I. Background
Persons with disabilities, particularly women, face enormous attitudinal, physical and informational barriers to equal opportunities in the world of training and work. The biased socio-cultural, and religious lens informed by a medical and charity based approach to disability prevent persons with disabilities, especially women from accessing appropriate, accessible and inclusive education and vocational training and to compete in the labor market, thereby perpetuating the cycle of poverty and exclusion.
The TVET institutions and learning environments, as well as enterprises have to be more inclusive, as both are important levers for an independent and meaningful life. This joint UN project funded by the UNPRPD MPTF aims at developing a collective understanding of the stigma and discrimination patterns in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions and among the employers, thereby developing models and tools to fight such a widespread phenomenon, and fostering exchanges of good practices and experiences among the four countries involved (Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mozambique, Namibia), and beyond.
This will be accomplished by the development and testing of three tools in the four participating countries, with exchanges of experiences and lessons learnt. The tools include (i) a model of Dialogue Committee between TVET institutions and Employers’ organizations that should encourage collective understanding of and commitment towards fighting disability stigma and discrimination, including in dialogue with OPDs; (ii) a dedicated Disability Audit tool that will assist TVET institutions and employers’ and workers’ organisations in tracking and documenting the stigma and discrimination patterns and the shift in attitudes and perceptions; (iii) practical and user-friendly Guidelines for Reasonable Accommodation in TVET institutions and employers’ organizations; and (iv) a multicounty platform for exchanges of good practices and mutual learning. A particular attention will be paid to shedding light on how the intersectional discrimination between disability, gender, and poverty influences the generation and perpetuation of stigma and discrimination.
This Call for expression of interest specifically relates to the design and administration of the tool (ii) above- a dedicated Disability Audit tool that should assist TVET institutions and employers’ and workers’ organisations in tracking and documenting the stigma and discrimination patterns in their respective institutions, and measure the shift in attitudes and perceptions over time.
II. Objectives of the Audit tool
The Audit tool on Disability Stigma and Discrimination for TVET Institutions and Employers’ and Workers’ Organisations shall contribute to the project’s overall objective to end harmful prejudice and stereotype of persons with disabilities as unproductive members of the society. It shall be a hand-on tool that can be administered and regularly revisited by the TVET Institutions and Employers’ and Workers’ Organisations themselves, in collaboration with Organisations of Persons with disabilities at the national level. The specific objectives of the Audit tools are the following:
· Establish a common set of criteria to define disability stigma and discrimination in TVET Institutions and in Employers’ and Workers’ Organisations, in accordance with the CRPD, which should allow comparison across the four countries. The set of criteria must dedicate specific criteria to gender equality and the intersectional stigma and discrimination against girls and women with disabilities ;
· Assist TVET Institutions and Employers’ and Workers’ Organisations to understand the specific stigma and discrimination patterns that exist in their own institutions and prevent or limit persons with disabilities’ access to education and employment;
· Draw the attention of TVET Institutions and Employers’ and Workers’ Organisations on evidence of disability stigma and discrimination in the different policy frameworks, procedures, and process, as well as in the perceptions, behaviours, and attitudes of their staff and beneficiaries, including in implicit forms;
· Inform the design of Sensitization Training Series addressed to the different target groups in TVET institutions, and Employers’ and Workers’ Organisations (staff, faculty, students, CEOs, Unions, OPDs, etc.)[1];
· Propose a monitoring scheme/model that can be used and integrated by the TVET institutions, and Employers’ and Workers’ Organisations to measure the evolution over time of policy frameworks, procedures, and process, as well as in the perceptions, behaviours, and attitudes within their respective institutions. Such a scheme/model and subsequent findings yielded by it should be agreed upon and accepted by all stakeholders, including the Government, the TVET institutions, the Employers’ and Workers’ Organisations, and the OPDs.
III. Characteristics of the Audit toll
a) Usage of the tool
The originality of the Disability Audit tool will reside in (i) its focusing on documenting and measuring the policy frameworks and procedures, as well as perceptions, behaviours and attitudes of TVET institutions’ and Employers’ and Workers’ Organisations personnel and constituencies with regard to persons with disabilities; (ii) its shaping of a dedicated Series of Training modules addressed to specific stakeholders; and (iii) its usage as a regular monitoring tool that can guide the involved institutions in measuring the evolution of the stigma and discrimination patterns, and adopt the necessary policies accordingly.
This tool will not be used as a sanctioning tool, but as a tool that generates evidence and serves as an entry point for dialogue among the personnel and stakeholders in the institutions involved. It must be easy to be administered in the pilot phase by a national OPD, and then easily integrated to the corporate monitoring systems of TVET institutions’ and Employers’ and Workers’ Organisations in the medium term, in consultation and with the advice of OPDs.
b) Scope of information
The Audit tool must be able to document, analyse compare evidence over time, on the way the personnel and constituencies of TVET institutions’ and Employers’ and Workers’ Organisations understand stigma and discrimination and persons with disabilities’ social integration and economic productivity on the one hand, and equal access and free choice of all individuals on the other. It will identify the major blockage and obstacles that, according to them, prevent persons with disabilities from accessing training programmes and employment. From the TVET/Employers’ and Workers’ Organisations’ perspectives, the Audit will also look at the general perceptions and beliefs, and attitudinal barriers in relation to reforming policies, laws, and internal rules, providing reasonable accommodation, for more inclusion.
A set of questions will be posed to persons with disabilities as well,[2] in order to confront the data, dialogue around demystification, and formulate potential ways of reviewing TVET programmes and employment policies that will be free of disability-based stigma and discrimination. From the perspective of the persons with disabilities, the audit will assess the external stigma and discrimination (verbal and physical abuses, denial of free choice or information, exclusion from social gatherings, overprotection by families, patriarchal and gender norms, etc.) as well as the internalized stigma (feeling of worthlessness, feeling of shame, lack of confidence to apply for jobs or training programmes, fear of peer judgement, etc.).[3]
The nature and scope of topics that will be addressed in the Audit tool will be primarily qualitative, looking both at the commonly shared perceptions and attitudes across the target groups, and the specific bias and stigma in the area of:
· In TVET institutions: human resource management, access and enrolment of students, pedagogical and social experiences of students once enrolled, curriculum design, students/students/teachers’ relationship, admission, accessibility, outreach and communication, evaluation, as well as reasonable accommodation measures, post training placement policies/measures etc.
· In Employers’ and Workers’ organisations: Labour policy, employment policies in private firms, recruitment process and standards, interviews modalities, provision of reasonable accommodation in all areas, working space, equipment and access to information, social benefits and welfare, social protection and insurance, etc.
c) Learning questions of the tool
While designing the Audit Tool, the incumbent should take the following questions into consideration:
· How can the tool ensure free speech and testimonies from the different actors and respondents?
· Will tool manage to highlight the implicit patterns of stigma and discrimination?
· What are the perceptions of persons with disabilities as to the optimization/limitation of their abilities on an equal basis with their peers?
· To what extend the tool will manage to document the major attitudinal blockages and obstacles that prevent persons with disabilities to access training and employment?
· How can the Audit tool be integrated in a regular monitoring system in TVET institutions’ and Employers’ and Workers’ Organisations, in order to facilitate evidence-based reform/change of policies?
· How can the tool be administered easily by OPDs at the national level, and the findings easily analysed and clustered into typologies?
The tool must abide by the following ethical principles:
i) Human Rights and Gender Sensitivity: CRPD basic principles will guide the tools and methodology. Systematic effort will be made to integrate and capture gender analysis and interpretation.
ii) Free and Informed Consent: All parties taking part in the process must be informed of the objective of the tool and its usage and implications, especially for persons with disabilities. All parties must have the right to withdraw from the process at all times. Formal consent will be sought both in written form and verbally in the administration of the questionnaire.
iii) Confidentiality and Anonymity: All the data collected with the tool must remain protected from disclosure outside of the project setting or to unauthorized persons. All project team members must observe confidentiality where they agreed to handle, store, and share research data to ensure that information obtained from and about the process is not improperly divulged. Pseudonyms must be used in place of real names of participants with disabilities when the information pertains to their personal life.
IV. Assignment
The contractor will be expected to perform the following tasks:
(i) Undertake a mapping (desk review) of existing models of Disability Audit in the world, produced by credible and recognised institutions in the domain of disability, and propose an analytical benchmark of the best models to be customised for TVET institutions’ and Employers’ and Workers’ Organisations;
(ii) Organise and facilitate (online) Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with the relevant stakeholders within the TVET institutions’ and Employers’ and Workers’ Organisations, from the Project Dialogue Committee on Stigma and Discrimination, and from OPDs to understand the current practices, policies and procedures from the point of view of disability stigma and discrimination. These FGDs can follow/complement a desk review to map the national policies and frameworks, as well as corporate policies and internal rules and procedures that need to be analysed and taken into considerations on TVET and Labour;
(iii) Propose a set of common set of criteria that clearly define disability based stigma and discrimination in TVET institutions and in Employers’ and Workers’ Organisations, in accordance with the CRPD, which should allow comparison across the four countries. The set of criteria must dedicate specific criteria to gender equality and the intersectional stigma and discrimination against girls and women with disabilities;
(iv) Design the Audit tool itself in a paper and accessible digital formats, integrating the set of questionnaire, the analysis framework and tools, and the structure of the analysis outcome (typologies of stigma and discrimination, areas of concern, actors involved, etc.). The set of questionnaire must mandatorily include aspects related to gender equality and intersectional discrimination (gender/disabilities), and the diverse types of disabilities including the most under-represented ones (e.g. mental and psychosocial). It should be also open to customisation by the national actors to respond to their needs and knowledge gaps;
(v) Propose a monitoring scheme/model that can be used and integrated by the TVET institutions, and Employers’ and Workers’ Organisations to measure the evolution over time of policy frameworks, procedures, and process, as well as in the perceptions, behaviours, and attitudes within their respective institutions. Such a monitoring tool should be able to generate systematised data, charts, and trends that can be analysed in a comparative manner overtime and between the four countries involved.
(vi) Support and provide technical backstopping to the 4 national OPD that will be entrusted with the pilot administration of the Audit tools in the 4 countries, from the deployment of the Audit up to the drafting of the reports. All necessary capacity-building of the OPDs involved will have to be carried out (online or onsite depending of the context);
(vii) Facilitate technical meeting with ILO, UNESCO and the Project Dialogue Committee on a regular basis, and as needed, to consolidate, amend or validate the deliverables along the process.
V. Timeframe and Deliverables
The above-mentioned tasks must be undertaken within a period of 180 days from the date of signature of the contract.
The expected Deliverables are the following:
· Analytical mapping of the most relevant existing disability Audit tool;
· Questionnaire of the Audit tool in accessible formats (to be identified with the project team and partners);
· The Audit tool and its analysis framework ready to be administered, in accessible formats (to be identified with the project team and partners);
· Training modules/programmes for the OPDs that will administer the Audit, in accessible formats (to be identified with the project team and partners);
· The 4 Audit Reports drafted by the OPDs, in accessible formats (to be identified with the project team and partners).
VI. Team Composition
The consultancy firm should consider including the following experts in its team:
Disability inclusion Experts, with specialization on stigma and discrimination, inclusive education, inclusive training and employment and labour rights;
Gender Expert;
Audit Expert in social issues such as gender, social inclusion, human rights, etc.;
IT expert;
National consultants in the four countries with experiences in working with OPDs and/or Government on disability issues;
[1] The Sensitization Training Series that will be designed using the Audit findings will include basic modules on Myths and Prejudices; Actual Abilities vs Disabilities; Free Choice and Fundamental Rights; and Legislation and Reasonable Accommodation. The ILO sensitization training tool, Disability Equality Training (DET), recently developed in an online format, could be considered. The DET examines the barriers faced by persons with disabilities; challenges stereotypes, myths and misunderstandings about disability; and promotes inclusive behaviors. The training is designed to address unconscious biases and upend stereotypes.**
[2] Persons with disabilities who are willing to access TVET programmes, but encounter diverse barriers in terms of lack of access to information, lack of support from the family, and lack of self-confidence because of lack of enabling environment; and those who have been trained in TVET programmes, or other training programmes that provided them with a certain level of skills, but encounter challenges to find employment in the formal sector.
[3] Lessons can be drawn from some of the existing tools/initiatives which address stigma include “Understanding and challenging HIV stigma: Toolkit for action” and the “PLHIV Stigma Index”, a standardized tool to gather evidence on how stigma and discrimination impacts the lives of people living with HIV. Another tool, which addresses stereotypes and discrimination facing women, is The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), a large research and advocacy initiative on gender equality in the world’s news media.)
How to apply:
Interested parties may submit the EOI with:
A Technical proposal
List of experts with CVs
A Financial proposal
to vacancies.harare@unesco.org, with Subject “Audit Tool on Disability Stigma and Discrimination”.
Deadline for submission is 15 September 2021, 12 pm Harare time