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Strategic Action Plan for the Implementation of the Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Policy, 2016

Terms of Reference (ToR) for an expert in strategic action planning

ADMINISTRATIVE INFROMATION:

Closing Time 28 Feb 2016

Contact

Person

Name: Nisha

Email: nish@ilo.org

Budget Code RBTC xxxx

Outcome 1. Men and women migrant workers are better protected

Output 1.1. The Government of Bangladesh and stakeholders, including social

partners and employment service providers, have the capacity to adopt

and implement 5 new frameworks pertaining to labour migrants

including an improved complaints mechanism; social security legislation;

and support services for migrants

Activity 1.1.21. The project provides technical assistance to Bangladeshi officials

to develop an implementation planning responsibility framework and

services list

Offer Validity

Requirement

45 days from the closing date

Respondent

Type

Individual expert with high level expertise in strategic action planning.

Contract Type ILO External Collaboration Contract

Amendments

to the /

Termination of

the ToR and

Data

management

ILO may amend the ToR or the selection/approval process at any time,

including the Closing Time, or terminate the ToR. Any such change that

affects the respondents will be communicated to all Respondents. ILO is

not liable for any costs or compensation for the preparation of the

response offer by the respondents. All documents, including this ToR,

produced through this assignment shall remain the property of the ILO.

Response

Offer

A CV showing relevant experience, a financial price offer and evidence of

relevant work experiences with the contact details of two previous

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service users/clients need to be submitted by the Closing Time to the

Contact Person.

Ethics ILO expects and by responding to this ToR, all respondents shall commit

to apply highest standards of ethical behaviour and fair dealing

throughout the process and undertake not to be involved in any actual,

potential or perceived conflict of interest concerning itself or a related

entity while responding to this ToR in the course of the assignment

delivery, if contracted. More information can be found here:

http://www.ilo.org/public/english/ethics/

Gender

Equality

ILO promotes opportunities for all sexual identities to obtain decent and

productive work in conditions of freedom and therefore, this assignment

is required to given equal weightage and if required, affirmative

treatment to promote employment of women. More information can be

found here: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/gender.htm

General

Considerations

The response offer, technical and financial, must be written in English

and prices in Bangladeshi Taka (BDT).

The respondents should be aware that competitive neutrality shall be

maintained and the public sector shall not have advantages over private

sector competitors by virtue of public sector ownership.

Response offer is expected only from those experts who have prior

experience of having done similar work.

The report shall follow the ILO in-house style manual, which shall be

made available to the selected respondent.

Special

consideration

This assignment is open to only to those resident in Bangladesh.

Excellent language skills in Bangla is required (written, oral and

comprehension).

Excellent language skills in English is required (written, oral and

comprehension).

Language, words, terms and phrases to be used in the seminar and the

report must be respectful of labour rights, gender equality, persons with

disability and rights of other marginalized groups. For any clarity, ILO

should be contacted.

Travel No travel required outside Dhaka. The expert will be responsible for making local appointments for meetings, etc. and local travel arrangements on their own at their own cost.

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INTRODUCTION:

The work mentioned herein come under the ILO’s technical assistance to the Government of

Bangladesh and workers and employers organizations for strengthening labour migration

governance. This technical cooperation is planned to be executed in a phased manner. And

began in July 2010 with an opening phase and a longer term phase-1 through the programme

“Promoting Decent Work through Improved Migration Policy and its Application in

Bangladesh” from July 2011 – Oct 2015. Both the opening and the Phase-1 were executed

with financial assistance from the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC). The

phase-2, which is to be of five year duration, is expected to begin in March 2016. Currently,

the ILO is has been providing bridge support to the MEWOE, BMET and other institutions to

meet their technical assistance needs for continuity of essential and time-sensitive actions.

The purpose of this assignment is to lead a strategic action planning process to produce a

document that based on the policy directives:

1. sets priorities,

2. identifies resource requirements (available and to be mobilised),

3. identifies gaps and suggests measures to strengthen operations,

4. provides a results matrix that tells the employees of the government working in the

Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment and its subordinate bodies

what they are to do and how they can work with the stakeholders toward common

goals,

5. establishes agreement around intended outputs, activities and timeframes for

implementation,

6. assesses and adjusts the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment

and its subordinate bodies’ direction in response to the new policy, and

7. identifies baselines, sets indicators and means of verification by which progress can

be monitored and results report produced to be submitted to the National Steering

Committee and the National Labour Migration Forum1.

The strategic action planning process is required to be disciplined effort that produces

fundamental decisions and actions that will shape and guide what Ministry of Expatriates’

Welfare and Overseas and its subordinate bodies will do, who these institutions would serve,

how they would serve, how it will mobilise resources, with who they will coordinate and

collaborate and what they will deliver, with a focus on the future. To be effective, the strategic

action planning process should produce a strategic action plan which is easy to understand

by all stakeholders, especially the government employees responsible for the implementation

and would be required to have high orientation to result delivery.

1 The National Steering Committee led by the Prime Minister and the National Labour Migration Forum led by the Minister of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment are proposed to be set up under the forum as coordination, cooperation and accountability mechanisms.

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This assignment is being implemented during the bridge period to ensure that the strategic

action plan is in place when the phase-2 project implementation begins.

BACKGROUND:

The phase-1 project had specific thrust on assisting the government in the application of

labour standards to the migrant workers through a range of actions including governance

reform, pilots and collaboration. The programme also works with the other two constituents

– workers organizations and employers and several other stakeholders. With the trade

unions, the phase-1 supported them examine the nature and avenues for social dialogue and

workers’ organizing in Bangladesh and at the South Asia level. Alongside, the phase-1 engaged

with the association of the recruitment agents in Bangladesh through law and policy

negotiation processes and independently about their role in ensuring job-seekers and

workers’ rights, self-regulation and industry stewardship, and building constructive

relationship with the government. The phase-1 also worked with the employers to explore

stakes that employers may have in labour migration from South Asia, both in terms of positive

and negative factors and role they could play in professional reintegration of the returning

workers.

The phase-2 follows the lead of the phase-1 by working with all stakeholders in labour

migration management, including private sector recruitment agents and employers, who may

not have an initial understanding of, or commitment to concepts of worker’s rights and the

value of social protection. The phase-2 project seeks to ensure broad understanding of issues

in migration and to provide a platform for stakeholders of diverse views to come together to

reach workable solutions that are mutually beneficial. By providing technical assistance for

addressing the overall legislative and policy context more comprehensively, the project would

ensure that there is full understanding and shared ownership of the approach, rather than it

being seen as imposed. The project would ensure that it promotes labour rights and human

rights of the workers, and reaches out to the areas where the workers are more likely to be

affected by weaker basic services. It will support strengthening of institutional,

administrative, regulatory and attitudinal practices that would promote participation and

redress complaints, and encourage workers to claim their rights.

Across the phases, there is significant emphasis on improving social protection indicators

across the normative work as well as to identify in practical ways, which actions the

government may take that would have positive results for workers. This assignment is a step

in this direction since it is to support planning of practical actions to be implemented by the

government for the implementation of the newly adopted Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas

Employment Policy, 2016.

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SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE EXPERT:

The assignment is required to produce outputs under the oversight of the Ministry of

Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment and will need expertise in:

1. analysis or assessment for building an understanding of the current internal and

external environments,

2. baseline development for each policy directive,

3. strategic planning framework formulation for all stakeholders to review and provide

feedback on,

4. stakeholder input-seeking and consensus building,

5. monitoring and evaluation framework formulation,

6. strategy formulation for high level coordination and technical and financial resource

mobilisation,

7. strategy formulation for execution to translate policy directives into operational

planning and action items,

8. strategic working group engagement2,

9. strategy workshop facilitation, and

10. Strategy development and action plan preparation.

TIMEFRAME:

The expert’s services will be required over two months from the date of the signing of the

Contract by the ILO and the expert and it is estimated that the overall work concerning all

outputs would take around 15 full working days. The expert, however, is free to spread the

time and pace keeping in mind their convenience and the planning process, including, the

dates of the workshops and meetings of the working groups.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE ILO:

ILO is responsible for technical and procedural consideration of steps involved, development

and finalization of the ToR, hiring the services of the expert, and coordinating with the

Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment for administrative and

operational arrangements for developing the strategic action plan. These are detailed out in

the work plan below.

2 An inter-ministerial working group to be set up by the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment

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SCHECDULE / WORKPLAN:

The following matrix sets out the specific steps and tasks recommended for the development

of the strategic action plan:

Task Time Responsibility

Mobilization of the planning process:

Administrative mobilization:

Availability of the Gazetted policy

Opening of the file

3 days Ministry of Expatriates’

Welfare and Overseas

Employment

Getting started with the strategic planning process:

Consideration of steps involved

ToR

Hiring of expert

5 days ILO

Administrative and operational arrangements for developing the strategic action plan

Forming a tripartite-cum-interministerial working group to: o provide baseline information, o consider actions required for

implementation o estimate technical and financial resources

required for implementation3 o set responsibilities for implementation,

monitoring and evaluation

5 day Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment and ILO

Development and defining of the baseline:

Development of baseline situation and likely future requirements vis a vis each policy directive:

3 days Expert

3 The resource planning will take into account:

Since this strategic action plan is being developed by the government for the implementation of its policy, the per annum funding requirement covering the timeframe of the 7th five-year plan, in cash terms, will be clearly stated. This estimation would include, the resources available from revenue budget, anticipated resources from the revenue budget, resources to be mobilization through international, multilateral and bilateral cooperation, etc.

The resource mobilization strategy would put emphasis on how expenditure could be smarter and more strategic in how goods and services are procured.

Funding requirement would also take into account funds required for research, IT, and other organizational and personnel costs which are needed to bring required specific knowledge, skills, etc. The strategy would also encourage the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment to work closely with the universities and research institutions to create more opportunities for labour market analysis as well as to sustain it.

Further, the costs of setting up pilot schemes will also be budgeted and collaboration with the local private sector may be explored.

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Review of policy and other literature as may be required to establish links with the population, national employment and social protection policies

Identification of the current baseline against each policy directive

Guidance on future data collection where baseline data doesn’t exist

Measurement of what needs to be achieved for the realization of policy directive

Review of operational requirements to make progress on each policy directive

Review of future technical capacity requirement to make progress on each policy directive

Explanation of gaps and constraints

Development of the strategic action plan framework to begin consultations and dialogue:

Determine the strategic action plan framework based in the rights of the migrant workers and their family members as espoused in the ICRMW4 for consideration covering at least the following:

Stating the strategic vision

Reviewing and adjusting the action plan template (See Annex 1 to this ToR)

Scheduling with dates tasks and working group meetings and the workshop

Identifying what may require supplementary planning and strategy development

Defining service levels that the government will be responsible for each policy directive

Setting objectives and targets

2 days Expert

Workshop and working group meetings for planning:

Stakeholder input-seeking and consensus building on the framework

Presentation of different analyses

Focus group discussions (2/two) with women and men migrant workers for their feedback

Revision of framework

Detailing of analyses, baseline and actions as required

Rethinking resources (financial and technical)

Validation of the framework

2 days

4 The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, 1990 or the ICRMW is a United Nations multilateral treaty ratified by the Government of Bangladesh on 24 Aug 2011.

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Evaluating options for implementation:

Based on the planning inputs from the workshop and working group Identifying and finalizing options available for implementation and evaluating the required:

Institutional framework (Roles and responsibilities of all government organizations involved in implementation and the roles and responsibilities of the Secretariat, which is to be set up to support the National Steering Committee and the National Labour Migration Forum, in monitoring and reporting progress to both mechanisms)

Implementation modality for each activity (directly by the government, outsourcing, coordination with trade unions, employers organizations, NGOs, recruitment agents, etc)

1 day Expert in consultation with the responsible Wing in the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment

Development of the strategy:

The development of strategy for implementation, which would clearly inform a stakeholders how to proceed with detailed work The strategy should guide:

How national ownership will be built and maintained

How stakeholder consensus-building will be carried out

How resources will be mobilized

How the Secretariat will be set up and maintained

2 days Expert in consultation with the responsible Wing in the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment

Finalizing the action plan:

The action plan (Updated version of the Annex 1 enclosed with this ToR) will provide detailed evaluation and selection of activities and options to be pursued. It will include:

Activities per policy directive

Financial resources and sources of funding

Beneficiary and stakeholder awareness and participation measures

Responsibilities

Measures for monitoring and evaluating progress

Work schedule or planned timetable for accomplishing implementation

2 days Expert

Validation of the strategic action plan:

Final review by the working group 1 day Expert

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Multi-stakeholder workshop 1 day Expert

Final adjustment and submission 1 day Expert

COMPLETION CRITERIA / OUTPUTS:

The production of the following outputs to the satisfaction of the ILO and submission in electronic form (using MS Office software) of these would imply completion of the assignment: 1. Baseline status report covering each policy directive, including:

1.1. Current qualitative or qualitative status/data 1.2. Gaps in data (clearly indicating how each gap is to be filled) 1.3. Target 1.4. Technical capacity needs (taking into account gender and diversity related capacity

too), and 1.5. Gaps and constraints analysis

2. Completed Strategic Action Plan, including: 2.1. Institutional mechanism, 2.2. Implementation modalities, 2.3. Technical resources mobilization, 2.4. Financial resource mobilization, 2.5. Beneficiary and stakeholder participation and national ownership, and 2.6. Detailed action plan in the updated template (for suggested template, see Annex 1)

SPECIAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

The Assignment will involve:

1. Developing a strategic action plan as described above;

2. Guiding and coordinating inputs from the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and

Overseas Employment, the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training, the Wage

Earners Welfare Board, other institutions of the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and

Overseas Employment, ministries and other bodies given responsibility for

implementation in the policy for developing a comprehensive strategic action plan;

3. Prohibiting any public authority of Bangladesh or any other stakeholder – public or

private – from entering into a conflict of interest situation in this assignment or any

consequent actions that may follow this assignment;

4. All documents (including diagrams, estimates, plans, records) and other proprietary

items including data jointly referred to as Proprietary Items developed by the expert

in connection with this assignment or furnished to the expert by or on behalf of the

ILO, institutions of the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment or

the ministry itself to support the performance of the expert’s obligations under the

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Contract, are the property of the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas

Employment; and will be used by the expert solely for the purposes of the assignment;

5. All intellectual property rights and all other proprietary rights (including copyrights,

patents, trademarks, source codes, products, processes, inventions, ideas, know-how)

with regard to any materials (jointly referred to as Intellectual Property), developed

by the expert in connection with this assignment or furnished to the expert by or on

behalf of the ILO to support the performance of the expert obligations under the

Contract, are the exclusive property of the International Labour Organization and

Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment; and, will be used by the

expert solely for the purposes of the assignment;

6. During the course of development of analysis and the report, Proprietary Items and

Intellectual Property developed or utilized by or furnished to the expert/organization

will be made available for use and inspection by the ILO and the Ministry of

Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, upon request at reasonable times

and in reasonable places;

7. Such Proprietary Items and Intellectual Property will be delivered to the ILO and the

authorized officials of the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment

on completion of the Contract.

8. The expert will disclose, throughout its performance, to the ILO’s authorized

personnel full particulars of all source information, processes, ideas, know-how,

documents and any other materials developed or conceived by the expert in

connection with the Contract.

MISCELLANEOUS:

None.

APPENDICES:

Annex 1 for the suggested action plan template.

Annex 1: Action Plan Template Page 1 of 4

SUGGESTED FORMAT FOR Action Plan for the Implementation of the Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Policy, 2016 Year _________ The action plan is in two parts:

1 Main Targets that measure the government’s success in meeting the policy directives 2 Actions and Initiatives planned to help the government implement the policy directives in terms of concrete actions

The first part should be updated, if required, when all baseline data is available.

1 Targets (Given policy directive-wise): Reporting should be based on progress tracking against this part.

Policy directive

Baseline Target Target Date

Six-monthly / Yearly Milestone

Means of Verification Important Assumptions

State the policy directive State it as it is

State the quantitative or qualitative data Mention data and where data is not available, specify the future action ensuring that the specified action is

State the agreed targets It is important that each policy directive has a Specific, Measurable, Achievable and Realistic target. Completing this section is a useful way of checking that you have set measurable

State the start date and the target date for completion It is important that each policy directive is met in a Timebound manner.

State which actions will be show progress in right direction It is important that each milestone action is captured in the second part of this action plan so it is integrated and budgeted.

What will show that the progress is on track These are documents, activities, sites where stakeholders could obtain the data necessary to prove the policy directive indicator has been reached. These could include annual reviews, monitoring reports, evaluation reports, reports from collaborating ministries and government institutions, and others. Again, it is important

State elements / factors / environment in which results policy directive can be met The government must continuously monitor and influence, as far as possible, any external factors which may adversely affect the attainment of the policy directive. But external factors which could affect the success must

Annex 1: Action Plan Template Page 2 of 4

included in the in the second part of this action plan and budgeted.

targets for each directive.

that means of verification come from the action plan and therefore these should be captured in the second part of this action plan and budgeted.

be discussed and assumption about the elements / factors / environment / resources, etc mentioned.

Annex 1: Action Plan Template Page 3 of 4

2 Activities and Initiatives

(It is a good idea to create an action plan table for each of the policy directives, stating the target against the directive.

POLICY DIRECTIVE : Mention the policy directive

TARGET : Mention the relevant target set in the first part

Proposed Activity (Key activities that need to be carried out to reach the target.)

Budget

Other ministries and government bodies input or action

Beneficiaries / stakeholders to be involved

Responsible Organization / department / division / wing / cell for implementation

Start and End Dates

Frequency of data collection

Responsibilities for:

data collection / analysis

reporting

performance assessment

Available To be mobilized

Include here all required activities for reaching the target as well as to:

complete any baseline gap,

complete any milestone action,

complete any specific verification measure related action,

build capacity,

mobilise resources,

involve beneficiaries and

How much of the required fund is available?

How much of the required fund needs to be mobilized?

If the action is to fully implemented by the the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment and its subordinate bodies, how will it secure cooperation and ensure coordination with other ministries and government bodies who have been

Will the action need collaboration or partnership with trade unions, NGOs, networks, employers organizations, recruitment agents or their industry association? How will be done? How will beneficiaries views in planning or their feedback

While the main responsibility for implementation lies with the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment and its subordinate bodies, if an action can only be taken by another ministry or government body, that too should be clearly mentioned here with relevant details, specified above

When will the activity implementation begin and end?

Data collection should be time-bound with respect to time required for analysis, writing of the report and deadlines for reporting

Which wing and who in the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment and its related bodies will be responsible for:

Data collection and analysis:

Internal performance assessment and corrective action:

Reporting:

Sharing with the Secretariat:

Annex 1: Action Plan Template Page 4 of 4

stakeholders, and

ensure actions concerning gender equality, women’s employment, and other important considerations are acted upon.

given a role in the implementation of the policy?

on implementation and quality be obtained? If this would require an action like a survey, ensure that it is included in the first column and budgeted in the second column.