CONSULTANCY FOR OUTCOME MONITORING EXERCISE

WORLD UNIVERSITY SERVICE OF CANADA TENDER OCTOBER 2025 

CONSULTANCY FOR OUTCOME MONITORING EXERCISE

Closing date: 12 Oct 2025

Introduction

World University Service of Canada (WUSC) is a leading Canadian international development organization that focuses on three programmatic areas: Economic Opportunities, Education, and Empowerment. Our vision is a world where every young person thrives and belongs. Our mission is to catalyze change by improving education and economic opportunities for young people. We support all young people, with a focus on women and people affected by displacement. Our organizational values are rooted in a commitment to collaboration and partnership, learning and adaptability, courageous leadership, youth voice and agency, and inclusion for all.

WUSC currently works in 25 countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, with an annual budget of approximately CAD $40 million. We have over 90 staff in our Ottawa office and over 200 people overseas implementing 16 development projects in collaboration with donors, including Global Affairs Canada; the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO); the MasterCard Foundation; World Bank; the Asian Development Bank; and the African Development Bank.

The ACT Project background

The Action for Paid Childcare Sector Transformation (ACT) project is a 4-year collaborative initiative that uses an innovative systems approach to drive gender-transformative, locally-owned, collaborative action to transform paid childcare from a job of last resort to a vocation of choice. The project also aspires for the paid childcare sector to become one of economic prosperity for women in Kenya and Malawi. ACT aligns with Canada’s commitment to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 on gender equality and empowerment, SDG 8 on decent work for all, and Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) action area on growth that works for everyone.

ACT responds to recognition within the global policy agenda that women are overrepresented within the largely informal paid care economy, where they face low pay, poor working conditions, limited social protection, and rights abuses. These are key barriers that contribute to significant poverty among women-paid childcare providers, and that limit potential for their economic empowerment. The barriers also severely limit women-paid childcare providers’ ability to deliver quality childcare services. Women are the primary participants in the paid childcare economies of Kenya and Malawi. This sector has a high economic opportunity for women due to the potential for sustainable demand for childcare services; however, this opportunity is unrealized.

2.1 ACT Project Theory of Change

The Action for Paid Childcare Sector Transformation (ACT) project addresses the urgent need to build resilient, inclusive, and gender-transformative childcare ecosystems in Kenya and Malawi. Women dominate the childcare workforce, but the sector is marked by informality, low pay, poor working conditions, limited access to training/certification, and weak rights protection. ACT’s Theory of Change (ToC) is rooted in the premise that sustainable economic empowerment of women childcare providers requires systemic change across the ecosystem, improving the performance, coordination, and accountability of all actors and factors that influence the sector.

ACT recognizes contextual differences: Kenya’s ecosystem is more developed with a variety of active actors (Kidogo, Tiny Totos, Uthabiti, DPAK, HMAA, etc.), while Malawi’s ecosystem is less developed, largely dominated by community-based childcare centers (CBCCs) with unpaid volunteers. The project therefore applies context-relevant strategies, while fostering cross-country learning and adaptation between Kenya and Malawi.

Ultimate Outcome 1000: Enhanced economic empowerment of women paid childcare providers in Kenya and Malawi.

• Women providers gain better income, improved working conditions, access to social protection, and recognition of childcare as decent, dignified work.
• Parents and communities’ benefit from improved quality childcare services, enabling women in other sectors to engage in productive work.

Intermediate Outcomes:

1100: Improved gender-responsive performance of childcare ecosystem actors

• Building stronger coordination mechanisms across stakeholders (government, CSOs, training providers, placement agencies, financial institutions, parents).
• Enhancing the capacity of actors to provide gender- and disability-responsive training and certification, thereby professionalizing childcare work.
• Organizing women childcare providers into groups and collectives, enabling them to advocate collectively, increase visibility, and strengthen their representation in policy spaces.

1200: Enhanced protection and promotion of rights and needs of women childcare providers

• Addressing gender-based violence (GBV), harassment, and exploitation faced by childcare workers.
• Strengthening the policy and regulatory environment through reviews, advocacy, and targeted technical support to government bodies.
• Supporting ecosystem actors including Paid childcare providers groups and collectives to champion and uphold women’s rights within the sector.

1300: Enhanced provision of gender-responsive financial and business services and models

• Building capacity of business development service providers (BDSPs) to tailor entrepreneurship training, mentorship, and support to women childcare providers.
• Supporting financial service providers (FSPs) to design and expand gender-responsive products (loans, savings, insurance) tailored to childcare microenterprises and domestic workers.
• Establishing matching grants and innovative business models to strengthen sustainability and growth of women-led childcare enterprises.

Overall, Logic:

By strengthening childcare ecosystem actors (1100), protecting rights and addressing gender-based constraints (1200), and expanding access to responsive financial and business services (1300), ACT will enable systemic, sustainable, and gender-transformative improvements in the childcare sector. These pathways collectively lead to women childcare providers gaining recognition, better pay, safer working conditions, and viable livelihoods, thereby contributing to enhanced women’s economic empowerment (Ultimate Outcome 1000) in Kenya and Malawi.

3.Purpose and Objectives of the study

The purpose of the ACT project’s outcome monitoring exercise is to assess and document progress toward the project’s targets and the realization of its Theory of Change, while also examining changes in context and key assumptions. In line with this purpose, the outcome monitoring exercise will focus on the following objectives:

• Assess and measure progress at the outcome level
• Determine the value of outcome indicators at Year 2 of project implementation, reporting on all relevant disaggregation where possible, and recommend adjustments in their formulation if necessary.
• Finalize baseline values in cases where these are being determined on a rolling basis (as actors are engaged in project activities), and support the identification of end-of-project targets as appropriate.

Expected key deliverables are listed below:

Inception report, containing detailed methodology and timeline, data collection tools and protocols, enumerators training tools, data analysis plan, informed consent forms, Research approvals, if applicable; Final report with key findings and recommendations;

PMF with updated indicators values;

All raw data, recordings and notes from both the quantitative and qualitative data collection processes

Technical and financial proposal submission

Interested consultants are invited to submit:

• Letter of interest
• Technical proposal (understanding of assignment, methodology, work plan) (8 to 9 pages maximum) clearly demonstrating a thorough understanding of this ToR and including the following:
• Description of the Capacity and qualifications of the consulting/consulting firm, including previous relevant experience (1.5 to 2 pages).
• Description of the proposed approach and methodology for the measurement of all mentioned indicators as well as the strategy to address the listed learning questions; this section will include details on data collection, sampling strategy, data analysis, integration of gender considerations and ethical standards, quality assurance (3.5 to 4 pages).
• A proposed timeframe detailing activities and a schedule/work plan (including a Gantt chart) (1 page)
• Team composition, qualifications and level of effort of each proposed team member

Note that each proposal will be assessed based on a list of criteria, including but not limited to the following elements:

• Years of experience in the sector and the geographic context of the project, as well as with the key stakeholder groups participating in the project’s activities.
• Documented experience with participatory research methods, qualitative methods (like outcome harvesting), in the assessment of empowerment and in facilitation of consultations with different stakeholder’s groups.
• Team composition that includes local experts in key roles, from the design to the execution of the study to include women and youth.
• Methodological choices centered around inclusive participatory and consultative approaches, right from the design of the proposal, including elements of gender and inclusive evaluation approaches as much as possible.

Financial proposal with detailed budget in (KES): with a detailed breakdown of costs for the assignment:

• Itemized consultancy fees/costs, detailing the level of effort of each team member
• Itemized field data collection expenses
• Itemized administrative expenses
• Validity period of quotations
• Expected payment plan and method
• CV(s) highlighting relevant experience of all proposed team members
• Two samples of similar assignments conducted

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