Consultant/Accountability Mechanisms
Terms of Reference for Consultancy: Developing Capacity in Accountability Mechanisms for Implementing Women´s Rights
Organisation
The Kvinna till Kvinna foundation is a non-profit organisation that supports women’s organising in conflict-affected/ post conflict contexts with the aim to advance women’s rights and promote sustainable peace. It does so by strengthening and supporting women’s rights organisations (organisational, thematical and economical). Through its head office in Stockholm and eleven country offices, it supports more than 100 women’s rights organisations in five different regions (Western Balkans, South Caucasus, Middle East and North Africa, West and Central Africa). Kvinna till Kvinna has worked in Jerusalem since Hanina, Jerusalem. The approach, as for all Kvinna till Kvinna’s work, is to enhance local ownership, provide long-term financial support, networking opportunities and organisational strengthening through dialogue and capacity development for partner organisations.
Position and purpose
In 2014, Palestine acceded to core human rights conventions including the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), positioning the possibility to strategize around accountability as a means of claiming rights for women’s rights organisations from local and national governmental stakeholders when it comes to 1) social services in relation to gender based violence and 2) marginalised women’s civic and political participation in decision making. Kvinna till Kvinna since 20012 supported several women’s rights organisations in the Gaza strip, and the West Bank including East Jerusalem in combating gender based violence and increasing marginalised women’s political and civic participation and advocating for the women, pace and security agenda. The learning Kvinna till Kvinna has made is that the women’s rights organisations engage local and national duty bearers in enhancing the conditions for women exposed to gender based violence and increase the participation of young women, but not necessarily recognise their work as holding duty bearers and relevant stakeholders accountable.
The overall purpose of the assignment is to enhance the awareness and capacity of the partner organisations in strategizing accountability, as well as further having the exercising the learnings with relevant stakeholder when it comes to marginalised women’s civic and political participation in decision making and social service for women exposed to gender based violence. This will be done by 1) mapping and analysing the accountability mechanisms used by the partner organisations of the last programme period (2014-2016) and their networks; 2) have an exchange learning session among the partner organisations on which accountability mechanisms are successful/unsuccessful; and 3) engaging relevant stakeholders in multi-stakeholder workshops to enhance mutual agreements on how to proceed with social service support, and further how to engage marginalised women’s participation in civic and political decision making.
Assignment and activities
Mapping and analysing accountability mechanisms
- Map accountability mechanisms that Kvinna till Kvinna’s partner organisations and/or their networks already use at local and national level
- Analyse factors that support success/lack of success in realising accountability
- Identify which of the successful accountability mechanisms could be replicated taking into consideration the various legal context of the West Bank including areas under full Israeli control, i.e. Area C and annexed East Jerusalem and the Gaza strip
- Identify accountability mechanisms used by the partner organisations and networks, and how they could be improved in accessing 1) social service, including legal support, for women exposed to gender based violence and 2) decision making processes including marginalised women
- Identify and suggest accountability mechanisms that is not yet in practise that could be a support for partner organisations and networks
- Develop a baseline of the 2014-2016 outcome on accountability mechanisms practised by partner organisations and networks to be used in the 2017-2019 programme
Activities to map and analysis
Desk review of the following:
- The Palestine programme documents
- Advocacy baseline Palestine
- Baseline study for the Palestine Programme
- Evaluation of the 2014-2016 Palestine programme
- Partner organisations’ final narrative report 2014 – 2016 and relevant network reports
- Accountability structures run by NGOs such as shelters, hotlines
- Accountability structure run by duty bearers such as the Palestine Legislative Council, family protection unit of the Palestinian Police, Amal shelter in the Gaza strip, etc.
Develop a plan for the information gathering and analysis phase:
- Prepare interview manual for partner organisations, and relevant networks and stakeholders
- Identify relevant networks and stakeholders to interview
- Identify possible data points (baseline) to be included in the mapping
Conduct field interviews:
- Identify and analyse accountability mechanisms that have been used in the 2014-2016 programme by partner organisations and networks
- Identify accountability structures of duty bearers, their value and weaknesses (shortcomings), on a local and national level through interviews as well as international structures of duty bearers operating in Palestine
- Analyse mechanisms, strategies and tools that have been successful and unsuccessful – factors of success and lack of success
Write a report:
- Contain of findings and analysis of the desk review and field work
- Recommendations of un/successful accountability mechanisms for gender based violence and participation in decision making at local and national level considering the division of Palestine legally, politically and geographically
- Baseline on accountability for social service in gender based violence and marginalised women’s participation in decision making
Sharing and learning
- Share the findings of the mapping and the analysis including the recommendations the partner organisations and/or their networks in a learning workshop
- Have the partner organisations gain a clear understanding of the dynamics of accountability and being able to identify successful accountability mechanisms
- Increase the capacity of partner organisations and networks by generating tailor-made accountability strategies and tools to hold duty bearers accountable (legislators, public policy makers, service providers, etc.)
Activities sharing and learning
- Develop and conduct workshop(s) to share, discuss and validate the findings and analysis of the assessment including recommendations pertaining to accountability experiences and learnings from real cases with partner organisations and networks. Learnings on HRBA, and develop tailor made strategies
- Develop workshop report on the outcome of the workshop; outcome of pre/post-test on HRBA/accountability mechanisms; drafted plans of accountability strategies for each partner organisation; further developed considerations of improvement and replication of best practices in terms of accountability mechanisms and structures within the Palestine context (considering the different accountability structure there are in place and the fragmentation of Palestine (East Jerusalem, Area C, and the rest of the West Bank and the Gaza strip) and ways to overcome the legal/political/geographical division while calling for realisation of women’s rights
Multi-stakeholder dialogue
- Prepare and conduct tailor made multi-stakeholder dialogue(s) with partner organisation and network staff and identified relevant duty bearers and other relevant stakeholders for partner organisations and networks
Activities multi-stakeholder dialogue
- Develop or strengthen already established accountability mechanism with partner organisations, networks and identified duty bearers at multiple levels
- Report in English containing the development of the dialogues
Deliverables
The consultancy will include the following deliverables:
- Desk review of above listed documents
- Work plan based on consultation with Kvinna till Kvinna on how to conduct the field visit - interviews - and workshops
- Preparation of relevant workshop materials including workshop programme, power point presentations, pre-and post- questionnaire for participants to assess the learning acquired during the workshops and workshop hand-outs for group work
- Facilitation of workshops with partner organisations, networks and duty bearers
- Three reports in English with content as stated above
Qualifications: Required skills and competencies
- Education: University degree (MA, equivalent or higher education), preferably in human rights and gender as related to development, social science, law or other related disciplines
- Experience: Sound knowledge and experience of human rights based approach and accountability mechanisms with gender focus or mainstreaming, at least three years per proven track record
- Knowledge and experience Human rights based approach and its principles of accountability, anti-discrimination, transparency and participation; civil society
organisations work and mobilisation regarding gender equality and women’s empowerment, or other related disciplines; situation in Palestine and/or the Middle East when comes to women’s status in terms of human rights and security including the role of religion as a normative and legal framework
- Ability to plan and meet requirements on time; excellent English and Arabic, verbal and writing communication skills, facilitation and training skills
Cost frame
Consultant fees shall be specified as fees per day including taxes, social security contributions and VAT. The tender shall state total value of tender, including expenses such as telephone, internet or postage and any expenses for travel related to the assignment.
Contracted consultant cannot further subcontract the assignment. In cases where the tender includes a team of consultants, their division of work shall be presented.
A minimum of 28 working days, divided between the thee steps of interventions, shall be spent in the field, divided within the different areas of the West Bank including East Jerusalem and Gaza should be indicated.
Required information
All expressions of interest should include:
- CV(s) of the consultant(s) involved in the consultancy
- Methodology and work plan for implementation of the assignment
- Method of ensuring the quality of implementation of the assignment
- Timeframe of the assignment in accordance with the points specified in this ToR
- Fees incl. VAT with all expenses in accordance with notes under cost frame
- References to previously completed studies like the assignment presented in this ToR
- Example of previous assignment in line with this conducted by the evaluator
The expression of interest should be sent to Kvinna till Kvinna no later than 26 November 2017 to the following e-mail address:
indicate “accountability” in the subject
For questions and clarifications, please contact Ms. Maria Johansson on the following email address: [email protected]
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