Invitation for Bids – Women’s Groups Business Skills Trainer/Facilitator

Invitation for Bids – Women’s Groups Business Skills Trainer/Facilitator

Terms of Reference (TOR) for Trainer/Facilitator

Proposed Start Date: April 1, 2024 Location: Unity State Region, South Sudan

A. Background

South Sudan’s Unity State experienced heavy, open conflict between the central government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army-North (SPLM/A-N) from 2011 to 2016. The 2011 conflict gave way to a humanitarian crisis with large-scale internal displacement within Unity State, South Sudan. Since 2012, Samaritan’s Purse has provided emergency agricultural support in the program area, aimed at helping households cope with conflict-related disruptions to their agricultural livelihoods and at improving household food security. To date, the program has provided support through the General Seed Distribution (GSD) program which has provided seeds, tools and training to farmers, as well as livelihood options including livestock restocking, and women’s and tailoring groups, among others.

Samaritan’s Purse is supporting 20 women’s groups with five members each (100 total) with medium-scale groundnut/sesame electric grinding machines to scale up their businesses. This will enable the women to accrue increased income, and contribute to the development of the local markets in the region. The groups are currently involved in the petty business of selling groundnut paste in the local markets. The purpose of the trainings is to build the capacity of 100 women in business skills.

B. Training Purpose and Objectives

The purpose of the consultancy is to equip the selected women’s groups with business skills that will enable them to sustainably manage the grinding machines and accrued income flows and work independently.

Specific Objectives Include:

• To impart skills to targeted participants in the commercial business mindset, record keeping, enterprise budgeting, and marketing.
• To help women’s groups learn and improve their business knowledge, attitude and skills.
• To equip the women’s groups in the management of small-scale business groups, group dynamics, general investment and customer management for a viable business.
• To equip the women’s groups to understand how to accumulate profits and savings, engage in borrowing and share profits.

C. Training Points, Scope of Work

The training content should include but not be limited to the following outline points.

Module 1: Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs).

The training modules or materials should cover the following:

1. What are VSLAs?
2. Introduction to the VSLA methodology.
3. Groups, leadership, and elections.
4. Development of a VSLA constitution.
5. First savings meeting, first loan meeting, first loan repayment meeting and share out/action-audit.
6. Election procedures, constitution framework, VSLA kit.
7. Use of passbooks, calculating a service charge, and what to do if the loan is paid back early or late.

Module 2: Selection, Planning, and Management of Income-Generating Activities (IGAs).

1. How to select an IGA?
2. Identifying suitable IGAs from a group of alternatives.
3. Marketing of the IGA(s) products, operation of the IGA(s) and different capital sources.
4. Sustaining an IGA, does it make losses or profits?

D. Methodology and Work Plan

The business consultant or trainer is expected to articulate a comprehensive approach for orchestrating the training sessions, tools and methodologies suitable for women’s groups’ learning. This involves integrating interactive methods to elevate the overall learning experience, particularly tailored to the group needs of the participating women. It should be noted that the participants may not have a high school education, and the few learned individuals speak and write Arabic.

The training will take a maximum of 20 days, including the submission of the training report. As such, prior to commencing, the consultant will be required to submit a training manual for review and approval.

Ideal start date for training: April 1, 2024

E. Stakeholder Engagement

In addition to the women (group) beneficiaries, the training will be attended by various stakeholders including but not limited to; the Secretariat of Agriculture (SoA), the Secretariat for Production, and the business community.

F. Expected Deliverables

Training Content Outline: The consultant/trainer is expected to provide a detailed outline of the training content (outlined in Section C above), ensuring its direct relevance to practical skills development for the participants.

Interactive Training Materials: The consultant is to develop and supply engaging training materials that cater to the learning preferences of women’s group participants, promoting interactive learning experiences and mechanisms to measure the effectiveness of the training such as pre/post-tests.

G. Evaluation Budget and Proposed Payment Schedule

Applicants will be required to submit a proposal including a detailed budget, specifying the number of days and the rate per day. The budget will be reviewed as part of the approval process. Upon selection and approval of the consultant, Samaritan’s Purse will cover the cost of international airfare, in-country accommodation and meals, and in-country travel for a maximum of 20 working days, inclusive of the first travel date to South Sudan and the time for the submission of the final report. This is estimated based on deliverables under this TOR and previous experience working with consultants. The number of days, however, may be negotiated based on the number of days the consultants estimate to complete this assignment.

The proposed payment schedule details are as follows:

• 10% upon signing the contract and agreed plan of operations.
• 15% upon approval of training content and materials.
• 75% upon submitting the final training report and any other deliverables.

H. Data Ownership and Confidentiality

All intellectual property produced as part of this training service will be owned by Samaritan’s Purse. All documents passed to the consultant remain the property of Samaritan’s Purse and are required to be considered strictly confidential. The documents will not be shared with a third party without the prior agreement and authorization of Samaritan’s Purse. The consultant will not be allowed, without prior authorization in writing, to present any of the results as his or her work or to make use of the training results for private publication purposes or otherwise.

I. Consultant Profile

• Minimum of a university degree in microfinance, entrepreneurship, agriculture extension, agribusiness, agriculture economics, development studies or other related subject area.
• Prior experience and/or training in conducting business training for women is strongly preferred.
• Verbal fluency and written proficiency in English is a must (fluency in Arabic is not a requirement, as Samaritan’s Purse will facilitate translation services if needed).
• Contextual awareness of the region to guide the training manual design will be an added advantage.
• Business training institutes or colleges highly encouraged to apply