Beschreibung der Beschaffung
The social protection and social health protection systems are in a phase of very massive expansion of their coverage, accompanied by dynamic developments in programming and administrative processes, and requiring fast and flexible decision-making on a whole range of issues regarding design, organisation and finance.
In the absence of timely and solid operational research, decisions often lack sufficient evidence. The academic knowledge base and capacities for operational research in the field of social protection and social health protection are still in an emerging status in Pakistan. Individual academics specialised in the subjects are scattered over various universities and institutes. And institutes with capacities for implementing operational research lack sufficiently qualified academic staff for conceptualising work in the two areas.
Given this scenario, the project aims to initiate a partnership (consortium) between an international research institution in the field of social protection/ social health protection, renown Pakistani academics and local institutes with capacities for implementing research.
The partnership shall serve several objectives: it shall
1) Provide a range of good quality research pieces;
2) Support partner organisations with evidence for their own immediate decision-making at operational level as well as for their superiors at political level;
3) Strengthen academic and methodological capacities of researchers at the participating institutes; and
4) Support the establishment of a research hub or research network on social protection issues for policy makers and implementing bodies in Pakistan.
Research in Pakistan is provided by private as well as public universities. Private universities usually have established research centers. They conduct their research work with teams comprising of faculty and research degree students. At public sector universities, the research arm is the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan known as ‘Office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC)’. The purpose of this Office (ORIC) is to develop, expand, enhance and manage the university's research programs and to link research activities directly to the educational, social and economic priorities of the university and its broader community. Research institutes, both at private and public universities, can be contracted by private and public, local or international organisations.
These existing research institutes located at national universities shall form the nucleus of the research hub/ basic elements of the network. The ownership for the research activities lies with the national partner organisations of the GIZ project, research bodies and decision-makers. The national partner organisations will take on the role of commissioners of the research. For some products they will also be the ultimate customers, for other products the customers will be their superiors, the political decision-makers. The envisaged ‘research hub’ will provide complementary - scientific — advisory on operational and political issues. It will be linked to the partner system through a steering committee, to be set-up and facilitated by the GIZ team. The contractor is expected to deliver four main work packages:
1) Support the establishment and functioning of the new research ‘hub’;
2) Conduct research, produce reports and various communication pieces;
3) Strengthen capacities of the local partner universities for high quality operational research and communication of results; and
4) Set-up and accompany the process of deliberating and communicating research results at professional/ technical and political levels.