Call for Tender for research- AIFO Retour vers les opportunités

Synthesis

AIFO is looking for a service provider, or a team of experts, willing to actively implement a research, and contribute to all related activities in the Governorates of El Kef, Kasserine, and Medenine to organize a professional training pathway for the employment inclusion of persons with disabilities in Tunisia. 

Objective

The main objective of the research is to identify the barriers and the facilitators that hinder or foster the access to VETs by young people with disabilities.

Expected duration

6 months: from middle of December 2022, to June 2023

Expected output

A final draft of a professional training pathway will be organized for the employment inclusion of persons with disabilities in Tunisia and it will be available in an accessible digital format, shared with institutional Stakeholders, and presented to the Ministers.

Context

In the framework of its technical assistance to the Ministry of Social Affairs (MSA) and under the slogan “Nothing for us without us”, AIFO is supporting Tunisian institutions in the implementation of the Decree No. 2008-568 of 4 March 2008 which ratifies the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and its Optional Protocol. Especially, we are supporting the MSA in organizing inter-ministerial working groups to redact a 5-years action plan.

Thanks to an Italian Agency for Cooperation to Development fund, AIFO is implementing the project “For an independent life” to improve the inclusiveness of vocational trainings thought pilot projects in El Kef, Kasserine, and Medenine and technical support to the Ministry of Social Affairs.

During the next 3 years, at a central level, we’re training MSA’s staff on the CRPD, we’re supporting MSA and ANETI on increasing accessibility of existing vocational trainings, and we’re conducting a country-level awareness social media campaign.

Since we bet people with disability can be an asset for local labor market, at local level, we’re ready to:

1. Training VET centers trainers to provide more inclusive trainings;
2. Boost the coordination between special education centers and vocational training centers in order to increase the quality of the education provided and the matching with the need of the labor market;
3. Organize win-win internship for PwD in local enterprise.

Within this framework, the consultancy is expected to contribute to increase the number of people with disabilities with technical and vocational skills, so to facilitate their integration into employment and entrepreneurship (SDG 4.4 / Target 4.4.).

Aim of the Research

The research aims to rate the participation, and related existing strength and weaknesses, of persons with disabilities aged between 16 and 34 in vocational and technical training in the Governorates of Le Kef, Kasserine, and Medenine.

Methodology, approach, and processes

Rooted in the EDR (Emancipatory Disability Research), the research is expected to involve local researchers that will be trained during a 2-sessions training carried forward between December 2022 and January 2023 accordingly with the following agenda:

• First session:
  • Different approaches to disability and the CRPD
  • Disability research: experiences and case studies
  • Overview of qualitative and quantitative methods to assess the level of accessibility/inclusivity of VETs.
• Second session:
  • Quantitative data collection methodologies
  • Qualitative data collection methodologies
  • Presentation of the AUDIT tool

• Methodological support will be provided during the whole activity.

Minimum expected tasks

Here is a non-exhaustive list of tasks we expect the service provider, or the team of experts, will: 

• Provide consulting advice on pedagogy and tools to be used during local CSO training assignments
• Create an enabling environment for partnership between the different participants and stakeholders
• Manage and ensure logistics and data collection accordingly with the modalities and formats agreed
• Facilitate training sessions
• Translate teaching materials used in the survey from French to Arabic.
• Translate collected data from Arabic to French
• Provide ad hoc advice on the final report.