Gender Specialist

About PPAF

Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) is the lead apex institution for community-driven development in the country. Set up by the Government of Pakistan as an autonomous not-for-profit organization, PPAF enjoys facilitation and support from the Government of Pakistan, The World Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), KfWEntwicklungs bank (Development Bank of Germany) and other statutory and corporate donors. PPAF aims to be the catalyst for improving the quality of life, broadening range of opportunities and socio-economic mainstreaming of the poor and disadvantaged, especially women. As an intermediary wholesaler, PPAF funds multi-sector civil society as well as private sector organizations through a network of more than 100 Partner Organizations across the country. The core programmatic units of PPAF deliver a range of development interventions to strengthen the institutional capacity of civil society organizations, and support the creation of organizations of the poor, that can work together to alleviate poverty and achieve MDGs at the grass root level. Externally commissioned independent studies have demonstrated positive outcomes and impact of PPAF interventions on the lives of benefiting communities related to their economic output, household incomes, assets, agricultural productivity skills, other quality of life indices and disaster management.

Background and Rationale for this Consultancy

PPAF has recently been entrusted with € 40 M soft loan from the Governments of Italy for the execution of the Program for Poverty Reduction through Rural development in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Fata and neighboring districts. The Pakistan-Italy partnership to support beneficiaries rural Communities within the PPAF methodology framework, will encompass leading principles of Italy’s ODA, including its adhesion to the Aid effectiveness agenda (Paris, Accra and Busan), mainstreaming guidelines, local coordination and sharing of responsibility with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Development Partners. Capitalization and appropriation of output results of PPAF and Italian Cooperation portfolio will be a logical scope to pursue, in response to the aforementioned criteria.

This program covers 14 districts and 38 Union councils in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA. Components covered under the PPR include – but are not limited to - social mobilization, livelihoods and enterprise development, small physical infrastructure, health and education. The program funding encompasses untied and tied components: the first for the preparation and execution of all field activities, the latter for the procurement of goods and services of Italian origin.

The untied component is being supervised by the Government of Italy through the support of the World Bank, while for the tied component, amounting to 5% of the overall budget, i.e. 2 Million Euros, structured assistance is being provided on an ad-hoc basis. As per approved “Framework for Strategic Direction – Gender”, PPR unit intends to engage a Gender Specialist for implementing Gender Action Learning System, capacity building of PPAF, its Partners organizations on gender mainstreaming.

New barriers to working with local community women have emerged, creating new challenges and risks for local institutions and intermediary partners of PPAF. Women, unfortunately, have become more vulnerable in the conflict areas. Their rights and needs have been pushed to the periphery as these are traded as a bargaining chip by extremist and radicalised and reactionary forces against development agenda, social cohesion and a pluralistic society. It is, therefore, anticipated that a central focus of the work of the local institutions, will require new strategies for protecting and advancing needs, priorities and rights of the local community women.

Objectives andScope of the Consultancy – the consultancy is necessary to take forward strategies that target women in extremely conservative and at times conflict affected and insecure areas. The combination of the conservative mindset with religious extremism is making it more difficult for POs to have real access to women and to support active and participatory women’s groups. This consultancy will support both the women empowerment and peace and pluralism agenda that PPAF has set for itself for working in difficult areas.

The objective of consultancy is:

a) BuildingPartner Organizations’ capacity to assess the needs and requirements of poor and vulnerable women, and women-headed households, listing challenges faced and addressed, current roles and responsibilities by the community, and scenarios for sustainable interventions to support such households to transition out of poverty.

b) Sensitization and capacity building of community institutions to ensure that the Union Council Socio-Economic Development Plan (UCSEDP) highlights issues of gender inequality, and challenges that women/girls may face in terms of discrimination, harassment, violence, and deprivation.

c) Introduction of methodologies or modules that bring values related to the individual, community and citizen-state relations, peace and pluralism into a stronger practical focus (for both women and men community members) Enhancing resilience of PPAF target communities through protecting and celebrating diversity –both as a means and an end to achieving transformative peace building and inclusive attitudes and behaviours.

d) Documenting and synthesizing the contributions and recommendations of partner organizations’ and community institutions’ on gender mainstreaming, peace and pluralism.

Deliverables:

The consultant will be responsible for the following:

i) Capacity Building:The consultant will use different training materials such as the globally tested and implemented “Gender Action and Learning System-(GALS)” for capacity building of partner organizations. Capacity building of partner organizations will also incorporate specific training on “gender mainstreaming in programme cycle” – and current capacities will first be identified before training begins so as to ensure relevance.

ii) Training materials: (Modules, courses, background material, instructor guides) will be developed /or where already available utilizedby the consultant which are culturally-specific, user-friendly, and gender-sensitive. Visual and written training materials are needed regarding: gender issues in the culture; and gender issues in disaster mitigation, emergency preparedness, relief and reconstruction. Such materials will be targeted specifically at men in the first instance, to build awareness, acceptance and attitudinal change:

iii) Gender Situational Analysis:The consultant will lead a comprehensive situation analysis, to be conducted by Partner Organizations via local support organizations, in order to investigate, from a gender perspective, the intended and unintended gendered consequences of interventions particularly in conflict afflicted areas, so as to identify good / best practices and further inform the PPR programme.The focus will be on community physical infrastructure, livelihoods and health and education components. A review of how women participate in, actively pursue, and are impacted by such programmes in their areas – and what are the longer term implications.

iv) Formal and informal peace processes: The consultant will also highlight initiatives for strengthening the informal processes and identifying how women participate (or not) in such processes, with a view to supporting the development of community and women’s knowledge as to how extremism and conflict impacts them and their households.

v) The consultant will also document and synthesize the contributions and recommendations of partner organizations’ and community institutions’ on gender mainstreaming for further finalization of gender strategy.

Qualifications

I. Master’s Degree inGender Studies, Social Sciences or relevant field

II. Minimum of 15years of proven expertise in gender responsible programming;

III. proven experience leading action learning processes, developing gender training tools, and delivering trainings on gender-responsive programming

IV. Experience of working in conflict afflicted areas

V. Ability to communicate ideas in a manner conducive to their practical application; Comfortable working as part of a team to add value to collective results.

VI. Ability to work in demanding conditions

VII. Deep understanding of local socio-economic context

VIII. Excellent communication skills

Duration

The duration of the consultancy is 05 months and working days will be agreed with the consultant in advance.

Institutional Arrangements and Reporting:

The selected consultant will report to Unit Head – PPR.

Selection Method

An individual consultant will be selected in accordance with the Selection of Individual Consultants method set out in the Section V of the World Bank’s Guidelines: Selection and Employment of Consultants by World Bank Borrowers (2011).