Purpose:
This SoW outlines duties, deliverables and a timeframe for the Cacao program Component IV: Knowledge Management and Communications Strategy women’s inclusion study. Specifically CRS is seeking a consultant to conduct a women inclusion assessment and create a guide to address the following:
1. Identify, validate and systematize practical programmatic solutions for inclusion of women as participants in the Cacao value chain, in the following key areas;
a. Overall increased participation of women in the Cacao value chain
b. Access of female producers and stakeholders in the Cacao value chain to credit and other financial resources
c. Access of female producers and stakeholders in the Cacao value chain to market and market inputs
d. Opportunities for women to advance or expand role within the Cacao value chain
2. Provide a toolkit for Cacao value chain gender integration at the institutional, community, and individual level with the following components;
a. Monitoring system to track implementation of programmatic recommendations and assess potential risks with reporting templates and a gender-sensitive indicator matrix
b. Gender integration training curriculum and lesson plans targeted to key stakeholders at various levels of the Cacao value chain
c. Action plan and advocacy guide for promoting institutional change within major Cacao groups and organizations including guidelines for policy development and workplace reform
d. Communications and media materials for dissemination and distribution for community and household-level sensitization with impactful gender transformative messages
3. Contribute to Haitian development community and advance overall body of knowledge on agricultural value chain gender assessment and integration with documentation of lessons learned and best practices for future implementation.

Background:
CRS and other partners involved in the cocoa sector in Haiti, is carrying out, with the support of the Inter-American Bank of Development (BID), a project to help small farmers in Haiti to gain access to the Global Market. This project aims to revitalize the Cocoa sector by supporting small producers and cooperatives in Grand’Anse and the North with new techniques and new skills in market entry and marketing to maximize the benefits of this value chain.

This project will enhance the participation of small cocoa farmers and their cooperatives in the cocoa value chain by focusing on key areas to overcome the low competitiveness. First, it aims to promote market access by creating direct links between cooperatives and local exporters, reducing the need for intermediaries and allow producers to capture a larger share of the price. To support the production, it will improve performance, product quality and management of natural resources. It aims to overcome a major obstacle in facilitating access to finance for cooperatives through business and financial training. Finally, it will take a holistic perspective to promote coordination and collaboration with other actors in the chain to make connections, find synergies and improve the performance of the sector as a whole.

The project is designed to work with 7,000 small cocoa producers with 4,000 in the department of Grand’Anse and 3000 in the North, nearly 35% of cocoa producers in Haiti. It will catalyze systemic change by having a multiplier effect at the national level in two key areas of cocoa production by strengthening the private institutions to enable them to access new markets. IDB and CRS in partnership with stakeholders have agreed to gather the financial resources and technical expertise to meet the needs of the value chain of cocoa nationally.

To achieve its impact, which is to increase the income of small producers of 7000 Cocoa Haiti, the project is planning to improve the ability of producers to have access to high-value markets. The project is therefore settled on four pillars, which are:
1. Market Access
2. Access to technical training and new technology
3. Access to finance
4. Access to a network of collaborators

Hence the four project components:
Component 1- Improving productivity and natural resource management.
Component 2 -Adding value through improved product and process.
Component 3- Strengthening institutional capacity of cooperatives to ensure sustained long-term growth.
Component 4- Improving knowledge management and communication strategy.





Objectives of the assessment and guide:
Women’s membership in cooperatives is high, approaching 40% but far fewer are represented in cooperative management structures. It is unclear to what extent women in the cocoa value chain are able to benefit from technical assistance activities to improve their position in the chain. In this respect, the knowledge gap the project seeks to address is how to make the cocoa value chain more inclusive for women at all points including input supply, production, post-harvest processing, marketing, and transformation. The project goal is to publish a guide to provide practical solutions on how to increase opportunities for women in the value chain. To create the guide, the consultancy will assess strengths, weaknesses, and identify ways to create enabling environments to improve women’s participation in production, processing, and transformation as well as access to credit, trainings, production inputs, and empowerment in decision making. The assessment will also take a closer look at women’s inclusion in cooperatives and at other levels in the Cacao value chain.

The Women’s Inclusion Assessment will include the following components 1) a barrier analysis to identify limiting factors to women’s participation, 2) a gender scorecard exercise to describe institutions within the Cacao value chain and to what extent they uphold an enabling environment in which women are represented and empowered in Cacao value chain management and governance, 3) a gender analysis to define roles, relationships, and power dynamics between men and women within the Cacao value chain, and 4) a baseline study to assess the current level of participation by women at all levels within the Cacao value chain as a benchmark for further monitoring. This assessment will utilize existing monitoring tools and analysis frameworks to interpret study results and develop recommendations, such as the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index which was developed by USAID and IFPRI. Recommendations will then be operationalized and tested within the Cacao value chain environment to inform best practices and implementation guidance that will later be included in the final Women’s Inclusion in Cacao Value Chain Manual.


Work to be accomplished by the consultant:
• Conduct a Gender Assessment which include:
o Review background documentation and conduct a thorough literature review of women’s participation in agricultural value chains
o Provide input and feedback on the Women’s Inclusion in Cacao Value Chain Study Scope of Work. Draft a detailed implementation plan for the project with input from the Haiti country team.
o Draft Surveyor’s Manual including study protocols, data collection tools, and analysis frameworks based on existing methodology deemed most appropriate for study context with feedback and input from the Haiti country team.
o Support Haiti country team in recruitment of study groups for participation in barrier analysis, gender analysis, baseline study and gender scorecard exercise. Drafting letters of introduction and organizing meetings when needed.
o Lead the processes for recruitment, hiring, and training of data collection teams. Develop job description for all members of the data collection team. Supervise enumerators to ensure high quality data collection practices are followed and track time and attendance for payment of salaries.
o Organize participatory data analysis workshop with enumerator team, project staff, and key stakeholder representatives to further synthesize and validate results
o Draft Gender Assessment Report including results of all the study components (baseline, barrier analysis, gender analysis, gender scorecard) and develop recommendations for review and feedback by the Haiti country team
• Write Gender Integration Action Plan to operationalize study recommendations and develop tools for their implementation including guides for lessons learned and beneficiary feedback discussions.
• Develop curriculum and training tools for key value chain stakeholder groups including household-level and community-level groups within the target community. Conduct a Training of Trainers for project staff and partners on materials developed and guide the development of a schedule and plan for step-down trainings with key stakeholders and institutional Cacao value chain groups.
• Design monitoring system to track implementation of Gender Integration Action Plan using beneficiary feedback mechanisms and gender-sensitive monitoring indicators to inform quarterly Lessons Learned sessions. Provide quarterly progress reports valuing impact of actions taken on women’s participation, adapting recommendations to account for issues or risks as necessary
• Draft Women’s Inclusion in Cacao Value Chain Manual, including a dissemination plan for sharing information with community, government and development partners. Finalize manual following review and feedback by Haiti Country team.

Manual specifications such as format, length, quality, presentation and publication design and support should be determined as appropriate by the consultant in consultation with the Haiti Country team. The consultant is responsible for printing and dissemination of the guide.
Consultancy Deliverables:

Globally the consultant must provide the following outputs:
• Literature Review summarizing previous studies of relevance to research question
• A study scope of work along with a detailed implementation plan, job descriptions for data collection team, and surveyor’s manual including protocols and accompanying data collection and analysis tools
• The raw and clean database of all data used in data collection and de-identified study participant demographic information
• Gender scorecard for each cooperative or institution interviewed
• A Gender Assessment Report reporting findings from barrier analysis, score card exercise, gender analysis, and baseline study along with technical recommendations
• Gender Integration Action Plan with training curricula, schedule, and materials to train
beneficiaries, cooperatives, and other key stakeholders on women’s inclusion and gender-sensitive behavior change;
• Records of the documents used for trainings/workshops conducted;
• A monitoring plan to track and document lessons learned to evaluate recommendations put in place for the project;
• Women’s Inclusion in Cacao Value Chain Manual, a guide providing solutions to increase opportunities for women in the value chain as a result of the previous activities, with dissemination plan for communication to partners and key stakeholders
Responsibilities of CRS:
• Provide the necessary documents and information related to the project and study to the consultant;
• Provide adequate staff to assist and support the consultant;
• Provide adequate data collection staff if necessary to support the consultant;
• Provide motivation and awareness among producers and groups for the surveys;
• Provide recommendations on the outputs.

Responsibilities of the Consultant:
• Inform MEAL Coordinator or his replacement within a reasonable timeframe, the progress made and problems encountered;
• Clearly define the methodology adopted for the conduct of the study;
• Run the activities as planned, if changes are necessary, inform the MEAL coordinator or his substitute before taking any action;
• Apply ethics rules (respect for private life and the integrity of the respondents, confidentiality of the data);
• Ensure the logistics of the survey and facilitate the movement of the field investigation team (if necessary, it may still require a basic agreement CRS participation);
• Accept constructive feedback;
• Meet deadlines.
Place of Performance:
The study will be carried out in the communes of two departments: North and Grand’Anse. The number of communes for both are respectively 4 (Chambellan, Dame-Marie, Anse-d’Hainault and Les Irois) and 5 (Borgne, Port-Margot, Grande Rivière du Nord, Acul du Nord and Milot).

Period of Performance:
The period of performance for the entire study will be July 2016 to April 2017. The nature and duration of involvement of the consultant within this period will be determined in consultation with the Haiti country team.

Qualification of consultant:
• Holder of a master's degree or relevant years of work experiences in gender approach in programing;
• Demonstrates experience in conducting evaluation of the same type,
• Good knowledge of methods of conducting quantitative and qualitative surveys;
• Good knowledge of the Haitian community;
• Demonstrate good knowledge of cacao value-chain;
• Ability to adapt and work in difficult conditions;
• Fluent in French and/or English;
• Be available for the period of performance.
Application requirements:

The application must consist of:
• Curriculum vitae ;
• Copies of certificates and diplomas;
• A technical proposal including a letter of submission, the credentials of the consultant a detailed methodology with research and sampling of method; data collection, processing, analysis and sharing method for each phase of the study. Make sure to prove that the study various phases are well understood in the proposal.
• A detailed timeframe of the activities for each phase of the study,
• CV for the consultancy team ;
• A detailed financial offer indicating the costs of the entire study.

Cliquer ici pour télécharger le dossier complet d’appel d’offres

bethanie.saintlouis@crs.org

CRS Contacts:
James Beighle
Head of Programming
CRS/Haiti
Email: James.Beighle@crs.org
Phone: +509 4651 5740

Beth Carroll
Head of Urban Program
CRS/Haiti
Email: Beth.Carroll@crs.org
Phone: +509 4651 5740

Rhode Early Charles
MEAL Country Coordinator
CRS/Haiti
Email: Rhode.Charles@crs.org
Tel:: +509 4893-8138

Only the retained bidders will be contacted for the next steps.