Deadline: 29-Sep-20
The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) has announced a call for proposals for the Impact Assessment of Tejaswini Rural Employment Programme in Madhya Pradesh.
Tejaswini Rural Employment Program (TREP) is being implemented by the Mahila Vitta Vikas Nigam (MVVN), Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Madhya Pradesh in 6 districts- 3 southern tribal districts (Balaghat, Mandla, and Dindori) and 3 northern districts of the Bundelkhand region (Chhatarpur, Panna, and Tikamgarh).
The overall goal of the TREP in Madhya Pradesh was to enable disadvantaged women to avail of choices, spaces, and opportunities in the economic, social, and political spheres for their improved well-being.
This was to be achieved by:
- creating strong and sustainable Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and SHG apex organizations;
- providing access to microfinance services;
- promoting new and improved livelihood opportunities; and
- creating access to functional literacy and labor-saving infrastructure, and strengthening participation in local governance.
- In addition, the program aimed to support government policies that empower women and develop the capacity of the MVVN, to improve the livelihoods of poor women.
Objectives and Purpose
The main purpose of the IA is to provide a well-researched and documented overview of the impact of TREP, since the establishment by the Government in 2018. This would include, inter alia, the design and implementation of TREP, and whether the overall goal of the program that is to enable poor women to avail of choices, spaces, and opportunities in the economic, social, and political spheres for their improved well-being is being achieved or not. This assessment is expected to:
- Identify, analyze, and document changes that have occurred in the lives of the women in the particular districts in response to the TREP initiatives to address/ inform/ influence poverty alleviation, socio-economic development, political participation, violence, power relations, equity, cultural change, etc.
- Assess the deployed strategies, identify best practices to be scaled, and gaps that need to be bridged along with a recommendation.
- Study the role of the State Government in strengthening service delivery and improving incomes of the SHGS/ Federations covered under TREP. Also, identify opportunities to leverage this network for the delivery of key government schemes.
- Generate data and analysis to inform policies, develop new strategies, improve existing interventions, and/or strengthen advocacy initiatives on WEE.
- Capture long terms successes, models, strategies, and tacts to inform nationwide policy advocacy.
The IA is also intended to provide key learnings and suggestions for national programs and actors striving towards Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) in the country through Self Help Groups (SHGs) led initiatives, given the poorest part of the state, and women suffer considerably from the overall burden of household poverty and gender issues.
Main users of the Impact Assessment
The main users of the Impact Assessment will be:
- Department of MP Government: Women & Child, Tribal, Agriculture, Forest, Horticulture, Rural Development, State Rural Livelihood Mission (SRLM).
- Government, Civil Society, Financial Institutions, Development Organisations, and Academic stakeholders working on the issue of socio-economic and political empowerment of women in India and elsewhere.
- UN Women and other international development agencies.
Geographical Coverage
- The IA will cover the TREP across six districts in Madhya Pradesh: Balaghat, Mandla, and Dindori Chhatarpur, Panna, and Tikamgarh.
Selection Criteria
Organizations registered in India as for-profit private, public, or govt-owned enterprises are eligible to apply for this assignment and will be assessed for selection based on the following criteria:
- Qualifications of the Organisation:
- Minimum of five years of experience in areas of consulting, impact assessment, research
- Should have handled relevant projects in research on similar assignments specifically related to gender research
- A professionally competent team of experts to support this assignment
- Experience on similar projects of UN Women or with any other UN Agency is preferred
- Women-owned/ led Companies and/or Women Empowerment Principal signatories will be given preference.
- Qualifications of the Team Leader:
- The Team leader must have demonstrated capacity in research, especially on gender equality, gender mainstreaming, and WEE. The team leader should have:
- Post-graduate degree in social sciences or international development or related fields with a minimum of fifteen years of working experience in international development, gender equality, and women empowered.
- Experience in leading research programs and analytical reviews, conducting and leading corporate/organizational studies, and assessing institutional capacities on gender
- Experience in projects related to mainstreaming gender equality to policies/programming/development
- Experience in similar assignments in producing reports (preferably research and policy linked) to a publishable quality
- Knowledgeable about human rights-based approaches to programming on WEE issues, and skilled in working with a wide range of contexts.
- Excellent analytical skills and communication skill in Hindi & English;
- The Team leader must have demonstrated capacity in research, especially on gender equality, gender mainstreaming, and WEE. The team leader should have:
- Qualifications of Team Member:
- Post-graduate degree in social sciences, international development or related field.
- Experience ten years for mid-level team members and five years for junior team members, in development, with specialization in gender, social development, and women’s rights.
- Significant knowledge and experience of study concepts and human-right based approaches on WEE;
- Recent experience with gender equality issues and knowledge of mainstreaming gender Recent experience with gender equality issues and knowledge of mainstreaming gender equality into policies/ programming/ development;
- Sound understanding of human rights-based approaches;
- Experience of similar projects in India especially Madhya Pradesh;
- Facilitation skills, particularly the design of qualitative and stakeholder consultations;
- Strong quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis skills;
- Excellent analytical skills and communication skills;
- Demonstrated writing skills in English with strong Hindi proficiency.
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