CONSULTANTS TO CONDUCT BASELINE SURVEY

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is a global humanitarian organization with a mission to work with people in poverty and distress to create just and positive changes. ADRA Somalia belongs to the worldwide network, comprised of more than 130 supporting and implementing country offices. ADRA Somalia is seeking to recruit a consultant to conduct baseline survey for empowering women through investment and inclusion networks in Somalia.

1. Background
The 2030 Agenda envisages a world “of universal respect for human rights and human dignity” in which “every woman and girl enjoys full gender equality and all legal, social and economic barriers to their empowerment have been removed.” Gender equality is an essential aspect of ‘leave no one behind’ (LNOB), one of the guiding principles of the 2030 Agenda, as women and girls and minorities are overrepresented among those furthest behind. Gender equality or the lack of it has a direct impact on businesses’ commercial and social performance. Studies have shown that gender inequality is prevalent in the forms of unequal pay, fewer women in leadership positions, fewer opportunities for growth for women and lack of women’s safety in workplaces impact growth of businesses and the economy. In its broadest sense, empowerment is seen as the expansion of freedom of choice and action. The adoption of the empowerment of women as a development goal is based both on considerations having to do with gender equity as an important aspect of social justice and human welfare, and on economic rationality, more gender-equitable rights, access to resources, and participation in favour of productivity and economic growth, poverty reduction, and better governance. This goal tends to encounter a considerable degree of resistance, due to men’s perception that women’s gain may be their loss, and to the fact that initiatives to promote women’s empowerment frequently have to be channeled via decision-making structures dominated by men. Gender inequality tends to slow economic growth and hinder poverty alleviation. Tapping the capabilities and addressing the needs of both women and men promotes equity and enhances the efficacy, efficiency and sustainability of development initiatives.

Access to human and productive resources such as education and occupational training, job opportunities in the formal sector, access to credit and land, also tends to reflect gender disparities that limit women’s capacity to contribute to and benefit from development initiatives and to contribute to higher living standards for their families. Issues of access have gained increasing importance in the light of the world-wide increase in the proportion of women-headed households, in which women may bear the major or total responsibility for the financial support of the households. Gender equality is a fundamental human right and a vital foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. Gender equality is central to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which envisages a world “of universal respect for human rights and human dignity” in which “every woman and girl enjoys full gender equality and all legal, social and economic barriers to their empowerment have been removed.” Gender equality is an essential aspect of ‘leave no one behind’ (LNOB), one of the guiding principles of the 2030 Agenda, as women and girls and minorities are overrepresented among those furthest behind. Gender equality or the lack of it has a direct impact on businesses’ commercial and social performance. The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 is dedicated solely to commitment to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment while underscoring that gender equality is a precondition to lasting peace, security and development.

The Somalia National Transformation Plan (NTP-I 2025-2029) of the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS), recognizes “Mainstreaming gender equity, human rights, and inclusivity in all development policies and programs by empowering women, youth and People with Disability as drivers of growth and nation-building” to consolidate peace and create sustainable economic growth and improved social well-being for the Somali people. This places high emphasis on the advancement of women and girls, their participation, voice and empowerment in line with the principle of “Leave No One Behind”. The strategy is to focus on gender equality of women and girls in all their diversity, irrespective of their status and background. The Gender Inequality Index for Somalia is 0.776, placing Somalia at the fourth highest position globally . The government aims to address this by promoting equal rights and opportunities for women in education, health, governance, and economic empowerment.

2. e-WINS Project
The e-WINS Project is funded by the European Union (EU) to contribute to economic empowerment of women and girls in Somalia through gender inclusive and transformative approaches and actions. The project targets 10,000 women to benefit from enhanced participation in productive economic activities and decision-making processes. Through tailored capacity building initiatives, negotiation skills, inclusivity, entrepreneurship and business management, alongside the establishment of knowledge-sharing platforms among women-led organizations, the action seeks to strengthen the social capital of women in leadership, socio-cultural and economic spheres of life. Furthermore, by implementing digital platforms and strengthening women’s engagement in formal business associations, the action directly contributes to improving access to financial services for women entrepreneurs. The action will conduct research to identify gaps in the regulatory framework and organize policy dialogues to advocate for gender-inclusive policies supporting women entrepreneurship and access to finance. The action’s commitment to leaving-no-one-behind, especially groups in vulnerable situations such as women, minorities, and those with disabilities, resonates with the emphasis on ensuring inclusivity in development initiatives. The e-WINS action seeks to directly address challenges faced by traditional agriculture, livestock and fisheries sectors, aligning with the focus of revitalizing key economic sectors. This is to be achieved through tailored interventions to local needs and ensure a contextually relevant approach that promotes local ownership and sustainability.

3. Rationale
The central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its SDGs represents the unequivocal commitment of all UN Member States to eradicate poverty in all its forms, end discrimination and exclusion, and reduce the inequalities and vulnerabilities that leave people behind and undermine the potential of individuals and of humanity as a whole. A major section of poor and marginalized Somali population is constituted of women and girls. Strengthening the awareness and capacity of duty-bearers to promote gender-response and inclusive policies and programmes is vital for the promotion and protection of rights and empowerment of Somali women and girls. There is therefore need for deliberate commitment to confront structural barriers to women and girls’ empowerment and advancement of gender equality; particularly ensuring availability of sufficient resources and capacities to ensure integration of gender in policy making and peace and political processes, in the security and justice sector institutions, strengthening legislations and legal provisions and making services available and affordable to women and girls.

Gender analyses are fundamental for facilitating mainstreaming of gender equality in policies, plans, programmes, and projects. These can follow an approach that takes the needs of women and girls into account variably, starting from a more negative or neutral approach, through to those deemed to be more positive (a “sensitive” or “reactive” approach), and on to what is termed a “transformative” approach, representing gender equality on a virtual line of continuity. A gender approach is transformative when it aims to modify gender power relations, with the aim of influencing a positive change to social and cultural paradigms that give rise to discrimination and inequality in a given context. To be transformative, the approach must provide for: (i) processing gender analysis to identify and include the norms and power imbalances that disadvantage women and girls in a society, giving rise to discriminations, starting from infancy; (ii) active collaboration with men and boys, especially focusing on the youth as drivers of change; (iii) creation of partnerships with players and local communities, civil society, and women’s associations. Gender relations are affected by the wider historical, socio-economic, cultural, religious and political climate of a particular society, and to address gender issues effectively, a comprehensive social analysis provides a larger enabling environment to undertake the process. It is against this background that ADRA as the lead partner in the e-WINS Project desires to commission consultancy to conduct Gender Analysis and Stakeholder Mapping for Women Empowerment in Somalia. This will seek to identify the different needs, abilities, interests, barriers and risks faced by girls, boys, women and men and coping mechanisms and build understanding of how the project can support them to champion gender equality.

4. Objectives
The main objective of the baseline study is to establish the starting point of the various indicators and facilitate the comparison between pre- and post-intervention of the Project. This will help to qualitatively assess the contribution of the project to the achievement of the set objectives as well as the key indicators of the intervention. Baseline values will be the basis upon which the intervention outcomes will be benchmarked in relation to the Log-frame. The baseline information will present the different needs, abilities, interests, barriers, and risks faced by girls, boys, women, and men which is important to help build understanding of how the Project can support women and communities to champion economic women empowerment through gender transformative lenses in the project intervention components.

The specific objectives of the baseline study are:
i. To state the current situation and establish the baseline values (benchmarks) related to all outcome level indicators and some key output indicators.
ii. To articulate the appropriateness of the project indicators and targets, including defining/unpacking/ review the project outcome and output indicators and providing specific and achievable recommendations on the indicators.
iii. To provide a general top-line understanding of the existing and potential livelihood and income opportunities available and/or utilized by the different population groups (i.e. male, female or poor, middle, and better-off) or any other group/s that may exist and relevant for disaggregation.

5. Scope of the Assignment
The study will be conducted in Juba River Corridor (Jubaland State), the Shabelle River Corridor (Southwest State and Banadir Regional Administration) and the Somaliland Corridor.
The study should establish a comprehensive understanding of the current situation in areas targeted for interventions by assessing local governance, community participation, gender dynamics, youth engagement, civic space, service delivery, and the experiences of marginalized groups. The specific components of interest include but are not limited to:
– Legal and Regulatory barriers: laws and regulations that restrict women’s mobility, business activity and freedoms.
– Financial barriers: barriers that prevent easy access to the financial acumen and capital that women entrepreneurs need to grow their business.
– Cultural and Social barriers: cultural norms, biases and structural inequalities that make it more difficult for women to pursue and succeed in entrepreneurship
– Individual barriers: internal or personal barriers (often caused by gender norms and stereotypes) which limit women’s confidence and ability to pursue and succeed in entrepreneurship.
– Intersectionality: gender is just one factor that may influence how an entrepreneur experiences and benefits from the Project. Race, culture, religion, background, age, ability, and other factors can also impact their experience and combine to magnify any areas of advantage or disadvantage.

The consultant is expected to explore the participatory transformation of relations and analyze development at four levels of society (women, men, household, community), and explore social advocates as potential partners in the Project to challenge harmful norms as well as shift retrogressive cultural perceptions.

6. Methodology
The survey will be carried out through exploratory research design, applying the mixed method approach and techniques. The project logical framework will be the basis for the baseline survey. The study findings and recommendations should be supported by qualitative and quantitative primary data and information. The consultant or firm should collect data and information, not limited to the following processes:
– Documents review, (Project documents, Strategic Plan for MFHRD and Federal Government plans focusing on SMEs).
– Consultation with enterprise development section of local government, cottage and small industries, business associations, cooperatives and Chamber of Commerce and industry
– Conduct Focused Group Discussion (FGD) with stakeholders, KII with key government officials and selected entrepreneurs.
– Conduct onsite meetings with the representatives of communities at project implementation areas of the various target locations.
– Consultation meetings with the relevant government officials (Federal and Federal Member States), peer agencies, private sector actors, market stakeholders and financial institutions.
– Consultation with entrepreneurs (successful and failure) and receive the input for further improvements,
– Consultation with financial institutions and market actors (cooperative, MFI and banks), wholesalers, importers, exporter and bigger level private sector actors etc.
– Conduct interviews with key stakeholders, including local employers, value chain actors, community leaders, and representatives of other livelihood programs.
– Identify potential sectors and skill sets aligned with local market demand (both agricultural and non-agricultural) that offer self-employment or business enterprise opportunities within the local context, considering geographic, economic, and social factors.
– Conduct a gender analysis to understand the barriers faced by marginalized women in accessing self-employment and enterprise opportunities.

The baseline survey should adopt a collaborative approach to engage project staff, partners, other key stakeholders and government as appropriate. A participatory approach with emphasis on capturing a cross-section of views of the target groups and multi-stakeholder quantitative (household surveys) and qualitative assessment techniques (including key informant interviews, focus group discussions, observations, and others as appropriate).

7. Expected Deliverables
The Consultant will be expected to deliver the following outputs:
a) An inception report detailing the approach and methodology to be used and sample size calculations; a detailed work plan and data-collection tools for the study.
b) A draft study report (soft-copy) with a summary of findings submitted to ADRA within an agreed timeline; this will also be presented to the Project team for feedback and validation.
c) A Final Report submitted to ADRA.

8. Roles and Responsibilities
During data collection and analysis, the primary roles of ADRA and implementing partners with direct stake in the project shall be informants and reviewers. They may review and provide comments on data collection instruments, and all other deliverables before they are finalized. The following delineates the key roles and responsibilities of ADRA Staff and the consultant during the process:

ADRA will be responsible for the following:
a) Provide technical oversight into the execution of the assignment to ensure quality of products including approvals of the deliverables.
b) Share all necessary documents (including project document, logframe, MEAL plan) to the Consultant to finalize the methodology and data collection tools.
c) Provide input for study methodology, data collection instruments and report.
d) Provide technical oversight into the execution of the assignment to ensure quality of products including approvals of the deliverables.
e) Guidance and coordination throughout all the phases of the study, keeping communication with the Consultant throughout all phases.
f) Provide support to the Consultant for the field visit processes such as orientation and training of enumerators, FGDs and KIIs.
g) Closely follow up the data collection process, ensuring quality control, daily debriefing, meeting the timelines set.
h) Payment of the identified enumerators.

The Consultant will be responsible for the following:
a) Review all relevant documents for the study.
b) Develop study protocols which include survey methodology, and the data collection tools (questionnaires; focus group guides, interview protocol, data entry templates, etc.), as appropriate, including a field manual for training, and has to be approved by ADRA.
c) Design the data collection forms, data entry template, procedures and systems, and training of data collector/enumerators in the use of the template.
d) Develop the field work schedule in consultation with MEAL team.
e) Supervise the data collection process, give advice and ensure the quality of the data.
f) Data analysis and report writing. Draft the first report for ADRA’s feedback before the Final report.
g) Recruit competent enumerators for the quantitative survey and field facilitators/note takers for the qualitative study (FGDs and KIIs).

9. Qualifications of the Consultant
– Postgraduate university degree in Social Sciences or other relevant disciplines, preferably with a specialization in gender and project cycle management.
– Minimum of seven (7) years of relevant professional work experience in gender analysis, mainstreaming capacity need assessment, training and mentorship.
– Demonstrable gender analysis and gender planning and expertise in mainstreaming gender in projects and programmes, especially in specific areas of intervention
– Proven knowledge of social, economic, political and legal context including knowledge of gender related policies, and human rights issues as well as livelihood challenges especially for women.
– Proven experience in designing and leading research on gender-related development and interventions
– Thorough understanding of the gender context and experience working with government institutions and international or non-governmental organizations supporting gender and development work in the specific area of intervention
– A good knowledge of gender-related political and socio-economic factors in Somalia
– Familiarity with gender analysis tools (Gender Equality and Social Exclusion (GESI) Design, Monitoring and Evaluation Toolkit) and methodologies in the specific area of intervention
– Extensive experience working on organizational national gender policies in fragile contexts
– Strong communication skills, and ability to liaise with various stakeholders, including government officials.
– Proficiency in English language- spoken and written
– Good understanding of Somalia context and experience working in Somalia.

Application Requirements:
All expressions of interest should include:
– Cover letter
– A profile of the consulting firm/individual (including a sample report)
– Relevant curriculum vitae, maximum three pages.
– Technical Proposal: maximum 5 pages interpreting the understanding of the TOR, detailed methodology of executing the task, and the draft work plan.
– Financial Proposal: provide cost estimates for services rendered including daily consultancy fees but to exclude accommodation and living costs; transport cost; stationery and supplies needed for the assignment as well as costs to be incurred by enumerators.