KIRDARC Nepal

Terms of Reference for Documentation of Learning from

Civil Society in Development (CISU) Funded Project:

VOICE; Voicing for Equality and Justice for Women in Karnali

Name of Action: / VOICE: Voicing for Equality and Justice for Women in Karnali
Project Partners /
  • Mission East
  • Karnali Integrated Rural Development and Research Centre (KIRDAR), Nepal,
  • Women Welfare Service (WWS), Humla

Working districts/VDCs / 3 VDCs (Rara, Kalai and Dhainakot) of Mugu and 3 VDCs (Shreenagar, Kalika and Jaira) of Humla district
Now
Adanchuli and Sarkegad Rural Municipality (Humla), and Soru Rural Municipality and ChhayanathRara Municipality (Mugu)
Project Start Date: / 15th January 2015
Expected Completion Date: / 15th November 2017
  1. INTRODUCTION

Karnali Integrated Rural Development and Research Centre (KIRDARC Nepal) is an NGO registered at the District Administration Office, Jumla under the Society Registration Act, 1978, and is affiliated to the Social Welfare Council in Nepal. It has been working intensivelyin six districtsof Mid–Western Development region of Nepal (Jumla, Humla, Kalikot, Mugu and Dolpa and Surkhet), 5districts (Dadeldhura, Bajhang, Doti, Kailali and Kanchanpur) in Far-Western Development Region,4 districts (Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Sindhupalchowk, and Kavrepalanchowk) and Kapilbastu as well. And it has strategic presence in 5 districts of Rapti zone. It has initiated to work in Karnali Zone since 1999 AD.

KIRDARC Nepal works in a right-based approach in the fields of human rights and peace building, education, health, water and sanitation, food security, livelihoods, media and climate change and DRR and Media. It strives to enable people and communities to claim their human rights, including the right against poverty and neglect by way of educating, organizing and mobilizing primary right holders in human rights promoting action; research and policy based advocacy; economic empowerment and promoting social responsible investment and providing complimentary services.

KIRDARC Nepal in technical support of WWS and Mission East have been implemented “VOICE: Voicing for Equality and Justice for Women Karnali” project in 6 VDCs of two districts (Mugu and Humla), currently in 3 Rural Municipalities and 1 Municipalities of Karnali zone in financial support of Civil Society in Development (CISU). In this regard, KIRDARC Nepal is preparing the learning documentsof project. The documentation of learning aims to disseminateit to wider groups, networks, community people, stakeholders, government agencies and other actors for working in women empowerment. Further it will be the guiding document for planning the next phase of the same project and use the knowledge for similar project as well.

  1. CONTEXT/ BACKGROUND OF THE ASSIGNMENT

Women in the Karnali zone are not aware of their rights and consider that discrimination against them is “natural part of the society” in which they live. This is also the common situation regarding how the male population and local authorities view women's rights. For example, in a 1999 study on violence against women (VAW), 80% of women said they had no right to purchase, own or manage property. Where women are aware of their rights and are allowed to participate in state jobs or CSOs groups, participation is frequently nominal without real empowerment to take part in decision-making.
Research undertaken in the five Karnali districts shows high levels of social, political and economic disparity and discrimination – these are primarily on the basis of caste, gender, ability and ethnicity. Women and lower caste people (mainly Dalits) are particularly vulnerable. Marginalized and discriminated against, they have lower access to education, livelihood opportunities and access to health facilities, thus further increasing their vulnerability. One can also speak in term of geographic marginalisation, both in terms of the remoteness and in terms of altitude. In most communities discriminatory practices are widespread, leading to cultural practices like child marriage, domestic violence, and exploitation. These practices often contribute to causing malnutrition and higher infant mortality rates among girls/women. In rural areas, most girls will not have access to any education further than the third degree in primary. The lack of education implies that women also feel more insecure and not able to participate in decision making, as their knowledge and education are “less” than that of their male counterparts.
Civil society in the target area is neglecting the fundamental role of women in the sustainability of the projects. Even more importantly, they are being overlooked when it comes to respecting and protecting their rights and their inclusion as key agents of change, empowering them to know their rights and claim them. Most of the civil society in the target area is developing initiatives dealing with specific service provision in areas such as water and sanitation, livelihoods improvement, health, etc. A common lack in the development of their programming is ignoring the inclusion of gender issues as part of their considerations, even though women in the target area form the majority of the population.

In this context,Karnali Integrated Rural Development and Research Centre (KIRDARC), Nepaland in technical support of Women Welfare Service (WWS), Humla and Mission East Nepal have been implementingthe"VOICE: Voicing for Equality and Justice for Women in Karnali" project with the financial support of Civil Society in Development (CISU). The project herewith, empowering women(Dalit, single, person with differently able, socially excluded and ultra poor) to fight against gender based violence and advocate for their development rights towards local state structures and have increased social participation through training and allocation to resources.

“VOICE: Voicing for Equality and Justice for Women Karnali” project has been implementing at the respective target area. In line with the plan of project KIRDARC Nepalis obliged to conduct Learning Documentation Workshop to collect the learning of the project and to disseminate among/with wider groups, networks, people, stakeholders, government agencies and other for work on women empowerment. Furthermore, learning, sharing and planning for next phase and using the knowledge and ideas in other similar projects as well.

These terms of reference gives a detail outline of activities required to fulfill the objectives of the action (Lesson Learning Documentation) under this project.

  1. THE GOAL OF THE PROJECT

The overall development objective is to empower women and civil society organisations for better inclusion and development in the Karnali Zone, Nepal’. This will be achieved by creating a conducive and inclusive environment for women and girls in the Karnali region to be able to participate in, contribute to and benefit from development efforts at local level.

To ensure the overall objective of the project some indicative objectives have been organized in to three different project results that are:

1)Women & Girls have adequate knowledge, skills and capacity to fight discrimination and violence and their family and wider society have positive attitude, perceptions and behaviour towards them.

2)Civil Society has better capacity and stronger networks to complement government efforts, work as watch-dogs, influence local policy decision (resource allocations, programming, etc.) in favour of right holders, forward accountability

3) Local Government structures (VDCs and DDCs) are more inclusive, and accountable

  1. THE PROJECT INDICATIVE FACTS

Target Groups:

There are a total number of 14,620 people in the target VDCs (7,287 male and 7,333 female). The project is focused on one of the most marginalized and poor areas of Nepal, all population is poor and vulnerable and the special focus is given to women (Dalit, Single and Women with Disability) and most vulnerable, but to reach them effectively, other groups, especially government service providers, civil society organizations are also targeted.The action has been continued in the 6 VDCs. The project has developed capacity of local individual women, women’s groups and CBOs by creating 18 Women Groups, 18 Adolescent Girls Group, and 8 networks of those groups in these VDCs.

The detail of the target groups and impact groups is presented in the table below:

Target Groups (means) / Target groups/Impact Groups
  • 70 Social leaders/ Teachers : (5 social leaders+5 teachers) per VDC and 5 in district
  • Family Members (especially male partners)
  • 30 Political leaders: approx 5 leaders per VDC
  • 40 Police Office staffs: 20 in VDCs and 20 in districts
  • 90 VDC body members: 15 persons per VDC
  • 60 Local CBOs/local groups: 10 groups per VDC
  • 54 FCHVs: 9 FCHV per VDC
  • 10 Civil Society Organizations: 5 CSOs per district
/
  • 4000 women and 54 women groups (paralegal committee), among which:
-1,000 Adolescent girls
-3000 women including (100 Single women, 2,000 Dalit women, 250 women with disabilities)
-And 1,000 children (indirect)
  1. OBJECTIVES OF THE LESSON LEARNING DOCUMENTATION

The overall objective of Learning DocumentationWorkshop is to collect the learning and achievements from the project intervention.And it will be the learning andinformation/dataof the project indicators and assist to analyze outcome and progress as per expectation of the project.

  1. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THE LEARNING DOCUMENTATION

Specific objectives of the Lesson Learning Documentation are;

  1. Collects the learning from project and document it
  2. Disseminate and share the leaning among wider groups, networks, stakeholders, government line agencies, and other people.
  3. Learning sharing and planning for the next phase of the project and uses the knowledge, skills and ideas for other similar project
  1. SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS OF CONSULTANT TEAM

The selected consultantshould have understanding and experience on projectand process of reviewing the documents and reports related to the project progress, outcome and learning. Further, s/he also should have capacity to assess and analyze the information regarding the learning of the project implementation.Moreover, it is also expected that s/he should have knowledge and experience documentation on learning and research about the gender equality and social inclusion and Right Based Approach project. S/heneeds to review the documents concerning the learning of the project implementation and accordingly prepare final report on it. Then the report will be disseminated to the stakeholders, project partners, and donor community and project beneficiaries. The consultant should have at least master’s degree or above on relevant subject.It will be necessary for the consultantto prepare schedule and facilitate the learning documentation workshop.

  1. LEARNING COLLECTION METHODOLOGY/PROCESS

A learning documentation workshop will be conducted and documents (project progress report, survey, monitoring report and case studies). Moreover, the consultantis requested to offer the appropriate methodology/ process for learning documentation if any out of the mentioned one.

  1. Deliverables

The learning documentation report

The consultant will prepare and finalize the learning report with separate chapters into a comprehensive frame. The final draft of this report should be completed within 10 days after getting the information collected from the learning documentation workshop and other related documents from KIRDARC.

Presentation for feedback

The consultant will organize the feedback session after finalizing the first draft of the learning report and share to the team (KIRDARC and partners). A summary of the key findings and recommendations will be presented in the meeting and the feedback from the technical partner Mission East and WWS, and implementing partner, KIRDARC will be provided to finalize the learning report.

The comprehensivereport format willcontain:

  • An executive summary, which is no longer than threepages and includes the key recommendations
  • Background of the learning documentation limited to one page
  • Objectives of the learning documentation
  • Approach &Methodologies used to prepare learning report
  • A chapter setting out the findings in line with project indicators and outcomes,and specific recommendations on project using, but not limited to the objectives of the project.
  • Recommendations for next phase and similar project must be supported by a clear rationale and be viable in the lifetime of the project and designedtoimprove effectiveness and efficiency.
  • Conclusion limited to half page
  • Annexes includinglearning documentation plan, terms of reference, glossary of key terms, document reference list methodologyused forthe learning gathering

Presentationof Findings

The consultant willpresent thekey learning of the project implementation. The presentation (power point presentation) will include supporting documents and evidenceor appropriate logic of findings.This will ensure immediate feedback of the major conclusions of the learning.Mission East, KIRDARC Nepaland WWS willuse this learning for their official purpose and disseminate with wider groups, networks, stakeholders, government stakeholders, and other people for feedbacks and sustainability of women empowerment initiation.

  1. Team Composition

Team Members / No
Consultant / 1
  1. Tentative Schedule and workdays

S.N. / Particular / Person / Days / Remarks
1 / Facilitation learning documentation workshop / 1 / 1 / Workshop will be conducted in Surkhet
2 / Travel two way: Kathmandu to Surkhet and Surkhet to Kathmandu / 1 / 2 / For facilitation workshop
3 /
  • Review of project documents ( Proposal, periodic reports, case stories, end line/baseline and monitoring report )
  • Case Stories and Evidence Collection
/ 1 / 3 / The consultant will review the Proposal, periodic reports, case stories, end line/baseline and monitoring report
4 / Report preparation / 1 / 4 / The consultant will prepare the draft of the report and finalize it incorporating the feedback provided by KIRDARC and partners

The End