Consultant, Mid-term Review of AfDB Gender Strategy (EOI) at the African Development Bank Group (AfDB)

African Development Bank Group (AfDB) - Established in 1964, the African Development Bank is the premier pan-African development institution, promoting economic growth and social progress across the continent. There are 80 member states, including 54 in Africa (Regional Member Countries). The Bank’s development agenda is delivering the financial and technical support for transformative projects that will significantly reduce poverty through inclusive and sustainable economic growth.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Expressions of Interest: Consultancy Services (Mid-term Review of the African Development Bank Group Gender Strategy 2021-2025) - AHGC

Location: Home based
Consultant type: Individual Consultant

Introduction and Background

• The African Development Bank (“The Bank”) has made gender equality and women’s empowerment central to its operations through developing and implementing strategies on the need to integrate women’s concerns into the Bank’s internal and external operations.
• Over the years, the Bank has demonstrated significant progress in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment through several actions, notably:
  • Gender mainstreaming in national development plans through Country Strategy Papers (CSPs) and the Regional Strategy Papers (RISPs);
  • Gender mainstreaming in the Bank operations along the project lifecycle,
  • Building the capacity of its staff and putting in place the relevant support for gender mainstreaming,
  • Production of knowledge on gender such as Country Gender Profiles (CGPs), sectoral gender profiles.
• Similarly, the Bank invests in special initiatives to support gender equality and women empowerment, specifically access to finance through the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative.
• The Gender Strategy 2021-2025 is anchored on three pillars that support the Bank’s priorities to promote transformative gender equality and women’s empowerment and accelerate economic and social development in regional member countries (RMCs). These pillars are:
  • Pillar 1- Empowering women through access to finance and markets;
  • Pillar 2- Accelerating job creation for women through skills enhancement;
  • Pillar 3- Increasing women’s access to social services through infrastructure.
• The Bank implements the strategy through its operations, in alignment with the Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy 2013-2022 and High 5s agenda integrating the cross-cutting themes of climate change, governance and fragility.
• In addition, the Bank implements this strategy in alignment with the Bank’s other existing strategies, including the Financial Sector Development Policy and Strategy, the People’s Strategy, the Feed Africa Strategy, the Jobs for Youth Strategy, the Strategy on Fragility and Building Resilience, the Governance Strategy, and the Private Sector Development Strategy.
• The implementation framework of the strategy includes an action plan that specifies interventions to be carried out and defines the roles and responsibilities of the Bank's internal and external stakeholders.
• Implementation and results of the strategy are monitored through gender indicators in the Bank’s Results Measurement Framework.
• The Gender Marker System (GMS) - a key element of the strategy (Pillars 2 and 3), is a mechanism to “classify” or “categorize” Bank operations based on the extent to which they specifically address gender equality/women’s empowerment issues in their objectives, components, and expected results.
• The GMS has been applied in the design of Sovereign Operations (SOs) since January 2018. The Bank has set GMS targets within the framework of its strategies (Corporate KPIs, ADF-15, ADF-16 and GCI VII).
• The Bank’s gender specialists in the regional hubs and task managers have coordinated and guided the application of the GMS. Moreover, the Bank has reviewed and tracked the application of the GMS in all SOs approved by the Board since January 2018.
• A review of the GMS was undertaken in 2021 and provided pertinent lessons on how the Bank is implementing it as a tool for mainstreaming gender for SOs. Roll out of the GMS for Non-Sovereign Operations is in the nascent stages.
• The Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative comprises the key element of Pillar 1 of the strategy.
• AFAWA aims to unlock up to $5 billion of financing for Women Small and Medium Enterprises (WSMEs) by leveraging the Bank’s financial traditional instruments (lines of credit, trade finance, and equity funds) and through its AFAWA Guarantee for Growth (G4G), an innovative mechanism de-risking women entrepreneurs and enhancing Financial Institutions’ (FIs) appetite in lending to WSMEs.
• These financial mechanisms are supported by technical assistance to financial institutions and WSMEs to ensure that adequate products and services are developed to address women’s financial needs, as well as adequate knowledge to build bankable and sustainable projects.
• Given the importance of a strong enabling environment to strengthen WSMEs ability to access financing, the goals of AFAWA G4G program cannot be achieved without inclusive regulatory policies in place, and equally as important, the presence of enablers with sustainable programs to assist women entrepreneurs in their growth.

Purpose and Scope of Work

• As the Bank reaches the mid-point of implementing the gender strategy, the gender department will conduct a review to assess the progress made so far.
• The purpose is to provide lessons on what is working to strengthen implementation over the remaining half of the strategy. It will provide evidence on how well the action plan has been operationalized, and how this is contributing to achieving the objectives of the strategy.
• Findings of this review will inform the Board and management on possible improvements and emerging priorities to be considered in the second half of the strategy period. Specifically, the review will:
• Assess the continued relevance and validity of the theory of change and planning assumptions given contextual changes and shifts over the past three years.
• Assess the coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of emerging results of the strategy at mid-term and probability of achieving intended results over the remaining period.
• Identify enabling and hindering factors to achievement of expected results; and
• Draw lessons and provide actionable recommendations on areas of improvements, midcourse correction, if necessary, and/or new opportunities to be explored over the remaining course of the strategy.

A deep dive into Pillar 1 is a subject of a parallel review focusing on the AFAWA initiative. Consequently, this MTR will place emphasis on Pillars 2 and 3 of the Gender strategy.
 
Main Activities and Deliverables
Under the supervision of the Gender, Monitoring, Evaluation and Results officer, the Consultant will mainly carry out the following activities:

Produce an Inception report:

• Based on initial consultations, and document review, the Consultant will prepare an inception report. This will involve clarifying and fine-tuning the questions and related methods of the evaluation, as deemed necessary.

Collect and analyze data:

• The consultant will implement the evaluation following the inception report including the collection of primary and secondary data through document review, interviews and group discussions, and project case studies.
• Data collection will involve virtual as well as field-based studies in four regional offices of the Bank in Pretoria, Yaoundé, Tunis, and Abidjan.

Produce a draft and final reports:

• In the course of this exercise, the Consultant will produce a comprehensive technical report that analyses and synthesizes findings and conclusions from all data collection exercises, providing supporting evidence and appropriate explanation of methods used.
• In addition, the technical report should include lessons and recommendations on areas of improvement and or new priorities to be considered, if any.

Management, Supervision and Reporting

• The consultant must submit a monthly report detailing the activities carried out, the results achieved, the difficulties encountered, the recommendations as well as the planning for the coming month. They will formally report to the Division Manager of AHGC1 through their direct supervisor.

Duration and Address of the Consultancy

• The consultancy is for a period of 3 months from the date of signature of the Contract. The contract is international.
• The Consultant will be domiciled in their country of residence. If travel conditions allow, the consultant will have to carry out field missions to four regional offices of the Bank in Pretoria, Yaoundé, Tunis, and Abidjan.

Qualifications and Experience
The qualifications required for this assignment are the following:

• At least a Master's Degree or equivalent in Gender Studies, Project Management, Monitoring & Evaluation, Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, or related areas.
• Preferably a minimum of 10 years of professional experience in Gender analysis, research and designing/implementing gender and development projects.
• At least five years professional experience in conducting gender assessments, reviews, and evaluations
• Skills in facilitation of stakeholder engagements/workshops.
• Evidence of having undertaken similar assignments.
• Demonstrate understanding of regional social issues, analysis, and policy formulation.
• Experience in reviewing the operations of related institutions (e.g., MDBs) on gender, implementation of gender-specific policies, programs, and projects, preferably in African or other developing countries is an added advantage.
• Knowledge of the practices of major bilateral and multilateral partner development agencies in African countries is an added advantage.
• Communicate and write effectively in French or English, with a good working knowledge of the other language.
• Be a national of one of the member countries of the Bank.

Application Closing Date
10th March, 2023 at 23:59 PM GMT

How to Apply
Interested and qualified Individual Consultants should submit their CV detailing their Qualification, Experience and a list of references, and a Cover Letter for the attention of: Apolo Peter Kyeyune via: a.kyeyune@afdb.org and copied to Basil Jones via: b.jones@afdb.org and specifically mentioning “Expression of Interest (EOI) for consultancy services (mid-term review of the African Development Bank group gender strategy 2021-2025)”

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Important Information and Notice

• Applications should be transmitted in one file only (PDF preferred), with CV no longer than 5 pages and Cover Letter no longer than 1 page.
• Applications non-compliant with these guidelines will be rejected.
• Interested candidates may obtain further information at the address below during the Bank’s working hours: 09:00 to 17:00 hours