Call for Proposal: Developing Training Modules, Conducting ‘Training of Trainers’

Request for Proposal

“Building Sustainable Rural Women Entrepreneurs in Handloom Value Chain”

 

Developing Training Modules, Conducting ‘Training of Trainers’

 

 

1. About Centre for Education and Communication (CEC)

CEC is a non-profit, labour resource centre, founded in 1983. CEC’s mission is to build a wider horizon with labour and small producers and to uphold their rights as well as to enhance their dignity and power. Over the past three decades, CEC has worked in the tea, brick kiln, garment, leather, stone and fisheries industries, to address issues of occupational safety and health, child labour, migration, decent work, women’s rights at work and social security of workers.

 

2. About Big Bets Programme:

The India Programme of Oak under the Big Bets portfolio is launching a 4-year initiative to fund a collaborative of organisations to build a robust environment for rural women entrepreneurs (RWEs) from Assam and West Bengal engaged in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), with collaborative actions focusing on clean energy, digital empowerment, value chain development, research, communication and networking with strategic ecosystem partners.

 

3. CEC as part of BBC

 

Formative Phase

Under the Big Bets Collaborative a formative phase program was initiated, from July 1, 2022 to May 31, 2023, as part of which Centre for Education and Communication (CEC) launched the implementation of its pilot program- “Building Sustainable Rural Women Entrepreneurs in Tea and Handloom Value Chain”, in Rongmongwe Block, Karbi Anglong district, Assam, engaging women across 4 villages, namely- Rah Kro, Kalibheti, Napani, and Sarisabari.  

Under the handloom value chain specific program, the idea has been to pursue empowerment of rural women for setting up nano weaving enterprises, through building inclusive collectives of women, and strengthening them with entrepreneurial capacity building and value-added production skills in line with the evolving market needs. Regular engagements were carried out within the community for developing entrepreneurial aspirations and confidence among rural women and for enabling a supportive environment for them to grow in their journey.  Collaborative interventions were also initiated with BBC partners exploring the needs and solutions for building women’s access to green technology integration and digital empowerment as a medium for gaining enhanced efficiency and growth.

Simultaneously, a handloom value chain research study was commissioned for secondary as well primary analysis of the ecosystem actors and factors defining a rural women entrepreneur’s journey in the particular value chain, in context of Assam.

4-Year Implementation Phase

Based upon the learnings from Pilot and evidences from research, a 4-year implementation phase program strategy evolved, towards achieving following goals:

1. Promote rural women entrepreneurship by building capacity of women weavers to increase production, diversifying products, adapting innovations, enabling credit sources, and
2. Building visibility of the RWE by facilitating marketing and branding support through forward and backward linkages, and
3.  Develop self-reliance and capacity of women to run sustainable business through behaviour change initiatives at all levels and enable ecosystem for women entrepreneurs to thrive through active advocacy with government and demonstration of growth of RWEs to influence policy level decisions at state and national level.

4. Context of Assignment

The formative phase has highlighted that rural women despite of having aspirations and skills to become entrepreneurs, are restricted in their entrepreneurial growth by the socio-cultural barriers emerging within their immediate ecosystem. Observed right at the initial stages of interventions, support from family, especially men, has emerged as a key decisive factor, for rural women’s participation in any form of capacity building interventions. Research studies indicate how structural violence and gender inequality has an adverse impact on rural women’s upward mobility as an entrepreneur.

Additionally, lack of resources for accessing comprehensive knowledge about financial literacy, business management and leadership skills restrict women’s growth beyond a certain level. In fact, the growth barriers become even more intense as women move up to the subsequent stages of value chain. Additionally, considering the education level of majority of rural women, which is hardly beyond high school, it becomes important to build such resources and design strategies for delivering them, in a manner which is suitable to the context of rural women, particularly in the handloom value chain.

5. Objective

Based on some of these early observations, building RWE’s resilience against socio-cultural barriers and access to context specific comprehensive entrepreneurial capacities, suiting their stage specific needs, emerged as a necessity for ensuring a holistic 4-year program design, towards enabling rural women to effectively pursue their entrepreneurial journey and have sustainable growth.

To further the impact of these interventions beyond the current scope of program, we will partner with 20 trainers associated with key ecosystem actors, deeply engaged in promoting decent livelihood and sustainable entrepreneurship for rural women in the state of Assam, at grassroot level, to be the resource persons for these capacity building workshops with RWEs.

With ecosystem transformation approach at heart, we look forward to introduce these knowledge resources, and ‘Training of Trainers’ program to the key ecosystem actors, as demonstrated and adaptable models of impact, thereby influencing the systems to adopt/ integrate these innovations, extending the benefit to more and more women, in handloom sector and beyond.

6. Outlining Program Strategy:

1. Develop ‘Training of Trainers’ knowledge resources including Training Modules, methodology, Training and follow up tools, outcome indicators, and MEL strategy & tools.
2. Assist in developing the ‘ToT’ program design for bringing out optimal impact.
3. Identify local CSOs, Government Institutions, Private organizations and independent grassroot trainers, and facilitate the process of building partnerships/collaborations with them for participation in our ‘ToT’ program followed by conducting training sessions for RWEs at village level in the project areas.
4. Developing Trainee Assessment Tools, and facilitate the process of identification and selection of participants for the ‘ToT’ program, followed by performance assessment on ground.
5. Conducting a ‘ToT’ program through a 19-day program, split into three phases of 6 days each, i.e., Foundation level, Secondary level and Advance level, followed by 1 day program review session.
6. Onboarding/identifying technical experts for ensuring quality and relevance of the training modules for RWEs in Handloom Value Chain in Assam.

7. Outlining Training Modules (non-exhaustive):

• Enabling RWEs to overcome socio-cultural barriers through gender lens:

• Strengthening rural women’s agency and building individual autonomy.
• Building awareness among rural women, families and community around work division, unpaid care work, structural violence, financial autonomy, community support, economic participation and enhanced mobility.
• Building awareness around social security entitlements for RWE households

• Building Entrepreneurial Capacities: Financial Literacy

• Financial Literacy to RWEs:

-Foundation level (Focusing on individuals, and value chain agnostic)

-Secondary level (focusing on RWE Collectives, and specific to the context of handloom value chain)

-Advanced level course (focusing on RWE Leadership, and specific to the context of handloom value chain)

• Building Entrepreneurial Capacities: Business Literacy

• Business Literacy to RWEs:

-Foundation level (value chain agnostic)

-Secondary level (focusing on RWE Collectives, and specific to the context of handloom value chain)

-Advanced level course (focusing on RWE Leadership, and specific to the context of handloom value chain)

• Strengthening RWE Collectives and women’s Leadership:

• Principles of Working in Collective: Democracy, Transparency, one member one vote, Equality, Pooling of resources, etc.
• Building RWE Leadership: Networking & convergence with ecosystem players, Customer engagement, Risk and Time Management, Growth mapping, Conflict resolution etc.

8. Tentative timeline of the program[1]:

 

S. No.	Description of Task	Yr-1 (Jun’23-May’24)	Yr-2 (Jun’24-May’25)	Yr-3 (Jun’25-May’26)
Overall ‘‘ToT’’ Designing and Foundation Level Program
1	Designing ToT program, Final draft of Foundation level training resources.	25th Aug
2	Identification, assessment and selection of 20 participants from local ecosystem for the 3 stage ‘ToT’ program.	By 30th Aug
3	Conducting 1st ‘ToT’- 6 Day Foundation level program	1st week of September
Secondary Level Program
4	Final draft of training resources- Secondary Level	15th March
5	Conducting 2nd ‘ToT’- 6 Day Secondary level program	1st week of April
Advance Level Program
6	Final draft of training resources- Advance Level		15th Jan
7	Conducting 3rd ‘ToT’- 6 Day Advance level program		1st week of Feb
Program Conclusion
8	Conclusive session of ‘ToT’ program- One day session for reviewing performance, plugging gaps, and strengthening strategies.			3rd week of July
9	Final draft of updated manuals, strengthened in light of grassroot experiences of trainers with Rural Women Entrepreneurs			20th Aug

 

9. General Principles Guiding Preparation of Modules and the Execution of Training

 

1. The development of the training modules and the execution of the ‘ToT’ program will be carried out by experts in the respective field. While the experts will be introducing for developing entire/any technical part of a particular module, final onboarding will be done in consultation with CEC, subject to their satisfaction.
2. Design of the knowledge resources/ tools and ‘ToT’ program shall be developed and finalized in close consultation with CEC.
3. The training modules will be developed keeping in mind the specific requirements of the rural women entrepreneurs in Assam. If required, an exploratory visit to the project area by the expert is encouraged. 
4. ‘ToT’ will be conducted in Guwahati, Assam, as per the program schedule.
5. Training sessions will be carried out in an inclusive and most participatory manner. Creative methods like role play, group activities, experience sharing and question/answers will be encouraged during the training programme. 
6. Training modules will be revised based on participant’s experiences of conducting workshops with RWEs.

 

Prior experience of developing similar knowledge resources/ programs for rural women or handloom sector is required. Only short-listed proposals will be pursued for the next round of process.

If interested, send your detailed proposals at cec@cec-india.org by 25.07.2023