Baseline Assessment Consultancy

Terms of Reference

Empowering Voices and Economic Participation of Refugee and Host Community Women in Jordan

1. Background:

CARE is one of the world’s leading and largest humanitarian organizations, working in 94 countries around the world, implementing 962 poverty-fighting development and humanitarian aid projects to reach more than 80 million people directly and 256 million people indirectly. CARE’s vision is of a world of hope, tolerance and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and all people live in dignity and security. Based on the belief that poverty is the result of social positions, human conditions and the enabling environment, CARE seeks to analyze and address the underlying causes from both needs and rights-based perspectives.

CARE International established a presence in Jordan in 1948, created in the wake of the Palestinian refu­gee crisis. Over 72 years later, CARE has served the needs of the Palestinian, Iraqi, Somali, Sudanese, and now Syrian refugee communities. Jordan’s central position and relative political stability have contributed to its role as a safe haven for refu­gees.

Gender is at the center of CARE Interna­tional’s programming, and it is increas­ingly clear that gender barriers are be­hind a whole host of economic and social problems that plague Jordan and other Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, increasingly overall vulnera­bility. As such, CARE Jordan’s Sustain­able Development Program goal is to enhance empowerment programming for Jordan’s most vulnerable groups; wom­en and youth, with targeted interven­tions for Jordanian and refugee women and girls, and male and female youth. CARE Jordan works with civil society and governmental representatives to engage women and youth in economic empow­erment initiatives, while additionally scaling up programming tackling gen­der-based violence, and amplifying women’s voices in decision-making and public spheres.

The goals of sustainable development program are:

1. Promote economic empowerment along with government and pri­vate sector partners through micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in innova­tive sectors, vocational training, sustainable livelihoods programs, access to finance and loans, in­ternships for employment, entre­preneurship training, resilience markets and other programs that increase agency.

2. Enable women’s voices in the public and private sphere by strengthening the capacity of women’s organizations and net­works and their opportunities for taking part in decision-making processes at all levels, advocate with men and power-holders to open space for women’s par­ticipation, and build from and document its work using Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) as a platform for women’s participation.

3. Equalize power relations by ad­dressing GBV, with a special focus on early/child marriage, through legislation and services, while performing data collection and advocacy.

The goal of ‘Empowering Voices and Economic Participation of Refugee and Host Community Women in Jordan’ project which funded by Telethon is that women from refugee and vulnerable households in Jordan are economically, socially and civically empowered through increased access to employment, promotion of protective legal frameworks and strengthened civic engagement opportunities.

The project will impact vulnerable Jordanians and Syrian and non-Syrian refugees and primarily focus on women (75%) will also be targeted to leverage gender equality and 15% of the direct participants will be youth.

Working towards the project goal, CARE has identified two interrelated outcome areas, each of them aligning with the overall telethon components.

§ Outcome 1: Improve access and capacity of refugee and Jordanian community members (particularly women) to pursue business opportunities

§ Outcome 2: Increase the protection of women, men and youth

The project contributes to CARE Jordan’s Sustainable Development Program which aims to build resilient communities for Jordan through economic empowerment, reduction in gender-based violence and governance and civic engagement and political participation.

2. Goal/ Aim and Objectives of the consultancy

The baseline assessment is part of the project’s inception phase. The data collected and presented in the baseline assessment report will serve as a basis for detailed design of the project, regular data monitoring, collection, mid & end-line evaluations, and reflections and adjustments throughout the project’s implementation.

The project baseline assessment’s aim is to collect initial data available for relevant logframe’s indicators as well as any relevant general data contributing to a better understanding of the overall contexts where the project will be implemented. The baseline assessment will identify baseline economic and attitudinal data namely to:

1. Assessing gender related attitudes and behaviors between couples and measure the baseline values of outcome indicators for the following indicators based on a sample from the community members that matches CARE’s selection criteria for beneficiaries of relevant activities:

· % of people who reject intimate partner violence.

· % of men who agree that the man should be part of the household responsibilities, including raising his children.

· % of men who changed their opinion about husbands making decisions without consulting their wives.

1. Assessing women entrepreneurs’ financial power dynamics, with a focus on the following indicators:

· # and % of women entrepreneurs who report they are able to equally participate in household financial decision-making.

· % of women who are active users of financial services (disaggregated by informal and formal services).

· % of women and % of men reporting monthly net income increase (measured among entrepreneurs).

1. Assessing the skills and training needs of a sample of Jordanians and Syrians that would help them increase their involvement in income generating opportunities

· Confident in their ability and newly learned skills, with which to pursue income-gaining opportunities.

· Confident in their ability to access employment.

· Syrian community members access income-gaining opportunities.

3. Methodology:

The proposed approach and methodology will include mixed qualitative and quantitative methodologies as follows:

1. Revision of published secondary data in relation to the projects activities, in which the consultant should review relevant reports that was published by CARE Jordan related to gender, women economic empowerment. **

2. Conducting four online KIIs with CARE staff and relevant stakeholders.

3. Conducting online quantitative survey with 325 individuals, as follows:

· 100 Jordanian female entrepreneurs.

· 100 married men (aged between 20 and 50 years old).

· 125 Unemployed youth (75 women and 50 men).

1. Conduct nine virtual focus group discussions (FGDs) with participants according to the following :

· Assessing gender related attitudes and behaviors between couples: 3 FGDs.

· Assessing women entrepreneurs’ financial power dynamics: 2 FGDs.

· Assessing the skills and training needs of a sample of Jordanians and Syrian: 4 FGDs.

4. Responsibilities and reporting arrangements

The assessment is led by the consultant under the management and oversight of a Reference Group, under the coordination of the Programs Quality Department.

The main functions of the consultant are:

· Conducting literature review.

· Designing the tools.

· Conducting the virtual FGDs and KIIs

· Writing the transcript, coding, and analyzing the KIIs and FGDs.

· Analyzing the raw quantitative data.

· Writing the baseline assessment report.

The main functions of CARE staff members are:

· Sharing list of sources for the literature review with the consultant.

· Selecting the sample size based on the criteria.

· Conducting phone interviews based on the developed questions to be share with the consultant.

· Sharing the raw data of quantitative phone interviews with the consultant.

· Arranging for the KIIs and FGDs.

· Reviewing the draft report and providing feedback to the consultant.

5. Timeline ((15-16) Weeks**

· Planning:

o One day: Introducing the project to the consultant and providing all necessary documents (CARE).**

o Two weeks:

Develop Baseline methodology and tools (Consultant).

Work on the literature review report (Consultant).

Share the inception report (Consultant).

Review the inception report by the reference group (CARE)

Adjust the inception report based on CARE’s staff feedback (Consultant).

· Data collection and analysis:

o Two weeks:

Collect the quantitative data (CARE).

Conduct nine online focus group discussions (Consultant).

Conduct four KIIs (Consultant).

Transcription, coding, and analysis for the qualitative data (Consultant).

o One week: Analyzing quantitative data (Consultant).

· Reporting:

o One week: Prepare draft report in English (Consultant).

o One week: Provide feedback on the draft baseline report (CARE)

o One week: Share the second version of the report based on CARE’s feedback (Consultant).

o One week: Reviewing the second version of the baseline assessment (CARE)

o Two days: Prepare and present the key findings to CARE staff (Consultant).

o One week: Submission of the final report to CARE (Consultant).

• The outcome of this consultancy is an intellectual property for CARE International in Jordan, and it’s not allowed to be used by the consultant (training firm) in any format, nor disseminated or announced through any media channel without prior written approval by CARE Jordan.

• Any media outlet, should be approved by CARE Jordan, and should include and attribute the credit to CARE Jordan.

• The assessment is led by the consultant under the management of the Programs Quality Department

6. Contents and structure of the baseline report, should be not be more than 40 pages and as the below outline:

• Introduction

• List of Acronyms

• Executive Summary

• Situation analysis

• Methodology applied

• Findings / infographics, visuals.

• Recommendations for CARE team and partners.

• List of references

7. Consultant Qualifications

• Minimum of five years of demonstrated experience in sustainable development economic empowerment and civil society engagement in Jordan.

• Five years of work experience in leading baseline assessments for INGO. Evidence of experience is required . (please attach a sample baseline assessment report with the proposal).

• Demonstrated experience with quantitative and qualitative research methods.

• Demonstrate experience in qualitative data analysis software, like MAXQDA.

• Demonstrate experience in data collection software, like KOBO.

• Strong analytical skills and writing abilities.

• Fluency in English and Arabic is required.

8. Reporting Requirements:

All documents should be submitted to CARE International will be only accepted in quality and professional English language:

9. Reporting Relationship

The consultant reports to the Quality and Accountability Coordinator with the support of Telethon’s Project Manager.

10. Time Frame:

CARE International in Jordan expects that this assignment will take place during the period ( will be added when obtaining MOPIC’s approval)

At the submission and approval of each of the following milestone, CARE will pay the agreed upon amount as follow:

· 20% after the submission of inception report (Literature review).

· 50% after the submission of first draft report.

· 30% after the submission and approval of final report and deliverables.

11.Offer Evaluation Criteria:

The evaluation process will follow a weights of 30% financial rate and 70% technical rate. Noting that 70% will distribute based on the below technical Criteria:

• Minimum of five years of demonstrated experience in sustainable development economic empowerment and civil society engagement in Jordan.(Based on the shared CVs (Work experience and education) and the list of previous baseline assessments), score out of 20.

• Minimum of five years of work experience in leading quantitative and qualitative baseline assessments for INGO. (Based on the list of previous baseline assessments), score out of 10.

• Demonstrate experience in qualitative data analysis software, like MAXQDA. (Based on the shared CVs, proposal/ technical offer, and the sample baseline assessment report), score out of 10.

• Strong analytical skills and writing abilities in English. (Based on the shared sample of baseline assessment reports), score out of 20.

• Fluency in Arabic is required for the data collection team. (Based on the shared CVs and the proposal/technical offer), score out of 5.

• The ability to finalize this consultancy mission as the proposed timeframe in the ToR. (Based on the proposal/ technical offer), score out of 5.