Gender Equality and Resilience Project

Terms of Reference for a Consultancy to Conduct a Baseline Assessment

1.Background

CARE is a leading humanitarian and development organization seeking a world of hope, tolerance, and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security. We work around the globe to save lives, defeat poverty, and achieve social justice.

CARE Austria, together with CARE International in Rwanda (CARE Rwanda), in partnership with Pro-Femmes/Twese Hamwe (PFTH) and Benishyaka are implementing the Gender Equality and Resilience (GEAR) project in Gatsibo and Kayonza, running between 1^st April 2024 and 31^st March 2029, funded by Austrian Development Agency. GEAR is implemented in Rwanda and Uganda with the overall objective of contributing to/ promoting gender equality and increased resilience of women and girls in Rwanda. To tackle the different factors hindering gender equality and resilience, the project will engage men and boys to promote positive gender and social norms, strengthen VSLAs for increased financial inclusion, promote women and youth micro and small entrepreneurship, support capacity development and networking for CSO/WRO/WLO and Advocacy through three complementary outcomes.

• Outcome 1: Positive gender norms protect women and girls and advance gender equality & women and girls' social and economic rights.
• Outcome 2: Marginalized women and girls have sustainable and dignified income opportunities.
• Outcome 3: Women and girls have increased voice and leadership to address and advance their priorities and issues

The project’s target groups include:

• 25,000 marginalized women, girls and youth.
• 258 VSLA groups
• 750 Micro and small business owners (members of VSLA)
• 24,000 household and community members
• 245 stakeholders (including local authorities, duty-bearers, opinion leaders, and market actors)
• 101 Community-based trainers, Village Agents and facilitators

2. Objective of the assignment

The overall objective of this assignment is to carry out a baseline assessment and provide a reference point for assessing changes and impact by establishing a basis for comparison before an intervention or set of interventions takes place. The assessment will be conducted using a mixed methods approach.

Considering the above, CARE seeks to hire a consultant/firm who will be responsible for the design of the baseline assessment framework, and lead and coordinate data collection including report writing. Once data is captured, cleaned and analyzed, you will need to update the project’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability (MEAL) framework with baseline values and suggest targets for each indicator for the next five years. The specific objectives of the baseline assessment will be:

• Examine the prevailing gender norms and social norms in the target communities that hinder/ promote women and girls' social and economic rights
• Assess the existing/potential income opportunities for women in the targeted communities
• Conduct an analysis of the market to check the needs and requirements of the existing/potential income opportunities for women and girls including assessing their current capacities to pursue the income opportunities
• Examine the levels of women’s voice, participation and leadership to advance and address their priority issues
• Provide actionable recommendations for programming and for improving the Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) Plan and approach
• Update the projects Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability (MEAL) framework with baseline values and suggest targets for each indicator.

3. Methodology

The baseline assessment will use a mixed-methods approach including:

• Desk reviewof recent relevant literature; the list of literature to be reviewed will be established by the consultant based on his / her own research but will be validated and complemented by CARE to ensure it includes research conducted and guidelines developed by CARE but also by others that CARE has knowledge of
• Quantitative tools. The consultant/firm will conduct a quantitative survey at the household level and is expected to use electronic tools to collect data. Please mention what data software you will use to store data and analyze it (e.g. Stata, SPSS, or Excel) and why you chose that specific software.
• Qualitative tools. Participatory qualitative exercises such as Focus Group Discussions and Key Informant Interviews (KII), will be required to fully capture knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward equitable, sustainable, and inclusive, to promote gender equality, and increase the resilience of women and girls. All qualitative data will be fully transcribed and translated. The consultant is expected to carry out KIIs with stakeholders at both national and local levels.
• GEAR’s log frame includes, among others, CARE International Indicators which are accompanied by specific guidance. Relevant guidance documents will be provided to the consultants for consideration the development of the measurement of the indicators.

4. Data analysis

The assessment shall triangulate results and interpret them before formulating (a) findings, (b) conclusions, and (c) programmatic recommendations, each of which should show how they relate to each other. Data analysis must ensure it provides demographics of population sampled, disaggregated where required and give statistical relationships (i.e., tests of significance, predictive analyses, etc.) between variables where applicable. Values and targets need to be sex, age and disability disaggregated and the analysis needs take these variables into consideration. The consultant(s) is expected to share a methodological grounding for the data analysis plan that includes data quality, coding/cleaning, and analysis procedures for qualitative and quantitative data. If there is an article or book that informs your methodological approach, please share the citation. 

5. Ethical approaches & Data disclosure

The approach to the baseline must consider the safety of participants at all stages of the survey. The firm/consultant will need to demonstrate how they will consider Prevention of Sexual Harassment, Exploitation, and Abuse (PSHEA); through the different data collection stages, including recruitment and training of research staff, data collection and data analysis and report writing. Firms/consultants are required to set out their approach to ensuring complete compliance with international good practice with regards to research ethics and protocols. The consultant must show how they will comply with the Rwanda data privacy and protection law.

Data disclosure

• CARE requires that the datasets that are compiled or used in the process of external evaluation are submitted to CARE when the evaluation is completed.
• Datamust be disaggregated by sex, age and other relevant diversity,
• Datasets must be anonymized with all identifying information removed. Each individual or household should be assigned a unique identifier. Datasets which have been anonymized will be accompanied by a password protected identifier key document to ensure that we are able to return to households or individuals for follow up. Stakeholders with access to this document will be limited and defined in collaboration with CARE during evaluation inception.
• In the case of textual variables, textual datasets or transcripts please ensure that the data is suitable for dissemination with no de-anonymizing information unless these are case studies designed for external communication and suitable permission has been granted from the person who provided the data. In these circumstances, please submit, with the case study, a record of the permission granted, for example a release form.
• Where there are multiple datasets (for example both tabular and textual datasets) identifiers must be consistent to ensure that cases can be traced across data lines and forms.
• CARE must be provided with a final template of any surveys, interview guides, or other materials used during data collection. Questions within surveys should be assigned numbers and these should be consistent with variable labelling within final datasets.
• Formats for transcripts (for example: summary; notes and quotes; or full transcript) should be defined in collaboration between CARE and the external evaluator at the evaluation inception
• In the case of tabular datasets variable names and variable labels should be clear and indicative of the data that sits under them. Additionally, the labelling convention must be internally consistent, and a full codebook/data dictionary must be provided.
• All temporary or dummy variables created for the purposes of analysis must be removed from the dataset before submission. All output files including calculations, and formulae used in analysis will be provided along with any Syntax developed for the purposes of cleaning.
• We require that datasets are submitted in one of our acceptable format types.
• CARE must be informed of and approve the intended format to be delivered at evaluation inception phase. Should this need to be altered during the project CARE will be notified and approval will be needed for the new format.

6. Expected Tasks and roles

6.1. Responsibility of the consultant/firm

The consultant(s) will be responsible for setting up procedures and guidelines to:

• Develop and present an inception report and tools to CARE team for inputs and feedback.
• Finalize and submit the final inception report.
• Train enumerators for the data collection exercise. One component of the data collection training should include procedures on safely managing disclosure of any safeguarding issues/cases of safeguarding.
• Conduct data collection including pretesting of tools in the 2 districts covered by the project.
• Ensure that datasets are clean, complete, and consistent.
• Analyse data and write baseline survey report.
• The consultant/firm will be liable to secure any prior visa or approvals that might be required to conduct the survey.
• The consultant shall be liable for ethical procedures including obtaining informed consent from respondents.
• All documents and data collected will be treated as confidential and used solely to facilitate analysis.
• The production of the baseline survey report will be the responsibility of the consultant covering all the aspects as outlined in this ToR.
• All training and logistics cost for the enumerators including transport and data collection materials during data collection will be covered by the consultant.

6.2. Responsibility of CARE

• Assume all the responsibilities pertaining to the consultant hiring process.
• Ensure that all necessary documentation is availed to the consultant.
• Facilitate initial connections of the consultant with different stakeholders, in particular also with the implementing partners
• Overall data quality control and technical review report
• Provide any other technical or operational support to the consultant as needed for example review of the questionnaires and participating in the selection and training of enumerators.
• Prepare inception report review.
• Approve draft and final report.

7. Supervision

The Task Manager for this work will be the Quality Assurance Specialist. The Consultant is also expected to liaise closely at the design stage and subsequently with other key personnel in CARE.

8. Expectations and Deliverables

The consultant (s) is expected to provide the following:

• Inception report including:
• Research methodology including the sampling methodology and the analysis framework
• Draft data collection tools and protocols
• Data analysis plan
• Detailed work plan outlining all tasks to be completed by each of the members of the consultant team for the duration of the baseline.
• Ethical approach, quality control plan, limitations to the study design and mitigation strategies, enumerator training plan,
• Upload data collection tools Kobo collect or any other online data collection platform and share with CARE for approval before commencement of actual fieldwork.
• A complete set of raw and cleaned datasets, including, complete codebooks for quantitative files generated and analysed for the report. For the qualitative data, this includes the audio recording files, original transcripts, and translated transcripts of the full verbatim. Note that summary transcriptions or translations will not be acceptable.
• SPSS / Stata syntax and output files reflecting the analysis conducted.
• Draft and final report. The consultant will submit two rounds of reports for review and comments, before submitting the report as final. For this purpose, the consultant will convene a validation meeting of baseline results and documentation of the validation (prepare and make a power-point presentation) and meeting notes with questions raised.

The report should not exceed maximum of 50 pages including annexes. The content of the final report will be:

• Cover page: Title page with date, logos, consultant name
• Executive summary: a brief of maximum two pages with description of the methodologies, main findings, conclusions, and recommendations
• Introduction
• Brief description of program
• Objective of the study
• Study methodology.
• Detailed report on findings
• Actionable recommendations for improving programming and MEAL. This should include suggesting adjustment for existing indicators or proposing new indicators if necessary.
• Annexes: study ToRs, the composition of consultant team, tools, a list of sites visited, a list of key informants, references, etc.
• The consultants will submit a complete final editable (MS Word) soft copy of the report in English after incorporating comments and feedback from the validation meeting.
• Updated Performance MEAL framework with all the baseline value for the indicators and adjusted targets where applicable.

9. Evaluation Timelines

The evaluation will take place between September and October 2024 for a maximum of 30 days.

10. Professional Skills and Qualifications

Qualifications: bidders are required to clearly identify and provide CVs for all those proposed in the Evaluation Team, clearly stating their roles and responsibilities for this baseline. The lead consultant should have a master’s degree (PhD preferred) demonstrating thematic and/or research qualifications and a minimum of five years of experience in delivering rigorous program evaluations. The consultants’ proposed evaluation team should include the technical expertise and practical experience required to deliver the scope of work and baseline evaluation outputs with regards to:

• Study design: the team should include skills and expertise required to design, plan and conduct mixed-methods impact evaluation, using quasi-experimental techniques.
• Skills in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis (including merging datasets), drawing findings from multiple sources and handling potential contradictions between data sets; using justified approaches for analysis of qualitative data.
• Relevant subject matter knowledge and experience: knowledge and experience required on conducting research with youth, disability, gender equality and social inclusion to ensure that the evaluation design and research methods are as relevant and meaningful as possible given the aims and objectives of the project and the context in which it is being delivered.
• Evaluation management: manage a medium-scale and complex research process from end-to-end including baseline studies.
• Primary research: gender-sensitive design, management, and implementation of primary quantitative and qualitative research – this could include the design of longitudinal household panel surveys, in-depth interviews, focus groups, participatory qualitative exercises with youth, etc.
• Country experience: it is particularly important that the team has the appropriate country knowledge /experience and ability to interpret findings from a contextual perspective, as required to conduct the research.
• Statistical analysis: a range of statistical modelling and analysis of impact data; highly proficient user of: SPSS or STATA; and qualitative data analysis techniques.
• Data management and data cleaning. Ability to supervise the collection, entry (if required), cleaning and management of large data sets. Digital data collection processes are preferred.

11. Proposal Evaluation Criteria

The technical and financial proposal will be assessed using the below criteria.

12. Application procedures

The application file should contain the following documents:

• A technical proposal, with a clear timeframe and a description of the proposed methodology detailing how the deliverables will be achieved, and the team credentials for similar assignments.
• Detailed Curriculum Vitae of the proposed team to carry out the assignment with clear roles and functions.
• A financial offer detailing the various costs associated with the delivery of the above services, in PDF format and must be a separate document from the technical offer.
• Evidence of the consultant’s experience in doing similar assignments: Copies of similar assignments (with evidence for good completion of the previous similar assignments);
• Submit at least 3 references with their contacts and addresses.
• Bank account information including the scanned copy of blank check or document from the bank confirming bank account information (name, account number, swift code, …)
• Consultant firm profile; VAT registration certificate; RRA tax clearance certificate; RSSB tax clearance certificate (when applicable). For applicants without registration in Rwanda, submit the above requirements from the country of registration as applicable.

Interested consultants or consultancy firms are requested to submit their offers not later than August 26^th ,2024 at 5 pm local time to the following e-mail address: rwa.procurement@care.org, with mention of “Consultancy to conduct a baseline evaluation for GEAR project” in the subject line.