Consultancy on Gender Equality and Women’s Economic Empowerment Capacity Building

Terms of Reference

1.     Background

With more than 35 years of experience, Cowater International is Canada’s global leader in management consulting services specialising in international development. We have managed the implementation of over 2500 projects in more than 95 countries around the globe for clients such as DFID, DFAT Australia, the European Union, the World Bank and Global Affairs Canada. We work with governments, partner organisations, communities and civil society to design and implement sustainable solutions that generate lasting social, economic and environmental impacts. Our adaptive approach to management has led to our award-winning work and recognition as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies from 2017 to 2021.

GREAT PROGRAM

The Aus4Equality|Gender Responsive Equitable Agriculture and Tourism (GREAT) Program is a flagship initiative of the Australian aid program.  The Program promotes women’s economic empowerment (WEE) in the ethnically diverse north-west region of Vietnam. The primary beneficiaries are women living in the provinces of Son La and Lao Cai, while an overarching emphasis is placed on the inclusion of women from ethnic minority communities as these provinces are home to twelve and twenty-six ethnic groups respectively.

The objectives of the Aus4Equality|GREAT Program are:

• Objective 1 – Empowering local women: Women living in local communities have increased capacity, space and choices to beneficially engage with agriculture and tourism businesses.
• Objective 2 – Inclusive businesses partnerships: Selected private sector actors within the agriculture and tourism sectors innovate to profitably and sustainably trade with more women entrepreneurs and operate in gender sensitive ways.
• Objective 3 – Improving sector governance and policy: Government agencies reinforce policies, and enact plans, regulations and services that enable more inclusive socio-economic development.

Our approach to women’s economic empowerment uses a “women in market systems development” (WMSD) approach and focuses on:

• Reach: Engaging women in all project activities and addressing barriers to participation.
• Benefit: Improve women’s access to assets, financial services and support services.
• Empower: Strengthen the ability of women to make strategic life choices and put these into action.

GREAT aims to provide women both with the tools to act and the power to act as detailed below:

Table 1: GREAT WMSD Toolbox

The Program has a portfolio of approximately 50 partners to deliver results, including private sector actors, governmental and non-governmental organisations, and research institutions.

GREAT has increasingly implemented diverse GE/WEE interventions targeting individuals, households, communities, and businesses, which have allowed rich evidence on GE/WEE approaches and the impacts of pragmatic GE/WEE mainstreaming practices. However, GREAT’s Midterm Evaluation found that the “…Program has faced challenges in cultivating government and other stakeholder interest in WEE/GE, particularly at the district and commune level. While there have clearly been examples of the empowerment of women, feedback from interviews suggests that understanding and support for the Program’s WEE/GE approach is uneven among government officials. There is a common negative perception that WEE/GE means women are given economic advantages over men.” In response, GREAThas designed a capacity development plan to raise awareness on GE/WEE.

GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN'S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT CAPACITY BUILDING

GREAT’s Capacity Building Plan on gender equality (GE) and women’s economic empowerment (WEE) mainstreaming for local stakeholders will be implemented from November 2021 to May 2022. The plan aims to (1) strengthen gender responsiveness in business practices, service delivery and the enabling environment; (2) package approaches on GE/WEE for upscaling in the second phase of the GREAT Program; and (3) establish stronger support and ownership of local government on GE/WEE.

The plan has major two components: (i) to provide suitable ready-to-use tools and tailored training to service providers with the support of an independent gender consultant: and (ii) to conduct events and training programs targeting relevant local and national government stakeholders.

Cowater International is now seeking to engage highly qualified organisation/s to support GREAT to implement the second component of the Capacity Building Plan. Specifically, under GREAT’s direction, the organisation will provide training and mentoring to increase awareness on GE/WEE approaches and to strengthen the GE/WEE mainstreaming capacity of key officials of local departments, districts and communes in Lao Cai and Son La (primary focus) and GREAT’s national partners (such as Vietnam Women’s Union, MOLISA, CEMA, etc.).

2.     Assignment Objectives

• To increase the awareness of local officialsof Lao Cai and Son La and key national partners (Vietnam Women’s Union, CEMA and Steering Committee) on GE/WEE approaches and GREAT’s learnings and impact on GE/WEE for their adoption in relevant policy actions, and
• To strengthen the capacity of key officials of selected local departments, districts and communes in Lao Cai and Son La to mainstream GE/WEE approaches in practice.

3.     Approach

The Capacity Building Plan employs the three-tiered approach to capacity development on GE/WEE for local stakeholders:

• Level 1 - General awareness-raising: “What is GE/WEE and what are the potential GE/WEE approaches?”
  
  • Increase local stakeholders’ awareness on the umbrella GE/WEE concepts and approaches, prevalent national and local gender gaps:
  • Introduce gender targeting and mainstreaming approaches; and
  • Highlight GREAT’s learning, results and impacts.
• Level 2 – Specific understanding: “How are the GE/WEE approaches relevant to specific stakeholders?”
  
  • Identify entry points and priorities and tailor GE/WEE approaches to fit each organisation’s unique nature and needs.
• Level 3 – Analysing and applying: “How to mainstream GE/WEE approaches in the daily work of specific stakeholders?”
  
  • Mutual discussions and analysis to finalise action plan and develop ready-to-use tools and tailored training/mentoring relevant for each stakeholder.

Table 2 demonstrates the application of this approach together with the intervention’s focus for each stakeholder group.,

Table 2: Approach for specific stakeholders

4.     Tasks, Deliverables and Timing

The plan will be implemented in the period November 2021 – May 2022. The consultants’ tasks will cover:

• Co-design capacity building approaches, detailed activities, training materials, and event concepts and contentfor different target groups to achieve the plan’s objectives;
• Implement agreed activities at both national and provincial levels in Son La and Lao Cai provinces; and
• Monitor and report on the results of the capacity change.   

The consultant’s specific tasks and the expected deliverables are detailed below.

Table 3. Specific tasks, Deliverables, and Deadline

5.     Required qualifications

This opportunity is open to local consulting teams/organisations. The consulting team/organisation must have:

• Excellent capacity in designing and organising capacity building training programs; and
• Excellent coordination, facilitation, and M&E skills.

Team members should have:

• Key member(s) with a minimum of five years of expertise in gender and women’s economic empowerment;
• Key member(s) with rich experience in training (especially with ethnic minority communities);
• Key member(s) with relevant experience working with the governmental sector and
• All members with excellent communications skills in Vietnamese and English

6. Proposal submission

Interested organisations are invited to submit an expression of interest before 17h00 Hanoi time 5 November 2021 to [email protected] with the subject title “Gender Equality and Women's Economic Empowerment Capacity Building”.

In the expression of interest, please provide the following:

• Organisation capacity, relevant experience, and initial ideas on approaches to realise the plan (maximum five pages); and
• CVs of proposed members of the consulting team. 

For more information, please visit https://equality.aus4vietnam.org or contact Quynh Nguyen, GREAT’s Gender Strategy Advisor, at [email protected]