Community Mental Health & Substance Use Center (CMH-SUC) Needs Assessment Analysis, Tripoli, Lebanon

1. Background information:

Since 2012, in cooperation with civil society organizations as well as national and local authorities, Médecins du Monde- France ’s (MdM) intervention aimed at increasing access to quality primary healthcare and strengthening the national primary healthcare system in Lebanon. Moreover, MdM has been actively engaged in providing access to mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services and in reducing the impact of the wide range of crisis on the mental and physical health of the Syrian and Palestinian refugees, vulnerable Lebanese and migrant workers.

MdM and Skoun are in a consortium, with the support from Agence francaise de development (AFD), implementing a project that aims at improving opportunities for women, men, boys, girls and non-binary persons to enjoy the best possible mental health and well-being.

The consortium aims to reach its objective through supporting community-based Mental Health and Psycho-Social Support (MHPSS) and Substance Uses (SU) system offering appropriate, quality and gender inclusive services to all people living in Lebanon, particularly the most vulnerable groups and people at risk, while tackling gender barriers in service access and gender biases in service provision.

Based on a successful model built in Beirut, then in the Beqaa, MdM and Skoun opened a joint community mental health and substance user center (CMH-SUC) in Tripoli as of September 2022. The center, through its multidisciplinary team composed of psychologists, social workers, a psychiatrist, and nurses, provides specialized mental health and substance use services.

As part of this multi-year project (2021 – 2024), MdM and Skoun conducted a mental health and substance use community needs assessment in Tripoli prior their intervention in a community-mental health and substance use services to:

1. Better understand the barriers to access health services (in terms of perception, services knowledge and available) in particular mental health and substance use related;
2. Identify perceptions of most common mental health and substance use problems in Tripoli;
3. Gain insight on people’s coping mechanism towards mental health and substance use conditions;
4. Help define priority areas of action to tackle identified barriers to tailor MdM and Skoun activities.

 The findings are expected to guide MdM and Skoun in their strategy of intervention, in particular in terms of community-based intervention.

The community assessment took place from April to May 2022 and was composed of 9 Focus group discussion (FGDs) and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) facilitated by both MdM and Skoun. A preliminary analysis was conducted, and some recommendations were identified, but there is a need for further qualitative analysis on the FGDs, to complete the preliminary report.

This Terms of Reference (ToR) outlines the scope, objectives, and deliverables for a consultant responsible for analyzing the records of FGDs conducted by the Community Mental Health & Substance Use Center in Tripoli, Lebanon.  

2.  Purpose of the consultancy

The primary objective of the consultant is to further analyze the records of 9 FGDs conducted by the center's staff. The analysis should achieve the following objectives:

a) Identify new Themes and complement the current analysis

Review and categorize the data to identify recurring themes raised during the FGDs that do not appear in the report

b) Provide In-depth Insights:

Extract meaningful insights, opinions, and perspectives expressed by participants regarding community mental health and substance use situation, capacity and needs.

Feed these additional insights into the preliminary report drafted to complement it.

3. Expected methodology:

The consultant will undertake the following steps in conducting the analysis:

a) Data Review:

Thoroughly review the records of focus group discussions provided by the center.

b) Coding and Categorization:

Employ qualitative analysis techniques to code and categorize the data based on recurring themes and topics.

c) Interpretation:

Interpret the coded data to understand the nuances, underlying issues, and sentiments expressed by participants.

d) Report Preparation:

Compile the analysis findings into a comprehensive report, clearly presenting the identified themes, key insights, and recommendations.

The consultant shall adhere to strict confidentiality standards in handling the focus group discussion records and the analysis process.

4. Deliverables:

The consultant will provide the following deliverables:

Analysis Report: A detailed report presenting the findings of the focus group discussions analysis, including categorized themes, participant insights, actionable recommendations and FGD’s transcriptions.

The consultant is expected to complete the analysis and deliver the Analysis Report within 4 weeks from the commencement date.

6. Academic Background And Experience

The consultant should possess:

• Proficiency in qualitative data analysis methodologies.
• Experience in analyzing focus group discussions or similar qualitative data.
• Strong interpretive and synthesis skills to distill key insights from complex data.
• Familiarity with mental health and substance use issues and relevant terminology.
• Strong report writing skills.
• Fluent in Arabic and English; very good English writing skills

7. Organization of the evaluation mission

Logistic and administrative organization

Equipment

The consultant should obtain Laptop for the work.

A laptop can be made available to the evaluator/consultant, upon request. The consultant can use MdM offices in Lebanon to work.

Meeting points:

Meal Coo and the consultant can use MdM offices in Beirut for meeting.

Others

The final report needs to be submitted in English only. However, during the data collection, some tools will be translated to Arabic; this will be the responsibility of the consultant to arrange.

Managing and reporting

The MEAL Coordinator at MdM will be the focal point for the consultant in all matters related to contract, finance, logistic and other administrative issues.

BUDGET AVAILABLE FOR THIS EVALUATION

A detailed budget suggested by the consultant, using the below format, should be shared along with the technical offer submitted by the consultant (Monetary amount suggested by the external consultant are “All tax included”). It is not mandatory to add all the budget lines, and it is possible to add new budget lines, however, the same template should be used.

HOW TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION

 The consultant(s) is invited to submit a file of not more than 10 to 15 pages (excluding CVs), including the following documents, to [email protected] with the following title in the email subject “141MR - Consultation need assessment - Tripoli:

1. Technical proposal including:

• An understanding of the terms of reference;
• The technical approach developed and the detailed methodology;
• Details regarding team members, how responsibilities are shared between them, the CVs proposed and the availability of the team members as well as the legal status of the members of the consultancy team and/or evaluation firm to which the consultant(s) belongs;
• References from 1 similar project previously completed.

2. Financial proposal including:

• A detailed itemized breakdown (including MOF tax 7,5% consultancy tax & VAT if applicable) incorporating the budget allocation
• The offer could also include extra services not mentioned above with the detail’s fees
• MOF number and or VAT registration if applicable. 
• Terms of payment and payment modality.
• Proposal validity.
• All contractual conditions should be also clearly explained in the offer.
• All relevant information or deemed of value to MdM.

Type of contract: Consultancy Contract.

Duration: One month, expecting starting date 16^th October to 15^th November 2023

Deadline to submit the file:  September 24th, 2023 – 23 :55 pm, Beirut time

Applications with missing documents will not be considered.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR BIDDERS

In order to be authorized to apply, bidders must be able to establish, at the discretion of MdM-F, that they meet the legal, technical and financial conditions applicable and that they have the necessary capacity and sufficient resources to carry out the mission. The following rules are aimed at helping the bidder prepare a complete document that meets the requirements of MdM-F.

Content of the offer of services

The bidder must provide all necessary and sufficient information to enable the technical and budgetary proposal to be correctly evaluated. The information provided must be succinct and cover all aspects. The bidder must be able to show how it holds the required qualifications to carry out the mission. The bidder may add any information considered relevant.

Exclusion criteria

MdM-F will exclude from the contract procedure any bidders to which any of the following applies:

- Bankrupt or the subject of bankruptcy or liquidation proceedings, court-ordered restructuring or preventive arrangements, having ceased trading or in a comparable situation as a result of proceedings of the same kind under domestic legislation or regulations;

- Convicted via a judgment having res judicata (i.e. no longer subject to appeal in any manner) of any offence impacting their professional morality;

- Guilty of serious professional misconduct established via any means by MdM-F;

- Having failed to comply with their obligations regarding the payment of social security contributions or their tax obligations under the relevant provisions of law;

- Convicted via a judgment having res judicata on charges relating to fraud, corruption, participation in organized crime or any other unlawful activity;

- Which, following the signature of another contract, was declared to have committed a serious breach of contract due to failure to comply with their contractual obligations.

Bidders must be able to certify via any appropriate means that they are not currently in any of the situations described above.

Ineligibility clauses

Contracts are not awarded to bidders who, during the bidding phase:

- Find themselves in a conflict of interest with or have a specific link to any other bidders or parties to the project; any attempt made by a bidder to obtain confidential information, to enter into unlawful arrangements with its competitors or the influence the Steering Committee for the

mission or MdM-F during the course of the examination, clarification, evaluation and comparison of the bids will lead to the rejection of the bid;

- Make inaccurate declarations when submitting the information required by MdM-F in order to take part in the contract or fail to provide such information.

Grounds for rejection

MdM-F and the bidders shall comply with the highest possible ethical standards when negotiating and performing contracts.

MdM-F will reject any proposal submitted by a bidder and terminate the relevant contract if it is established that this bidder has engaged in acts of corruption, fraud, collusion or coercion. The administrative or financial sanctions applied must be in proportion to the size of the contract and the seriousness of the misconduct established.

MdM-F has a duty to ensure that all bidders and applicants have no involvement whatsoever in child labor and respect all basic employment rights and rules on working conditions. They must themselves make a commitment not to purchase goods from suppliers involved in child labor or violating basic employment rights and/or rules on working conditions.

11. Amendment:

This ToR may be subject to modification based on internal or external feedback.

12. Approval:

This ToR is approved by Médecins du Monde and Skoun.