CARE Turkiye is Looking for Consultancy for Gender Study

BACKGROUND

CARE International is a multi-sector humanitarian and development agency working in 90 countries to fight social injustice. CARE Türkiye implements programs inside of Türkiye and in Northwest Syria. As part of its PepsiCo funded grant, CARE Turkey is implementing the She feeds the World Project in Turkey. The goal of the SFTW project is to ensure that small-scale producers and agricultural laborers in the Adana province of Turkey, particularly women farmers, have more secure and resilient livelihoods and improved food, nutrition and water security. This will be achieved by enhancing producers’ capacity to adopt sustainable agriculture practices, securing access to lands, promoting sustainable practices through women influencers, and improving the production capacities of groups by centering the approach through CARE’s Farmer Field and Business School (FFBS) model. The proposed intervention will also aim to reduce protection concerns (e.g., gender-based violence, child labor, etc.) of agriculture laborers and enhance social cohesion through the transformation of discriminatory social and gender norms, by empowering the province’s women and engaging men and boys through CARE’s Role Model Men approach. The project will mobilize the existing resources of local communities, peer international non-governmental organizations and available public and private services to influence and promote impact at scale. SFtW Turkey is built on CARE’s global SFtW framework and CARE Turkey’s eight years of programming experience in rural development, women’s economic empowerment, financial inclusion, inclusive value chains, resilience building and partnership development. The project aims at contributing to advancement of gender equality in the agriculture sector and is aligned with PepsiCo’s global Food for Good priorities.

In order to achieve its goals, the project intends to hire a consultant to undertake a gender study, Market assessment and an engendered value chain assessment. This shall result in helping the project achieve two main outcomes i.e. 1) Supporting small-scale farmers to restore their facilities, and livelihoods functionality and 2) Women’s empowerment with skills, reduced protection concerns and knowledge transfer by women influencers. This is important because women producers and farmers often face challenges in accessing markets and expanding their businesses due to among other factors inhibitive social and gender norms, limited participation in markets, decision making, limited knowledge and skills. This study shall contribute to identifying the barriers, opportunities and strategies for empowering women and enhance their economic opportunities.

SCOPE OF WORK

For this purpose, CARE Türkiye is looking for a specialized consultant/firm that will lead on coordination, data collection, data analysis, and report writing.

CARE would like to hire a consultant to conduct the following tasks:

1. A Gender Analysis by collecting, identifying, examining and analyzing information on the different roles of women and men. The gender analysis will primarily seek to understand three questions:
   1. What are gendered-related rights denials in a given context? How do unequal gender relations, gendered discrimination, subordination and exclusion influence rights denials? How do these rights abuses intersect with other areas of discrimination – based on ethnicity, culture, class, age, disability, etc.?
   2. How will gender relations affect the achievement of sustainable results? For example, the projects’ objective for increased productivity among female small-scale farmers would be affected by gendered norms in household divisions of labor and workloads,
   3. How will proposed results affect the relative status of men and women? Will it exacerbate or reduce inequalities? The consultant will be expected to review and use the CARE Gender Equality Framework in carrying out this study.
2. A comprehensive gender sensitive value chain mapping and analysis of existing and new value chains opportunities
3. A market analysis study to map actors, actions, situations, challenges & opportunities in the commodity and categorize most relevant chain actions & actors that women, girls and small holders households in the target districts can do business with in the market to increase production, income in a fair business environment. This study will also explore value chains with opportunities for women’s economic empowerment and make recommendations to enrich project outcomes. The consultant will propose strategies for increasing the meaningful participation of smallholder farmers along the priority value chains and market opportunities; state specific approaches for increasing engagement of women, girls smallholder farmers in meaningful market opportunities with aim of Improving livelihoods opportunities through increasing farmers’ income, productivity, resilience, adaptation to climate change, nutrition, and Gender equality by expanding market opportunities, diversification, better access to services that improve their competitiveness in the markets.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND PROCESS

The consultant/firm will propose an approach for the study and must ensure the meaningful and safe participation of women and girls in the data collection, disaggregation and analysis, maintain confidentiality in accordance with CARE’s data protection guidelines/protocol. Once the research design is finalized in collaboration with CARE, the Consultant will develop qualitative and quantitative tools and lead on data collection and analysis. The Consultant will lead on drafting the report including relevant recommendations and once finalized CARE will present the report to existing coordination bodies.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY.

The consultant shall aim at achieving the following specific objectives of the study;

• To Identify the different experiences and contributions of men and women in households, farming, Markets and highlight inequalities or challenges they may face based on their gender using CARE’s 8 areas of inquiry for gender analysis
• Identify discriminatory gender and social norms that affect women’s active participation in decision-making at the household, and market, and communities
• To map out existing and new Agricultural (crop) values chains and assess their potential to promote women economic empowerment, community-based nutrition and household incomes.
• To identify challenges, specific entry barriers for women into the VC and opportunities along the Value chains of crops and propose ways of addressing these challenges.
• To develop individual VCs of selected priority commodities, including mapping of actors, actions, supporting functions, institutions, policy issues, along each chain and propose recommendations for specific gender sensitive value chain activities that promote women participation and economic empowerment (employment opportunities, improving nutrition status, as well as increasing their incomes along the chain).
• To identify Market actors; Local, regional, and international Market Pull Players (agro-processors, market operators) in targeted commodity in crop value chain.
• To identify Market opportunities, demand & supply, niches & challenges along the Commodity in crop and livestock, while proposing ways of taking advantage and addressing respectively in the region.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CONSULTANT

The consultant will take lead in designing the methodology and tools for the study. This will include developing survey tool and qualitative study tools like; Individual survey, FGD guide and KII guide covering all the expected result areas of the project, the consultant will also review available secondary data, which will then be incorporated into the final report, the project team may support with mobilization of the respondents.

• Review all relevant documents relating to conducting the studies.
• Lead the inception meeting upon selection.
• Prepare and present the assignment inception report.
• Develop Gender Analysis and Gendered Value Chain analysis study guidelines which include methodology, and the data collection tools (questionnaires; focus group guides, interview protocol, actors mapping tool, report format etc.), as appropriate.
• Develop the study schedule in consultation with the project team.
• Come up with a list of stakeholders to be interviewed in consultation with the project team.
• VCA and Market analysis and report writing, draft the first report and include CARE feedback and finalize.

DELIVERABLES

The Consultant will be responsible for the following key deliverables:

• Detailed inception report with a methodological focus detailing selected research methods, areas of focus for each data collection method, desk review and strategies to ensure inclusion of diverse groups as well as ethical considerations related to data collection. The inception report should also include a detailed research plan with timelines, which is updated live and regularly and shared with CARE.
• Set of data collection tools in Arabic/Turkish with adequate consideration of gender, age, and diversity related capture, as annexed to the inception report.
• Full set of raw data in original language (Arabic/Turkish) including photos and tools (in an organized and cleaned format)
• Sense-making session on the preliminary findings providedpreferably provided in person to the Steering Committee
• 1 Final report consisting of a maximum of 40 pages
• A dissemination slide deck consisting of a presentation of the research and the findings**.**

TIMELINE

The service provider will be required to complete this assignment 3 months from the start of the contract.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

The selected service provider must have:

• Academic qualification of Masters in any of the fields including gender, agriculture and market systems, agribusiness is preferred. Or a team comprising the requisite areas would be required.
• Proven experience in developing in similar work i.e Gender Analysis, Market Analysis and gendered Value Chain Studies.
• Knowledge of the agricultural sector, humanitarian sector and challenges faced by women farmers and cooperatives.
• Experience in working with rural communities and a good understanding of their dynamics.
• Strong understanding of the challenges faced by women producers and farmers in accessing markets in Turkey.

REQUIREMENTS FOR SUBMISSION

Interested service providers must submit the following:

• Technical Proposal detailing how they will approach the assignment, the proposed research methodology (1-2 pager to outline ideas how the subject will be tackled, how the work will be conducted / establishment of relation and buy-in of the local stakeholders in Project Area, suggestions for research questions and possible methodology) including timeline for each deliverable.
• Financial Proposal including a detailed breakdown of costs for completing the study.
• Previous reports of similar work showcasing experience with similar assignments, particularly for non-expert audiences and in both Turkish and Arabic languages.
• Team Composition including CVs of key personnel who will be involved in the project and their roles in the project.

Reporting

The service provider will report to the FSL Program Manager CARE International in Türkiye and will be required to provide regular updates on the progress of the training delivery, including challenges faced and any changes to the schedule.

Payment Terms

Payment will be made based on the following criteria:

• CARE will process the 25% payment upon the completion of the Inception report and the 75% on completion of the assignment.

Contract Management

The CARE Türkiye PQ Coordinator will be responsible for managing the contract.

How to apply

• If you can meet our requirements and wish to be considered as a service provider, please email us at TUR.Procurement@care.org to express your interest. We will then provide you with the required documents.

Please sent your interest no later than 17 November 2024, 23:59 (Istanbul time).

• Clarification questions should be sent in writing to TUR.Procurement@care.org by copying the Reference Number in the email subject line, no later than 14 November 2024, 23:59 (Istanbul time).

  Reference Number: RFQ#3480 – Consultancy for Gender Study

• Applications will be made to TUR.Procurement@care.org no later than 17 November 2024, 23:59 (Istanbul time). Late, not readable or incomplete applications will not be considered.