Development Of A Technical Guidance Note on Measuring Women’s Empowerment

1. Summary and Background:

The Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health (CanWaCH) is currently seeking a consultant to develop a technical guidance note on Measuring Women’s Empowerment in the Global Health sector.

CanWaCH catalyzes Canadian collaboration to deepen effectiveness in improving women’s and children’s health in communities around the world. Our more than 100 members and associates are instrumental in reducing maternal and child mortality, promoting accountability to women, adolescents and children, seeking innovation, generating research and supporting monitoring and evaluation.

Through the development of this guidance document, CanWaCH aims to support partners, Global Affairs Canada staff, and other stakeholders in determining how to track progress on complex gender equality issues; specifically, issues related to measurement of women’s empowerment. A critical additional layer of this analysis will be considering measures of women’s empowerment in health.

2. Project Description and Scope

2.1 CanWaCH is seeking a consultant to develop a scientifically robust technical guidance note, which must include at a minimum the following sections:

• A synthesis review of existing literature, tools, and approaches
• A guidance note including expert recommendations for bests practices

2.2 The intended audience for this note includes:

• Global Affairs Canada staffPractitioners and researchers working in partnership with the Government of Canada on global health programming
• Experts working in gender equality and women’s empowerment issues in the context of global health

2.3 Questions to be addressed in the note, but are not necessarily limited to:

• What are the critical considerations when it comes to measuring women’s empowerment in Global Health programming?
• What does a synthesis of existing literature tell us about recommended approaches, considerations, and issues?
• Given the challenges associated with aggregating women’s empowerment measures, how should a results framework meaningfully interpret and communicate results expected and achieved?
• How might these learnings be applied programmatically, and as part of the results-based management approach more broadly?
• What information is necessary for the Government of Canada and partners to consider when measuring women’s empowerment (ethics, best practice, technical capacity needs, etc)?

3. Project Timeline

3.1 The final version of the technical guidance note must be submitted to CanWaCH no later than Friday, January 22, 2021 at 11:59pm EDT.

3.2 Detailed schedule:

1. Week of December 14, 2020:
   1. Selection of successful Consultant and finalization of contract
   2. Initial meeting with CanWaCH for comprehensive review of project scope, deliverables, and work to date
2. Week January 4, 2021:
   1. Progress meeting with CanWaCH and other key stakeholders as required
   2. Draft review and discussion
3. Week of January 11, 2021:
   1. Progress meeting with CanWaCH and other key stakeholders as required
   2. Draft review and discussion
4. Week of January 18, 2021
   1. Progress meeting with CanWaCH and other key stakeholders as required
   2. Final version of note submitted to CanWaCH
5. Week of January 25, 2021
   1. Translation and launch of note by CanWaCH. Consultant to provide clarification and editing support as required.

4. Budget

4.1 All proposals must include proposed costs to complete the tasks described in the project description and scope. CanWaCH will provide the following:

• Translation of guidance note from English to French
• Design of guidance note
• All technical and logistical support for meetings
• Copies of all resource and research compiled to date

4.2 All costs and fees must be clearly described in each proposal. If the consultant submitting a proposal must outsource or contract any work to meet the requirements contained herein, this must be clearly stated in the proposal. Additionally, all costs included in the proposals must be all-inclusive to include any outsourced or contracted work. Any proposals which call for outsourcing or contracting work must include a name and description of the organizations being contracted.

5. Bidder Qualifications

Bidders should provide the following items as part of their proposal for consideration:

• Description of experience and expertise with measuring women’s empowerment within development and/or global health contexts.
• Specific examples or portfolio of relevant technical guidance notes, publications, research etc. that you have developed and attest to your specific skills and expertise in this subject matter area.
• Name(s) and CVs of consultant(s) involved in the project
• Testimonials from previous clients (if applicable)
• Project work schedule and proposed methodology, including a proposed table of contents based on the above requirements. As part of this work, please confirm that you will be able to meet the project schedule and required meetings as outlined above.

6. Proposal Evaluation Criteria

CanWaCH will evaluate all proposals based on the following criteria. To ensure consideration for this Request for Proposals, your proposal should be complete and include all the following criteria:

• Consultant Experience: Bidders will be evaluated on their experience as it pertains to the scope of this project;
• Previous work: Bidders will be evaluated on examples of their work pertaining to the the subject matter;
• Value and cost: Bidders will be evaluated on the cost of their proposal based on the work to be performed in accordance with the scope of this project;
• Expertise and experience: Bidders will be evaluated based on descriptions and documentation of staff/consultant expertise and experience.

7. Submitting a Proposal

7.1 All proposals in response to this RFP are due no later than 11:59 PM EDT on Tuesday, December 8, 2020. Any proposals received after this date and time will be returned to the sender.

7.2 The selection decision for the winning bidder and to bidders who were not selected will be made no later than Monday, December 14, 2020.

7.3 Upon notification, the contract negotiations with the winning bidder will begin immediately. Contract negotiations will be completed no later than Wednesday, December 16, 2020.

7.4 Bidders should submit their proposal to the attention of:

Jessica Ferne
Director, Global Health Impact
[email protected]