Developing Regional Strategy for Confederation of IGAD Employers (CIE) At International Labour Organization

Background

The ILO and IGAD are both committed to address challenges related to labour markets, decent work, labour migration and mobility governance in the region. To this end, among other things, the ILO and IGAD signed an MOU in 2012 and supplementary Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate the implementation of the project titled “Free Movement of Persons and Transhumance in the IGAD Region” which is financed by the European Union. The overall objective of the project is to improve opportunities for regulated labour mobility and decent work within the IGAD countries through the development of models of intervention, in the broader context of the regional integration.

Through social dialogue, the participation of the ILO’s tripartite constituents at the local, national, bilateral, regional, interregional and global levels is central to achieving fair labour migration governance and can strengthen the effectiveness and sustainability of labour migration policies, legislation and practices. The ILO is also working with the EAC and IGAD to enhance the ILO’s tripartite constituents’ capacity in labour migration.
As part of this project the ILO and IGAD have been working to advance social dialogue and tripartism at regional level. To this end, among other things, the two organizations supported the establishment and strengthening the capacities of regional confederations of employers’ organization named Confederation of IGAD Employers (CIE).
In October 2019, representatives from the IGAD Member States agreed and established the association of employers of members of the IGAD known as “Confederation of IGAD Employers (CIE)”. The Vision of CIE is to enhance growth and development through strong economic integration among member employers’ organization as a voice that echoes and serves the interests within the context of the international labor practices. Its mission is to observe the right and benefit of employers by creating peaceful industrial relations and expanding value added services to members.
Both CIE and HACTU met with the IGAD Executive Secretary H.E. Dr. Workeneh Gebeyhu and senior management of IGAD secretariat to present their byelaws and discuss strategic areas of collaboration with IGAD. In preparation for and as a follow up to the social partners meeting with the IGAD secretariat, the FMPT team held virtual consultations with CIE on how to boost the role of social partners in advancing decent work in the region in general and address the challenges of labour migration and mobility governance.
As a new organization, CIE wants to develop its regional strategy to identify its strategic areas of engagement and areas of focus to advance decent work in the region, the preliminary areas of work include;
1) Speeding up structural transformation in IGAD economies and employment creation that require proper investment on key economic sectors and strengthen trade among MS while promoting economic regional integration.
2) Promoting fair migration and recruitment processes as CIE can serve as an information sharing hub among EOs to direct investors on fair recruitment and migration processes.
3) Joint promotion campaigns by the CIE and HACTU of the ratification of key ILOs convention related to Labour Migration as the ratification rate is very low in the region.
4) Participation of Employment Organisations (EOs) in any upcoming capacity building workshops either face to face or virtually
5) A joint CIE and HACTU declaration on Labour Migration Governance could also be envisaged as a position of social partners.
6) Strengthening of the technical and financial capacities of the national offices of the CIE in order to be able to reach the goals set.

On the other hand, Labour Migration Governance could be the mandate of CIE in the IGAD region and since this is the focus of the FMPT project, the nature of the collaboration as well as the above priority areas could be covered in such a collaboration. The CIE noted the need for having a clear strategic document which defines and articulates their aspirations, key priority areas of work and contribution to regional integration, economic development as well as improved labour migration and mobility governance in the region. In this regard, the ILO plans to support CIE in the development of its first five years regional strategy as regional confederation of employers’ organization.
The development of a regional strategy will contribute to enabling CIE turn its vision into reality and increase efficiency, effectiveness and accountability. The strategy will help prioritize goals, maximize resources and support making better decisions plus describing the way it will meet its objectives through detailed action steps that will describe how and when the action steps will be taken. More precisely, the strategy will enable CIE:
• Articulate and define its aspirations (vision, Mission, strategic objectives), its roles and responsibilities in advancing decent work and social justice in the region in general and advancing protection of migrant workers
• Define its key strategies (how) and priority areas of work (what) and collaboration with IGAD and other partners in the regional and beyond
• Define concrete actions and deliverables to achieve its goals and objectives
• Identify resource needs and gaps and facilitate resource mobilization efforts of the organization.
In this regard, the ILO is looking for the service of a consultancy company/firm to develop the strategic plan of CIE as described below.

Overall Objective
Working under the supervision of CIE, FMPT team, with technical backstopping provided by ILO MIGRANT and ACTEMP the consultancy firm is expected to develop the first five years regional strategic document of CIE as described above. To this end, the consultancy firm is expected, among other things, to:
• Review the ILO’s existing research and technical guidance on developing regional strategy for social partners in the continent and from other regions.
• Read and internalize relevant documents related to social dialogue, tripartism, regional integration and labour migration globally and regionally to contextualize and present the added value of developing the regional strategy;
• Conduct interviews and consultations with selected key stakeholders including; CIE board members, member national federations/confederations, ACTEMP, IGAD secretariat, board members of similar regional confederations, continental and global confederation, when relevant, as well as ILO technical specialists and project staff among others.
• Synthesize and write up of the strategies in close consultation with the board management of CIE, ACTEMP and FMPT project team
Key Deliverables
• An inception report: the consultancy firm will submit the inception report outlining the methodology for the background report, data collection tools, preliminary list of literature and resources, and detailed implementation time line and preliminary outline of the strategies
• Submit the Draft regional strategy for CIE: the consultancy firm will submit the first draft regional strategy for review and comments from the CIE, IGAD, ILO and other key stakeholders;
• Submit Revised Draft regional strategy for CIE: the consultancy firm will submit a revised draft strategy incorporating comments and inputs from CIE, IGAD, ILO and other key stakeholders
• Present the revised strategy in a regional consultation and validation workshop: the consultancy firm will present the revised strategy in a regional consultation and validation workshop. This will take place either physically or remotely depending on the COVID-19 situation;
• Final Regional Strategy: the consultancy firm will submit the final strategy after incorporating the comments from the consultation and validation workshop.

Duration of Services
The duration of the assignment will be four months from the signing of the agreement.
Minimum qualifications and capacity

The lead consultant / team leader and key members of his team needs Master’s degree in the field of social sciences, economics, international relations, development or related field and ten years of work experience in the field of employment, skills development, migration as well as project designing and project management;

• 7-10 years of work experience in developing strategic documents, action plans, providing technical assistance, and/or research with extensive theoretical and practical experience on social dialogue, tripartism, regional integration and labour migration issues
• Experience in social dialogue for workers’ rights and private sector development and knowledge of labour migration, labour rights, employment issues and gender issues
• Proven previous working experience in project design, project cycle management including monitoring and evaluation, conducting multi country research and assessments;
• Excellent writing skills and ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing in English;
• Good computer application skills including use zoom, skype and other teleconferencing applications, managing and administering on line surveys as well as extracting and analyzing data using appropriate tools and methods;
• Experience in working with UN agencies and multi-lateral organizations and institutions such as AU, IGAD and other Regional Economic Communities (RECs).
• Capacity to mobilize networks of experts at national level as a means to mitigate the impact of COVID related travel restrictions on data collection and stakeholder’s consultation on the field.

Logistics
The lead consultant/team leader will work under the supervision of CIE, FMPT team, with technical backstopping provided by ILO MIGRANT and ACTEMP the consultancy firm is expected to develop the first five years regional strategic document of CIE. The lead consultant will also get technical feedback and support from CIE, IGAD secretariat, ILO regional office for Africa (ROAF), Decent Work Country Team Cairo (DWCT-Cairo) and ILO headquarters.

Evaluation Process and Criteria
The evaluation process would be as shown below. In summary, the proposals will be evaluated on a weighted score of 70/30 for Technical/Financial relative score of 70/30.

Technical proposal evaluation criteria
In evaluating the technical proposal, the score allotted in the next table shall be used.

Evaluation Dimension
Team composition and portfolio of previous works, Max. Score 20
Criteria: Qualification, previous experience and team composition

Methodology**,** Max. Score 30
Criteria: Quality, clarity and responsiveness of the proposed methodology, tools and process
Overall quality of the Technical proposal for assignment, Max. Score 20

Responsiveness to the TORs / understanding of the assignment, proposed time frame, implementation plan as well as identification of risks and mitigation strategies
Total 70
The minimum total score required from the technical proposal to be able to proceed for evaluating the financial proposal will be 49/70 which is an equivalent of 70%

Evaluation of the Financial Proposal
The financial proposal offers having passed the technical review will be considered. The financial offer will account for 30% of the final score. The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal will be allocated to the lowest priced proposal. All other price proposals receive pro-rated points according to the following formula: p = y (x/z), where: p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal x = price of the lowest priced proposal z = price of the proposal being evaluated The proposal obtaining the overall highest score, after adding the score of the technical and the financial proposals, is the one that offers best value for money. The financial proposal should detail all lines of envisaged expenditure. For each line, the unit cost, the quantity of units, and the total cost should be provided.
Technical and Financial Proposal evaluation will be based on the following percentage combination

Technical Proposal 70
Financial proposal 30
Total 100

Deliverables with payment Schedule
Payments upon submission to ILO satisfaction of the deliverables and in line with the following payment tranches:

Deliverables Payment tranches Time frame
A) Inception report: one comprehensive inception report covering the specific objectives
First tranche: 30% of total payment
Time Frame: 4 weeks
B) Draft regional strategy for CIE: a draft regional strategy will be submitted for review and comments.
C) Revised draft regional strategy for CIE: a revised draft regional strategy will be submitted after incorporating comments from the CIE, ILO and other stakeholders
Second tranche: 40% of total payment up on submission of the revised draft strategy to the satisfaction of CIE and ILO
Time Frame: 8 weeks
D) Presentation of the revised strategy in a regional consultation and validation workshop: the consultant will present the revised project document to a wider stakeholder for consultation, review and validation either physically or virtually
E) Final Regional Strategy: the consultant will submit a final Regional Strategy.
Third and final tranche: 30% of total payment up on submission of the final strategy to the satisfaction of CIE and ILO
Time Frame: 4 weeks

Note: As ILO procedure the office will not cover receiver’s side bank charges

NB: The service provider should submit all reports in English in word format and necessary presentations in ppt format as per requirements.

Management Arrangements
The consulting company will work under the direct supervision of the project Chief Technical Advisor and Technical Expert based in Djibouti. S/He will also get technical back stopping support from other experts in the region and Headquarters as needed.