ASSESSMENT OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND GENDER PARITY AMONG RURAL HOUSEHOLDS IN PROSELL COMMUNITIES At Oxfam

CONSULTANCY SERVICE FOR ASSESSMENT OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND GENDER PARITY AMONG RURAL HOUSEHOLDS IN PROSELL COMMUNITIES OF TARABA STATE, NORTHERN NIGERIA.

ABOUT OXFAM AND ITS WORK IN NIGERIA

Oxfam is a worldwide development organization that mobilizes the power of people against poverty. In Nigeria, we work to influence policy change in favour of the poor and most vulnerable, promoting food security and supporting small-scale farmers to improve the livelihoods of men and women in rural areas. We focus on meeting vulnerable people’s needs, saving lives, sustaining increased incomes for the poorest, and transforming attitudes about women’s roles and rights.

We increase active citizenship, and the accountability and transparency of the public and private sector; and central to our work is the belief that power relations need to change to enable poor people to demand and claim their rights. Our core values are equality, empowerment, solidarity, inclusiveness, accountability, and courage; with the pillars of our national work being accountable governance, gender justice, and just economies.

Introduction

Oxfam, in partnership with Development Exchange Centre (DEC), is implementing a 54-month project funded by the European Union and Taraba State of northern Nigeria. The Project is titled “European Union Support to Food Security and Resilience in Taraba State (PROSELL)”. The project intends to empower women and youths by enhancing their abilities for transformative leadership, accessing required services, producing optimally, and earn more income from economic activities. It is being implemented in 80 rural communities across six (6) Local Government Areas of Taraba State. The Local Government Areas of implementation are; Ardo-Kola, Donga, Kurmi, Takum, Wukari and Zing.

In the past three years, PROSELL has supported the resilience strengthening of a targeted 40,000 farming households in their agricultural productivity, rural financial inclusion, market access, and job creation along with crops, fish, and livestock value chains. Interventions are being delivered to enhance the adaptive capacities of small-scale farmers to climate change and promote cooperation and mutual benefits for farmers, livestock owners, and all value chain actors in the targeted six (6) Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Taraba State. As a development project, interventions have been targeted at addressing the root causes of inequalities (gender, income, social, etc) and systemic inefficiencies in economic empowerment among others.

The following are the specific objectives and intended outcomes of the project:

  1. To increase the income of small-scale farmers by enhancing their agricultural productivity, market access, and job creation along with crop, fish, and livestock value chains.
  2. To enhance adaptive capacities and resilience of small-scale farming households to climate change.
  3. To promote cooperation and mutual benefits of farmers, livestock owners, and all value chain actors.

Rationale

Globally, there has always been a call for the implementation of inclusive intervention programmes that can address the root causes of gender and social inequalities among vulnerable groups. Oxfam holds a belief that in order to end poverty, issues of inequalities (gender & social) especially among women and girls must be challenged in a purposeful and systemic manner. Despite growing efforts at addressing this agelong developmental challenge, several individuals, groups, people, communities, and geographies are still facing the damaging effects of unequal access to productive assets, life opportunities, income, social services, and leadership opportunities. Several barriers to gender justice have been identified which include peoples’ negative social and cultural norms, religious beliefs, nature of political systems, and largely the prevailing patriarchal nature of human societies which confers undue dominant privilege on the male gender, at the expense of the female gender which had put women at the subordinate position.

Recent developments are further widening gender gaps and the hope to achieve just and inclusive economies may be dimmed by several factors mentioned above. Climate change realities and their impacts have aggravated the gloomy outlook with unfavoured disaggregated impacts on women and girls in rural communities especially. COVID-19, in its unimaginable ravage, completely destabilised the equilibrium being pursued and imposed a heavier care burden on women and girls which may take another century to undo. Also of note is the rural-urban disaggregation of impacts on women empowerment and access to opportunities with those in rural locations across Nigeria being far worse off than their counterparts in the urban areas.

In May 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) published its 2019 Report of the National Living Standard Survey (NLSS) with damning realities. In the report, while the national poverty headcount rate stood at 40.1%, it was 52.1% for rural areas and 18% for urban locations indicating rural-urban disparity. Nigeria has a population of about 206 million people out of which 49.33% are females[1], and about 50% of the population lives in rural areas[2]. In the same report, the poverty headcount rate by educational level and sex of household head showed that 32.74% of women in rural locations of Nigeria have primary education compared to 50.33% of men in the same locations. Existing data on income-generating activity by sex of household heads showed that 39.02% of women in rural areas have their income from agriculture while 63.2% of men are making income from only agricultural enterprises, thus, showing inequality in income from the same source. Equally, 33.79% of women have diversified income sources compared to 53.25% of men in rural locations across Nigeria. However, the picture painted by the NLSS Report of the NBS confirmed the disparity experienced by women in accessing finance, agricultural inputs, healthcare services, and leadership opportunities among others.

The PROSELL Project was designed and implemented to challenge gender injustice against women in terms of participation, access, and empowerment. The project has a target for 60% women and youth participation and empowerment across all its intervention areas. At the end of its third year of implementation, the project had supported close to 40,000 households represented by 52.4% of women across 80 rural communities in 6 LGAs of Taraba State. These women (and men) were organized, trained, and targeted for relevant interventions through their Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs). The VSL approach provided ease of access to communities to be organised, and influenced to pursue strategic change goals that are considered appropriate to strengthening the resilience of rural people. The project has been able to create social and economic spaces for women in rural areas to thrive through several empowerment activities. The activities include training on income-generating activities(IGAs) and improved agricultural practices, access to credit and social insurance through their VSLAs, acquisition of productive and household assets, and community leadership among others.

Purpose and Scope of Assignment

This assessment will help in documenting relevant outcome level indicators of PROSELL as part of the midterm evaluation of the project. Specifically, the scope of this assessment will be on the empowerment, economic, and group management outcomes. These three types of outcomes will further be considered in the following manner:

Performances of the above indicators are within the project’s monitoring and result measurement frameworks and this external and independent assessment will further help to establish their statuses.

The purpose of this consultancy is to acquire the services of a seasoned professional (individual or firm) towards establishing the relevance of PROSELL’s intervention components in empowering rural women and promoting gender parity. The following objectives are of interest:

  1. Analyse the outcomes of PROSELL’s interventions on the Women Empowerment Agency and Gender Parity in Taraba State.
  2. Determine the inhibiting and enabling predictors of women’s economic empowerment and gender parity in Taraba State.
  3. Assess the level of social and behavioural changes that have taken place at households and community levels in relation to women empowerment and gender parity;
  4. Determine key social and behavioural changes that have taken place across rural communities where the project is being implemented; and
  5. Obtain recommendations in all areas identified above, founded on evidence, for future program designs and knowledge management.

This research will support Oxfam’s, and partners’, efforts at providing evidence that gender inequality issues, relevant to the objectives of the project, are being adequately addressed with verifiable improvements. The study will be focusing on the degree to which women have been empowered in their households and communities and the degree of inequalities between women and men (who are married or in some other form of partnership) using the following sub-indices:

  1. The Five Domains of Empowerment (5DE):
  • Domain I – Decision-making over agricultural production (or related agricultural value chain activity): access to knowledge about production, in-person training and extension services, etc.
  • Domain II – Access to productive resources: ownership, access, and control over lands; community-managed savings groups, inclusive financial products, financial education; social and behaviour change, etc.
  • Domain III – Control over the use of income and expenditure: access to training on entrepreneurship (income-generating activities, financial literacy, etc), smallholder sourcing scheme, secured deposit mechanisms, employment opportunities for women, social and behaviour change in the household and community levels, control over income, etc.
  • Domain IV – Group participation and leadership: participation in groups, leadership in groups, literacy and numeracy training, political education and participation, etc.
  • Domain IV – Time allocation: time and labour savings technologies, unpaid household care works, gender-disaggregated time poverty, and men’s support to their spouses at the household levels, etc.
  1. Gender Parity Index (GPI): this refers to women’s empowerment relative to men within the same household by comparing their 5DE profiles.

Audience and Use of Findings

Findings of this assessment will be used for quality improvement, evidence-based programming, and advocacy targeted at government, community leaders, traditional institutions, community-based organisations (CBOs), development agencies, and donor communities. These findings will also contribute to existing knowledge on women’s economic empowerment, gender justice, and inclusive development. They will constitute a strong framework for widespread advocacy works for the promotion of gender equality towards addressing major developmental challenges.

The outcome of this assessment will help Oxfam and its partners to enrich their influencing works in making agriculture/agribusiness attractive for women, opening up social and economic spaces for them to thrive, and promoting positive social and behavioral changes appropriate to deepen women’s economic empowerment. It will also embolden us in facts-based arguments to convince stakeholders of the need for developing gender-transformative approaches in agricultural value chains and non-agricultural livelihoods.

Suggested Methodologies

Individuals or firms engaged in this assignment will propose their own methodologies detailing the types of tools of data collection that they would use for the assignment. The methodology should include primary and secondary data collection tools for both quantitative and qualitative data to be collected.

An appropriate sampling of project participants (consistent with an optimal power of study) will be expected to be carried out to produce a statistically significant sample size to be engaged using a structured questionnaire, key informant interviews (KII), and focus group discussions (FGD. Individuals or firms that will undertake this consultancy will need to demonstrate and apply the adequate level of knowledge and experience in a combination of some of the following approaches:

  • Gendered Enterprise and Markets (GEMS) Approach.
  • Women Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI).
  • Women’s Collective Action.
  • Social Norms Analysis.

Digital data collection tools will be used as much as possible while appropriate data analytical procedures and software will be expected to be used for data analysis.

Timeline

This assessment will commence in the first week of July 2022 and will be expected to be completed by first week of August, 2022. A formal review of the final report with the Consultants will be organized by Oxfam’s Gender Coordinator.

Deliverables

The following deliverables are expected from the Consultant:

  • Inception report.
  • First draft of the assessment report.
  • Detailed reports for each of the activities outlined in the scope of work. Reports are expected to be structured as follows: Executive Summary, Introduction, Objectives, Methodology, Outcomes/Findings, Recommendations, Challenges, Follow-Up actions, and Conclusion.
  • Register of all KII respondents interviewed and representatives of FGD participants.
  • PowerPoint presentation with visuals/infographics, summarizing key findings of the assessment including, methodologies, findings and recommendations.
  • A minimum of 3 case studies/human stories with good visuals that highlights the key objectives above. This should clearly demonstrate how Oxfam’s intervention has contributed to these transformational changes and the impact it is having on the individual, household and community levels (if applicable). Please refer to Oxfam case study template for guidance.
  • Report validation meeting.
  • Photo album of field works and key moments captured during field activities.
  • All the data collected during the course of the consultancy.

Qualification and Experience of Consultant

  • An advanced degree in Development Studies, Sociology/Rural Sociology, Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Sustainable and Inclusive Development, or other related fields.
  • Cognate and requisite experience in gender justice programming approaches such as RCA, GALS, GEMS, WEAI, etc.
  • Demonstrated capacity in integrating gender equity and diversity concerns in programming, advocacy, monitoring, and evaluation.
  • Extensive experience in livelihood programmes and projects, preferably in northern Nigeria.
  • Significant experience working with the Federal, State, and Local Government Areas in Nigeria including in conflict areas.
  • Sound knowledge of rural enterprise, rural financing, women’s economic empowerment, family farming, agricultural markets, and agricultural private sector actors.
  • Sound knowledge of policy issues related to social protection, disaster risk reduction, inclusive markets, and climate change.
  • Excellent 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 the 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.

How to apply

Application

Interested and qualified consultants/firms are expected to submit their expression of interest (technical and financial proposal) to NGA.Bid@oxfam.org by 26th June 2022 at 5 pm.

The proposed methodology should demonstrate:

  • Clear understanding of the Terms of Reference.
  • CV(s) of consultant(s) (including the company profile in the case of firms) who will undertake the study, including full name, physical addresses, telephone number(s).
  • References of two or three 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.

Management Team

This work will be managed by a team composed of the National Gender Coordinator, Program Head of Quality and Compliance, PROSELL Project Manager, PROSELL Gender Officers and relevant PROSELL Staff of DEC in Taraba State.

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