Public Call for Tender nb. 83469180 Framework agreement with up to 3 experts for Psychological Counselling - GIZ Office Beirut 18.9207.4-001.00

 1. Context

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH provides services in the fields of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education, working around the world to shape a future worth living. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is GIZ’s main commissioning party. As a federal enterprise, GIZ supports the German Government in achieving its objectives in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development. In Lebanon, GIZ is currently working in the Economic development and employment, Security, reconstruction and peace and Education sectors with 38 international and 119 national employees.

The health and safety of its employees is at the core of GIZ’s work worldwide. GIZ supports its workforce to stay healthy and to maintain their performance capacity. Health management is part of GIZ’s HR policy and reflects GIZ’s sense of social responsibility towards its entire workforce. The issue of health management covers both physical and mental health. GIZ provides services to its employees ranging from medical support over security management to psychosocial support. COPE is GIZ’s internal unit for psychological support in stress, crisis and work-related conflict situations. Based in the headquarters in Eschborn, Germany, COPE provides counselling services for all GIZ employees (national and international) and their families, including CIM-experts and development workers. If needed, COPE also provides information about or referral to further external psychosocial services such as coaches, counselling centres, therapists and clinics.

In addition to the direct counselling services, COPE also supports the elaboration and implementation of staff-care and self-care within GIZ. In general, staff-care relates to the organizational duty of care, whereas measures that focus on the individual are part of self-care. GIZ follows a concept of shared responsibility, which means that the responsibility for well-being is shared between the company, the leadership and the employee, interlinking staff-care and self-care. Staff-care covers a variety of dimensions, addressing economic (e.g. insurance & CTO regulations), physical, psychological and social well-being as well as safety and security. It is intended to both prevent and mitigate distress as well as enhance resilience in response to stressors, in order to maintain the long-term working capacity of the employees and to protect the staff from risks to physical and psychological well-being.

Objective of this Framework Contract

Following this understanding of staff-care, GIZ in Lebanon is committed to recognize stressors and to ensure a safe, secure work environment, where employees feel valued and motivated. By providing psychosocial support to individuals and teams, GIZ Lebanon aims at recognizing, preventing, mitigating, and managing stress that may impact staff performance and/or well-being, by that strengthening the resilience of staff.

The general objective of the framework contract aims at contracting local (or regional) psychosocial specialists to provide counselling services for GIZ staff in Lebanon. The required services will be commissioned in lots. GIZ is seeking the services of up to 3 psychologists based in Lebanon, who shall provide in person:

1. Psychological first aid and crisis intervention in crisis situations (acute cases), for GIZ employees and their family members, if needed
2. Work-related individual psychosocial support, psychological counselling or coaching
3. Group psychosocial support, counselling sessions, trainings and workshops on mental health related topics

Bids should be submitted for all of the above-mentioned lots. Bid evaluations and contract awards will be made on combination of lots basis.

Please note that all services are on demand. This framework contract does not guarantee that these services are made use of by GIZ employees and teams.

2. Tasks to be performed by the contractor

Upon demand, the consultant/s shall fulfil the following tasks (lots):

Lot 1. Provision of psychological first aid and crisis intervention:

• Provision of psychological first aid and psychological crisis intervention to GIZ employees with acute psychological support needs, e.g. after highly stressful events, security incidences and other crises. The psychological crisis support may also include family members of affected GIZ employees if needed.
• The provision of psychological crisis support services is coordinated with and provided in accordance with the GIZ crisis management system.
• If indicated, the consultant will coordinate with COPE/Health Services of GIZ in Eschborn and provide referral to specialized services for medical and psychological treatment in crisis situations in Lebanon. The consultant is responsible for disposing of up-to-date information on available crisis support services at all times and is required to update his/her contacts continuously.  
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Lot 2. Provision of individual psychosocial support, psychological counselling on work related topics:

• Provision of a maximum of up to 10[1] continuous psychological counselling or coaching sessions for staff members on work-related topics such as: stress, excessive demands, conflicts with colleagues and executives, burn-out / bore-out, secondary traumatization through contact with affected target groups, continuous stress due to the economic crisis and volatile security situation etc.
• If necessary, referral to longer-term counselling and/or other support offers, if indicated in cooperation with COPE. The consultant is responsible for disposing of up-to-date information on available services at all times and is required to update his/her contacts continuously.

Lot 3. Provision of group psychosocial support, counselling sessions, trainings and workshops on mental health related topics:

• Provision of a maximum of 12 group counselling sessions on relevant mental health topics such as: coping with stress and anxiety, burn-out, resolving conflicts, psychological first aid etc.
• The specific topics, set up, composition of the groups and timing of the sessions are being mutually agreed at the beginning of the assignment between the consultant and GIZ.
• Provision of mental health, self and staff care, peer support related training, psychoeducational sessions, workshops to GIZ Lebanon staff upon request.

Period of assignment: from 01.10.2024 until 31.10.2026.

Counselling sessions may be in Arabic and English. All documents shall be drawn up in English. Communication with the responsible GIZ technical officer will be in English.

Reporting and Confidentiality

Regarding individual psychological crisis support and counselling, the consultant/s will send a report on the services provided addressed to COPE, GIZ’s internal unit for psychological support in stress, crisis and work-related conflict situations in GIZ headquarters. A template for reporting is provided. COPE is subject to the professional secrecy and duty of confidentiality and does not report individual cases back to GIZ Lebanon.

In the report concerning provision of individual counselling, the consultant/s are expected to give basic information about the person seeking help, the number of consultation hours provided and inform if further measures, e.g. referral to outpatient or inpatient treatment etc. are needed.

COPE can request further information about specific needs and challenges from the consultant/s in order to develop general recommendations or feedback to the GIZ Lebanon management for actions to be taken to improve the well-being of staff.

The consultant has got the opportunity to contact COPE at any time to have collegial case supervision talks by telephone or MS Teams. These contacts underly the professional secrecy. The consultant should contact COPE in critical cases were further support is needed and not available in the country.

The consultant may not use, reproduce or otherwise disseminate or authorize others to use, reproduce or disseminate reports or works elaborated in the scope of this consultancy (for instance, didactical materials for group sessions). All materials, reports, plans and other works provided to or developed by the consultant on behalf of GIZ remain the property of GIZ.

Upon the start of this consultancy, the consultant shall have a MS Teams/telephone exchange with COPE in order to receive current information on psychological counselling in the GIZ, existing contingency plans and referral options.

3. Concept

In the tender, the tenderer is not required to submit a concept note.

Further requirements (1.7)

The best 10 experts will be selected to proceed with assessing their technical offers. Technically eligible candidates will be invited for an interview. (60 %)

4. Personnel concept

Key expert 1

Qualifications of key expert 1

• Education/training (2.2.1): University degree in Clinical Psychology (M.A. or equivalent),  (5 %)
• Language (2.2.2):

- C2 -level language proficiency in Arabic (2,5 %)

- C1 -level language proficiency in English (2,5 %)

- C1 -level language proficiency in French is an Asset

• General professional experience (2.2.3): At least 5 years of proven work experience as a clinical psychologist providing psychosocial support in Lebanon. (10 %)
• Specific professional experience (2.2.4):

- Up-to-date knowledge on available psychological interventions and psychosocial services in Lebanon and their quality. Good professional networks with other psychosocial practitioners. (5 %)

- Good knowledge and experience using short-term approaches, as well as the ability to differentiate between topics suitable for short-term intervention and those requiring long-term mental health support. (5 %)

• Development Cooperation (DC) experience (2.2.7): Professional experience with staff welfare and stress management in humanitarian or development contexts, in particular with international NGOs, donor agencies etc. (10 %)

5. Minimum requirement

In order to proceed for the technical assessment, the bidder should comply with the below minimum requirements and failure to submit them will result in disqualification of the bidder:

• License to practice by the Ministry of Public health and valid Lebanese order of Psychologists Number
• For the duration of the contract the bidder should be based in Lebanon and is able to provide in person sessions (provide a signed letter).

6. Costing requirements

Please submit with your price offer your hourly rates for the following tasks:

• Psychological first aid and crisis intervention
• One-to-one psychosocial support, counselling or coaching on work-related topics
• Group sessions, trainings and workshops on mental health topics

In the case of one-to-one counselling/ coaching, GIZ will renumerate the consultant up to 10 sessions per client. If the need for longer-term support such as outpatient or inpatient psychotherapeutic treatment is identified, referral and follow-up measures need to be agreed upon with COPE.

All invoices shall be presented in USD to the GIZ country offices without divulging the identity of the persons seeking the consultant/s’ services.

Specification of inputs (as mentioned in the Terms of Refrence)