Consultancy: Support for the Development of a Regional Action Plan for Africa on EVAWG

Terms of Reference

a. Background

Equality Now is an international human rights organization dedicated to ending violence and  discrimination against women and girls and promoting the use of the law to advance their human  rights. With a global team of 47 staff members and offices in Beirut, London, Nairobi and New  York as well as presence in Amman, Delhi, Tbilisi, and Washington, D.C., campaigns are centered  on four program areas: Legal Equality, End Sexual Violence, End Harmful Practices, and End Sex  Trafficking, with a cross-cutting focus on the unique needs of adolescent girls.

In 2000, Equality Now opened its Africa Office in Nairobi to support African organizations and  activists committed to working for gender equality, drawing support and strength through  collaboration. Since then, Equality Now has built a vast network of supporters and activists to  address women and girls’ rights and ensure that African women and girls are treated equally and  protected by the law.

Equality Now’s Africa Office also serves as the Secretariat of the Solidarity for African Women’s  Rights (SOAWR) Coalition. SOAWR was formed in 2004 to ensure that the Maputo Protocol came  into force. SOAWR is a regional network of 63 national, regional and international civil society  organizations based in 32 African countries. SOAWR’s main area of focus has been to advocate  for African States to urgently sign, ratify, domesticate and implement the Protocol to the African  Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol).

Equality Now, in collaboration with the SOAWR Coalition, has received support from the United  Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s Spotlight Initiative (SI) Africa regional program  whose objective is to strengthen the capacity of AU member states to improve the policy and legal  environment on eliminating violence against women and girls. This initiative seeks to enhance  evidence-based knowledge and the capacity of the African Union Commission (AUC), African  Union (AU) member states, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and civil society  organisations (CSOs) to advocate for and support AU member states to eliminate violence against  women and girls.

b. About the Spotlight Initiative

The Spotlight Initiative is a global partnership between the European Union (EU) and the United  Nations (UN) to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls. The Spotlight Initiative  Africa Regional Program aims to address regional bottlenecks and support regional commitments  towards Ending Violence against Women and Girls (EVAWG) including strengthening existing  strategies and initiatives. The project contributes towards the achievements of gender equality  and women’s empowerment as a precondition and driver for the achievement of the African Union  Agenda 2063 Goal 17, and Sustainable Development Goal 5, and prioritizes strengthening  existing strategies and initiatives, such as the AU Gender Strategy, the Gender Observatory, and  the AU Campaign to end Child Marriage and AU Initiative on the Elimination of Female Genital  Mutilation (FGM).

The Spotlight Initiative adopts a strategy of harnessing the respective strengths of multi-sectoral,  multilevel partnerships which will support the acceleration of transformative change. This will be  achieved through working with individual member states, the African Union (AU), the Regional  Economic Communities (RECs) and the Pan-African Women Organization.

c. Rationale for the Development of the Regional Action Plan for Africa on  EVAWG.

The development and rollout of a Regional Action Plan on Ending Violence Against Women and  Girls (EVAWG) including Sexual and Gender Based Violence/ Harmful Practices (SGBV/HP) and  Sexual and Reproductive Health and Reproductive Rights (SRH&RR) has as its purpose  redressing the factors that have impeded progression towards the elimination of violence against  women and girls on the African continent. The need for the Regional Action Plan is therefore pre

empted by the lack of a number of member states to prioritize the development and  implementation of national Action Plans as well as poor commitment by regional and national  partners to increase investment on EVAWG by integrating SGBV/HP and SRH&RR into the  planning and budget frameworks; and the need to fast track, monitor, and report on member  states’ compliance, commitment and achievement on EVAW. With only 26 countries out of 55 AU  member states with NAPs on EVAWG, there is a need to have a regional framework to boost  member states’ efforts to EVAWG. The proposed Regional Action Plan will serve as a regional  framework that will guide regional partners and member states to translate global and regional  commitments into strategies and actions to be undertaken at regional and national levels on  ending violence against women and girls through the development of a Regional Action Plan with  a Monitoring and Evaluation framework on EVAWG including SGBV/HP and SRH&RR.

d. The Process for the Development of the Regional Action Plan for Africa on  EVAWG

The development of the Regional Action Plan is led by UNDP in collaboration with Equality Now.  UNDP has recruited a team of consultants who are currently developing the Regional Action Plan  for Africa on EVAWG. This process will involve a number of actions/ sub-activities:

a. Regional consultations with different stakeholders including AU Member States, RECs,  the AUC and CSOs

b. Data collection and analysis

c. Validation workshops for the Regional Action Plan at the regional level d. Rollout of the Regional Action Plan with an M&E Framework in collaboration with AUC,  Regional Partners and Members States

e. Responsibilities of the Consultant(s)

The consultant(s) shall have the overall responsibility of supporting Equality Now in offering  technical expertise in the development of the Regional Action Plan and related activity actions  including the regional consultations, review of the inception reports, draft action plan, regional  validation reports and rollout of the Regional Action Plan and training manual.

f. Scope of Work and Deliverables

The Consultant shall be expected to do the following in support of the development of the RAP:

● Review and give input to related documents - concept notes, agenda, regional action plan,  training manual, training needs assessment tools etc

● Support the regional consultations - this entails offering technical support and guidance  towards ensuring that the training manual and action plan are comprehensive,  responsive to the needs and gaps and serves its intended purpose.

● Giving written comments, submissions on the different aspects above, in addition to  attending meetings with Equality Now, UNDP, AUC and UNDP's consultant(s)

● Reviewing the inception reports, training needs assessment tools and training manual  and give technical and comprehensive input on these

● Participating in the validation workshops - and identify areas of the training manual that  may need to be revised, strengthened and also give technical advice on how to ensure buy in/ownership of the document by the different actors.

● Supporting the development of clear action plans reflected by different regional bodies  during the consultation and validation workshops.

● Supporting the rollout of the Regional Action Plan and the Training Manual particularly  to CSOs.

g. Time Allocation

The consultant(s) is prescribed a timeline as follows:

● Onboarding and review of related documents- 3 days

● CSOs Regional pre- Consultative meeting in preparation for the Regional Consultative meeting - virtual, 2 December 2021

● Regional Consultative meeting with AU,RECs, Member States and CSOs on the Development of a Regional Action Plan on EVAWG- virtual, 6-8th December 2021

● Feedback from Consultative Meeting-3 days

● Review of regional action plan, training manual, training needs assessment tools etc-5 days ● Validation Workshop- 2022

● Rollout of Training Manual- 2022

It is estimated that the consultant (s) will offer support to Equality Now for an approximated 25- 30 days spread out over a period of not more than 5 months, from December 2021. As such, the  estimated timelines above are indicative and meant for guidance only. Indicated dates may  change.

h. Competencies

The following are required expertise and qualification of the Consultant(s):

● A postgraduate degree or other advanced university degree (a minimum of a master’s  degree or equivalent) in law, gender or social sciences or any other relevant field. (In the  case of a team of consultants, the lead consultant must have this minimum requirement)

● At least 7 years of professional experience in legal/ policy research and analysis related to  international human rights law and/or gender equality in Africa. (Mandatory for the lead  consultant in the case of a team of consultants)

● Prior experience in development of national or regional action plans on human rights as  well as training manual development.

● Demonstrable experience in human rights, and particularly, the rights of women and girls  in Africa. Experience working with women’s rights organisations is especially desirable.

● Demonstrable experience and ability to develop highly specialised analytical writing

● Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, a working knowledge of  French would be an added advantage.

● Experience undertaking projects and related activity using a gender sensitive approach.

i. Application Procedure

Qualified and interested candidates are requested to apply by emailing the following application  materials to [email protected] and a copy to [email protected] with  the subject “Consultancy: Support for the Development of a Regional Action Plan for  Africa on EVAWG”:

a) A curriculum vitae of the applicant(s) indicating their educational backgrounds and  professional qualifications, including all relevant past experience as well as contact  information (email and phone number).

b) A brief description of why the individual or team considers themselves most suitable for  the assignment, a note outlining methods and approaches that will enable them to  complete the assignments within the given timeframes.

c) A financial quote indicating the all-inclusive fixed total contract amount that includes a  breakdown of costs, where relevant.

d) Three professional references (including former clients) that can attest to past consulting  experience, past curriculum design experience, and past legal/ policy analysis experience  in the field of human rights.

Please note that applications shall be received via email only. The deadline for application is  11:59 pm EAT on 29th November 2021. Incomplete applications will not be considered.  Please note that only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

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