Consultant

Terms of References for Consultant to conduct Mid-Term Appraisal of

Project titled:

Women's Increased Access to Water Resources and Agricultural Markets

Introduction

• Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) is recognized as one of the leading Pakistani rights-based civil society organization, in terms of its countrywide presence and outreach.
• SPO's programs have been implemented in over 75 districts, 2 Tribal Agencies of FATA, and 4 Frontier Regions (FRs), dealing with matters related to human rights, democracy and good governance, women empowerment, peace and harmony, health and education, both, at policy as well as implementation levels against any issues of concern.
• SPO holds a history of more than 25 years working with the mission to strengthen and support community organizations and public interest institutions of Pakistan for the benefit of the poor and disadvantaged through a participatory and rights-based approach.
• SPO is a key member of over 20 global and regional networks of leading rights-based civil society institutions.
• Around four of these national and regional networks were created as well as hosted for many years by SPO.

Background

• Women in Pakistan are said to be among the furthest in the world from gender parity in remunerated or paid work.
• Pakistan fares very poorly on the global gender indices, especially on women's economic participation and educational attainment. Pakistan's economy presents an alarming situation with women's labour force participation at merely 25% percent.
• Women's economic concerns have been recognized in the Government of Pakistan's key planning document Vision 2025, which commits to elevate women's labour force participation to 45 percent
• However, this necessitates Government taking concrete steps to devise a comprehensive framework to turn this commitment into reality by 2025.
• Rural women face multiple challenges, which include the lack of access to financial resources; inadequate managerial and technical skills;  little access to market information; high levels of vulnerabilities to disasters and crisis; and an inhibitive regulatory environment.
• In these circumstances, the contextual analysis under a specific project intends to identify economic choices and opportunities for rural women through a combination of efforts to build rural assets and skills for the poor rural women.
• It should also help them diversify their income-generating activities by stimulating engagement in value addition to rural products and non-farm production and services that provide additional employment and income opportunities.
• In this regard, SPO has initiated a project in early January 2020, aiming to empower rural women by building their capacities, and increasing their awareness and interaction with different institutions and local initiatives announced by Govt. of Sindh, Zaraee Taraqyati Bank and other opportunities that facilitate their access to markets for sustainable income generation.
• It was envisioned that from a pro-poor growth perspective, poor women need to change existing power relations, gain and exert influence over the political, economic, and social processes that determine and, all too often, constrain their livelihood opportunities.
• To gain a deeper understanding of the challenges rural women face, SPO conducted a need assessment study at the beginning of the project to assess the needs, opportunities and challenges project beneficiaries have to devise an effective implementation strategy.
• The study was conducted in project districts and data was collected through Key-Informant Interviews and Focus Group Discussions with rural women, Government Departments, representatives of local government and representatives of CBOs/CSOs.
• The need assessment provided information concerning mapping of value chains, introducing business enterprise models and modern farming methods that can contribute to economic empowerment of women.
• The recommendations based on collected evidence were then inculcated in project interventions to empower women in agriculture and livestock management through sustainable livelihood and income generation initiatives.
• Due to COVID-19 outbreak and country-wide lockdown, project activities were halted. Many people lost their jobs and were in dire need of financial assistance to meet their ends.
• SPO discussed the scenario with the Donor and allocated the budget of some activities for COVID-19 emergency response.
• SPO extended its support to vulnerable and marginalized groups by collaborating with Provincial Disaster Management Authority of Sindh (PDMA) and provided cash sustenance allowance to 150 women and distributed 320 food hampers amongst daily wagers, women-headed households, sanitary workers, and Baagri community in project districts.
• Since the project has successfully entered in its second phase despite lock downs and COVID-19 Pandemic affecting routine functions of every sector, a Mid-Term Appraisal of the project is due to gauge the achievements against targets as per the Project Result Framework (will be provided upon signing of contract).
• The Mid-Term Appraisal will also analyse the impact of COVID-19 on project activities and whether the COVID-19 emergency response initiated under this project has contributed to achieve the overall targets.
• This Appraisal will be a crucial tool to measure the effectiveness of the project interventions and the project's overall impact in empowering rural women in target districts.

Primary target group for Mid-Term Appraisal:

• 150 Small Landholder Women
• 100 Landless Women Sharecroppers
•  200 Women Owning Livestock
• 50 Women from Bagri Community
• 470 Women reached out through COVID-19 Emergency Response
• Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA- Sindh)
• Sindh Irrigation & Drainage Authority (SIDA)
• District Agriculture & Livestock Departments
• Members of Provincial Assemblies

Objective of the Mid-Term Appraisal

The twofold objectives of this assignment are:

• To analyze the impact of project initiatives on improving women's overall social and economic well-being in target areas.
• To measure how effectively this project has contributed to increasing women's representation in local water bodies, including area water boards, watercourse associations, and farmer organizations.
• Moreover, to analyze that women are participating in decision-making processes and are engaging local authorities through advocacy initiatives.

The Mid-Term Appraisal will measure:

• The impact of meetings, awareness raising sessions and policy dialogues and its contribution in the passage of laws promoting an increased role of rural women in water resource management.
• The number and effectiveness of capacity building sessions organized for SIDA, Livestock Department and Water Board Associations on the women’s rights and role of women in water resource management.
• The number of women with enhanced knowledge of agricultural, livestock and small business enterprise management skills.
• The number of linkages developed by women groups with service providers, local government structures and others to facilitate their access to markets.
• The overall impact of the project in obtaining the project outcomes that are to increase rural women’s role in water governance and their sustainable economic growth.

Scope and Deliverables

• The scope of work for the Consultant will include but not be limited to:
•  Identify, select and analyze a sample of beneficiaries in the 3 districts of Badin, Hyderabad and Tando Mohammad Khan from the target beneficiaries to ascertain the effectiveness of project interventions.
• Identify, select and analyze the stakeholders (Government) at provincial, district and local level who have been engaged in advocacy and lobbying initiatives for the passage of laws promoting women’s increased role in water governance.
• Mapping and analyzing the socio-economic barriers and associated risks that were mitigated by the project activities to support women in effective decision making at personal and public spheres.
• Design the research instruments and get it finalized by supervising authority.
• Conduct pre-test of the research tools instruments and procedures targeting women farmers of different resource levels.
• Collect and document the information and align the Mid-term appraisal with Result Framework of the project.
• Analyze the data / information, synthesis, derive the recommendations and conclusions; and document the reports accordingly.

Suggested Methodology

• To conduct the situational analysis, it is suggested to organize focus group discussions/ in-depth interviews with the sample target groups in both sectors of agriculture and livestock management and key informant interviews with service providers in the target districts.

Consultant Requirements

• The potential consultant should make a proposal which should among others include:-
• Technical and Financial Proposals
•  Capability statement
• Research Methodology and Approaches
• Gantt chart with mentioning a fixed delivery date and fixed delivery time.

Time Frame

• Consultancy days:  5th to 25th March, 2021.

Deadline for submission of proposals

•  Apply by 28th February, 2021 .