CARE International in Pakistan is strongly committed to working on Safer Workplaces, it has worked with several private sector organizations, government, and workers’ organizations in supporting managements in addressing workplace safety issues. CARE led a campaign on promoting the new ILO instrument on ending GBV and Harassment in the world of work in collaboration with ILO Pakistan Office, National Commission on the Status of Women, it also engaged Chamber of Commerce, Unilever Pakistan, Employers Federation of Pakistan, and Pakistan Workers’ Federation. CARE has also worked with women entrepreneurs in partnership with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, which runs in Pakistan, Peru, and Vietnam where there are large segments of unserved micro and small enterprises ready for investment. By partnering with local financial and non-financial service providers, IGNITE project for women entrepreneurs opens much-needed access to finance, technology, and networks and builds entrepreneurship capacity and skills.

Since October 2020, Chrysalis has partnered with CARE UK to develop a women’s safety guidance for Unilever’s last-mile distribution networks. Alongside this, CARE UK has partnered with CARE Guatemala and the CARE Gender Cohort to develop an entrepreneurship skills curriculum also intended for Unilever’s last-mile distribution networks.

Now that the women’s safety and entrepreneurship tools are in a final draft state, CARE UK requests the support of CARE Pakistan to conduct an in-market context analysis to understand the needs of women entrepreneurs in the Unilever networks in Pakistan- Guddi Bajis.

The direct motive for this procurement is to develop a business case for the Unilever sales teams in those markets. The business case will outline the social needs of the women entrepreneurs (including for example GBV, gender power dynamics within the household and community, financial inclusion, entrepreneurship skills) and draw assumptions linking these needs to commercial objectives for Unilever (viability of the sales structure, impacts of social needs on women’s participation in sales, adaptations needed from a policy and provisions perspective). The business case will present the Unilever teams with the recommendations and imperatives to begin implementation using the CARE-developed women’s safety and entrepreneurship curriculum tools.

CARE is asking interested research teams to submit their quotations. A research team should consist of one (1) experienced senior research coordinator and three (3) experienced interviewers.

Chapter 2: Project Definition

2.1 Objective and Scope

The overall objective of the contextual analysis will be to;

• GBV and safety risks experienced by Unilever’s as Guddi Baji Entrepreneurs and challenges this poses to the Unilever distribution chain.
• Ascertain the commercial and community context in which the safety training will be used – specifically to identify and understand what GBV women in Pakistan may potentially face as Guddi Baji Entrepreneurs and barriers to reducing this.
• Gather data and insights to inform the localisation and adaptation of the training curriculum modules 2 and 5.
• Gather insights to inform the design of the training roll out and implementation.

The results will present Unilever with a compelling context analysis demonstrating the need for the CARE-developed women’s safety guidance note and entrepreneurship curriculum from both a social and commercial impact perspective.

2.2 Project outputs

• Development of research framework informed by literature review for macro-level contextual analysis.
• Development of primary and secondary data collection tools (Methodology please see below details in the methodology section) and agree report format with Unilever Pakistan and CARE International Pakistan (CIP)
• Briefing call on data collection tools, introduction and on-boarding of Unilever teams and local partners
• Conduct primary data collection.
• Undertake initial analysis and synthesis of primary data collection.
• Validation with Unilever through a joint exercise with CIUK, CIP and Unilever Pakistan
• Debriefing call following research completion.
• Research write-up and communications package

2.3 Proposed methodology

The research will take a qualitative approach and cover research areas to meet our proposed objectives including:

Economic factors:

• Local Unilever business strategy for last-mile sales
• Household income and financial context and needs of Shakti entrepreneurs or sales agents.
• Sales experience and/or existing competitor catalogue engagement of the Shakti entrepreneurs or sales agents

Operating environment:

• Viability and structure of Guddi Bajis – supervisors and agents.
• Understand the relevant Unilever distribution network enabling legal and policy environment.
• Scope out the existing sales training delivery methods and plans already underway or being planned by Unilever in market with Guddi Bajis.

Social norms and women’s safety influences:

• Legal environment relating to women’s rights and violence against women.
• Gender power dynamics within the household and community
• Barriers to healthy lifestyles
• Women’s safety experiences within the operating community
• Women’s safety risks specific to participation in Unilever’s Guddi Baji sales network – pertaining to supervisors and agents.

Study sample

100 Guddi Baji agents in Sindh, Punjab and KPK (2 districts in each tentative names of the districts are Bhawalpur, Toba Tek Singh, Tando Mohammad Khan, Qamar Shadaad Kot, Mardan and Swabi) will be identified to participate in this study.

We propose that the research sample considers three levels:  Home, community (marketplace) and workplace (where the interaction happens with Unilever/local business partner)

-          Demography of sample population criteria will include:

• Potential Guddi Bajis, agents, and supervisors
• Agent family members (for community dynamics)
• Men (to understand from a support, household perspective)
• Unilever country staff – management, those directly working with the women.
• Focal point of the Guddi Baji programme in each Pakistan
• Service providers and NGOs

 A total of six districts including two from KPK, two from Punjab and two from Sindh will be selected for this study. Four FGDs will be conducted (2 males and 2 female) in each district with the entrepreneurs (Guddi Baji) and four KIIs will be conducted with key Stakeholders i.e. men and Unilever business partners from each district. KIIs will be conducted at provincial level with Unilever Guddi Baji Program leads.

Tools

For primary data collection, a combination of key informant interviews (KIIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) will be used in this study. In the case of an online network of Guddi Baji entrepreneurs an individual survey questionnaire will be administered.

Two FGDs will be conducted (1 males and 1 female) in each district with the entrepreneurs (Guddi Baji) and four KIIs will be conducted with key Stakeholders i.e. men and Unilever business partners from each district. KIIs will be conducted at provincial level with Unilever Guddi Baji Program leads.

For secondary data collection, desk research will be carried out, including sharing of any relevant data from Unilever Pakistan on Guddi Bajis.

Deadlines and Proposala Submission

• The opening of the request for proposals is October 17, 2023

• Any questions, remarks or requests for clarification can be send during office working days (Monday to Friday) before 3:00 PM, 27th October 2023, or write an email to [email protected] .
• The (anonymised) questions will be answered to all applicants no later than 25th October 2023
• Quotations should reach CARE no later than 11:59 PM, Wednesday, November 1, 2023.

Addressed to: Procurement Committee

Title: Consultancy for Scoping study of Guddi Baji Unilever Interventions in Pakistan

Address: CARE International in Pakistan

Plot no.1-E, Street 46, Shopping center, I-8/2 Islamabad.

 Detail TORs attached