Consultant-Desk Review of Gender Analysis / Capacity Building

About IRC:

The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, IRC offers life-saving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in more than 40 countries and in 22 U.S. cities, IRC restores safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted by conflict or disaster. IRC leads the way from harm to home. The IRC has been working in Pakistan for over 30 years, and manages and delivers large, complex programs to meet needs in health, education, protection, environmental health, and livelihoods for displaced, poor, and conflict-affected communities. The IRC is currently working in partnership with non-governmental organizations and in close coordination with district and local government in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Baluchistan and Punjab and Sindh provinces.

About Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Project:

The International Rescue Committee in partnership with Voluntary Services Overseas is implementing a five-year, WEE Activity funded by USAID’s development cooperation in Bannu, Kurram, North Waziristan and South Waziristan in KP province. This project is part of USAID’s cooperative assistance that supports sustainable economic and human development in Pakistan by promoting women’s empowerment.

WEE project interventions are based on a dual strategy that involves: a) advocating for and working with government, private sector businesses and CSO alliances to adopt women inclusive and pro-poor social protection, market development, and value chain policies and practices; and b) modeling and implementing interventions that empower women by promoting and protecting their socio-economic rights, entitlements, inclusivity, and political participation in the conflict-affected, conservative and hard to reach areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Additionally, when women and girls experience GBV they will be linked to and safely referred to GBV response services, with their informed consent.

Purpose & Objectives

Under WEE project, our focus is on upending discrimination against and marginalization of women in society, and their intersecting identities which may also cause further discrimination in society, through economic empowerment, provision of women-centered services, and GBV prevention by engaging men through accountable practices to women and girls. 

The assignment has a two-fold purpose i.e. 1) to focus on the assessment of the current situation of gender equality and gender norms, identify key challenges and barriers towards gender equality and its impact on women’s access to rights and services in the districts of Banu, Kurram, North and South Waziristan Districts through secondary literature review of available gender studies/ assessments, and 2) to build the capacities of IRC and its partners’ key staff on unpacking gender norms that exist in the communities they are working in and that they can draw from participatory exercises with the targeted clients. . The secondary gender assessment should also gather on existing evidence on gender inequalities, previous and current legislation and implementation of policies while identifying key barriers of women participation in policy reforms and decision making including social norms, legislative, institutional capacity, and political will

Objective of the study

The secondary gender literature review and analysis will focus on the following broader areas:

·         Institutional (mainly public service providers)

·         Community

This shall eventually lead to learn the following:

·         An overview of different roles and status of women and men within the community, political sphere, workplace/labor market and household (roles and responsibilities, division of labor, consideration of access to control over resources and services, patterns and power dynamics of decision making)

·         Barriers and opportunities to gender equality in selected spheres and sectors

·         Gender-based constraints and opportunities for equitable participation and access to services including health, population and family health, basic education, workforce development and democracy and economic growth.

·         Key government policies and programmes focusing on narrowing gender gap in the areas of education, health, workforce development, political participation and economic development and opportunities for collaboration and strengthening gender integration

·         An intersectional analysis of how factors of gender inequality effect the gap between women and men in the areas of political participation, access to services and rights and decision-making using data on selected sectors.

Scope of the Assignment

The assignment will mainly target the districts of Banu, Kurram, North and South Waziristan in addition to building the capacities of IRC and its partner staff in conducting gender analysis and designing programs. In terms of gender technical areas, the study will focus on:

·         legal and policy analysis,

·         institutional and implementation measures’ analysis and

·         community-level analysis.

All these areas will have to be studied through following perspectives as relevant and appropriate:

·         Socio & Cultural norms: Key areas to explore under this shall be whether the culture and prevailing norms of in target districts are impacting men and women’s lives positively or vice versa that maximize or limit men or women’s time, movements, opportunities, and vulnerabilities.

·         Roles & Responsibilities of men and women: Key areas to explore under this shall be the roles and responsibilities men and women have under the culture and norms they are living that maximize or limit their opportunities and vulnerabilities.

·         Access & Control: Key areas to explore under this shall be as what both genders can control and access as far as resources and opportunities are concerned and how this impacts their ability to meet their needs.

·         Participation & Decision-making: Key areas to explore under this shall be as what are the roles of both the genders in decision making, and power, and how they participate in the matters regarding their individual, household and community levels which affect their lives.

Methodology The proposed methodology hinges upon the following aspects:

1.       Inception Report containing Broad Areas of Gender Analysis and list of Available Studies:

The consultant will submit an inception report to IRC that should contain detailed work plan, list of key studies to review, specific technical areas that are to be studies within the provided scope, analysis plan and table of contents for the Gender Analysis Report. Additionally, the inception report should also contain a detailed training plan based on IRC’s Gender Analysis and Program Design Toolkit.

2.       Literature Review:

Once the key studies are identified for review and approved by the IRC, an extensive literature review and analysis will be done. In literature review, the existing reports/gender parity reports, statistics, and its analysis will be reviewed. Moreover, national gender report, most recent gender reports, existing policy documents and laws will be analyzed, compared, and reviewed to gain more awareness regarding the issue.

3.       Meetings with Key Gender Experts: Conduct meetings with key government stakeholders, USAID Partners including UN agencies, INGOs and women organizations in KP/NMDs to identify key resources, laws and polices related women economic empowerment and gender equality, as well as the barriers, best practices and learnings contributing to gender sensitive programming and leading to achieve gender transformative outcomes in WEE targeted districts.

4.       Developing Contextualized Training Material:

The Consultant will have to learn and review the IRC’s Gender 101 and Gender Analysis Toolkit; and will develop the required context-specific training material such as presentations, handouts, pre & post training tests etc. that support participants unpacking gender concepts and norms through participatory exercises / tools and analyses to improve implementation strategy and monitoring of project activities. this will be based on approved training plan as part of the submitted inception report.

5.       Training on Gender Analysis & Program Design:

With training plan and training material approved, the consultant will deliver the training for IRC and its partners. The consultant may propose the training days between 4 to 5 days. The 2 days of training will be focused on learning about gender core concepts, approaches, tools (as proposed above), 3rd day will be a review of the findings from the literature review and KIIs and recommendations from the consultant’s assessment through, and a final day will be focused on developing a Project Gender Action Plan with staff for each district. The consultant will be responsible for all associated expenses of the training excluding participants’ travel, accommodation, and meals out of training schedule.

6.       Final Report

The consultant will be required to submit two different reports as under:

a.       A Comprehensive Gender Analysis Report through Secondary Literature Review

b.       A detailed report on the training with pre & post training evaluation

c.       Finalized project gender action plan

Deliverables and timeframe:

Deliverables

Estimated Working Days

Tentative Date

1.                   Inception Report

5 days

15th February

2.                   Draft Report of Gender Analysis

15 days

1st March

3.                   Draft Training Material and training plan

8 days

10th March

4.                   Gender Analysis Workshop & draft Project’s Action plan

5 days

15th March

5.                   Final Reports

a)    Gender Analysis Report

b)   Project Gender Action Plan

c)    Training Report with Pre & Post Training Evaluation

7 days

30th March

The duration of contract shall be for a maximum of 45 working days staring from the 15th February 2021.

Payment Installments:

The payment for rendering the services will be linked with the deliverables and shall be released after completion and acceptance of quality work by IRC team. Tax will be deducted as per Govt. policy.

Installments

% of payment

First installment – at completion of deliverable 1 & 2

25%

Second installment – at completion of deliverable 3 & 4

30%

Third installment – at completion of deliverable 5

30%

Last installment – at completion of final submission 6

25%

Quality Assurance:

To ensure quality control, the consultant will be expected to participate in briefing meetings with the IRC as needed to monitor the progress of the assignment and to ensure the timelines are met. The Consultant shall make itself available to the IRC as when desired by the Client to review and discuss the progress.

Reporting:

In all matters in relation to the assignment, the consultant will work closely with ERD Gender TA, Women Protection and Empowerment TA at regional level and with Gender Technical Specialist, and Senior Protection, Inclusion and Safeguarding Coordinator and at country office level. The consultant will report directly to Gender Technical Specialist based in Islamabad Office

Working Areas:

The consultant will undertake task in a mix of Islamabad and KP including Newly Merged Districts of Pakistan based on the agreed work-plan and methodology.

Required Professional:

·         Master’s or post graduate degree in gender or women studies, social sciences, or development studies.

·         At least 7 years’ experience in the field of gender programming and GBV with I/NGOs, UN agencies or government.

·         Proven experience in conducting gender analysis in KP/NMDs or similar context

·         Excellent English and Urdu written and spoken.

·         Proven experience and track record of timely and high-quality completion of assignments.

·         Strong communication and presentation skills.

·         Flexible attitude towards receiving feedback.

Commitment to IRC WAY and gender and safeguarding policies:

The IRC is an Equal Opportunities Employer. The IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability. The consultant will abide by the IRC WAY and Safeguarding Policies. 

Submission of Proposal:

Interested consultants must submit the following to IRC:

1. Profile of the consultant (max 1 page) explaining why they are the most suitable for the work and CV.

2. Technical proposal

3. Financial proposal