Project presentation
Implementation context
In Burkina Faso, women face profound inequalities and are particularly affected by economic, social, and environmental disparities, exacerbated by persistent security and political instability. In 2020, these inequalities were further aggravated by the health crisis, which severely impacted the country’s growth rate (falling from 8% to 1.9%, according to the World Bank).
According to the World Bank in West Africa, women are enterprising and more numerous than men in launching businesses. However, women are particularly affected by economic inequalities: more represented in the informal sector, they have more difficulty generating profits (fewer employees, lower average sales and less added value), accessing salaried employment, and they suffer more from inequalities in income or access to land.
Since 2019, Empow’Her and the L’Occitane Foundation have joined forces to contribute to improving the conditions of women through skills development in various trades, including crafts. With the Bloom project, specifically dedicated to crafts, which began in June 2021 and will end in June 2025, approximately 440 vulnerable women, including 66 IDPs (internally displaced persons), have been supported, with 220 women acquiring new skills in trades such as building electricity, solar energy, embroidery, carpentry, and hairdressing.
Despite the progress made through the BLOOM program, several challenges have highlighted the need to consolidate achievements and go further. Some beneficiaries face difficulties accessing funding, equipment, or workspace, and risk becoming discouraged without ongoing support. Strengthening networks, ensuring the sustainability of acquired skills, and addressing a context sometimes marked by social, family, or security challenges have also proven essential.
It is with this logic in mind that BLOOM+ was designed: to ensure enhanced monitoring, guarantee the sustainability of results and support women towards a stronger and more sustainable autonomy.
Project summary
BLOOM is a program that aims to train vulnerable women and internally displaced women in Bobo Dioulasso and Léo in craft trades through technical support via master craftsmen and training institutes, psychological support for internally displaced women, followed by support for entrepreneurship and professional integration.
It concerns vulnerable women and internally displaced women in these cities who have not had access to training mechanisms in identified craft trades or who wish to develop expertise in one of the fields with entrepreneurial ambitions or focused on employability in this sector.
Project Objectives and Results
General objective : The project aims to contribute to the reduction of income inequalities and strengthen the empowerment and professional and entrepreneurial integration of women in Burkina Faso and more specifically in the Hauts Bassins and Centre Ouest regions.
Specific objectives :
OS1 – To enable vulnerable and internally displaced women in Bobo Dioulasso and Léo to acquire the technical and professional skills to integrate into promising craft trades
OS2 – Supporting women in their professional and entrepreneurial integration process through the development of income-generating activities or employability in identified craft trades
Expected results
The following results were expected upon completion of the project:
- Result 1 : New economic opportunities are identified and become accessible for 440 vulnerable and internally displaced women from Bobo and Léo (2021 to 2025)
- Result 2: 220 women, including 36 internally displaced persons, acquire the technical knowledge and skills to progress in promising new craft-based professions and benefit from psychological support and artistic workshops.
- Result 3: 220 women are supported in their professional and entrepreneurial integration through training dedicated to income-generating activities, employability, professional meetings, speed mentoring evenings, and networking days.
- Outcome 4: Through a better understanding of the issues, needs, and motivations of vulnerable women, particularly internally displaced women, regarding employment and entrepreneurship, stakeholders in the ecosystem become aware of the major challenges to women’s economic empowerment.
- Result 5: 150 women strengthen their entrepreneurial skills, use appropriate management tools, and make decisions autonomously and sustainably
- Result 6 : Women are organized into resilient collective structures for greater impact
- Result 7 : The local ecosystem supports the integration and empowerment of women by facilitating their access to economic opportunities, resources and partner networks.
Evaluation objectives
The mission aims to evaluate the Bloom project in relation to its objectives and expected results. It will primarily focus on assessing the project’s performance against the criteria defined by the OECD/DAC (relevance, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability/viability).
The analysis of these evaluation criteria should take into account more specifically the following evaluation questions, which will guide the reflection in a cross-cutting manner:
Overall analysis
- To what extent has Bloom succeeded in strengthening the entrepreneurial, transversal, and technical capacities of the women beneficiaries?
- To what extent has Empow’Her been able to adapt to contextual changes and adapt Bloom’s activities?
- To what extent has the Bloom project contributed to combating gender-based violence against women?
- What was the impact of the cross-cutting and technical entrepreneurship training program on women?
- What are the main issues (problems, target groups, territories, working methods, partners…) on which Empow’Her should focus its future intervention?
Suggested topics for further exploration
- Analysis of professions
To what extent does the orientation of beneficiaries towards traditionally male professions (welding, tiling, electricity, etc.) stem from a free and informed individual choice, or does it result from the influence of the social environment, the project teams, other actors, or even from a reproduction of assignments towards traditionally female professions.
To what extent does the orientation of beneficiaries towards traditionally male occupations (welding, tiling, electricity, etc.) result from an informed individual choice, or from an influence exerted by the social environment, the project teams or other actors or traditionally female occupations?
Among the professional pathways offered within the project, which ones have demonstrated the strongest potential in terms of economic opportunities, market access, business creation or income generation for beneficiaries?
What is the transition rate of beneficiaries between:
- the training,
- access to employment or income-generating activities,
- and the achievement of effective economic autonomy?
- What are the critical points where breakdowns or abandonments are observed?
- Analysis of professional integration or business creation
To what extent do the technical and professional skills transmitted to the beneficiaries meet the current requirements of the local market and the expectations of employers, clients or other economic actors?
To what extent does the individual solidarity entrepreneurship model prove to be more effective than group entrepreneurship, or vice versa, in terms of economic viability, governance, resilience and sustainability of activities?
Do the revenues generated by the beneficiaries’ economic activities effectively and sustainably cover their basic needs and contribute to their financial independence?
What factors facilitate or limit the transition of beneficiaries to employment or income-generating activities after training (e.g., economic environment, socio-cultural constraints, access to production tools, post-training support, mobility, presence or absence of support from their social network, etc.)?
What are the additional obstacles that hinder the professional integration or entrepreneurship of beneficiaries, including access to start-up capital, weak professional networks, lack of self-confidence, or family and domestic responsibilities?
- Analysis of community awareness campaigns
To what extent have community-based awareness campaigns contributed to reducing gender-based violence (GBV) within households? If awareness campaigns are not the primary driver of change, what other interventions might prove more effective in preventing and reducing GBV?
What significant changes are observed in the way communities perceive women’s participation in so-called “masculine” occupations (e.g., welding, electricity, mechanics, etc.)?
- Analysis of psychological and maternal support
Do beneficiaries who received psycho-social support demonstrate greater perseverance in their activities and greater socio-economic stability compared to those who did not?
What essential psychological needs of beneficiaries remain unmet or insufficiently addressed by current interventions?
To what extent do the responsibilities associated with motherhood positively or negatively influence women’s participation in economic activities and their professional integration?
Is access to maternal assistance today an essential lever or a major obstacle for women’s entrepreneurship?
What other family or domestic responsibilities constitute significant barriers to women’s participation in economic or entrepreneurial activities?
What type of maternal assistance system would be most effective for the care of children, while allowing mothers to sustainably engage in their economic activities?
- Analysis of the project’s impact on women’s social lives
To what extent has the project contributed to improving relationships within households, particularly between spouses, between mothers and children, and within extended families?
What significant changes are observable in the female beneficiaries in terms of:
- leadership and autonomy,
- participation in family and community decisions,
- Self-esteem and confidence in their abilities?
What side effects or unexpected consequences may have emerged following the project intervention, such as:
- increased intra-family tensions,
- overload of responsibilities
- marital conflicts or divorced individuals,
- What other unanticipated negative impacts?
Analysis of stakeholder involvement
- What strategic partnerships or collaborations still need to be established or strengthened in order to amplify the impact of the project’s interventions?
- To what extent did community engagement and the involvement of local actors (customary leaders, local authorities, associations, families, technical partners) contribute to the effective and sustainable implementation of project activities?
The collection and analysis of the various information will subsequently contribute to the preparation of the final project report, which will include the various achievements, the main results obtained, the partners mobilized, the impact of the project on the beneficiaries and on the ecosystem, the difficulties encountered, the lessons learned and the good practices developed, and the recommendations for replication of the project.
Period covered by the assessment
The evaluation covers the four life cycles of the project, from June 2021 to July 2025, and the nine months of consolidation from July 2025 to March 2026.
Method and approach to evaluation work
The evaluation work will be based on a three-step approach :
- structure the evaluation process;
- conduct the analysis and carry out the evaluation;
- to present the conclusions of the evaluation work and the recommendations of the project evaluation.
The consultant is asked to closely involve Empow’her in developing their reasoning, through regular communication throughout the assignment, from the initial scoping document to the meeting presenting the draft report. In particular, findings and initial analysis should be shared immediately upon completion of the assignment, before the draft report is written.
Structuring the evaluation process
In this first phase, the consultant will need to:
- Gather and analyze all information and documents relating to the project to be evaluated (instruction, execution, monitoring) and to understand its context. The documents to be consulted will be available from the Project Team, to be completed as needed;
- Identify all project stakeholders and resource people to meet or interview;
- The evaluation methodology will be further developed based on the terms of reference, collected documents, and reconstructed intervention logic. Specifically, this will involve: (i) defining the main evaluation questions that will focus the research on a limited number of key points; (ii) establishing the reasoning steps to answer the questions; (iii) specifying the indicators to be used to answer the questions and the corresponding sources of information, taking into account the gender dimension (documentation, interviews, focus groups, surveys, etc.); and (iv) precisely identifying the key informants to be consulted or interviewed for this evaluation.
Based on this work, the consultant will propose a scoping document for the evaluation (not exceeding 15 pages) after commencing their work. This scoping document will be discussed with the project coordination team to determine how the consultant intends to structure the evaluation process and to verify its feasibility. Particular attention will be paid to the consultant’s ability to utilize diverse sources and critically assess their reliability.
Methodological elements
This evaluation will require qualitative data collection, based on semi-structured interviews, observation, and/or focus groups, with project beneficiaries, project staff (focal point, trainers, project manager), and their support network (partners and family). Quantitative data related to project monitoring will also need to be collected and analyzed.
The consultant will propose an initial methodology (observations, interviews, focus groups, etc.) and sampling criteria in the technical proposal. The scoping document will allow for further clarification and refinement of this proposal.
After presenting their observations, effects, and impacts following the evaluation, and then formulating their findings and judgments on the project for each evaluation criterion, the consultant must deliver their general conclusions in order to provide an overall assessment of the intervention being evaluated. These conclusions must be prioritized.
The consultant will identify lessons learned and/or strategic and/or operational recommendations.
Skills required to conduct the assessment
This consultation is aimed at research/consulting firms and/or an experienced independent consultant.
The skills required to carry out this assessment are as follows:
Essential :
- expertise in results-based evaluation;
- demonstrated experience in programme/project study and evaluation in an international development context including in crisis zones (supported by certificates of successful completion);
- experience in gender issues, sustainable development, and crafts
- technical and sectoral knowledge and expertise in the fields of agroecological training, entrepreneurship, climate change, and the creation of rural businesses;
- good command of interpersonal communication;
- knowledge of the main languages spoken in the project implementation areas (Dioula, Mooré or Nouni);
- excellent command of spoken and written French.
Advantage:
- experience in the regions concerned by the implementation of the project (Bobo Dioulasso and Léo) with ability to travel to the field;
If a team of evaluators is proposed, the complementarity of the experts’ profiles will be a determining factor in the selection process. The proposed team must be a member of the same/female team.
The consulting firm or consultant engaged to provide the service must not have any links with stakeholders that could interfere in the evaluation process and call into question the impartiality and objectivity of its conclusions.
Ethical measures
As part of each evaluation, Empow’Her commits to respecting certain ethical measures. The consideration of these measures in the technical proposal is imperative, and the consultant must ensure adherence to these principles throughout the evaluation process, particularly during field missions, data collection, and analysis.
- Ensuring the safety of participants, partners, and teams : the technical proposal must clearly outline risk mitigation measures, including those for conducting field investigations. It should be noted that the intervention area is classified as a “red zone” by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The service provider will be solely responsible for the safety of any individuals or legal entities to whom it entrusts or delegates, in any way whatsoever, all or part of the service delivery. It undertakes to comply with all applicable laws and regulations regarding safety in the context of the service.
- Ensure a person-centered/community-centered approach : the technical offering must provide methods adapted to the needs of the target audience (e.g., tools in the local language, etc.)
- Obtaining the free and informed consent of participants : the technical proposal must explain how the evaluator obtains the free and informed consent and/or assent of their interlocutors.
- Ensuring the participation of stakeholders and beneficiaries in the evaluation and taking their point of view into account
- Ensuring the security of personal and sensitive data throughout the activity : the technical offer must propose measures for the protection of personal data.
- To ensure the expertise of the teams involved and the scientific validity of the activity
These measures may be adapted following the start-up report
Duration of the evaluation
The total time required to complete this evaluation is estimated at 30 working days, subject to adjustment based on proposals. The selected consultant or consulting firm must submit a detailed work plan in their terms of reference, clearly outlining the different phases of the evaluation, particularly the various stages of the provisional and final reports.
The service will begin after the contract is signed between the consultant/consulting firm and Empow’Her Global. The start date is scheduled for February 5th.
The service will include: i) a kick-off meeting*,* ii) a meeting to validate the scoping note, iii) a field mission, iv) a debriefing meeting of the field mission and, v) a meeting to present the conclusions to the headquarters and field teams of Empow’Her Global (and possibly to certain stakeholders as needed).
Deliverables
Framing note
Following the structuring phase of the evaluation process, the consultant will produce a scoping document for the evaluation. This scoping document must be validated by Empow’Her Global before work can proceed.
Provisional Final Report
A preliminary final report, not exceeding 50 pages excluding appendices, will be produced upon completion of the consultant’s work, along with a PowerPoint presentation (to be presented at a meeting with the teams) . Empow’Her Global will provide its comments and observations to the consultant within two weeks of receiving the preliminary report.
Final report
The final report, incorporating these observations, must be available within 15 days of receipt of the comments. If these observations express differences of opinion not shared by the consultants, these may be appended to the final report and commented on by the consultants.*
The evaluation report must not exceed 40 pages, excluding appendices . It will be accompanied by a 4-page summary . This summary will include the main conclusions, lessons learned, and recommendations of the report.
How to apply
Bids must include:
- A technical note consisting of:
- An explanatory note on understanding the terms of reference;
- A presentation of the proposed methodological approach;
- An indicative timetable for carrying out the consultation activities
- A presentation of the composition of the evaluation team (profiles, distribution of roles and responsibilities), if the proposal involves the involvement of several experts
- The CV(s) of the expert(s) proposed to carry out the evaluation, highlighting similar experience
- A financial offer including the total amount proposed for the evaluation and the payment terms.
Submission of bids
Bids must be submitted before January 26, 2026. Respondents to the call for tenders must submit an application file including a technical offer and a financial offer.
The application file must be submitted electronically as a single file with the subject line “AO external evaluation project BLOOM” to the following addresses: karine.ouave@empow-her.com and mathilde.careau@empow-her.com
Bid evaluation procedures
Empow’Her will select the offer that presents the best value for money, using a weighting between the technical quality and the price of the offers.