Consultancy on Feminist PMEL of Evidence-based Lobby and Advocacy

Overview

The program “Feminist Power in Action for Women’s Economic Rights” (FemPawer) aims to strengthen the capacities of young women who face multiple economic gender-based violence (E/GBV) discriminations in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Tunisia to become leaders for change. By holding duty bearers accountable and improving conditions for young women in the informal sector through target-led activities, the program ensures that discriminated young women become advocates for their own rights and propose relevant solutions and recommendations. The FemPawer program focuses on strengthening leadership, challenging prevailing social norms, and promoting women’s economic rights (WER). It is led by a consortium of 4 organizations and consists of a network of 39 Women’s Rights Organizations (WROs), also referred to as Partner Organizations (POs), that are diverse and vary in size, experience, geographical location, and profile.

Kvinna till Kvinna, Collective for Research and Training on Development-Action (CRTDA), The Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD), and Arab Women Organization (AWO), together, are looking for a consultancy team to train and coach Consortium Partners and Partner Organizations (PO) on feminist monitoring, evaluation, and learning of evidence-based lobby and advocacy. The support will cover partners in Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine. The intended result of the activity is that FemPawer partners gain capacity to use self-monitoring tools that reflect both enabling factors for progress, but also reflect, visualize, and identify gendered resistance and backlashes. Also, information collected from these tools will further influence donors on how to best provide program support for women’s economic rights in gendered shrinking space.

About Kvinna till Kvinna

The Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation has defended women’s rights since 1993. Today, we are one of the world’s leading feminist women’s rights organizations, working directly in areas affected by war and conflict to strengthen the influence and power of all women. We work closely together with around 150 partner organizations in 20 countries to defend women’s rights, achieve gender equality and justice, and reach lasting feminist peace. We work in both conflict-affected and humanitarian contexts, supporting women’s rights and peace building with a long-term perspective. We strive to be a flexible and reliable partner for women’s rights organizations in these contexts, supporting them to adapt their work to the state of conflict and emergencies.

About other members in the consortium

AWO has been operating in Jordan since 1970, their mandate is to promote gender equality and women’s rights. CRTDA has been operating in Lebanon and regionally since 2003 and their mandate is to promote gender and citizenship equality and social justice and to have women become politically, socially, and economically autonomous and give them the voice and agency needed to participate in political and social societal spheres. PWWSD has been operating in Palestine since 1981 as a social movement and registered in 2001, and their mandate is to strive for national liberation, gender equality, the eradication of all forms of discrimination against women, and activate women’s participation in social and democratic change.

Background

Within our consortium, we have observed how the landscape of narratives reflecting women’s rights globally have changed. Gender is under attack in many places and possibilities to advance women’s rights are increasingly challenged. Therefore, there is an urgency to continue creating space, strategies, and progress through Feminist Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (PMEL) in harsher climates – to prevent so called backlashes. Most tools in use today do not allow for tracking negative change, reversals, backlash, unexpected change, and other processes that push back or shift the direction of a positive change trajectory. Traditional PMEL tools are not designed to track movement building and movement impacts, and they are often linear having the measurement of a cause-effect relationship that cannot measure complex social changes; they do not allow to fully track negative change process related to reversals or backlashes due to gendered resistance. Hence there is a void to fill with feminist PMEL tools that address feminist approaches in general, and gendered resistance.

Key Details

• Location: flexible, but it is expected to conduct one regional training, face-to-face. Travel costs will be covered by the consortium.
• Application deadline: February 25, 2024
• Consultancy team: one lead consultant and three local experts from Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine
• Timeline: Expected to start by beginning of April 2024 and until December 15, 2024. The bulk of the work will be in the first four months, when you are expected to prepare and deliver for a regional training of trainers. Then for the remaining duration, you will support/coach the partners when needed (for an average of 2 days per month) and will be expected to deliver at the end of the year, a workshop to assess learnings.

Target group for the activity

The first target group is two M&E experts per country from Consortium Partners or POs, who will be attending a Training of Trainers (ToT) on Feminist PMEL. You will be expected to develop a selection criterion for participants, and assess application received to identify who attends the ToT. The second target group is the Partner Organization who will benefit from in-country training and coaching that will be organized by the newly trained trainers (with support from the consultancy team) after attending the ToT.

Skills, Qualifications and Experience

• Inclusive Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E): Experience in developing and implementing M&E frameworks that account for gender-sensitive indicators and feminist evaluation methodologies.
• Capacity Building: Experience in designing and delivering training programs focused on building the capacity of project teams to understand and implement feminist principles.
• Policy Advocacy: Knowledge and experience in advocating for policies that align with feminist values, both within project contexts and at broader organizational or societal levels.
• Intersectional Analysis: Proficient in employing intersectional perspectives to assess and address diverse social, economic, and cultural factors influencing project outcomes.
• Communication Skills: Effective communication skills to articulate feminist principles and project goals, and outcomes to various audiences, fostering understanding and support.
• Adaptability: Ability to adapt feminist PMEL approaches to different project types, recognizing the uniqueness of each context while maintaining a commitment to gender equality.
• Results-Oriented: Demonstrated ability to achieve tangible, gender-transformative results in project implementation, reflecting a commitment to advancing feminist goals.
• Continuous Learning: Proactive in staying updated on feminist theories, methodologies, and best practices in feminist PMEL, showing a commitment to continuous learning and improvement.
• Full proficiency in spoken and written Arabic and English.

Women and people with diverse backgrounds and lived experiences from target countries are highly encouraged to apply.

Deliverables

1. Needs assessment with target group (consortium partners and POs), including selection criteria for participants of the ToT.
2. Adjustable feminist PMEL tools in relation to the program, focused on lobby and advocacy.
3. Training curriculum/materials for ToT + feminist PMEL + using of tools.
4. Work closely with ToT participants in developing training curriculum/materials for in country trainings, based on ToT materials.
5. Learning workshop on best practices and lessons learns using the feminist PMEL tools.
6. Report on best practices, lessons learnt, and ways forward.

Evaluation Criteria

Technical Criteria (70%)

1. Criteria 1: Methodology/approach suggested; understanding and interpretation of the terms of reference and the context; relevance and realism; compliance with the timeframe,
2. Criteria 2: Profile of the Consultant(s) (training, skills, experience) and modalities of work

Financial Criteria (30%)

How to apply

If you are interested in applying, then we invite you to apply by sending in a technical proposal (your experience in working on feminist PMEL, explanation of the methodology/approach you will follow and timeline), a CV highlighting relevant experience(s), contact information of three references, disclosure if previous work with consortium partners and a financial budget proposal in EUR (all tax included). Please send this no later than February 25, 2024, on the following email address fem.pawer@kvinnatillkvinna.se, mentioning “Feminist PMEL” in the email subject.

Provision of References

• Applicants are required to provide contact information for three professional work references.
• This information should include the names of the references, their positions, their places of work, and contact details (such as email and telephone number).
• These references may be contacted to evaluate the professional competencies and past experiences of the applicant, with the aim of ensuring the selection of the most suitable candidates for the program’s requirements and goals. We will only contact the reference if you are shortlisted and we informed you that we will contact the references.

Disclosure of previous work with consortium partners

• Applicants must clearly disclose any previous collaboration or work undertaken with any of the consortium partners involved in this program.
• Details of such collaboration should include the name of the partner, the nature of the work performed, and the period of collaboration.
• In cases where previous collaboration exists, the relevant partner may be contacted to obtain an assessment and feedback on the applicant’s performance and competence.