Consultancy: Gender-Responsive Baseline Study 108 views0 applications

Terms of Reference: Gender-Responsive Baseline Study

Action for Paid Childcare Sector Transformation (ACT) project

Position Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Duration of Contract: 35 working days

Reports To: ACT Project Director

Application Deadline: 20 May 2024

Expected Start Date: 30 May 2024

1. Introduction

World University Service of Canada (WUSC) is a Canadian non-profit organization working to create a better world for all young people. We bring together a diverse network of students, volunteers, schools, governments, and businesses who share this vision. Together, we develop solutions in education, economic opportunities, and empowerment to overcome inequality and exclusion for youth around the world, particularly young women and young refugees. WUSC currently works in 25 countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, with an annual budget of approximately CAD $40 million. We have over 90 staff in our Ottawa office and over 200 people overseas implementing 16 development projects in collaboration with donors, including Global Affairs Canada; the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO); the MasterCard Foundation; World Bank; the Asian Development Bank; and the African Development Bank.

2. The ACT Project

The Action for Paid Childcare Sector Transformation (ACT) project is a 4-year collaborative initiative that uses an innovative systems approach to drive gender-transformative, locally-owned, collaborative action to transform paid childcare from a job of last resort to a vocation of choice. The project also aspires for the paid childcare sector to become one of economic prosperity for women in Kenya and Malawi. ACT aligns with Canada’s commitment to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 on gender equality and empowerment, SDG 8 on decent work for all, and Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) action area on growth that works for everyone.

ACT responds to recognition within the global policy agenda that women are overrepresented within the largely informal paid care economy, where they face low pay, poor working conditions, limited social protection, and rights abuses. These are key barriers that contribute to significant poverty among women-paid childcare providers, and that limit potential for their economic empowerment. The barriers also severely limit women-paid childcare providers’ ability to deliver quality childcare services. Women are the primary participants in the paid childcare economies of Kenya and Malawi. This sector has a high economic opportunity for women due to the potential for sustainable demand for childcare services; however, this opportunity is unrealized.

The essence of ACT’s Theory of Change (ToC) is that the economic empowerment of women childcare providers in Kenya and Malawi can only be achieved if systemic, gender transformative change is driven and owned by local ecosystem actors. ACT’s systems approach tackles the most pressing underlying issues by working with key actors in Kenya and Malawi who influence those issues. ACT will enable coordination, knowledge, capacity, and performance improvements to address gender-based inequities. Geographically, ACT will focus on areas with large concentrations of women childcare providers, seeking opportunities to support rural and urban providers, including the most marginalized, and where project partners have existing networks, starting in Kenya. It will scale to Malawi following foundational mapping and relationship-building activities there.

The ACT project will be implemented in close collaboration between WUSC and partners in Kenya and Malawi, notably Uthabiti and the Coalition of Violence Against Women (COVAW) in Kenya and the Women’s Legal Resources Centre (WOLREC) in Malawi.

The ultimate outcome of ACT is:

• Enhanced economic empowerment of women paid childcare providers in Kenya and Malawi

The intermediate outcomes are:

• Improved gender responsive performance of childcare ecosystem actors in Kenya and Malawi
• Enhanced protection and promotion of the rights and needs of women paid childcare providers in Kenya and Malawi
• Enhanced provision of gender responsive financial and business services and models by support service providers to women paid childcare providers in Kenya and Malawi

The immediate outcomes are:

• Improved gender responsive coordination among childcare ecosystem actors
• Improved capacity of childcare ecosystem actors to develop and deliver gender and disability responsive training and certification supporting women’s advancement in the paid childcare sector
• Improved capacity of childcare ecosystem actors to develop and implement gender transformative policy and regulation regarding the paid childcare sector
• Improved capacity of childcare ecosystem actors to champion and uphold the rights of women paid childcare providers
• Improved capacity of business service providers and enterprises to provide gender responsive business services and models that meet the needs of women paid childcare providers
• Improved capacity of financial service providers to invest in women childcare providers while applying a gender lens

1. Purpose and Objectives of the study

The primary objectives of the ACT baseline study are the following:

• Develop/refine indicators in the Performance Measurement Framework (PMF)
• Collect data on indicators in the PMF, which can then be used to assess progress on/toward the achievements of outputs and outcomes (immediate, intermediate and ultimate) over the timeframe of the project and ex-post (as necessary);
• Inform the development/confirmation of targets for inclusion in the PMF;
• Collect quantitative and qualitative data to inform program design and implementation;
• Build staff and stakeholder capacity, buy-in and ownership over M&E activities.

2. Scope of Study

The consultant will serve as the lead coordinator of the ACT gender-responsive baseline study. Note that data collection as part of this consultancy will be undertaken only in the project regions in Kenya (Nairobi, Kisumu and Kakamega counties). Activities in Kakamega will focus on strengthening the supply of quality childcare providers and activities in Nairobi/Kisumu will focus on both the supply/demand side (childcare providers and employers).Baseline data collection in Malawi will take place prior to roll out of programming in the country in year two and a separate call for proposals will be issued for that portion of the study. The consultant will be responsible for the following activities in coordination with WUSC’s baseline advisory committee (comprised of the ACT Project Director, ACT Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist, WUSC Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) Advisor, WUSC Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Advisor, WUSC Economic Opportunities Advisor), as well as other country office staff members and project partners (Uthabiti, COVAW, and WOLREC), as appropriate:

• Developing/refining indicators in the Performance Measurement Framework (PMF), including identifying relevant domains for the development of an Empowerment Progression Index tailored to the project context based on participant definitions of empowerment
• Securing appropriate permissions to access targeted communities, as necessary
• Developing and refining the study’s design, sampling strategy and data collection tools/protocols (including opportunities to leverage existing data from project partners);
• Establishing an operational/management structure for the baseline study, including recruiting field team leads, enumerators, data entry personnel;
• Field team training on the project background and gender-sensitive and participatory approaches to data collection;
• Field team training on ethical conduct of research, emphasizing free, prior and informed consent;
• Pilot testing, rollout and completion of data collection across target communities;
• Ongoing data quality assurance;
• Data cleaning and analysis;
• Delivering a final baseline study report; and
• Presenting findings to WUSC, project partners and key stakeholders at a dissemination event.

The study is expected to collect data to inform program indicators as outlined in the PMF. Please note that the following indicators will be revised and updated in coordination with the successful consultant/firm.

Indicators

• % of women paid childcare providers in the regions of project implementation reporting increased income (disaggregated by age, country)
• Empowerment progression index (disaggregated by country)
• % of women paid childcare providers in the regions of project implementation with relevant professional qualifications (disaggregated by sex, age, country)
• Level of satisfaction among parents of the quality of services received by women paid childcare providers in the regions of project implementation (disaggregated by sex, age, country)
• Introduced/revised policies and regulations that protect and promote the rights of women paid childcare providers (disaggregated by country)
• Extent to which women paid childcare providers in the regions of project implementation feel their rights and needs are being met (disaggregated by sex, provider type, age, country)
• # of ecosystem actors taking up or adopting financial and/or business services and models for women paid childcare providers in the regions of project implementation (disaggregated by sex, age, country)
• % of women paid childcare providers in the regions of project implementation reporting having accessed gender-responsive financial and/or non-financial business services and models (disaggregated by sex, age, type of service, country)
• % of women paid childcare providers in the regions of project implementation reporting membership in a professional group/network/collective (disaggregated by sex, age, country)
• Level of coordination of collectives of women paid childcare providers in the regions of project implementation (disaggregated by sex, age, country)
• Level of knowledge of ecosystem actors of best practices in the delivery of childcare training and certification (disaggregated by sex, age, type of actor, country)
• Level of confidence reported by ecosystem actors to deliver training and provide certification supporting women’s advancement in the paid childcare sector (disaggregated by sex, age, type of actor, country)
• % of key ecosystem actors reporting knowledge of the policy and regulatory gaps affecting women childcare providers (disaggregated by sex, age, type of actor, country)
• Perceptions among key ecosystem actors on their capacity to implement gender transformative regulations in support of paid childcare work (disaggregated by sex, age, type of actor, country)
• Level of knowledge of ecosystem actors of the rights of women paid childcare providers (disaggregated by sex, age, type of actor, country)
• Level of confidence reported by ecosystem actors to champion and uphold the rights of women paid childcare providers (disaggregated by sex, age, type of actor, country)
• Level of knowledge among business service providers of women paid childcare providers’ service needs (disaggregated by country)
• # of ecosystem actors applying a gender lens to finance/ business service offerings (disaggregated by type of actor, country)
• # of financial service providers with products that meet the needs of women-led childcare enterprises (disaggregated by type of service provider, country)
• Level of knowledge among financial service providers of women paid childcare providers’ investment needs (disaggregated by type of provider, country)

3. Study approach and methodology

The overall methodology for the baseline study should be established and detailed by the consultant in the proposal, with priority emphasis on gender-sensitive approaches. It is anticipated that the study will use mixed-methods. Where possible, participatory approaches are encouraged. Any assumptions upon which the methodology is contingent should be clearly articulated.

While the consultant, informed by discussions with Ottawa and country-based project personnel, is encouraged to suggest alternative methodologies, the following data collection methods may be considered:

• Document review (e.g., project planning documents, relevant secondary literature, evaluation/research reports on related interventions, relevant regional/national-level statistics, etc.)
• Key informant interviews (e.g., with relevant childcare ecosystem actors, including financial service providers, training providers, policy makers/government stakeholders, business service providers, etc.)
• Focus group discussions (with targeted beneficiary populations, including paid childcare providers and parents)
• Sample survey (of targeted project beneficiaries, including paid childcare providers)

The consultant is expected to propose a detailed methodology for assessing all project indicators using a combination of these and/or other methods, as appropriate; however, the consultant should ensure that both qualitative and quantitative methods are included.

The proposed methodology should be replicable at midterm and end line with the aim of assessing change against outcome indicators over the project lifetime, as well as the project interventions’ contributions to observed outcomes.

The consultant should clearly outline in the proposal the types of statistical analyses that will be carried out in the study (descriptive and inferential), as well as detailed data quality assurance protocols.

4. Key Activities and Deliverables

The selected Consultant will have overall responsibility for the design and implementation of the study, and for ensuring quality and timeliness of all deliverables. The Consultant will be responsible for designing the study, sampling, data collection tool development and piloting, enumerator recruitment and training, data collection, data entry, data analysis, report writing, and results dissemination.

The key activities and deliverables expected from the Consultant(s) for this assignment are as follows:

• Review all documents, studies and other data sources relevant to ACT[1].
• Participate in an inception meeting to clarify expectations of the mandate and provide contextual information necessary to produce the inception report
• Consult on the development/refinement of performance measurement indicators
• Develop an Inception Report[2]

A detailed inception report and work plan is to be produced that includes the following elements:

• Baseline study design and methodology, including gender-sensitive data collection approaches
• Qualitative and quantitative sampling strategies, as well as proposed sample sizes
• Detailed work plan and overall study timelines[3].
• Level of effort of each team member
• Detailed study budget, including professional fees, expected reimbursable, etc.
• A copy of quantitative and qualitative tools for data collection
• Review/Finalization of data collection tools

Development of quantitative and qualitative tools for data collection. These tools will be reviewed during the inception phase and must be included in the inception report/work plan.

• Develop Enumerator Guidelines and Protocols for Data Collection
• Coordinate/Conduct Enumerator Training following a detailed agenda and outlining study protocols (this agenda should be included in the inception report)
• Coordinate/conduct/supervise data collection, as per agreed methodology
• Ensure data quality by reviewing initial data entry and providing feedback to data collection leads, where applicable
• Analyze qualitative and quantitativedata. It is also expected that the Consultant will do a critical analysis of the data through statistical treatment and triangulation with other sources and literature review.
• Draft and final Study Report, including Executive Summary and Full Consolidated Report. The final report is to be submitted in both Word and PDF versions with all annexes and raw data files included. A suggested Table of Contents (ToC) will be provided by WUSC.
• Copies of original and cleaned data sets including any field notes are to be submitted to WUSC with the draft report.

5. Time Frame and Level of Effort

The period of the contract is expected to be from 30 May, 2024 to 14 July, 2024 with an expected contribution of approximately 35 working days. The consultant is expected to carry out all the preparation required to roll out the study as per the suggested time frame below. Dates will be reviewed and finalized during the inception meeting.

Task/Output: Level of Effort (in days) Proposed Completion Date

Document Review and Literature Review: 2 days, by May 30

Inception Meeting[4] : 1 day, by June 1

Develop draft Inception Report and Work Plan: 5 days, by June 7

Integrate comments from WUSC and submit Final Inception Report: 1 day, by June 10

Preparation for Country Enumerator/Data Collector Training with country office: 2 days, Ongoing

Enumerator Training and Pilot: 3 days by June15-17

Data Collection: 10 days by June 20-31

Data cleaning, entry and analysis: 4 days, by July 3-6

Draft Study Report (following report structure outlined provided): 4 days, by July 7-12

Incorporate feedback and comments of organization and submit Final Report: 1 day, by July 14

Dissemination/validation event: 1 day, by July 14

Total 35 days

6. Qualifications of Consultant(s)

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in designing studies, collecting data and producing quality baseline study reports, preferably for international non-profit organizations and/or multilateral agencies
• Experience in conducting studies on projects adopting a systems approach;
• Experience in sound sampling, mixed methods approaches (quantitative and qualitative), tool development, enumerator training, and data quality assurance
• Ability to recruit and manage enumerators for qualitative and quantitative components
• Expertise in participatory approaches to data collection
• Strong understanding of the social norms, local context and gender dynamics in the region
• Excellent facilitation skills and experience with community engagement
• Knowledge and experience in gender equality and social inclusion (GESI)
• Demonstrated experience in quantitative and qualitative data analysis
• Ability to produce high quality work under tight timeframes
• Knowledge of the paid childcare sector in Kenya an asset

A copy of the PMF and other relevant documentation will be provided to the consultant prior to the inception meeting.

The inception report is an elaborated version of the initial proposal submitted. An outline for the inception report will be provided to the successful candidate(s) prior to the inception meeting.

Timelines will need to be coordinated with the ACT project team. WUSC will facilitate this with the consultant.

Prior to the inception meeting all relevant documents, including the tentative PMF, will be provided to the successful candidate.