Justification
Although women make up half of the world population, their participation in various activities is not the same as men’s even today. Without the participation of women in the development process, society as a whole cannot be said to develop sufficiently. Nevertheless, due to gender discrimination, women tend to be granted an inferior status in nearly every aspect of life. The discrimination that they face is greater and more in developing countries than in developed countries. In its 2010 Gender and Rural Employment Policy Brief, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) asserted that with the increasing male migration, women are becoming the sole producers of the food for the maintenance of the family, this shows that women play a major role in traditional activities such as subsistence food production, household chores, food processing, home crafts market trade etc.
Aside their contribution to food security both at household and national levels, much of women work is undervalued because it is typically under remunerated and often confined to the domestic or household realm ranging from Caring for children, the elderly and the ill, collecting water and fuel for cooking and heat, and maintaining households and preparing food e.t.c.. In addition to domestic work women also perform tasks in household crop production; including sowing seeds, weeding, applying fertilizers and pesticides, harvesting and threshing of the crops. They are also responsible for post-harvest food processing, storage, transport and marketing. In addition to producing staple crops, women in many countries also grow legumes and vegetables to feed their families.
COVID-19 introduced unprecedented dimensions to hardships faced by rural households and their communities across Nigeria. The pandemic exacerbated the challenges of the already vulnerable population particularly women. It is no doubt an economic stressor with unimaginable negative consequences on markets and livelihoods of vulnerable households in rural communities has been introduced with women bearing most of the brunt of the impacts. In the midst of these challenges, women have demonstrated uncommon courage, ingenuity, and leadership by leveraging on their savings groups to initiate and/or start small income generating activities (IGA) with little to no skill at all hence the need to build to build their entrepreneurial/Income generating skills with a view to supporting vulnerable women identify business opportunities for improved income generation.
Consultancy Objectives
The aim of this Consultancy is to build the entrepreneurship capacities of rural women in Nasarawa and Plateau States for a sustainable economic empowerment.
The specific objectives are:
i. To conduct a rapid Income generating activities needs assessment among female members of VSLAs/VSLFs in Nasarawa and Plateau. This is expected to identify the required IGA training needs.
ii. To build train selected women on income generation activity skills based on the skills identified for profitable and sustainable livelihoods;
Proposed Methodology
i. Rapid IGA needs assessment across target communities in Nasarawa and Plateau where Oxfam VSLA program is being implemented. This will help in identify the types of IGA that are viable and profitable for women within target communities.
ii. Capacity building training for women through their VSLAs/VSLFs on Income generation activities using adult learning methods, practical sessions, power point presentations, video presentation e.t.c. This is to be done through a training workshop.
iii. Enterprise and leadership mentoring and coaching sessions.
Timeline
March 8 – March 29, 2021
Expected Deliverables
The following deliverables are expected from the consultant:
· List containing number of VSLA/VSLFs women trained on IGA and the different IGAs the women are trained on per state.
· Inception report for the activity detailing how the consultant intends to execute the assignment.
· Report of the needs assessments conducted to identify and select the type of IGA skills the women are trained on
· Training Reports – this training will be for an average of 100 women per state.
· Training Workshop organized to build the IGA capacity of women.
· Follow-up Action Plan.
Qualification and Experience of Consultant
· An advanced degree in Development Studies, Gender studies, Entrepreneurship and Marketing Studies, and Sociology/Rural Sociology, Sustainable and Inclusive Development or other related fields.
· Cognate and requisite experience in rural enterprise development and microenterprise management with specific bias for women economic empowerment.
· Experience managing a business enterprise from start-up to maturity and profitability.
· Membership of professional and or trade associations like NAWE, SMEDAN, and Technology Incubation Centres etc.
· Demonstrated capacity in integrating gender equity and diversity concerns in programming, advocacy, monitoring and evaluation.
· Demonstrated capacity and experience in delivering large scale training services to women groups in local languages and within Kebbi State context.
· Extensive experience in business and enterprise development, social protection and economic empowerment programmes and projects, preferably in northern Nigeria.
· Sound knowledge of policy issues related to social protection, disaster risk reduction, inclusive markets, and climate change.
· Excellent facilitation, documenting, research, writing, and analytical skills.
Project Management
All documents, project designs, data and information shall be treated as confidential and shall not, without the written approval of Oxfam, be made available to any third party. The utilization of the reports is solely at the decision and discretion of Oxfam while all the documents containing both raw data/materials provided by Oxfam and final report, both soft and hard copies are to be returned to Oxfam upon completion of the assignment. All documentation and reports written because of this assignment or otherwise related to it shall remain the property of Oxfam. No part of the report shall be reproduced or published except with the prior, expressed, and specific written permission of Oxfam.
Proposed methodology should demonstrate:
· Clear understanding of the Terms of Reference, stating preferred methodology and activity timelines.
· CV(s) of consultant(s) (including company profile in the case of firms) who will undertake the study, including full name, physical addresses, telephone number(s).
· References of one or two previous clients.
· Evidence of previous similar assignments successfully undertaken.
· Proposed budget indicating clearly consultant’s fees and all logistical costs in local currency (NGN).
The scope of this consultancy includes all logistical arrangements necessary for the Consultant and her/his team to deliver the outlined works and should therefore reflect in the financial proposal for this consultancy. For the avoidance of doubt, these costs include transportation, accommodation, feeding, and other incidental needs of the team.
How to apply:
Applications Procedure
Interested and qualified consultants are expected to download the full RFQ package from OXFAM-Website: https://nigeria.oxfam.org/get-involved-work-us/procurement-consultancy
All document should be in one pdf file, applicants could use https://combinepdf.com/ if acrobat abode pdf is not available
Submission:
All application should be submitted in one pdf documents, applicants could use https://combinepdf.com / or www.ilovepdf.com if acrobat abode pdf is not available.
Completed proposals (technical and financial proposal) should be submitted to NGA.Bid@oxfam.org . Deadline: 14th March 2021, by 12noon.