1.     Project Summary

1.     Background

The Young Women’s Leadership & Economic Empowerment Academies will build on the success of our two flagship Youth Livelihood Programs: USAID-supported POTENTIAL (Building the Potential of Youth) and PVH-supported PYL (Partnership for Youth Livelihoods.)  

The POTENTIAL program has provided 36,000 unemployed and underemployed youth ages 15-29 with skills that lead to increased income and economic self-sufficiency by increasing youths’ access to skills building and employment promotion services. PYL has linked more than 829 unemployed youth (60% women) to jobs in Ethiopia’s growing garment industry and surrounding areas.  

 These programs have graduated youth with a base level of knowledge to create a micro              enterprise, however, these graduates lack the capital, business mentoring, and business know-how to be able to take the next step and grow their business. Women graduates also have multiple barriers in front of them simply because they are female. 

The Young Women’s Leadership & Economic Empowerment Academies will help close this gap and provide the next level training, support and capital needed to transform these graduates into successful young women business owners and leaders in their communities. It will also provide them with crucial Sexual Reproductive Health education and access to services that will give them the power to decide when to start a family. 

The Academy will build on the knowledge female graduates of POTENTIAL and PYL have acquired and help them access the critical social and economic services they need to run a successful business— from current models including small trade, coffee and tea sales, injera or bread making to new ideas fostered through this program. Graduates must have owned a business for at least 12 months to participate. We will recruit participants on a rolling basis across the span of the project, about every two months. Each group of approximately 30 women will receive the full suite of services over the course of 9-12 months. From experience, we know that the longer we work with young people, the better their employability outcomes.  

To implement our work, we will collaborate and train employees from the regional bureau of the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth, which works to promote gender equality in Ethiopia; as well as technical and vocational schools, health centres, and other community-based associations. Our goal is to build the capacity of both government and private partners so that they can institutionalize and carry out activities once this funding has ended.

The project has the following four objectives:

·       Developing the Skills Young Women Need To Manage and Grow Their Business

·       Increase Young Women’s Access to Capital and Financial Support

·       Develop Equitable Gender Roles and Positive Social Norms

·       Improve Access to Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) and Family Planning (FP) 

2.     Purpose

The purpose of barrier analysis is to identify behavioural determinants of a particular behaviour so that more effective social and behavioural change messages, strategies, and supporting activities can be developed. Empowerment for sustainable development means giving to people and communities the true capacity to cope with the changing  environment, for increased social awareness, higher levels of social and economic participation and the utilization of new insights on ecological processes of change. In parallel with this, assessment on SRH service provision is part of the study to find out the existing capacity and status in offering SRH services for the young women.

3.      Objective and Scope

The study main objective is to identify key barriers (social, economic, political, cultural, administrative) that prohibit young women not to effectively engage in business activities in LEEP project implementing woredas (Boricha, Yirgalem and Hawassa and Tula), sidama national regional State.

Specific Objectives

·       To identify the key gender based social, cultural, economic, political and administrative barriers that inhibit young women engagement in successful businesses

·       To identify the  root causes of existing social, cultural, economic, political and administrative barriers  contributing to gender inequality and analyze how it affects the participation  and benefit of women from income generating activities

·       To identify the availability of young women friendly service delivery and to assess sexual and reproductive health service utilization of young women in public health facilities at project implementation sites

·       To identify the root causes of poor sexual and reproductive health services utilization 

·       To assess the level of SRH knowledge, attitudes and practices among women in the project interventions  districts

·       To assess the level of SRH knowledge, attitudes and practices among women  in the project interventions  districts

4.     Scope of the study

The study will be carried out in consultation with young women, community representatives and key informants from sidama regional bureaus, women and children’s affairs office, health offices, health service centre including health posts, and other relevant stakeholders in Hawassa, Yirgalem, and Boricah Woreda.

5.     Methodology

Data Collection Methods

The primary methodology for this study will be qualitative data collection, which will be supplemented by a desk review of available literature (secondary data, published research, literature, and policies).

Qualitative methods

The analysis will employ a variety of qualitative methods including focus group discussions (FGDs), key informant interviews (KIIs), and observations. These methods will be used to explore contextual factors and most significant changes in agency, relations, and structure, and their impact on gender equality, SRH service utilization and social dynamics in the study locations.

FGD. The FGD will be organized with 6-12 participants and will be conducted with specific project participant groups and other relevant participants including 1) Project participant young women groups 2) Non-Participants of the project women business owners 3) Husbands/brothers/fathers of young women who are project participant 4) male youth

The FGD will help gain a better understanding of the core areas of inquiry at a household level, community, and institutional level, and on social and cultural norms, protection and, rights denials/abuses, agency, decision-making, access to services, productive and reproductive roles, workload, women’s time constraints, participation in community groups, leadership and life skills, inequalities of the various vulnerabilities, and will encourage perspectives sharing.

KIIs. The KIIs will be conducted with a broad array of informants including 1) project staff at different levels, 2) local government officials, 3) community leaders, 4) community influencers/gatekeepers (mothers-in-law, religious leaders, etc.), 4) young women’s 5) community members.

KII from each of the four woredas- woreda women, children and youth office heads, woreda job creation and enterprise development office heads, woreda municipality office heads, woreda Finance office heads, woreda agricultural office heads, woreda education office heads, woreda omo micro finance office heads, justice office heads, Woreda Health Office Heads in all project sites, Project participants (Young women) Regional women, youth and women bureau, Hawassa city Health department ,  each woreda health department Family Guidance Association office.  Influential leaders such as community/clan leaders, religious leaders, kebele leaders, teachers… (male group and female group)

KIIs will be conducted to better understand the following areas of inquiry; government views; community dynamics and the identification of appropriate interventions and messaging; male engagement; household decision making; barriers to women to access services; access to public spaces and services ; awareness and decision making on SRH services, family planning uptake, supportive services, and related issue.

Data collection will be conducted in three woredas areas. As there will be various types of FGD, the expected number of FGDs per woreda will be 8-10 FGDS and for the KII, there will be minimum of five KII conducted at woreda level.

6.     Roles and Responsibilities

6.1          Roles and responsibilities of save the children

·       Provide the TOR for interested applicants

·       Assign technical focal person to oversee the task.

·       Avail relevant reference documents for the consultant.

·       Review and provide timely feedback on the proposed data collection tools, reports and other related issues.

·       Facilitate orientation on Save the Children’s child safeguarding policy for the individuals involved in the task.

·       Facilitate payments for the consultant as per the agreed payment Schedule.

6.2          Roles and responsibilities of the consultant 

·       Submit initial inception report that details the key aspects of the task at the application stage; 

·       Participate on SCI’s briefing sessions on the project and on how to develop reports.

·       Finalize  the detail study protocol including inception report study tools  after incorporating the SCI team input and share to the client for review;

·       Obtain Institutional Review Board (IRB) and ethical clearance;

·       Perform the list of activities indicated in section III to Section VIII of the TOR above and elsewhere in the document.

·       Conduct in-depth review, analysis and synthesis of relevant literatures and documents to the task such as surveys, formative studies and assessments, strategies, guidelines, reports, tools… etc.

·       Develop data collection tools and field guides based on approved protocol

·       Recruit, train and deploy highly experienced and qualified data collectors who are familiar with the local context

·       Pretest and adapt the data collection tools based on the findings of the pretest

·       Lead, coordinate and supervise the data collection process

·       Ensure the quality of data

·       Ensure the safety and security of survey participants. Compliance with ethical standards

·       Analyze and synthesize the data collected from the field and desk review

·       Present findings and recommendations to Save the Children project/technical team and partners.

·       Incorporate the input from the project team, partners, and government on the strategy development

·       Ensure that the comments/feedback given on the draft reports are fully incorporated in the final report, that the reports are of professional quality and well edited

·       Participate in briefing and other meetings related to the assignment and present the final study findings and strategy document for Save the Children Project/technical team, and partners/ other stakeholders

·       Provide legal financial documents for all the payments as per the agreement

·       Adhere to the SCII’s Child Safe Guarding Policy and Code of Conduct including PSEA.

·       The consulting firm shall sign the SCII’s code of conduct

7.     Deliverables

·       Recruit, train and deploy, and manage experienced and qualified male and female  qualitative data collectors who are proficient in the language and familiar with the local context

·       Prepare a study protocol outlining research strategy, methodology, data collection method, target groups, analysis plan and timeline for the study.

·       Conduct Literature Review: it should provide an overview of the work that has been conducted in the past and the authors of this work.

·       Conduct In-depth Interview, Focus group discussion

·       Propose plan for Primary and secondary data collection to meet the specific objectives and develop data collection instruments that captures both quantitative and qualitative data and propose the data collection platform to use the collection and collating the relevant data and information.

·       Train data collectors on the tools

·       Implement and supervise data collection activities to ensure fidelity of the data collection.

·       Prepare a quality assurance plan to safeguard the data integrity, quality and confidentiality through the study.

·       Prepare a presentation summarizing key findings and present to key stakeholder’s which will be defined by Save the Children.

·       Ensure the safety and security of survey participants and comply with the ethical standard as per approved IRB requirement 

·       Analyze and synthesize the data collected from the field and desk review

·       Present preliminary findings and recommendations to Save the Children CO team and project team

·       Prepare and submit draft and final report answering the objectives of the research; including through use of data visualization approaches to optimize presentation of findings.

8.     Intended Audience and Use of the Study

Primary intended audience of the study are donors of the project, the government stakeholders and policy makers, community groups, and project participants so that the results of the study will be considered to influence the community, government partners and other relevant stakeholders to implement the lessons/recommendations of the study.

Moreover, the study will be shared with the following stakeholders: Women, children’s and social affairs, Municipalities, Youth and sports office, private and government TVET, CBO, regional, zonal and woreda health office, health centers and health posts education office, Family Guidance Associations , School clubs, and local broadcasting media.  The findings of the study will be used for service improvement, adaptive programming, and accountability, to justify the expansion of the program/project/s.

The study team will be required to propose how the primary audience will be involved throughout the assessment process and how the assessment findings will be shared with each of the different stakeholders in the table above, particularly outlining how reporting back to communities, beneficiaries and children will be conducted in an accessible and child friendly manner.

9.     Ethical Considerations

It is expected that this study will be:

§  Child participatory. Where appropriate and safe, children should be supported to participate in the study process beyond simply being respondents. Opportunities for collaborative participation could include involving children in determining success criteria against which the project could be evaluated, supporting children to collect some of the data required for the study  themselves, or involving children in the validation of findings. Any child participation, whether consultative, collaborative or child-led, must abide by the basic requirements for meaningful and ethical child participation.

§  Inclusive. Ensure that children from different ethnic, social and religious backgrounds have the chance to participate, as well as children with disabilities and children who may be excluded or discriminated against in their community.

§  Ethical: The study must be guided by the following ethical considerations:

o   Safeguarding – demonstrating the highest standards of behavior towards children and adults.

o   Sensitive – to child rights, gender, inclusion and cultural contexts.

o   Openness - of information given, to the highest possible degree to all involved parties.

o   Confidentiality and data protection - measures will be put in place to protect the identity of all participants and any other information that may put them or others at risk.[1]

o   Public access - to the results when there are not special considerations against this

o   Broad participation - the relevant parties should be involved where possible.

o   Reliability and independence - the study should be conducted so that findings and conclusions are correct and trustworthy.

It is expected that:

§  Data collection methods will be age and gender appropriate.

§  Study activities will provide a safe, creative space where children feel that their thoughts and ideas are important.

§  A risk assessment will be conducted that includes any risks related to children, young people, or adult’s participation.

§  A referral mechanism will be in place in case any child safeguarding or protection issues arise.

10.  Expected Deliverables

The study deliverables and tentative timeline (subject to the commencement date of the study) are outlined below. The consultant and the SCI  Project Manager will agree on final milestones and deadlines at the inception phase.

Deliverables and Tentative Timeline

*All reports are to use the Save the Children Final Study Report template. Please also refer to Save the Children technical writing guide.

11.   Study Management

Study Tentative Timeline, with key deliverables in bold. The final timeline and deliverables will be agreed upon the inception phase.

Financial Proposal

Save the Children seeks value for money in its work. This does not necessarily mean "lowest cost", but quality of the service and reasonableness of the proposed costs. Proposals shall include personnel allocation (role / number of days / daily rates / taxes), as well as any other applicable costs.

12.  SChedule of Payment

The following payments will be made to the consultant using and agreed mode of payment

§  Upon approval of inception report and tools: [20%]

§  Upon submission of First Draft study Report: [30%]

§  Upon approval of final study report: [50%]

13.     Study Criteria

The technical proposal weighs 60 %.  Technical proposal/ inception report   scored 50% and above out of 60% will be qualified for financial evaluation.  Each criterion has its description as well as value as follows:

13.1.        Understanding of the ToR (8)

This criterion will cover the consultant’s understanding and reflection on the terms of reference. It considers how deep the consultant understood the work including the scope? How such understanding is explained and linked with the subsequent criteria (e.g., with the approach/methodology, team composition, etc.).  How consistent is the understanding of the ToR reflected in the various sections of the technical proposal?

13.2.       Experience of the Firm in related work (15)

This captures the experiences of the consultant in terms of having specific and hands-on experience on undertaking gender barrier analysis and health service utilization barrier analysis, conducting similar livelihood and employment opportunities mapping, analysing the labour demand and supply patterns, assessing institutions of private, public and CSOs and their interface, factors influencing the job market, experience on value chain trends and market opportunities etc…  

13.3.       Professional team composition and qualifications (8)

The consultancy assignment requires qualified team members who possess Minimum Master’s Degree in Development Economics/economics, business management, labour force development, development studies, public health and related fields, from a recognized institution and has a diversified team composition backgrounds and experiences with particular focus on livelihoods/economic empowerment of youth and women is highly desirable. Qualification without proper experience and team composition will result rejection of the technical proposal or very low score.

13.4.       Methodology (25)

The consultancy firm should clearly describe its choice of approach for the various objectives and scope of works, and with good justification for the choice of methods/tools or design to exactly meet the objectives in clear and coherent way.  The consultant would do generic presentation of the assessment methodology tools and techniques expected to apply to deliver the results expected.

NB: proposing approaches without linking with the objectives and scope of work will result in very low scores. Hence, the technical proposal shall be reviewed with distinct and relevant approaches as per each of the objectives.

13.5.       Time frame/Work plan (4)

The assumption is to come up with feasible and cost effective approach as per the time frame suggested in this ToR.  The consultant is encouraged to follow on the proposed timeframe though it is open for feedback.

13.6.       Financial application weights 40%

The benchmark for those who could pass to the next level of screening (financial bid) shall be 40%.

  13.7      Bench Mark

The bench mark for passing those who score 50/60 will be selected for the computation 

 Understanding of Requirements and Experience

To be considered, the study team members together must have demonstrated skills, expertise and experience in:

§  Designing and conducting the study  using [experimental / quasi-experimental / other] design

§  Conducting studies in the field of Gender and Health particularly in relation to Gender Barrier Analysis and Sexual reproductive health

§  Leading socio-economic research, study s or consultancy work in Ethiopia, Sidama region  that is sensitive to the local context and culture

§  Conducting ethical and inclusive studies involving children and child participatory techniques

§  Conducting ethical and inclusive studies involving marginalised, deprived and/or vulnerable groups in culturally appropriate and sensitive ways

§  Managing and coordinating a range of government, non-government, community groups and academic stakeholder

§  Extensive experience of theories of change and how they can be used to carry out formative studies

§  Strong written and verbal skills in communicating technical and/ or complex findings to non-specialist audiences (especially report writing and presentation skills)

§  A track record of open, collaborative working with clients

There is a high expectation that:

§  Members (or a proportion) of the study team have a track record of previously working together.

§  A team leader will be appointed who has the seniority and experience in leading complex study projects, and who has the ability and standing to lead a team toward a common goal.

§  The team has the ability to commit to the terms of the project and have adequate and available skilled resources to dedicate to this study over the period.

§  The team has a strong track record of working flexibly to accommodate changes as the project is implemented.