International Consultant - (Costing, Financing and Investment Planning Expert) for the development of a Multi-Sectoral National GBV Costed Plan

Introduction

Gender-Based Violence (GBV) remains a critical human rights, public health, and development challenge in Liberia, disproportionately affecting women and girls, particularly adolescents, persons with disabilities, and other vulnerable groups. Despite progress in strengthening legal and policy frameworks including the enactment of the Domestic Violence Act (2019) and the Rape Law (2005) incidents of gender-based violence remains high, and service delivery systems continue to face capacity, coordination, and resource constraints.
The Government of Liberia has reaffirmed its commitment to eliminating GBV in line with national priorities and international obligations, including the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 5 on gender equality.
As the lead UN Agency for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and GBV prevention and response, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) supports the Government of Liberia in strengthening coordinated, survivor-centered, and multisectoral GBV prevention and response systems.
However, the absence of a comprehensive, fully costed multisectoral GBV Action Plan limits coordinated budgeting, domestic resource mobilization, accountability, and joint implementation across key sectors, including health, justice, education, gender, youth, finance, and local governance.
In this context, the Government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection, in collaboration with UNFPA and with support from the Spotlight Initiative 2.0, seeks to recruit two consultants (one International and one National) to develop a comprehensive, multisectoral National GBV Costed Plan.
The International Consultant will provide contextual expertise, policy alignment, stakeholder coordination, and data support to ensure the plan is grounded in the Liberian context.

Objective of the Assignment

The primary objective of this consultancy is to support the Government of Liberia in developing a comprehensive, multisectoral, and evidence-based National GBV Costed Action Plan aligned with national priorities and budgeting systems.
Specific Objectives:
● To provide contextual and institutional analysis of GBV prevention and response systems in Liberia.
● To assess current GBV financing and budget allocations and identify gaps, inefficiencies, and opportunities for improved resource allocation across sectors.
● To support the identification and prioritization of multisectoral GBV interventions across relevant sectors.
● facilitate inclusive stakeholder engagement and consensus-building processes at national and subnational levels
● To accurately estimate the financial resources required to execute the action plan over a period.
● To support the development of a standardized costing framework by ensuring availability and validation of national data and assumptions.
● To contribute to the development of an investment case for GBV by providing national evidence and policy linkages.
● To ensure alignment of the costed action plan with national development frameworks, budgeting processes, and the GBV National Action Plan

Methodology

The consultant will employ a participatory, evidence-based, and highly collaborative methodology, with a strong focus on field engagement and contextual grounding of all inputs:
● Comprehensive Desk Review: Analysis of existing national policies, legal frameworks, sector-specific strategies (Gender, Health, Justice, Education, and Finance), current GBV budget allocations, GBV data, and previous national action plans.
● Stakeholder Mapping & Consultations: consultations will be jointly conducted, with the National Consultant leading stakeholder engagement logistics and coordination, and the International Consultant focusing on gathering information relevant to costing and financing analysis.
● Data Collection and Validation: Compilation and validation of sectoral data, service delivery information, and costing inputs.
● Costing and Financial Modelling: Apply international best-practice costing methodologies (e.g., activity-based costing) tailored to the Liberian context, to estimate the financial requirements of GBV interventions and develop a transparent, user-friendly costing model.
● Validation and Consensus Building: Facilitating interactive multisectoral workshops to review findings and inputs and ensure stakeholder ownership.
● Collaboration: Work closely with the International Consultant to ensure alignment between contextual inputs and costing and financing outputs.
● Risk Mitigation: Contribute input to the Risk Mitigation Strategy

Scope of Work

The assignment will be jointly executed by the International Consultant (Lead) and the Local Consultant, functioning as a seamless team.
● Shared Responsibilities:
● Design the inception report detailing the roadmap, methodology, tools, and costing plan.
● Map and engage all relevant stakeholders to identify high-impact, scalable GBV prevention and response interventions across different sectors.
● Formulate the narrative framework of the Action Plan (strategic objectives, outcomes, outputs, and indicators).
● A summary of the desk review and consultations highlighting current gaps in GBV prevention and response, and sector readiness
● Draft Multisectoral GBV Costed Plan: The narrative plan, along with an editable Excel-based (or similar) costing model detailing unit costs, frequencies, and total budget estimates per sector shall be delivered by the national and international consultant.

The Role of the International Consultant: (To translate national policies into a concrete, actionable, and financially modelled roadmap bridging the gap between gender advocacy, programmatic design, and public financial management).
● Inception Report: Detailing the methodology, costing approach, stakeholder engagement plan, and timelines.
● Situational Analysis & Needs Assessment Report:
● Validation Workshop Report: Documentation of feedback, adjustments, and consensus achieved during stakeholder validation sessions
● Final National GBV Costed Plan: A polished, fully formatted, and comprehensive document incorporating all feedback, complete with a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) framework.
● M&E and Accountability Framework
To ensure the plan can be effectively executed and tracked, the consultant must design robust monitoring mechanisms.
● Setting indicators: Developing SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) indicators to measure both immediate outputs and long-term behavioral outcomes. 

Creating a governance structure: Outlining the reporting hierarchy, typically involving an inter-ministerial steering committee to oversee and enforce implementation.
● Executive Policy Brief & Investment Case: Concise (4-5 page) summary executive policy briefs and elaborate investment cases designed for advocacy and resource mobilization with donors and the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.

Deliverables and timeline

The International Consultant is expected to deliver the following:
1. Inception Report: Detailing the methodology, costing approach, stakeholder engagement plan, and timeline. (Due: 10 days after contract signing)
2. Situational Analysis & Context Report: A summary of the desk review and consultations highlighting gaps in GBV systems and financing context. (Due: 25 days after contract signing).

3. Stakeholder Consultation Report: Detailed documentation of stakeholder engagement processes and findings. (Due: 45 days after contract signing)
4. Validated Sectoral Inputs for Costing: Consolidated data, assumptions, and sector inputs to support costing (Due 60 days after contract signing)
5. Validation Workshop Report: Summary of feedback and consensus from validation sessions, adjustments, and consensus achieved during stakeholder validation sessions. (Due: 60 days after contract signing)
6. Contribution to Final National GBV Costed Plan: Inputs to contextual, policy, and implementation sections of the final document. (Due: 65 days after contract signing)
7. Contribution to the Executive Policy Brief & Investment Case: Inputs to the concise (4-5 page) summary document designed for advocacy and resource mobilization with development partners and the Government of Liberia (through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning as a lead institution).

Duration and Location of the Consultancy

Location: Monrovia, Liberia, with travel to counties as required. Duration: 65 working days

Supervisory arrangements

The consultant will work under the overall supervision of the UNFPA Liberia Country Office Deputy Representative and the direct supervision of the Programme Specialist, GBV/Harmful Practices. 

The consultant will maintain close technical collaboration with: 

● The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (policy leadership) through the office of the Deputy Minister for Research, Policy and Planning as the lead government counterpart. 

● The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (budget and financing alignment).

Qualifications

The consultant must meet the following criteria:

Education: Master’s degree in development studies, Public Administration, Economics, Public Policy, Gender Studies, Public Financial Management, or a related social science field. Bachelor’s degree with minimum 7 years of relevant experience may be considered.

Experience:
● Minimum of 5 years of professional experience (7 years for bachelor’s degree holders) in gender, human rights, or GBV programming in Liberia.
● Demonstrated experience working with government institutions, civil society organizations, and development partners; and a
● Strong track record in stakeholder consultations and multi-sectoral coordination processes.

Technical Expertise:
● Strong understanding of Liberia's institutional and policy framework,
● Proven experience in policy analysis, qualitative and quantitative data collection, and contextual analysis;
● Familiarity with national budgeting systems is highly desirable.
● expertise in costing, financing, public financial management, and development of investment cases.

Skills:
Excellent facilitation, coordination, and communication skills;
Fluency in English
Demonstrated ability to work effectively in multicultural environments and with government institutions.

Payment and Terms

Payments will be made against the outlined deliverables as follows: 

● Upon submission of Inception and consultation outputs- 25% 

● Upon submission of draft inputs for validation, 35% 

● Upon satisfactory completion of final deliverables, 40%.

Input/services to be provided by UNFPA or implementing partner (e.g., support services, office space, equipment), if applicable:

UNFPA will provide the selected consultant with relevant documents and administrative support services, including internet access at its main Office in Monrovia. 

The consultants will have their own computer and other IT equipment. 

● UNFPA will also connect the Consultants with all key stakeholders for consultation and interviews as may be needed

Evaluation Criteria

Technical Proposal – 70%

 o Understanding of the assignment (20%)

 o Relevant experience (25%)

 o Methodology and approach (25%)

Financial Proposal – 30% 

Application Procedure:

Interested consultants should submit the following: 

● A detailed proposal outlining their experience, technical expertise, methodology, and work plan to deliver the consultancy. 

● A financial proposal that includes a breakdown of costs, specifying a total lump sum amount or daily rate, and terms of payment. 

● A current CV detailing relevant qualifications and experience.