CONSULTANT – CONDUCT RESEARCH ON WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP IN GARMENT SECTOR

MADE BY WOMEN

Terms of Reference for Contract to Conduct Research on Women’s Leadership in the Garment Sector

Summary

CARE is seeking a consultant(s) to review efforts by CARE and other stakeholders to promote women’s voice, representation and leadership in order to identify new insights, lessons learned and recommendations on programming and policy opportunities, including includes new and/or promising initiatives which have arisen in response to COVID-19.

Background

CARE is a humanitarian non-governmental organization committed to working with poor women, men, boys, girls, communities, and institutions to have a significant impact on the underlying causes of poverty. CARE seeks to contribute to economic and social transformation, unleashing the power of the most vulnerable women and girls.

The Made by Women (MbW) strategy seeks to ensure women in the garment industry have access to decent jobs, are free from violence and harassment and can give voice to their rights at work. Since 2016, Made by Women has been working in 11 countries across Asia and Africa to bring about positive changes in the lives of women garment workers. For more information, please refer to our 2019 Impact Report.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global garment industry is now at a crisis point and its future looks uncertain. COVID-19 has exposed the fragility of the garment industry and the abuse and exploitation of workers that is inherent to its business model. Women make up an estimated 75% of the garment sector workforce and they pay a huge social and economic cost because of the exploitative business model of the global garment industry and bear the greatest risk, resulting in devastating consequences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The reality facing workers includes:

• Continued risk of COVID-19 infection for workers and their families

• Fewer jobs available in the garment industry, likely long-term, due to an expected reduction in the number of brands and suppliers and changes in consumption and buying behaviors.

• Increased job insecurity and precariousness during an uneven economic recovery.

• Lack of respect for rights and entitlements including non-payment of severance pay and other forms of entitlement.

• Low wages and lack of social protection floors – alongside high rents, high indebtedness and low levels of financial inclusion – contribute to persistently low levels of economic resilience.

• Increased risks of gender-based violence and poor access to sexual and reproductive health rights, exacerbated by ongoing economic insecurity and stress for business and households.

• Women will continue to face a disproportionate burden of unpaid care work, which may limit their ability to re-enter and/or progress in the workforce, and also take a toll on their wellbeing.

• Women lack an organized, collective voice to influence the future of the industry, exacerbated by the weakening of trade unions during the crisis and with many worker organizations lacking gender equity

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Against this backdrop, CARE’s focus on strengthening women’s voice, representation and leadership is more vital than ever to ensure we are “building back equal”1. As COVID-19 continues to spread, decision makers must also address the pandemic’s broader repercussions while simultaneously thinking toward the future and what lies beyond COVID-19. We believe dignified work can be achieved when women mobilize collectively for change, are supported by more equitable relationships and behaviors in their homes and communities, and when their voices are heard and listened to by the powerful. One key approach to this work is the development of community-based Empowerment, Knowledge and Transformative Action (EKATA) solidarity groups; a recent Outcome Harvest of this work has found clear evidence of women raising issues in their workplaces and communities to highlight factory non-compliances and to drive improvements. The focus on demand-raising based on rights demonstrates that these outcomes are significant, as workers are typically either unaware of their rights or are unwilling/unable to raise rights-based demands to their employer.

Purpose, Objectives, and Overall Research Questions

MbW now seeks to expand the research base of our work to strengthen CARE’s programming, scale up our work in this sector and influence external stakeholders on effective approaches and actions they can take, and to explore the range of approaches being used to address the inclusion of women’s voice against the backdrop of COVID-19 response and recovery.

The primary objective of this research is to review efforts by CARE and other stakeholders to promote women’s voice, representation and leadership in order to identify new insights, lessons learned and recommendations on programming and policy opportunities; this includes new and/or promising efforts which have arisen due to COVID-19.

The overall research questions (to be refined by the research consultants in consultation with CARE) are:

1. How are women working in the garment industry demonstrating voice and leadership?

2. How are CARE and other stakeholders supporting women’s voice and leadership?

3. What approaches appear promising to strengthen women’s voice and leadership in the sector?

Findings from this research will be shared internally within CARE and externally with donors and as communication materials to evidence effective approaches in this area of work. It will serve as a learning document to help CARE and stakeholders in this sector to better understand the scope of approaches to this work, to support decision-making on which approaches should be invested in / scaled up and those which need to be adjusted in order to be more effective. The research will be conducted remotely in the countries of focus, as both desk research and primary data collection will be necessary. CARE has conducted annual impact evaluations of its Made by Women strategy since 2016, which are more broadly focused but can be referenced for purposes of this evaluation.

Concepts and Scope

This research will utilise the following concept of women’s voice, representation and leadership:

Equal voice and leadership in public life means that all women garment workers have the opportunity and ability to meaningfully participate – directly or indirectly – in the decisions that affect their lives; with a particular, but not exclusive, focus on decisions which affect workplace production, working conditions and worker’s rights. Meaningful participation requires that women

1 See She Told Us So: Filling the Data Gap to Build Back Equal; Global Rapid Gender Analysis For COVID-19; Where are the Women? The conspicuous absence of women in COVID-19 response teams and plans, and why we need them; Transforming Leadership, Challenging Injustice

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working in the garment industry not only have access to or are present within decision-making processes but also are able to actively participate in and have influence over their format and outcomes.

The researcher will be expected to use CARE’s theory of change for women’s voice and leadership and our Gender Equality Framework as guiding conceptual frameworks for the research, and will focus on the following spheres:

• Civil Society: Female workers influencing and shaping their organizations, including informal worker groups and trade unions, and working with other women and allies to influence the process and decisions of public and private power-holders (particularly governments and employers).

• State, govt, and political parties: Female workers influencing decisions about the making and implementation of laws, policy, budgets and services

• Market & Private Sector: Female workers organizing in unions or cooperatives to influence employers and employment or market conditions; having voice and representation through workplace committees and grievance mechanisms.

In order to expand the evidence base related to this stream of work, the research should include engagement with both internal and external actors. Various projects and work underneath the Made by Women strategy have been implemented, some still ongoing, in each of these countries, which should be included in the analysis. The research should therefore focus on examples from both within CARE and from other stakeholders on approaches to strengthen female workers’ voice and leadership within the garment sector. Within CARE’s programming, this will focus on a maximum of four countries of implementation: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and potentially Vietnam.

Projects under the Made by Women strategy are carried out in communities, factories and at national, regional and global policy spaces. It targets female garment workers, but also engages male garment workers, community members, factory management, influential policy decision makers, and others. This research should consider all platforms and participants/target groups in its analysis.

Specific Research Questions

A detailed set of research questions and an outline of the research methodology will be developed by the research consultant at the start of the research process. Research questions may include the following, noting that it is anticipated that the questions will need to be further refined against the evolving country and global context of COVID-190:

1. How are women working in the garment industry demonstrating voice and leadership?

a. In what ways do women working in the garment industry participate in decision-making? How has this changed as a result of COVID-19?

b. Where and in what ways is their participation in decision-making more or less meaningful? What are the key barriers and enablers?

c. Where and in what ways are women working in the garment industry demonstrating transformative leadership and substantive representation? What are the key barriers and enablers?

1. How are CARE and other stakeholders supporting women’s voice and leadership?

a. What approaches are CARE and other stakeholders taking to support equal, meaningful participation of women garment workers in decision making; and transformative leadership and substantive representation?

b. What key lessons have been learned about what does and doesn’t work in promoting women’s voice, representation and leadership from initiatives by CARE, partners and peers?

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1. What programming and approaches appear promising to strengthen women’s voice and leadership in the garment industry?

a. What is the current policy environment and what changes are needed among key partner organisations (worker organizations) and duty-bearers (employers, global brands, governments) to create an enabling environment for women’s leadership?

b. What programming and advocacy approaches should CARE and partner organizations pursue / invest in / scale up order to have the biggest impact on promoting women’s voice, representation and leadership in the garment industry?

c. What new or adapted approaches during the COVID-19 pandemic may point to ways forward in this area during both the short-to-medium term response and the longer-term potential changes to the industry?

Research Ethics

The research methods and approaches should align with CARE’s evaluation principles and standards. The evaluation should always respect the security and dignity of the stakeholders with whom CARE works, incorporating gender and power elements (see CARE’s gender analysis framework) during the evaluation. To gain a better understanding of potential differences in gender and power elements, evidence should be able to be disaggregated by sex, age and other relevant diversity factors.

Approach and Methodology

Methodologies used for this research should be participatory and inclusive. Both quantitative and qualitative data should be collected, with an emphasis on the latter; this will include case studies of interventions used by CARE and other organizations.

The consultant(s) will be responsible for defining and carrying out the overall research approach, which will include specification of the techniques for data collection and analysis, and interactions with beneficiaries and the evaluation team. Workplans, evaluation tools, methodology and findings should be reviewed and validated with various stakeholders and approved by relevant staff at CARE prior to implementation. Approaches and research materials will need to be tailored to the different country projects, as each has its own unique context.

Applicants should also demonstrate how this research will be carried out against travel and other constraints due to COVID-19, including considerations of data collection technology; approaches to phone interviews; oversight of data quality; access of populations to mobile phones; etc. Note that different approaches will be considered, ranging from entirely remote data collection to a mix of in-person and remote data collection if the applicant has on-the-ground research capacity in the countries of interest. CARE will provide a set of resources to support data collection, based on our experience to date with research during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Primary Data

The collection of primary data will be a mixed methods evaluation, with equal importance on both quantitative and qualitative data. Some of the key stakeholders that must be targeted through the primary data collection include:

• Key CARE staff, responsible for implementing the Made by Women strategy

• Women garment workers and their representatives in each of the above identified countries

• Key women’s leaders from both CARE projects and external projects and organizations

• Key staff at partner and peer organizations, including worker organizations

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• Where possible, key duty-bearer representatives – including brands, manufacturers and government departments.

The data collection process can include:

• Paper questionnaires (or mobile data questionnaires if applicable)

• Focus Group Discussions

• Individual Interviews

Data collection tools should be validated in each country context to ensure appropriate translation and understanding of questions. Translation will need to be arranged by the Evaluator in each location to ensure all beneficiaries, including those that speak only a local dialect, are engaged in the process.

Secondary Data

The process, retrieving existing documents and data, will include:

• a desk review of CARE’s existing literature including learning briefs, evaluations, impact reports, and formal policy documents

• other relevant quantitative and qualitative secondary data (to be provided by CARE and identified by the research consultant).

• a desk review of existing academic and grey literature from external organizations which are doing similar work

Expectations

CARE expects the consultant to deliver the following outputs:

1. Research framework, plan and tools – developed and agreed with CARE before primary and secondary research begins.

2. Final report of no more than 40 pages, written in plain English which is understandable for non-native speakers. While the report format will be finalized during the project implementation, the final report would be expected to include the following sections, with examples from both before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as an analysis of the impact of the pandemic integrated throughout all sections as relevant:

a. Mapping of context-specific examples of meaningful decision making, transformative leadership and substantive representation in the garment industry against CARE’s theory of change for women’s voice and leadership

b. Analysis of key barriers and enablers to women’s voice and leadership, focused on promoting meaningful participation in decision making, transformative leadership and substantive representation

c. Detailed case studies / stories of women’s voice and leadership from workplaces, informal worker groups and trade unions in each country of focus (covering both CARE and external organizations, success stories and challenges)

d. Mapping and comparison of a small number of existing projects/initiatives by CARE, partners and allies using the 4 approaches from CARE’s theory of action as a guide

e. Synthesis of key evidence and lessons learned on what does and doesn’t work in promoting women’s voice and leadership

f. Key recommendations for duty-bearers, implementing organizations and worker organizations for promoting voice and leadership

1. Summary report – no more than 5 pages, summarizing key findings and recommendations.

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1. Raw data – including secondary data and sources consulted in desk review, and all primary data collected including interview notes and results of quantitative exercises.

Data Disclosure

The external evaluator should deliver, at minimum, all files including: quantitative data sets (raw and refined products), transcripts of qualitative data and others in an easy to read format and maintain naming conventions and labelling for the use of the project/program/initiative and key stakeholders. The Research Manager will provide specific requirements on data expectations, but at a minimum the researcher should:

• Submit all datasets and tools with the final report

• Disaggregate data by gender and should be anonymized

• All necessary permissions, approvals, etc. that are required prior to data collection

Schedule and Dates

The consultancy is for a maximum period of 60 days, with all work completed by 15 June 2021 at the latest.

Date

Key Activities

Location

January

Briefing and development of consultancy plan

Remote

Feb-April

Data collection and analysis

To be determined

May

Draft reports

Remote

May/June

Final reports

Remote

Arrangements and Resources

The Consultant is required to:

• Obtain approval from the Consultant’s principal CARE contact for any field visits related to this work in line with CARE’s policies on travel duding COVID-19. Any travel costs and arrangements outside of the Consultant’s base will be in accordance with CARE’s travel policies, practices, and per diem rates.

• Provide their own computer

Required External Response to Terms of Reference

A technical and cost proposal based on this Terms of Reference (ToR) is requested from the consultant or consulting firm. The proposal should contain:

1. Detailed plan of action indicating staff-days required and how the team will approach data collection given constraints from COVID-19

2. Schedule of key activities preferably in a format such as a Gantt chart.

3. Detailed budget with justification. The external evaluation proposal should include a reasonable detailed budget to cover all costs associated with the research. This should be submitted by major activities and line items for CARE’s review and decision. This includes a break-down of the cost to contract research team members, any local travel, and in-country lodging and per diem. Other related costs that might be in the budget include expenditures for hiring local personnel (drivers, translators, enumerators and other local technical experts), translating reports, and renting meeting rooms for presentations/workshops.

4. Updated CV of Team Leader and other core members of the Evaluation Team

5. A profile of the consulting firm, if any (including a sample report if possible)

Proposals should be submitted by email to [email protected] by 5pm (Bangkok time) on 6 January 2021 with “MbW Women’s Leadership Research” as the subject line.