Terms of Reference Sustainable and Decent work Assessment

Overview and background                                                                                                                            

The GrEEn Project is a four-year project that contributes to boosting green employment and enterprise opportunities for youth and women in Ghana and directly contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 8 which seeks to promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work.

According to the ILO, decent work involves opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for all, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men. Decent work sums up the desire of people in their working lives.

The Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana (GrEEn) project is a four-year project implemented in the Ashanti and Western regions of Ghana. Primarily funded by the European Union through its Emergency Trust Fund (EUTF) for Africa, GrEEn is being implemented by SNV Netherlands Development Organisation and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) with a combined budget of EUR 20,600,000.

With the overall objective of contributing to addressing the root causes of irregular migration by supporting sustainable and climate-resilient local economies through the creation of green jobs and promoting development in regions of departure, transit, and return for migrants, GrEEn is targeted at women, youth, returnees, and Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs). The targeted sectors by SNV include agriculture, renewable energy and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).

GrEEn focuses on three specific objectives:

• To support the transition of local economies to green and climate-resilient development.
• To improve the employability and entrepreneurship capabilities of selected people by matching them with market opportunities and mentoring into (self-)employment and enterprise development, with a focus on green and climate-resilient local economies.
• To create and strengthen local ecosystems that support youth (self-)employment and the growth of Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs).

Visit https://snv.org/project/green-boosting-green-employment-and-enterprise-opportunities- ghana for more information

As part of promoting development through the creation of sustainable and decent jobs, the project has planned to carry out annual decent work surveys, commencing from year two, to assess the quality and the sustainability of jobs created and/or held by service recipients. Two major groups of respondents/ workers are targeted for the assessment. These include OYE participants and persons employed by SMEs supported by GrEEn and non-, GrEEn-supported SMEs.

Objectives of the assignment                                                                                                                         

The objectives of the assignment are the following:

• To assess the quality and sustainability of jobs created by GrEEn SMEs and the quality of jobs R2 participants eventually hold, including jobs provided by non-GrEEn supported SMEs.
• To provide information and insights that underpin the viability of their businesses and market positioning.
• To assess the decency of jobs created by OYE beneficiaries and SMEs based on ILO’s decent job criteria
• To assess how decent job has been mainstreamed in GrEEn Project implementation process and opportunities for mainstreaming decent job policies among project beneficiaries.

Expected outputs

• Use the results of the assessment to update number of decent jobs created by OYE and SMEs for the GrEEn project indicators.
• Clearly distinguish between employee and employer perception of decent jobs
• Clearly outline actions to align country decent work strategy with GrEEn youth employment and employability interventions
• Identify capacity gaps of SMEs and OYE supported beneficiaries and recommend solutions
• Document lessons, successes and constraints of the GrEEn Project implementation strategy for promoting decent jobs

Focus of the study

Number of full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs created: The indicator measures the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs that were created showing aggregates of part-time and full-time jobs. this includes. Part time workers are workers employed on a continuous basis of 6 months and more but whose working time is substantially less than normal (full-8hrs shift)

Assess jobs based on ILOs categories and standard measurement criteria as listed below

1. Employment Opportunities
2. Adequate earnings and productive work
3. Decent working time
4. Combining work, family and personal life
5. Stability and security of work
6. Equal opportunity and treatment in employment
7. Safe work environment
8. Social security
9. Social dialogue, workers’ and employers’ representation

Study Methodology                                                                                                                                                    

The study will adopt mixed methods and will be conducted through 1) desk reviews on decent job policies and initiatives in Ghana, 2) a quantitative survey, and 3) a qualitative study with focus group interviews and key informant interviews (KII). The questionnaires for all indicators will be gender- sensitive to ensure that the impact of interventions on youth, women and men disaggregated by sector and region are captured throughout the program. The study will assess both the employers and employees to determine the decency of the jobs created using the ILOs categories and standard measures.

The firm or consortium of experts or the individual consultant will be tasked with the delivery of the following:

1. Design a mixed method for the study for both employers and employees
2. Design data collection tools and conduct focus group discussions with workers/employees, employers and key informant interviews with employers/SMEs.
3. While the quantitative assessment with workers/employees will enable GrEEn to directly update the selected decent work indicators, the qualitative assessments will afford to GrEEn the opportunity to further understand the major findings from the quantitative assignment
4. Make recommendations for green to implement based on the research findings
5. Prepare a final report on the exercise, covering the scope of work and recommendations for future decent and sustainable studies

Deliverables                                                                                                                                                         

The consultants will submit progress reports at the end of each phase of the study.

Draft Report:

The draft evaluation report must conform with the guidance provided for the final report. The report will address each of the research questions in this SOW and related decent work indicator framework, and any other issues the team considers that can impact the objectives of this study.

Green will review and share feedback on the draft. The study team will address feedback/comments and submit a revised final draft report. Green will review and send comments on this final draft report for the consultants to address.

Final Study Report

The study team will incorporate the final comments and contributors from Green. The final report will include at a minimum the following elements:

1. Acknowledgements
2. List of Acronyms and abbreviations
3. Table of Contents
4. Executive Summary
5. Background/Brief program description, context, and rationale
6. Objectives of the survey
7. Survey methodology and data collection techniques
8. Main findings (to include values of all decent work indicators
9. Key observations
10. Conclusions
11. Lessons Learned and Recommendations
12. Annexes to the evaluation report:
    1. Terms of Reference for the evaluation
    2. Timetable
    3. List of documents, references, and data sets used
    4. Survey instruments: questionnaire, interview guide (s), etc. as appropriate
    5. List of key informants, focused groups, and persons interviewed.
    6. Fieldwork documentation
    7. Description of sampling procedures
    8. Data analysis procedures

6.Timeline and estimated level of effort                                                                                                                  

Period of Performance

Work is to be carried out over approximately 12 weeks, beginning on or about April 14, 2023, with fieldwork and draft report completed June 2023 and final report and close out concluding July 2023. The proposed schedule below is a draft and will be updated in collaboration with procurement department before the finalization and implementation of fieldwork.