INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION (ILO)
CALL FOR CONSULTANTS TO SUBMIT PROPOSALS FOR THE COMPLETION OF AN ASSESSMENT OF THE NATIONAL CONDITIONS FOR WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA FOLLOWING AN ILO FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY
(1) BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE
The International Labour Organisation has been promoting women’s entrepreneurship development (WED) as a means to job creation, women’s economic empowerment and gender equality for over ten years. ILO’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Development programme is unique within the UN family, as it focuses on identifying and addressing systemic barriers in the business environment, strengthening the capacity of local, national and international actors to support women entrepreneurs, and providing direct support to women entrepreneurs so they can achieve self-sufficiency and generate decent jobs. The ILO is the only UN organization with a dedicated WED Strategy, adopted by its tripartite Governing Body in 2008. The Programme provides a comprehensive package of tools, advisory services and capacity building and a global network of trainers and partners.
In Nigeria, the proportion of women involved in entrepreneurship exceeds that of men, however, the country ranks 139th on the Gender Gap Index for 2020. While women entrepreneurs contribute to economic growth, job creation, and family and community wellbeing, they experience decent work deficits related to business and regulatory environment, and access to financial and business development services. As many remain informal, they are often outside the scope of SME policies and programmes and are under-represented and underserved by employers’ and workers’ organisations.
In response to these challenges, the ILO is initiating the Promoting Gender Equality and Formalisation through Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Project in Nigeria. The overall objective of this intervention is to support key actors in the business ecosystem to adopt approaches and policies that respond to the needs of women entrepreneurs in Nigeria, including in the informal economy.
As a first step, the project is undertaking a National Assessment of the Framework Conditions for Women’s Entrepreneurship Development to examine where failures exist, and to take actions to remedy them, with the ultimate objective of unleashing the potential of women-owned enterprises in Nigeria. The WED assessment will also take stock of some barriers to formalize that will be further studied and explored subsequently outside of this consultancy. The gender-based structural barriers limiting the full participation of women in economic activity must be removed if women are to have equal opportunity to pursue entrepreneurial activity in the formal and informal economy. In order to help countries examine those barriers, ILO has developed and implemented a WED Assessment Methodology. The methodology promotes a set of women’s entrepreneurship development framework conditions that are assessed nationally to develop relevant and locally adapted key policy recommendations for improving the environment for the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship.
These include:
(1) Gender-sensitive legal and regulatory system that advanced women’s economic empowerment
(2) Policy leadership and coordination for the promotion of WED
(3) Access to gender-sensitive financial services
(4) Access to gender-sensitive business development support (BDS) services
(5) Access to markets and technology
(6) Representation of women entrepreneurs and participation in policy dialogue
The WED Assessment is a comprehensive tool to assist country-level assessors to gather and assess a consistent body of information about the status of WED as well as to identify targeted measures to improve the ecosystem for WED. For the current assignment, the WED Assessment has been expanded to include the identification of some relevant laws, regulations and institutions and other issues that affect formalization.
By assessing these conditions through a thorough methodology, the ILO aims to support national stakeholders (e.g. policy makers, decision-makers, implementing agencies, focal points, employers’ organisations, business/ sector associations, and women entrepreneurs’ associations and NGOs) to identify key, locally adapted and strategic recommendations to unleash the potential of women’s entrepreneurship and women-led businesses to generate decent jobs at the country level. These recommendations should emanate from a clear process that puts an emphasis on dialogue and validated by a multistakeholder group (including women entrepreneurs) to be used for the formulation of a national action plan or national strategy for WED.
In this line, the ILO is looking for a consultant, or team of consultants, to undertake a National WED Assessment in Nigeria with focus in incorporating some questions on the formalization of women owned and led businesses.
(2) Tasks
The following tasks will be undertaken to deliver a National WED Assessment and specific recommendations to improve the environment for WED in Nigeria, in line with the methodology of the ILO: « Assessing the Framework Conditions for Women’s Entrepreneurship Development – Assessor’s guide». The data collection, selection of interviewees will be from Lagos and Rivers states and according to the process indicated in the Guide.
(a) Undertake a literature review of the relevant research on WED in the given country. The literature review would include studies, reports and other literature linked to one or several of the framework conditions in ILO’s WED assessment as well as an initial stocktaking of the situation and bottlenecks to formalization of micro and small businesses, particularly those led by women. The literature review should help to provide an initial general picture of the profile of women entrepreneurs in Nigeria: sectors, size, level and degrees of formality etc.
(b) Conduct consultation with Government, NECA, NNEW and NLC to introduce the assessment methodologies and agree on objectives during a workshop to be organised by the ILO.
(c) Gather primary data by:
- Mapping actors and stakeholders with a role to play in women’s entrepreneurship development. Based on the mapping and knowledge gaps identified during the literature review identify key informants (in collaboration with ILO) with whom to carry out 25-30 key informant interviews. These should include among others financial and non-financial service providers, government officials, research institutions, employer associations, women entrepreneurs’ associations etc. Key informants should include at least 3 or 4 who are able to speak on barriers, incentives and degrees of enterprise formalization in Nigeria (if possible, led or owned by women)
- Organising at least four (4) focus groups (including one rural based, and one of mostly informal women entrepreneurs or women representatives of informal economy organisations) and,
- Administering and supervising the quality of a survey to at least two hundred women entrepreneurs (200) from both urban and rural areas, from different sectors and sizes of enterprises, including different degrees of formalization.
- Guidance is provided in the Assessors’ Guide (including adapting the questionnaire to the local context and translating it into local language) and training and supervising surveyors using the ILO dedicated guide and training module. Depending on COVID19 and budget implications, the administration of the survey may be done online though should preferably be carried out in person or via phone.
(d) Examine and analyse the information gathered through the desk study, interviews, focus groups and survey and identify key recommendations to be validated by key stakeholders (government, women entrepreneurs associations, employers’ organisations, etc.)
(e) Write up for each source of data collection a brief 5-page report with main highlights (1 on the literature review, 1 with a general mapping of actors and insights from the Key informant interviews, 1 on the outcomes of the survey, 1 on the focus group discussions),
(f) Write up a first full report combining and triangulating the information from the various sources captured in the short reports listed in point d). This overall report will closely follow the guidance and format described in the ILO: « Assessing the Framework Conditions for Women’s Entrepreneurship Development – Assessor’s guide» The ILO expects the consultants to be the main writers of the report (and not delegate it to another person). This first full draft will be shared with ILO staff for comments.
(g) Based on ILO comments (to be sent within 10 working days of receiving the draft), develop a 2nd draft of the report and a PowerPoint presentation to be presented in a validation workshop to key stakeholders. The presentation will made by the consultant (no more than 15-20 slides/20 minutes) on the key findings and recommendations to be validated publicly in two locations or online if national conditions do not allow for face-to-face meetings (to be determined and discussed with ILO).
(h) Based on comments received during the validation workshop, finalise and submit the final Assessment report.
(3) Deliverables
(1) Inception Report: A concise literature review (4-5 pages), a workplan and adapted survey questionnaire to the Nigerian context in English and other relevant local language if necessary.
(2) 4 brief analysis reports based on the four specific data sources: literature review (within 15 days of having started the consultancy); mapping and KII interviews report; women entrepreneurs’ survey report and focus group reports.
(3) Draft WED Assessment Report: After the final brief analysis report is submitted and approved, and within 10 days of that, a concise report (in English) of maximum 40 pages, assessing the WED framework conditions, based on the ILO’s methodology is to be submitted. The Assessment will include a list of key recommendations towards improving the environment for WED in the country under study, including some information on barriers and recommendations to support pathways to greater formalization among women entrepreneurs, particularly micro and small entrepreneurs. At this stage, the consultant should also deliver a draft validation workshop agenda and a list of key stakeholders to involve.
(4) Validation Workshop: A powerpoint presentation of no more than 20 minutes (15-20 slides) which will include the key findings and recommendations to be presented by the consultant during a validation workshop (either in person or via video-conferencing if available).
(5) Final WED Assessment Report: A final version of the WED Assessment Report, integrating inputs from the Validation Workshop.
(4) Duration:
The consultancy is estimated to be carried out between April 15 and July 30 2022.
(5) Supervision arrangements
The consultant will be under the supervision of ILO-WED, Geneva who will coordinate and be in close contact with the Enterprise Formalization Team, Geneva and the Promoting Gender Equality and Formalization through Women’s Entrepreneurship Development in Nigeria Project Coordinator in Abuja.
(6) How to apply to the call
Consultants and consultancy firms interested in applying must submit to registry@ilo.org and wed@ilo.org by no later than 4 April 2022 the following documentation:
(1) A technical report on how they interpret the work to be completed. The technical report shall include information on previous research and work carried out both in terms of target group (women’s entrepreneurship development) as well as methods and analysis (combination of high quality qualitative and quantitative methods and triangulation of methods). At least one non edited proof of work should be submitted. CVs of people to take part in the research with a consultancy firm should be attached as well as a description of their roles within the assignment.
(2) A financial report laying out the financial offer – this should be as detailed as possible listing at least days and fees for consultancy fees, travel expenses and other costs (to be proposed/categorized by the applicant). Proposals with a budget below 30,000 USD will have additional points during scoring.
