Terms of Reference for conducting a Gender and Power Analysis for the LTDRP-Women Empowerment and Micro Small enterprises Support

1. Introduction

We Effect is a Swedish development organisation with a regional office in Southern Africa and country offices in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.  It supports development powered by people who themselves live in poverty and works with local organisations. We Effect’s vision is a sustainable and just world free of poverty. To succeed, it must start by changing the situation for the most vulnerable – women and youth, who constitute 70% of those living in poverty.

We Effect in Southern Africa believes that the most effective and sustainable approach to addressing the root causes of poverty is by taking a holistic and multi-levelled gender transformative approach. This means together with our different partner organizations, we will work at different levels to contribute to the overall programme: at personal, social, material, organizational and structural levels. We Effect has global and regional strategies, whose focus is being Stronger Together and prescribes gender equality as the core of all We Effect work.

We work in the thematic fields of sustainable rural development and adequate housing. We apply a human rights-based approach in our programmes, assisting people living in poverty to secure their rights and entitlement to adequate living conditions and broad empowerment. We Effect targets women in partner organisations to secure them the same rights and entitlements as men, especially to own and control land and access to financial resources. Partner organizations include farmer organizations, housing cooperatives, and savings and credit associations. The core strategy is to strengthen cooperatives of women and men living in poverty through membership-based democracy, long-term economic thinking, social responsibility, and transparency.

We Effect is inviting consultancy companies or individual consultants to undertake a baseline survey for the Women Empowerment and Micro Small Enterprises Support project inmplemented in implemented in eight greater Lusaka areas namely Matendere East; Chainda; John Howard; Chawama; Nkoloma; Garden; Mandevu and Ngwerere. The baseline survey will assess the situation and establish benchmark indicators that will inform the Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Accountability (MEAL) plan and form the basis for measuring the project outcomes. The consultant(s) will work closely with We Effect Project team and their regional advisors, the project partners and community stakeholders that are yet to be identified.

1.1 About the Project  

We Effect Zambia and its partner (ChildFund) with funding support from the European Union through the European Commission’s Lusaka Transmission Distribution Rehabilitation Project (LTDRP)- Low Voltage Distribution Network are implementing the Women Empowerment and Micro Small Enterprises Support project starting in June 2023. The project will end in May 2026. It is being implemented in eight greater Lusaka areas namely Matendere East; Chainda; John Howard; Chawama; Nkoloma; Garden; Mandevu and Ngwerere.

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to the increased access to complimentary services including business management/entrepreneurial skills and credit facilities among women benefiting from the subsidized Lusaka Transmission Distribution Rehabilitation Project (LTDRP) electricity connections in the target areas of Lusaka.

The project specific objectives are:

i). To build or strengthen resilient and profitable women and youth owned business that ensure continuous delivery of quality empowerment services to vulnerable women, and youth in the target areas.

ii). To promote gender coordinated transformative, sustainable, and rights-based empowerment services that foster women and youth’s entrepreneurship in the target areas.

2.   Background of the study
Since 2016, advancing gender equality has been a key strategic objective for We Effect in all programmes and projects. We Effect believes that gender equality and equity are central tenets of ensuring sustainable and effective change in all its programmes. Gender is a cross-cutting issue within the organisation and therefore, the agricultural, Environment Climate Change and Resilience (ECCR), land and Conflict Sensitive Approach (CSA) work has a gender perspective. In addition, the rights- based approach means the organisational approach to gender is also intersectional, participatory, non-discriminatory and inclusive.

We Effect works closely with partner organisations to strengthen capacity on gender equality and ensure that gender is mainstreamed throughout all projects. We Effect also works with technical experts at regional and country level with expertise and knowledge of working on gender equality to strengthen the work of partner organisations.

3.   Purpose of the study
The overall purpose of this assessment is to identify the specific barriers that women face to economic empowerment. The assessment will take a transformative approach that assess the norms, attitudes and values and as a result a power analysis is integral to understand the issues that hinder women from affirming their socio-economic rights. This assessment will explore the following research questions:

a. What are the norms, attitudes and values about women’s roles and responsibilities in the following domains: (1) individual (household level, family level) (2) Social level (within the community and between men and women) (3) Structural level (laws, legislation and policies) (4) material level (women’s access to natural resources, access to technical knowledge etc.). The questions will also explore the extent to which norms, attitudes and values have shifted over the years and what causes these shifts so the project can build on that knowledge (see attached sample tools from other projects).

b. The above will include a power analysis, but further questions to explore the power dynamics at the following levels: (1) What is the visible power (who has power in the community/in the household? How is this power wielded? What are the consequences for women who seek or claim power? How does power shift?) (2) What is the invisible power (norms, attitudes, values and practices) (3) What is the hidden power? (Are there other sources of power that are less visible, for example, buyers in the cotton sector or ginneries etc.)

c. What strategies do women use to address/mitigate these barriers?

d. What recommendations do women have for the project (consider – how to engage and work with men, how do address issues such as care economy, what specific support women need in terms of business management, value chains etc.).

The following are the objectives of the assessment:

a)   To determine and analyse the norms, attitudes and values in relation to women’s economic empowerment;

b)   To determine and analyse factors at individual, households, social and institutional level and material levels affecting women economic advancement.

c)    To assess existing capacity within the communities that could be strengthened during the project

d) Household survey, Key informant, interviews, and focus group discussions with project stakeholders.
Regular input from advisory group (process to be determined)Project adapted based on the recommendations and findings of the study rightsholder Identification of rightsholders as an advisory group to monitor the implementation
To provide recommendations on how the project can address gender disparities in women`s economic empowerment.

4.   Scope of work
The gender and power analysis will be conducted in all the eight catchment areas within Lusaka with rightsholders from the LTDRP-Women Empowerment and Micro Small Enterprise Support. It will include both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis.

This analysis will use a participatory approach in which the rightsholders will make recommendations for the project. The project documents including the logframe, activity work plan and budget will be adapted based on the recommendations from the study.

The Consultant will conduct the Gender and Power Analysis and the work will consist of the following:

• Conduct participatory action research using the following methodologies: workshops, focus group discussions and individual interviews. The data will be collated and triangulated. The data will also be shared with the communities in a process of validation.. We Effect has ethical research protocol that must be followed to conduct the research. The We Effect Technical Guide to Qualitative Research comprising of (1) Research ethical protocol; (2) Guide to conducting focus group discussions and interviews, (3) Key questions will be used to guide the process. The third component will be adapted to meet the needs of this project.
• Cover norms, attitudes and values on the following topics: (1) Women’s economic empowerment including access to employment opportunities,

(2)  Women’s roles and responsibilities within the identified value chains (3)

(3)  Barriers to women’s participation and leadership (including SGBV, SRHR, unpaid care work etc.); (4) Women’s decision-making power at household level (to assess the extent to which women will be able to benefit from this project); (5) Climate change and environmental degradation impacts.

• Submission of a detailed analytical report of the qualitative data.

5.   Methodology
The methodology applied should include the following activities:

The Gender and Power Analysis will use a participatory action research approach with a desk review. It will include desk review of secondary data, surveys at household and community levels through use of semi- structured question, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. The process will involve both young women, young men, women and men and other stakeholders.

In addition to data analysis and reporting, the process will work as follows:

6.     Expected outputs
The following are the expected key outputs of the work:

• An inception report including workplan from consultant detailing understanding of the terms of reference
• In literature review on analysis by independent researchers, other donors, multilaterals, the government and non-governmental organisations that should be considered and referenced.
• A detailed analytical report identifying the central norms, attitudes and beliefs and practices affecting women with analysis of what this means for the  project;
• An action plan of recommendations for the project;
• A workshop with rightsholders to validate the findings and confirm the recommendations;
• A workshop with partners to share the findings and revise the project documents including the logical framework, workplan and budget;
• A final report incorporating comments from the workshops.

7.   Time and work plan
The estimated time for conducting:

The Gender and Power Analysis is expected to  be conducted within 30 days with activities as follows;

• A workshop with rights-holders to validate findings and integrate recommendations into the logical framework, activity plan and budget of the project: 2 days (Hosted by We Effect);
• A workshop with partners to integrate recommendations into the revised project document including logical framework, activity work plan and, budget: 3 days (Hosted by We Effect).

8.  Budget
We Effect will cover all reimbursable expenses such as workshop costs, travel, accommodation, per diem, stationery and communication.

The consultant is expected to  share a bid clearly indicating professional  fees for the stipulated timeline, factoring in mandatory Witholding Tax @15% as per Zambian law for consultancy services.

We Effect is VAT exempt

9.   Consultants Profile
This call is for consulting firms or individual consultants. Consultants shall demonstrate the following expertise and qualifications:

• Masters degree in development studies, gender, human rights, anthropology, sociology or related relevant field;
• Minimum of ten (10) years of work experience in civil society organisations and or international development cooperation;
• Proven experience of working or researching on gender transformative programming;
• Strong communication skills, works well in a team, excellent deadline management and ease to work towards set goals;
• Excellent written and spoken English skills including knowledge of local language;
• Proficient in computer skills; and
• Able and willing to travel when required.

a). Technical proposal not exceeding the 8 pages on.

• understanding and interpretation of the TOR.
• methodology to be used in undertaking the assignment
• CV/s of key personnel to be engaged on the assignment.
• Traceable references of work done for other organisations or individuals

b). Financial Proposal

• Flexible Consultant’s daily rate for the  assignment
• Detailed budget for the proposed assignment

The selection of the successful consulting firm /consultant(s) will be based on satisfaction of qualification requirements, outcome of interviews of company representatives and/or candidates including the strength of both the technical and financial proposals. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Documents indicating “Women Empowerment and Micro Small Enterprise Support” should be sent by  24th May 2024, 12:00hrs to procurement.zambia@weeffect.org

or physically submitted to:

The Country Manager.

We Effect Zambia,

Plot No. 93 Kudu Road Kabulonga,

Lusaka

Evaluation Criteria
For the evaluation of the expression of interest the following criteria will be applied.

a) Experience Related to the Assignment (30 points).

b) Technical approach and methodology (30 points)

c) Financial Proposal (40 points).

Only shortlisted consultant(s) will be contacted.

2.    IMPORTANT NOTE:

Offers with requests for payment or fees should be treated with extreme caution, viewed as potentially fraudulent and reported immediately.