Gender Consultant at Options Consultancy Services Limited

Options Consultancy Services Limited was established in 1992 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Marie Stopes International. We are a consultancy organisation providing technical and management expertise in the health and social sectors to governments and international development partners to transform the health of women and children.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Gender Consultant

Location: Abuja
Employment Type: Contract
Contract type: Full time consultancy (1 month)

Project Information

• Across sub-Saharan Africa, health systems are making slow progress to save the lives of mothers and infants, despite experiences in resource constrained countries demonstrating that maternal mortality can be reduced through the use of effective advocacy, deploying sound evidence to inform and influence public opinion and holding decision makers accountable.
• Since starting in 2012, the Evidence for Action (E4A) programme has used a combination of evidence to drive accountability for maternal and new-born outcomes.
• E4A-MamaYe acts as a catalyst for action, using evidence strategically to generate political commitment, strengthen accountability and improve planning and decision making at sub-national and national levels.

Background

• E4A has arrived at a point where the project is expanding its ambition to radically shift power to local (particularly female) advocates and CSOs.
• The project has introduced new elements to reduce the impact of power imbalances, with local coalitions deciding what they need and want rather than the project stipulating and setting the parameters of its technical assistance.
• Within this framework, we are acutely conscious of the needs of women and marginalized groups; specifically, how they negotiate decision-making spaces and connect with allies to get their priorities to the top of household, community and government agendas.
• We are working to ensure that our project’s strategy is underpinned by gender progressive strategies and engagement with coalitions.
• The project will support advocates of all genders to recognize how women face multiple forms of discrimination and inequity when accessing RMNCH services.
• This will enable civil society actors to socialize more supportive and progressive norms within different spaces (i.e. from communities to sub-national policy platforms) and negotiate more responsive reproductive health care for all regardless of identity.
• We know that to achieve this it is important that the E4A team embodies the principles it seeks to uphold and promote.
• As such, we will put gender and inclusivity at the center of the E4A team composition, recruitment practices, implementation and M&E, so that inequality is not perpetuated, and our team effectively contributes to a new narrative for women’s health.

Purpose of the Assignment
The purpose of the assignment is to strengthen the knowledge and skills of the E4A team in gender-responsive programming and ensure the team have a common understanding of how the E4A reinvestment will be gender-responsive and that the team is ready to confidently deliver on the activities and results outlined on the reinvestment proposal.

The objectives of the assignment are:

• To increase the knowledge and skills of the E4A team on basic gender concepts and gender response programming including how it can be designed, implemented, and monitored.
• Possible key questions may include:
  • What do we mean by gender, intersectionality, gender equity, gender equality, gender mainstreaming and gender responsiveness?
  • What are some examples of how to mainstream gender and/or respond/transform gender issues in our work?
  • What’s the potential risk if we ignore gender?
  • What are the benefits of gender responsive programming?
  • What is intersectionality and how can we apply the principles of intersectionality on E4A?
• To contribute to the design of the E4A gender responsive program strategy through practical training activities and action planning:
  • The strategy will include details on how the project will work with coalitions in a gender responsive manner, how we hope to strengthen the gender responsiveness of the coalitions work itself, and how the E4A team and coalitions will uphold and track its own internal commitment to gender equity.

Scope of Work
Review the reinvestment proposal and selected documents in order to become familiar with the project:

• The consultant will review the documents selected by the E4A team. Documents will include the reinvestment proposal, annual reports, impact study, gender review report, and strategy documents.
• The consultant(s) may request further documentation as needed.

Meet with selected team members to consult on the design of the training workshop:

• The consultant(s) will meet with a group of E4A team members to answer questions that arose during the document review and provide more information on current knowledge and skills relating to gender responsive programming.
• The consultant(s) will lead a discussion on potential workshop topics and activities to garner feedback and insight into the required design of the workshop

Design the training workshop:

• The consultant(s) will design the workshop content and activities in light of the document review and team consultation.
  • The workshops should be participatory whilst also being responsive to varying internet capacities.
  • Objective 1 should be delivered over a max. of 2 days.
  • Objective 2 should be delivered over a max of 1 day per country team.
• The consultant will share a draft of the workshop outlines for review prior to producing the slides or other content of the workshops. Once the outline is agreed, the consultant will produce all the required materials to deliver the workshop(s) as agreed and share these in advance with a small group of team members for final sign-off.

Deliver workshop(s) as agreed:

• The consultant will deliver the workshop(s) to the team ensuring that everyone is included and feels comfortable to participate.

Share workshop report(s) with recommendations:

• The consultant will share a report of the workshop including their workshop materials and any outputs produced during the workshop e.g. during activities.

Deliverables

Consultant(s) Specification
We welcome applications from individuals or teams of consultants based in Kenya, Nigeria, or the UK.

The consultant(s) should have:

• 5+ years’ experience leading GESI mainstreaming and transformative approaches across the program cycle, ideally on health and/or advocacy related programs.
• A relevant Master's Degree in Social Sciences, Gender Studies, Development Studies, Public Health or relevant field required.
• Skills and experience to deliver engaging and participatory workshops with a variety of stakeholders
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Experience and soft skills to work sensitively and respectfully with people from diverse cultures.

Duration for the Assignment:

• The assignment is to be conducted starting from 30th May 2022 - 10th June 2022.
• Any changes to the timeline below will be discussed in advance with the Country Lead and the Programme Manager.
• Travel and rest days will not be considered as Subgrantee days.

Payments to Subgrantee
Funds can only be used to fund agreed activities and staff time:

• The Subgrantee is paid against the agreed costs per activity in Schedule 3 - Budget.
• The Subgrantee will manage the distribution of activity and staff costs are per the agreed budget.
• All payments however shall be processed subject to following the Activity Funds Request (Invoicing Instructions) protocol and Staff Costs Request Protocol as stipulated above.

Organisational Arrangements:

• The Subgrantee will report directly to the E4A Country Lead, and will maintain regular contact with the Technical Advisor, Alice Tilton, and Technical Specialist, Patricia Doherty.
• All escalating and emerging risks or safeguarding concerns must be immediately raised to the E4A Country Lead.
• The Subgrantee will also liaise with the Assistant pogramme Manager, Gabriella Osumawei (g.osumawei@options.co.uk) on contractual matters.

Salary
Commensurate with experience.

Application Closing Date
13th May, 2022.

Interview Date
Interviews will be held week commencing 16th May, 2022.