Accessibility project cycle (from project writing to final evaluation)
• Training
• Supporting an organization or service to be more inclusive of people with disabilities
• Support for individual or collective empowerment/self-determination
• Writing knowledge management documents (capitalization, studies, best practices, briefs…)