Call for Expression of Interest: Consultancy for Assessment on Access to Financial Services for Young Women with Disabilities – GESP.

Team/ Program: Girls Education Skills Programme, Nigeria.
Location: Abuja, Nigeria
Reports to Nigeria Country Director
6 week Contract

Project Background

In 2019, Nigeria signed into law the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act 2018, to prioritise disability rights by stakeholders and duty-bearers. The Act also led to the establishment of the National Commission for Persons with Disability, aimed at preventing discrimination against people with disabilities and to ensure disability inclusiveness across all sectors. However, policy implementation has been a challenge due to weak law enforcement, inadequate funding, negative attitudes towards disability and a lack of data on disability.

According to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics labour force survey, there are close to five million unemployed people in Lagos and Kano States, representing 36.4% of the active labour force. Development Initiative’s analysis of the 2012-13 Household Survey shows that women with disabilities are 43% more likely to be out of employment relative to women without disability. The high cost of living and level of inequality in the country contributes significantly to the adversity faced by people with disabilities, particularly women.

The Girls Educational Skills Programme (GESP) is design to address the barriers of including women with disabilities into the Nigerian Labour Force. The project seeks to build the employment readiness and confidence of young women with disabilities (ages 18-24) to secure jobs or run their own micro/small businesses. The project will also empower adolescent girls with disabilities in senior secondary schools (ages 13-18) to widen their career aspirations through skills development and mentoring.

Sightsavers is working with two organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) to deliver on these objectives. These OPDs are Project Enable Africa and Kanawa Educational Foundation for the Disabled. Some private sector partners are also keying into the GESP project to ensure its success, these partners include Unilever Nigeria, Guinness Nigeria, Access Bank, and the Industrial Training Fund (ITF).

Consultancy objective

1. Identify institutional, physical, attitudinal and communication barriers hindering people with disabilities, particularly young women with disabilities, from accessing wide range of financial services.
2. Conduct analysis of existing legal framework including the National Financial Inclusion Policy and strategy; National Sustainability Banking Principles, among others to identify gaps and means in which they could be strengthened.
3. Propose short and long-term implementable solutions that could enable the project to advocate for policy reforms and influence relevant stakeholders in the financial institution sector.
4. In addition, identify the relevant technical capacity needed by both the demand and supply actors in implementing the policy reforms proposed to enable the project achieve its financial inclusion objective.

To apply for this exciting opportunity, please complete an Expression of Interest form via our recruitment portal.

As an equal opportunity employer, we actively encourage applications from all sections of the community. Sightsavers is a Disability Confident Leader and qualified people with a disability are particularly encouraged to apply.

Sightsavers is an employer that does not tolerate any form of harassment and has zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse. All potential candidates will be subjected to rigorous background checks and controls.

In line with its commitment to safe programming and recruitment, Sightsavers participates in the inter-agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme (MDS) administered by the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response. Through collaboration with other MDS members, Sightsavers aims to ensure that there are no sexual exploitation, abuse or harassment issues relating to potential new hires and that we can respond systematically to checks from fellow MDS members. This ensures our work is accountable, delivered to a high standard and supports safeguarding across the development and humanitarian fields.