Tajikistan: International Consultant for the final evaluation of Women’s Entrepreneurship for Empowerment Project

The National Association of Business Women of Tajikistan (NABWT) is looking for an International Consultant for the final evaluation of its Women’s Entrepreneurship for EmpowermentProject (WEEP).

Background: The USAID-funded “Feed the Future” Women’s Entrepreneurship for Empowerment Project (WEEP) is a four-year project covering 12 districts located in the western part of Khatlon province, Tajikistan.

Implementing Agency: The National Association of Business Women of Tajikistan (NABWT), a public organization

Tajikistan faces many challenges including poverty and food insecurity. With increasing male labor migration to Russia, the burden for women in Tajikistan has increased. In addition to household duties, women have taken over farming. Women face complex problems, including cultural attitudes discouraging them from working outside the home or starting a business. This project empowers women to establish microenterprises, move into high value sections of the value chain, and improve access to services and support.

WEEP also supports microenterprises and household farms, particularly focusing on female-headed households within agricultural and non-agricultural value chains. For farmers during winter months, alternative income-generating enterprises have been and will continue to be developed. This contributes to economic stability and viability in these rural communities. WEEP works with economically inactive women (and men) within these communities, and has developed an understanding of the barriers to entry. One of the major factors that hamper women from starting up and running a business is funding—both low access to funds and fear of getting loans. This knowledge has been used to build an advocacy strategy with both local and national reach.

The project goal is to mitigate poverty by building women’s capacity through lobbying and advocacy, and improving equality, access, and control.

Three objectives serve to guide WEEP’s efforts toward achieving the program goal:

1. To empower women who are currently economically inactive to start microenterprises, through understanding the reasons why they are not participating, and then by working to overcome these barriers.

2. To facilitate greater access for women with microenterprises to higher value areas of the value chain—new markets and customers—and to business support mechanisms, including microfinance.

3. To positively influence attitudes towards women’s microenterprise, through development of collaborative business education with youth, and through partnerships with government.

To accomplish these objectives, WEEP concentrates on achieving the following results:

• Economically inactive women will become interested in developing microenterprises
• Women will start new microenterprises

• Barriers to women starting microenterprises will be better understood

• Women will make a strategic investment in the project and improve their understanding of local value chains

• Women’s microenterprises and larger private sector firms will establish links

• Business activity will increase and expand, and there will be higher employment

• Societal attitudes towards women’s microenterprises and entrepreneurship will be positively influenced

• The business environment will be influenced to become fairer and more inclusive for women.

Objectives of the Consultancy. The purpose of the assignment is to evaluate the success of the project and prepare a final report. The final performance report must contain the following information, as relevant:

· An executive summary of the accomplishment and results achieved;

· An in-depth analysis of progress and results that synthesize achievements that contribute to program objectives. This section will clearly describe activities, major accomplishments, and results achieved, including results for all of the activities under the cooperative agreement;

· Final data, compared to baseline data, for all indicators included in the monitoring and evaluation plan. This section should include disaggregated data by gender, historically disenfranchised groups, and other relevant groups;

· A summary of problems/obstacles encountered during the implementation, and how those obstacles were addressed and overcome, if appropriate;

· Lessons learned, best practices, sustainability and institutionalization issues, and other findings, along with recommendations for future programming in this sector;

· A comparison of actual expenditures with budget estimates, including analysis and explanation of cost overruns of high unit costs, and any other pertinent information.

Time Frame. End of July 2018 through September 2018 – 20 working days

Qualification and Experience:

§ Masters or higher degree in social economic sciences and business administration

§ Experience in implementation of surveys/evaluations in similar projects

§ Experience in preparation of written evaluation reports

§ Experience in multi-sectoral development projects/programming implementation. Demonstrated experience in design, implementation, and monitoring, as well as evaluation is an added value.

§ Previous work in Central Asian countries is desirable

§ Excellent oral and written English communication skills

Interested candidates are requested to submit their CV with cover letter and expected daily rate to the WEEP office at: Vahdat 208 A Street, Bokhtar or by e-mail to farrukh_shoh@mail.ru on or before June 26, 2018.