Institutions to Conduct Project Level Midline Assessments.

Terms of Reference (TOR)
of Project level Midline Assessments

(Open for national organisations
Maximum budget: AUD 158,000

Program Overview

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 800 projects in more than 80 countries around the globe for clients such as DFID, DFAT Australia, 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 in 2017 and 2018.

The GREAT Program is a flagship initiative of the Australian Aid program in Vietnam – it commenced in November 2017 and will run for five years until 2021. The Program seeks to promote 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 with a focus on the economic inclusion of women
from ethnic minority communities. 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 business 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.

The goal of the Program is to improve the livelihoods of 10% of the adult female population in Son La and Lao Cai, including increasing the income for 40,000 women and creating 4,000 new jobs for women across the two provinces. The Program’s Theory of Change details the expected changes at the end of the Program.

Project Level Midline Assessments

GREAT partners with private and public sector entities to reach the end of Program outcomes through approximately 50 partnerships/projects in the tourism and agriculture sectors, targeting rural households, particularly ethnic minority women. Through these projects, the Program aims to improve the identified market issues, facilitate a range of systemic changes to support women’s economic empowerment in both the agricultural and tourism sector and also the broader enabling environment. Households, particularly women will be linked with enterprises/cooperatives and supported to participate in markets actively, productively and profitably. Business partners will carry out activities in gender-responsive, inclusive and sustainable ways. Through engagement in production and business activities, women and their families will have greater access to networks, job opportunities, technical advice and productive inputs and be empowered in decision making, workload sharing and leadership.

We now want to conduct individual project-level midline assessments for 34 specific projects to capture the changes created by each project along the Results Chain and changes in production and business practices of relevant stakeholders and project beneficiaries. The assessments are also the opportunity for GREAT and partner learning in order to identify areas to be further addressed and necessary management actions, and the best approach to create sustainable outcomes and impacts.

The GREAT Program is seeking proposals from suitably qualified institutions to conduct the 34 project level midline assessments. The main purpose of the study is to identify the changes along the Results Chain of each project and in the gender-responsive and inclusive business approaches of relevant stakeholders. The assessment findings will be used to assess progress of each project as well as make recommendations for improvements in order to enhance each project’s effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability and replicability.

A full copy of the Terms of Reference is attached.

How to Apply

Proposals need to be sent to [email protected] before 5pm Hanoi time Wednesday, 14 October 2020 with the subject line “Project-Level Midline Assessments – GREAT”.

Late applications will be not considered.

The successful applicant will need to sign a contract that is compliant with Cowater International’s Head Contract with the Australian Government including the full copyright ownership of all deliverables from this assignment.

An information session will be organized on 2 October 2020 from 10:00am to 12:00pm Hanoi time via video link. Participation in the information session is optional. Candidates interested in the session should send a request to [email protected]. Relevant documents and video meeting link will be provided upon request.