Background
Oxfam in Kenya works with others to alleviate poverty and inequality. Oxfam envisages a Kenya in which each individual, regardless of gender, religion, ethnicity, or social standing, can access basic services, can fully participate and be heard, and can make free and informed choices to build sustainable livelihoods and resilience to external shocks.
Oxfam believes that gender equality is a right and is essential for poverty alleviation. In this regard, it is Oxfam’s policy to secure and promote full participation and empowerment of women in programmes and ensure that development[1] benefits men and women equally. Oxfam’s strategy is therefore to work with both men and women but ensure benefits increasingly accrue to women.
Oxfam as an organization has developed internal policies which are meant to ensure that Oxfam programmes at large are gender responsive.
The current Kenya Joint Country strategy (JCAS) clearly identifies specific opportunities in programming for women that the Kenya programme will work on and the how’s. In finalising the JCAS, the Country Programme Team’s collective analysis of Kenya’s gender context resulted in a collective commitment to put women at the heart of everything we do. This included embedding gender analysis throughout the PCM, more active disaggregation and dissemination of all analysis and reporting as well as agreeing that all programmes should include one objective that is exclusively aimed at providing positive impact for women and/or gender equality. This commitment was manifested in a number of strategic outcomes that specifically work for women, with the understanding that positive impact will generally be felt by all. The programme strategic objectives therefore have outlined specific gender intent, with others having expected outcomes specific to women.
The JCASs has identified one of the gender strategies as investing in Oxfam staff in which it has committed to carry out and repeat external reviews of Oxfam systems and policies, Including recruitment, performance objectives and staff inductions. In the short term we will resource gender mainstreaming through training and by exploiting our position as host of the regional office to have regular access to the new Regional Gender Advisor and by facilitating cross programme learning.
To start the implementation of the strategy, a programme staff training on gender was held in December 2013, during which staff prioritized the need for the programme to undertake a programme audit of Oxfam systems, policies and practices to assess the extent to which the programme has embraced gender sensitive programming as envisaged in Oxfam International gender none negotiable policies.
The overall objective for the audit is to gauge Kenya programme’s institutional and programmatic mainstreaming of Gender as envisaged in the country strategy document and Oxfam internal policies.
The specific objectives are:
- To review the extent to which the programme is implementing/has embraced Oxfam gender systems and policies in programming to promote gender justice.
- The identify gaps in gender that will need to be filled.
- To develop a detailed action plan for responding to the gaps
Expected outcomes:
It is expected that the audit will provide the Kenya programme with:
· A clear understanding of where it is in regards to gender mainstreaming
· Recommendations on what needs to be done based on the audit results
- The detailed action plan in response to the identified gaps
Specific activities:
The consultant is expected to:
· Develop and apply a gender audit toolkit that identifies:
o Oxfam none negotiable gender policies and procedures
o The extent to which Oxfam programming is responsive to Oxfam gender none negotiable policies and procedures
o Gaps in implementing the policies and procedures
o Areas that need further attention to ensure Oxfam gender compliance
· Write a detailed systematic report of the findings, with a comprehensive gender action plan with clear responsibilities and resources required for its actualization and monitoring.
Output:
· Gender audit toolkit
· Comprehensive report with recommendations and a detailed action plan for taking the recommendations forward
· Proposed M&E framework for the action plan
Time Frame:
The consultancy is expected to cover 14 working days as follows:
· One day development of the audit toolkit
· Two days desktop reviews
· 5 days field visits
· 3 days draft report writing
· One day debrief to Oxfam programme staff
· Two days incorporation of staff feedback and finalization of the report
Qualification and experience required:
· At least a degree in any of the social sciences
· Over 7 years experience of applied and practical understanding of gender analysis, mainstreaming and its application in development.
· Background in working on project cycle management
· Experience and understanding of Rights Based Approaches.
· Have an understanding of the 2010 Kenya constitutional one-third gender rule and its implementation progress and challenges
· Over 5 years gender research/auditing experience with excellent skills in documentation, presentation, workshop facilitation
· Sympathetic to Oxfam mission and vision.
Interested and qualified applicants should submit their consultancy applications on or before 11th April 2014 through kenyajobs@oxfam.org.uk including the following documents;
- Technical proposal briefly indicating an understanding and interpretation of the ToRs, methodology to be used in undertaking the assignment, work-plan with clear timelines for expected deliverable
- Background of the organization he/she represents
- Financial proposal containing consultant’s daily rate in KES and proposed terms of payment
- Consultant/s Curriculum Vitae detailing relevant experience related to the assignment and references.
- Names, addresses, telephone numbers of three organizations that will act as professional referees and relevant documents regarding registration
Consultancy evaluation and award
Oxfam will evaluate the proposals that meet all the minimum requirements and award the contract based on the technical and financial feasibility. Oxfam reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal received without offering an explanation and is not bound to accept the lowest or highest bidder. Only the successful applicant will be contacted
[1] Political, Economic and Socio-cultural
How to apply:
Interested and qualified consultants should send their applications latest by 4.30 P.M. Kenyan time on Friday, 11th April 2014 to: kenyajobs@oxfam.org.uk and indicate in the subject line: APPLICATION FOR KENYA PROGRAMME GENDER INTERNAL AUDIT. Please note that only the successful and shortlisted applicants will be consulted.