Consultancy - Accessibility Research and Campaign Strategies to promote inclusive youth participation in TVET

### Consultancy - Accessibility Research and Campaign Strategies to promote inclusive youth participation in TVET

Colombo, Sri Lanka (Hybrid)

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Terms of Reference – Consultancy

Position Title : Consultant(s) - Accessibility Research and Campaign Strategies to promote inclusive youth participation in TVET

Position location:Sri Lanka focusing on North and East

Reports: Senior Program Manager, STRIVE

Application Deadline: February 27, 2026.

Contract Period :Up to 45 working days between February to June 2026

Introduction

The World University Service of Canada (WUSC) is a leading Canadian international development organization committed to fostering human development and global understanding through education, training, and economic empowerment. Guided by its vision of a world where every young person thrives and belongs, WUSC works as a facilitator and convener, leveraging partnerships across civil society, government, academia, and the private sector. Active in Sri Lanka since 1989, WUSC strengthens systems and fosters collaboration to expand education, entrepreneurship, and employment opportunities for youth—particularly young women—through gender-responsive and sustainable development initiatives.

The STRIVE Project

The Strengthening TVET Resilience and Inclusive Vocational Employment (STRIVE) Project is a new initiative designed to transform the economic prospects of young people—especially young women in Sri Lanka’s Northern and Eastern Provinces. Over five years, the program seeks to reduce poverty, boost regional competitiveness, and propel sustainable economic growth, giving specific attention to advancing gender equality and strengthening resilience to climate and economic shocks.

Using a collaborative approach, STRIVE will drive gender responsive, environmentally sustainable collective action among actors in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) ecosystem. These actors will be supported to increase participation of young people, particularly young women, in enhanced TVET that leads to increased gender equitable employment and self-employment in key sectors facing current and future skills gaps, with emphasis on the green economy. The two priority sectors identified in the North and East include agriculture, Hospitality, and Tourism (H&T), with ICT as a cross-cutting sector for innovation and efficiency.

The key outcomes of STRIVE Project is as follows:

Ultimate Outcome

* Improved economic wellbeing of young people, especially young women, in the North and East of Sri Lanka

Intermediate outcome

* Improved participation of young people, particularly young women, in gender-responsive, environmentally sustainable and market-relevant TVET in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka
* Enhanced gender equitable transition to employment, including green jobs for young people, particularly young women, in the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka

Immediate Outcome

* Increased demand for TVET from young people, particularly young women
* Increased capacity of TVET Institutions to offer quality, inclusive, gender-responsive, environmentally sustainable and market-relevant skills training for young people
* Increased motivation of employers in select sectors to hire and retain TVET graduates, especially female graduates
* Improved capacity of TVET Institutions and industry to transition young people, particularly young women, from learning to employment

Purpose and Objectives of the Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to contribute to the STRIVE project’s inclusive programming objectives by supporting the design and implementation of community engagement and accessibility initiatives within the TVET sector.

The key specific objectives of the assignment are to:

* Conduct research on accessibility barriers within TVET institutions in terms of skills development on the demanded sectors and employment thereafter, with a focus on youth inclusion; particularly young women and youth with disabilities. Identify incentives and strategies to increase accessibility for young people in ICT-enabled agriculture, H&T.
* Based on the research findings, develop discussion papers to inform evidence-based advocacy and institutional policy improvements.
* Co-design a gender-responsive, Environment and Climate Change (ECC)-integrated community engagement campaign strategy with TVET providers, women’s rights organizations (WROs), and youth champions to promote and increase youth participation in skills development and employment.
* Based on the prioritised harmful social norms, co-design a BCC focus social marketing campaign to challenge those social norms limiting women’s participation in agriculture and H&T.

Scope of Work

Reporting to the STRIVE Senior Program Manager, the Consultant/firm will work closely with the STRIVE technical team—including the Senior Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Advisor and TVET Specialist from the WUSC Sri Lanka Office and the GESI advisor from the WUSC Canada office —as well as key partners such WROs, youth champions, TVET providers, key private sector and community representatives. The Consultant/firm will be responsible for specific objectives mentioned in bullet points in the above section 3.

The consultant(s)/firm will carry out the following tasks:

1. Inception Phase

* Develop a participatory research framework and methodology to identify accessibility barriers, including social norms, for inclusive youth participation in two priority sectors, agriculture, hospitality and tourism in the North and East. In the context of this assignment, accessibility barriers refer to any physical, social, policy, attitudinal, informational, or financial impediment to participating in the targeted sectors. This should include specific barriers for young women and young people with disabilities.
* Present the inception report to WUSC to validate the research methodology, tools and scope.
* Analyze key STRIVE project documents, including the Project Implementation Plan, Theory of Change, Logic Model, Labour Market Assessment, and Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Analysis and Strategy, to ensure alignment between this research and overarching project objectives.

2. Data Collection and Analysis

* * Conduct desk reviews using existing recent research reports including gray literature.
* Collect primary data through interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGD), and or surveys on accessibility barriers in TVET including social norms and perceptions.
* Identify social norms not only limit women’s participation but also norms that resist the adoption of sustainable and climate-resilient practices in agriculture and H&T, presenting green careers as modern, profitable, and secure.
* Identify incentives and strategies to increase accessibility for young people, especially young women in two priority sectors, agriculture and hospitality and tourism, while ICT as a one cross-cutting sector for innovation and efficiency.
* Identify community engagement campaign initiatives to increase inclusive youth participation in TVET
* Apply a gender lens and ECC aspects in the data collection and analysis. Data analysis must not only apply a gender lens and ECC lens but must also identify the specific knowledge gaps and negative perceptions held by parents, community leaders, and employers regarding the viability and profitability of green/sustainable practices in the North and East.
* Ensure intersectionality aspects to identify norms and perceptions about inclusive TVET participation from different TVET ecosystem actors such as young men and women, parents, TVET providers, and employers. For example, do specific barriers impact young women from urban areas differently from rural women? Do young men with disabilities face different barriers from young women with disabilities?
* All findings should be validated with stakeholders before finalising the info and feed it into the report. This will ensure the results are credible, contextually relevant and actionable for the co-design of community engagement strategies.

3. Co-Designing of Community Engagement Campaign Strategy and Implementation Plan

* * Facilitate validation and co-design workshops based on research findings with relevant ecosystem actors including WROs, government, private sector, civil society, youth champions and youth leaders.
* Co-create the community engagement campaign strategy to increase youth participation in TVET, particularly in identified two sectors agriculture and H&T.
* The strategy will include criteria for successful campaign strategies, such as behavior change outcomes, inclusion of BCC elements, and alignment with GESI and ECC principles, which will improve quality and consistency.
* Develop an implementation plan for community engagement campaign with the relevant ecosystem actors to buy-in and take ownership of the community engagement campaign activities.

4. Co-Designing of Social Marketing Campaign Strategy

* * Prioritize the harmful social norms and perceptions that act as barriers for inclusive TVET participation by youth in agriculture and H&T sectors. In addition, it can challenge social norms not only limiting women’s participation but also norms that resist the adoption of sustainable and climate-resilient practices in agriculture and H&T, presenting green careers as modern, profitable, and secure.
* Identify the primary and secondary audiences and co-design a social marketing campaign using BCC tools.
* Develop an implementation plan for social marketing campaign with the relevant ecosystem actors including WROs to take ownership of the campaign activities.
* Further, the consultant(s)/firm is expected to deliver outputs such as messaging frameworks, audience personas, and a communication toolkit to ensure tangible products rather than a conceptual plan.
* Incorporating the development of behavior-change pathways (showing current vs. desired behaviors and influencing factors) would ensure the campaign goes beyond awareness raising and contributes to measurable shifts in perceptions and actions.

Duration and Location

The consultancy will be conducted over a period of 45 working days across five months, from February to June 2026. During the inception report, the workplan with timeline and number of days will be reviewed and finalized.

Activities will be implemented in Batticaloa and Trincomalee in the Eastern Province, and in Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, and Vavuniya in the Northern Province.

Report Production

* * Develop discussion papers based on research on accessibility
* Develop a community engagement campaign strategy and implementation plan
* Develop a social marketing campaign strategy and implementation plan

Key Responsibilities and Activities

The Contractor will work closely with the STRIVE technical team and key project partners to carry out this work. Specific responsibilities includes the followings:

* Conduct a comprehensive research on accessibility.
* Identify incentives and strategies for inclusive TVET participation by youth, especially by young women and young people with disabilities.
* Stakeholder mapping and engagement planning as responsibilities since the success of this work depends heavily on multi-actor participation.
* Co-design and create campaign strategies for community engagement and social marketing for positive social norms change and increase youth participation in TVET.
* Validation of key research findings and campaign strategies with relevant TVET ecosystem actors.
* Documentation on capturing learnings from workshops, strategy design and field insights for future knowledge transfer.
* Collaborate closely with the STRIVE partners, WROs, youth champions to co-design the strategies and implementation plan and validation

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Contractor is expected to design and conduct the research in the most effective and efficient way in order to avoid interviewing the same participants multiple times for different research outputs. All of these activities will be carried out in Sri Lanka, with a focus on the North and East which are the two main regions of the STRIVE project.

Deliverables

The Contractor will be responsible and accountable for producing the following deliverables, in coordination with the STRIVE Technical Team:

1. Inception report.
2. Comprehensive research report on barriers and accessibility to TVET by youth, especially by young women in two priority sectors, agriculture and H&T in the North and East.

* Key analysis on the harmful social norms and perceptions of youth participation in TVET by relevant ecosystem actors such as young men and women, parents, TVET providers, employers and private sector partners. Analyze social norms that hinder the adoption of sustainable practices or that channel women away from 'green jobs' (e.g., perceiving Climate-Smart Agriculture as too physically demanding, or eco-tourism management as lacking career growth). Identify norms where ECC can be an enabling factor (e.g., women are often key drivers of community climate adaptation.
* Include a section on Climate and Environmental Barriers to TVET Access. This section could analyze * Physical Barriers: How climate events (e.g., flooding, cyclone, drought) affect physical access to TVET institutions and training sites, particularly as the Northern and Eastern regions of Sri Lanka are considered disaster-prone zone. * Perceptual Barriers: Documenting the perception among youth, parents, and employers that the priority sectors (Agriculture and H&T) are increasingly risky or unstable due to climate change. * Infrastructure Gaps: Assessing the lack of ECC-responsive infrastructure at TVET centers (e.g., inadequate water harvesting, solar power, or climate-controlled training environments.

3. Discussion Papers based on the research on accessibility.

* One of the discussion papers will focus on “leveraging Green Skills to Drive Inclusive TVET Participation."
It should propose policy or institutional changes that utilize ECC integration (e.g., green curriculum, climate-smart apprenticeships) as a primary incentive for young women and marginalized youth to enroll.

4. Two 7-paged Knowledge Products on key barriers and accessibility for youth participation, especially young women and young people with disabilities in agriculture and H&T sectors in North and East.
5. Campaign Strategies

* Community Engagement Campaign Strategy and Implementation plan to increase youth participation in TVET, particularly in agriculture and hospitality and tourism sectors.
* Social Marketing Campaign strategy and implementation plan using BCC tools to address harmful social norms and negative perceptions to increase youth participation in agriculture and hospitality and tourism.

Level of Effort (LOE) and Work Plan

The level of effort for the position of Consultant – Research on Accessibility and Campaign Strategy Development to promote inclusive youth participation in TVET will be up to 40 days between February to April 2026.

Activity/ Deliverables/ Delivery Date/ LOE

1 Inception report : The workplan outlining research methodology (data collection and tools), key stakeholders to be interviewed with a timeline 06 days

2 Lead and conduct the research on accessibility by youth, especially young women in TVET in agriculture and hospitality and tourism sectors/ Report summarizing research and key analysis (20 pages max, including annexes) 15 days

3 Develop discussion Papers based on the research on accessibility/ Two 7-paged knowledge products (i) discussion papers on accessibility to inclusive TVET by youth, especially young women; (ii) Key analysis on the harmful social norms and perceptions of youth participation in TVET (max 07 pages each) / 04 days

4 Co-design workshops with WROs, youth champions and relevant ecosystem actors and develop a community engagement campaign strategy and plan to increase youth participation in agriculture and hospitality and tourism

Community Engagement Campaign Strategy and Implementation plan to increase youth participation in TVET, particularly in agriculture and hospitality and tourism sectors. (20 pages max, including annexes) 10 days

5 With key STRIVE partners, WROs and relevant ecosystem actors, prioritize 1-2 harmful social norms and perceptions affecting youth participation in TVET. Then co-design and draft a BCC focused social marketing campaign strategy for social norms change

Social Marketing Campaign strategy and implementation plan using BCC tools to address harmful social norms and negative perceptions, particularly in agriculture and hospitality and tourism

(20 pages max, including annexes) 05 days

6 Validation workshop with relevant ecosystem actors, incorporate feedback from STRIVE project’s technical team and finalize all draft versions of the reports, campaign strategies, implementation plan, discussion papers, and knowledge products

Validation of key findings, deliverables and finalize deliverables 05 days

Qualifications of Consultant(s)/firm

* Demonstrated experience with blend of expertise in primary and secondary research;
* Demonstrated experience in implementing gender sensitive research methods and use of qualitative and participatory approaches;
* Demonstrated experience and knowledge on TVET in Sri Lanka;
* Demonstrated experience in developing campaign activities for community engagement, and BCC focused social marketing activities
* Excellent communication and written English skills required;
* Fluency in Tamil preferred and Sinhala is an advantage
* Demonstrated ability to produce clear and concise quality reports and learning documents.

Qualified and Interested candidates/firms should submit the following on or before February 27, 2026.

How to Apply

* A Technical Proposal clearly describing the research methodology and campaign strategy development, and process for community engagement and social marketing.
* Candidates should send a CV of the research team members
* A Financial Proposal including work plan, level of effort, cost breakdown, and payment schedule
* All documents, including the technical and financial proposals, should be submitted electronically via WUSC BambooHR website
* Any questions regarding the RFP can be sent by email to [email protected] with the subject line “ INQUIRIES - STRIVE /Accessibility Research & Community Engagement Campaign Strategies”. Please note that questions via phone will not be accepted.

Application deadline: 27 February 2026.
URL: https://wusc.bamboohr.com/careers/255