ABOUT RESTLESS DEVELOPMENT.

We know young people have the power to solve the challenges we face in our world, but they are being side-lined. We are the agency that works with young people so they can lead in solving those challenges. Whether that means supporting communities to end child marriage or prevent HIV, we work with young people to change their lives and the lives of people in their communities. Our programmes are genuinely life-changing, but we can’t do any of this without talented, creative individuals at every level of our organisation.

PURPOSE OF THE CONSULTANCY

Restless Development has operated in Zambia since 2004 delivering youth-led programmes on young peoples’ priorities, with a specific focus on community-led change and gender, delivering, accountability, advocacy, and financial inclusion. We support young people, with a vital focus on women, to establish and sustain savings groups, providing them with a holistic package of skills including, financial literacy, business, and general life skills, and support them to access formal financial services and products (FS&Ps) as well as informal finance.

Restless Development with support from the Jersey Overseas Agency is implementing a financial inclusion project in  Eastern, Luapula and Western Provinces. Working in collaboration with financial service providers, the project aims to accelerate financial inclusion for 12,500 rural young women 16-24 through inclusive Digital financial Services (DFS).

Our financial inclusion work is underpinned by power shifting and takes the following approaches; increasing access to working with market actors to increase access to inclusive DFS, addressing existing barriers on both the supply and demand side using Gender Transformative Approaches and promoting Youth Leadership through peer to peer approaches.

• Digital Innovation.
  As part of our area of focus, Restless Development Zambia contributes towards the growth of financial inclusion among young women through our digital innovation approaches. We promote digital innovation and transformation that unlocks the potential for higher quality opportunities and access to networks. Using several innovative programmes for financial inclusion for women and young people, Restless Development infuses financial education for young women to enhance financial literacy, financial awareness and improve access to financial products and services for vulnerable women and young people. Most young women are increasingly using technologies in their education, livelihoods, and to access information about finances, Thus, the integration of digital innovation across sectors that better prepare young people to learn and engage in new ways and better prepare them for their futures.
• Gender Transformative Approach
  We integrate Gender Transformative Approaches in our financial inclusion work to build young women’s agency for their empowerment and autonomy. We use our gender transformative approach to understand and address constraints resulting from gender norms, barring young people, especially girls, from thriving. Our work provides young people, especially women with the tools and resources to take control of their financial lives that enable them to make independent decisions about saving, investing, and spending, leading to increased autonomy and agency over their financial future. By ensuring women’s equal access to financial services and opportunities, we unlock their potential, foster inclusive economic development, and create a more equitable society.
• Youth Leadership
  Youth leadership is Restless Development’s primary ambition, strategy and methodology. We have a wealth of experience of meaningful youth engagement and supporting youth leadership.

We are currently working with 4,485 young people in Zambia to lead change in their communities. We have a wealth of youth leadership tools and resources that are used throughout a young person’s leadership journey with Restless Development, including a ‘Restless Leaders’ 10 module training package.

We use participatory approaches like peer-to-peer dialogue sessions, scorecard processes and youth advisory boards to ensure young people’s lived realities and voices are heard in decision making processes.

BACKGROUND TO THE PROGRAMME

Zambia faces significant challenges in financial inclusion, with disparities in formal account ownership and a pronounced gap between urban and rural areas. Our financial inclusion projects address these issues by leveraging digital financial services, mobile money, and targeted interventions to uplift young women in rural communities. Building on Restless Development’s extensive experience in youth-led programs and financial literacy, we seek to bridge the gap and empower young women to take control of their financial futures.

Restless Development provides business skills training and technical advice to self-employed young people to increase their incomes, and have worked with over 35,000 young people to build their employability and career skills through classroom sessions, career fairs, and community awareness/mobilisation events, and have established and sustained over 200 savings groups reaching over 5,000 people.

At a policy level, we have made submissions on Financial Education Skills to the Parliamentary Sub-Committee of Youth and Entrepreneurship and have used national radio shows, position paper and articles in Zambia’s leading print newspapers and periodicals to promote financial education among in and out of school young people and women.

PURPOSE OF THE CONSULTANCY  

We intend to develop training material on financial inclusion primarily targeting Trainers of Trainers (ToTs) and rural young women. Both training manuals will share our capacity strengthening work being implemented on our financial inclusion project – Ulemelero Project. Through our financial inclusion work whilst implementing the Tusunge Lubono and Ulemelero projects, we have been able to collect various training content and material such as case studies and best practices which we want packaged into a resource that can be used as a reference and training guide for Restless Development staff members and community facilitators leading our financial inclusion work at community and level. It is for this purpose that we are seeking consultancy services specialised in developing the above described resource.

ABOUT THE FINANCIAL INCLUSION MATERIAL:

Restless Development, a leader in youth-led development, is keen at accelerating financial inclusion among young women, particularly in rural areas through transformative initiatives. Restless development recognizes the various barriers including existing gender inequalities that inhibit the inclusion of young rural women in financial inclusion.

Therefore, the development of the 2 capacity strengthening manuals will aid the process of bridging the existing gaps and necessitate access to FSPs and eventual improvement of livelihoods. The tools will provide models that will assist trainers to engage with participants in a learner-centric way, for the transfer of practical skills to the participants, and consequently helping them to realise their potential and underlying opportunities within their reach.

The financial inclusion capacity strengthening manuals will be a compilation and collation of content from our series of trainings implemented on our Tusunge Lubono and Ulemelero Projects. It is also meant to share experiences and best practices noted on the projects. The manual shall seek to contribute to closing some of the following gaps as identified by the Finscope study of 2020;

• 30.9% scope 2020,of Zambians do not have a formal account with a financial institution. There is a 26.9% disparity between adults in urban versus rural areas who are financially included. 60% of adult Zambians don’t have a bank.
• Young rural women, aged 16 to 24 are the most financially excluded as they are often dependent individuals sitting at the intersection of the three most significant reasons for financial exclusion; income level, location, and gender.
• Mobile money has emerged as a major driver of financial inclusion, particularly amongst young people and those in rural areas where access to bank physical infrastructure remains limited
• Financial inclusion largely remains bank centric with very low Uptake of Pension (8.2%) and insurance (6.3%) which are skewed towards urban areas.
• Inadequate digital and financial literacy, as only 5% of the 63% of adults who own a mobile phone use it to pay bills or receive money in Zambia compared to an average of 16% Sub-Saharan Africa
• Women’s veiled potentialities due to lack of gender smart DFS in the market.

Furthermore, our Youth-led Research reviewed the following findings.

• Most young women borrow money from community money lenders (Shylocks) in spite of exploitative interest rates due to a reported limited alternative options.
• Low Knowledge levels on existing digital financial services in the market
• Access barriers that include distance, Lack of Mobile Money Booths, Network Coverage, and Lack of Money/Income.
• Lack and/or low access and control to assets (including mobile phones) by young rural women.
• Low financial decision making among married women, a norm left to husbands who are considered the ‘Head of the house’ because they are often the breadwinners.
• Women predominantly engaged in rainfed agriculture for employment with low uptake of crop insurance.

SCOPE OF WORK AND EXPECTED OUTPUTS / DELIVERABLES

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The consultant:

• Will partly work with our in-house content combined with findings of our Youth-led Research to develop a financial Education Manual
• Will work with a team from Restless Development to develop two comprehensive training manuals on Financial Education tailored for Trainer of Trainers (ToTs) and another for Community Based Facilitators (CBFs).
• Will design and deliver training manuals integrating gender transformative approaches through incorporating practical tools and strategies for empowering women in financial inclusion.
• Will develop a detailed work plan, timeline and budget for the delivery of the outputs stated to be approved by Restless Development before work commences.
• Will share hard copies of the manual along with soft copies through email.

DELIVERABLES

The consultant is expected to deliver the following;

• A Training Manual. The manual will focus on developing the skills and knowledge that ToTs require to effectively train and empower young women and men in financial decision making. It will include core life skills such as decision making, effective communication and negotiation skills.
• A manual that is highly interactive and participatory,using real life examples relevant to communities we are targeting. With a language that is easy to understand by both the ToTs and the young women.
• A manual that is incorporated with gender responsive approaches addressing needs and challenges faced by rural young women in rural areas including opportunities available to them.
• Include basic content on digital financial services and products and  financial literacy, including and not limited to pensions and insurance.
• Incorporate sessions on government entitlements like the Constituency Development Fund

BUDGET AND PAYMENT SCHEDULE

Restless Development will make available a maximum budget of K80, 000 to the successful consultant for the successful completion of the deliverables outlined in Section 4.

The successful consultant shall be expected to design a work plan and corresponding budget to be appended to this ToR and approved by Restless Development before work commences.

The consultant will issue an invoice to Restless Development in line with the following payment schedule, following delivery of the outputs to Restless Development’s expected level of rigour and quality:

• 50% of total budget at start of consultancy
• 25% of total budget on submission of first draft of the manual

Balance payment following completion of, and approval by Restless Development, of all agreed deliverables.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY:

• All outputs and deliverables produced as part of this assignment remain the intellectual property of Restless Development, and the content must only be reproduced or used with consent, recognition and agreed terminology.
• The successful consultant warrants that any materials produced under the terms of this assignment will not infringe in whole or in part on any copyright or other intellectual property right of any other person.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

The consultant will have;

• Experience working on/supporting financial education programme materials.
• Experience developing training manuals and curricula for trainers.
• Demonstrable experience designing and delivering training curriculum for youth audiences, including on financial inclusion for women and youth.
• Excellent knowledge of current trends ,opportunities and challenges in relation to digital financial services and products with a focus on young women in rural areas.
• Experience of interactive, participatory and innovative training approaches for engaging young people.

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST SUBMISSION:

Interested consultants are invited to submit their proposals, including a detailed work plan, proposed structure of the manual, budget, brief expression of interest and CV/resume to Restless Development via email at Zambiajobs@restlessdevelopment.org. Consultants must list three referees who can attest to the consultant experience and expertise related to this organisation and TOR.

All proposals, questions, and clarifications must be addressed to: zambiajobs@restlessdevelopment.org

Follow this link to download the Consultancy Terms of Reference for more details about the assignment

First round interviews are scheduled to take place on a date to be advised.

Restless Development is an Equal Opportunities employer and seeks to recruit, retain and develop staff from all sectors of the community and will ensure that no applicant or staff member receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of gender, sexual orientation, marital status, social status, caste, race, ethnic origin, religious belief, age, HIV status, disability, or any other factor that cannot be shown to be relevant to performance.