Consultancy for development of women leadership tool 93 views1 applications

Terms of Reference (ToR)

Consultancy for the development of women leadership tool

NEXUSDisclaimer:** SSWC reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, number of short-listed participants, the right to withdraw from the proposal process, the right to change the indicated timetable at any time and reserves the right to withdraw this tender at any time without prior notice and without liability to compensate or reimburse any party.

Terms of Reference Synopsis

Solicitation Reference Number: SSWC/010/2021

Title of Solicitation: Consultancy for development of women leadership tool**

Issuing Office: SSWC Mogadishu

Email Address for submission of Proposals/Quotes: [email protected] cc [email protected]

Initial Deadline for Submission of Proposals: Friday 6th August, 2021 5:00 PM East African Time

Anticipated Award Type: Consultancy Agreement

Submission and Evaluation Criteria: Bidder Must provide the below requested information

Mandatory Eligibility Requirement

· Must submit CV of Key Personnel

· Technical Proposal outlining consultants understanding of the assignment, the approach of the consultant, and the proposed

timeline/schedule for the consultancy.

· Financial Proposal

Technical Evaluation Criteria

· Consultant Academic and Professional Qualification – 20%

· Consultant’s Prior Work Experience – 35% · Methodology/Approach – 35%

· Language and Analytical Skills – 10%

Note: The minimum technical score shall be 75%.

Terms of Reference

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Background and Rationale

NEXUS is a platform for change in response to the contemporary challenges to Somalia and Somaliland. The main goal of NEXUS Consortium is to transform humanitarian, development and peace ecosystem. The consortium, led by nine pioneering Somali NGOs, aspires to advance a locally driven agenda for change by building partnerships between communities, civil society and the public and private sectors as well as through the implementation of integrated and sustainable interventions across the triple nexus of humanitarian, peace and development.

NEXUS core members possess wide-ranging technical capacities and represent communities across all Federal Member States of Somalia and Somaliland. Nexus has two international partners who are committed to the localization agenda – Oxfam and Save the Children – and who will support Nexus during its formative years.

Nexus embodies the next evolutionary step of the Somali aid system, pioneering a locally led approach to delivering integrated peacebuilding, humanitarian and development interventions.

By breaking the silos of humanitarian aid, development and peacebuilding and by creating much-needed spaces for local organizations to lead the way in seeking, scaling and integrating solutions across these sectors, Nexus proposes local leadership as more than a means of realizing localization commitments – but as a revolutionary reform to the international systems at play in Somalia.

As a leader for public-private partnerships, Nexus seeks to leverage multidimensional engagements between local communities, civil society and the public and private sectors to advance a new framework for interventions in the Somali context that includes an integrated, early action emergency response infrastructure and community-based development initiatives that will serve as an entry point for peacebuilding and conflict resolution. Nexus’ approach is ambitious but is grounded in the widely recognized need for more dynamic interventions to the chronic challenges faced by Somalia and Somaliland.

NEXUS seeks to achieve its goals through addressing key issues under six identified pillars. The pillars are:

1. Investing in institutional strengthening
2. Community driven development with government and private sector partners
3. Making systems work for the poor
4. Anticipatory and integrated humanitarian response
5. Investing in Somali women’s leadership
6. Crosscutting leadership and advocacy

WOMEN LEADERSHIP

The women of Somalia bear an unequal brunt of the hardships occasioned by poverty, conflict and clan-based culture which promotes strict male hierarchy and authority. This is further exacerbated by cultural limitations on the role and status of women in Somali society. As a result, deeply rooted gender inequality prevails; Somali women are either excluded from formal decision making and asset ownership or operate through a patriarchal filter.

Somalia has extremely high rates of maternal mortality, rape, cases of female genital mutilation, violence against women and child marriage. Women’s access to justice is restricted both within the formal and clan based judicial systems. Women face limited access to economic resources and assets. This is compounded by women’s low participation in politics and decision-making spheres. Women in Somalia face challenges that undermine their potential for political participation and leadership. Women’s political representation remains low. There is a notable absence of women in the higher levels of government.

In terms of women’s economic empowerment, women in Somalia generally have a weak position in the labour market and represent a large proportion of people in vulnerable employment. Economically, women have made some gains, expanding into employment and livelihood sectors traditionally held by men, particularly as more women assume responsibility for household income generation.

However, there exists a huge gap as far as women leadership and their inclusion in high decision-making platforms that affect their social, cultural and economic wellbeing are concerned.

In light of this, NEXUS recognizes the development and integration of women leadership and gender equality in all its operations as a cross-cutting pillar that influences all its six Nexus pillars. Nexus intends go beyond traditional gender mainstreaming to ensure that Women’s Leadership is (1) featured in programming across the triple nexus agenda of humanitarian aid, development and peacebuilding building and (2) that Nexus organizations lead by example through gender audit-informed investments in policies, human resources, systems, and procedures across all organizational departments.

NEXUS aims to tailor all its interventions and operations to address structural inequities and limitations that persistently undermine gender equity and empowerment efforts across the triple nexus goal and within the Somali society at large by equipping Nexus with the tools and investments necessary to promote women’s leadership within and beyond their organizations.

Nexus interventions for Somali women’s leadership will ensure that Nexus members are positioned to articulate a best practice, Somali-led approach to advancing gender mainstreaming and women’s leadership within organizations through an introspective approach that holds Nexus organizations to account for their role in promoting Somali women’s leadership.

In pursuance of this, aligning Nexus members to a common framework for women’s leadership in the triple nexus and to evaluate the approaches to gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment employed by Nexus core members both organizationally and programmatically, Nexus aims to contract a consultant to assess the women leadership policies and guidelines of its members and develop a common women leadership tool that will be used by all NEXUS members and shared with other humanitarian and development partners and the government of Somalia for a synergistic impact on the Women of Somalia.

DEVELOPMENT OF WOMEN LEADERSHIP TOOL

Objective

To develop a contextually relevant women leadership tool that is cognizant of the current trends in women affairs and sensitive of the sociocultural and religious norms as well as the country’s political status. The tool will be used by NEXUS members to achieve the three tier goals and have a well-coordinated synergistic impact on the women of Somalia. The tool is aimed to be also shared with other humanitarian and development partners as well as government agencies for incorporation into their day-to-day operations for an extended promotion of women empowerment and inclusivity in all sectors of the economy. The tool must therefore be versatile to allow adoption by different parties with different objectives and programs. The tool needs to be distinctive and locally contextualized.

Proposed form of the proposed women leadership tool

Put forth below are guidelines intended to ensure that the women leadership tool developed supports NEXUS to realize its three tier goals of humanitarian aid, development and peace building and other humanitarian and development agencies operating in Somalia achieve their goals. The tool should therefore display the following feature:

· The women leadership tool developed must provide clear steps and procedures of incorporating it into the NEXUS’ three tier agenda at all stages in order to realize gender equality, women empowerment and participation NEXUS member operations and in all levels of leadership around the political, economic and sociocultural set ups of Somalia.

· The tool must be versatile enough to allow its adoption and use by parties outside NEXUS such as LNGOs, INGOs and the Federal and Member States of the Government. This aimed at achieving an even development, empowerment of women and their enhanced participation in all economic and sociocultural endeavors of the country both locally and nationally.

· For the women leadership tool to be relevant, it must be cognizant of religious, political and sociocultural norms of Somalia. The tool needs to allow smooth incorporation into NEXUS operations and ease of adoption by other parties without causing concerns related to religion, culture and political systems in place. It should be friendly to all for it to have the desired goal.

· The women leadership tool must provide ways of embracing inclusivity in its implementation especially of marginalized and vulnerable groups of women of considerably low social and economic status. This will ensure that the tool promotes even Women empowerment and enhancement of equality.

· The tool should provide for ways of empowering women and enhancing their leadership and participation at the level of project activity implementation by NEXUS members and other agencies. It should promote women engagement in leadership slots relating to community project management and contributions.

· The tool should be indigenous and aligned with the three tier goals of NEXUS and the general humanitarian and development agendas of Somalia.

· The tool must be conflict sensitive and have practical steps to ensure it does not exacerbate local conflicts but supports sustainable solutions to local conflicts and reinforce peace in line with the triple nexus platform of supporting humanitarian, development and peace.

· NEXUS Consortium seeks to develop a women leadership tool that can stand scrutiny and be judged as supporting consultative processes that are legitimate and above board. The model should also be able to support the design and implementation processes for projects that are ethical and support accountability at every stage.

· The planned women leadership tool should be supportive of the local governments’ development agenda. The tool’s versatility should allow them to undertake projects that ensure the centrality of women inclusivity, leadership and participations at all levels of the development projects.

Scope of the assignment

· Develop a consultative plan for the review of existing Women leadership tools among NEXUS members and conduct extensive interviews among them to establish a baseline.

· Develop a contextually relevant women leadership tool that is cognizant of the current trends in women affairs and sensitive of the sociocultural and religious norms as well as the country’s political status. The tool needs to be able to support the triple goal of NEXUS and other humanitarian and development agencies, both public and private.

· Develop learning and adaptation components for the women leadership tool capable of informing Further development of the tool and also replication.

· Develop a tool that guides Nexus members on the socio economic and political leadership role of women in their day to day project implementation.

· Conduct a stakeholder validation workshop bringing together all NEXUS members for discussion on the tool’s review, feedback, validation and versatility for adoption.

Methodology

The prospective consultants/firms are required to propose a suitable and effective methodology for undertaking the assignment, however proposed data collection methodology includes desk review, interviews and FGDs. This should consider documented women leadership tools’ best practices both internationally and in Somalia. The EOI should indicate the proposed consultative process on the assignment to be used to ensure a broad and insightful look into the currently available women leadership tools and approaches especially as practiced in Somalia. The methodology should be informed by the guidelines of the proposed form of the women leadership tool that is to be developed. The methodology must also be keen on the three tier NEXUS goals and the expected possible adoption of the document by the government and other humanitarian and development agencies in Somalia.

Required qualifications

Interested consultants//firms should demonstrate at least 7 years’ experience in the design, development and/or implementation of tools especially within Somalia or other relevant contexts. The consultants or firms should clearly indicate the lead and co-consultant to undertake the assignment and provide supportive CVs indicating the level of qualifications and years of relevant experience. Experience working with governments on local development planning will be considered crucial in this assignment.

Deliverables

· An inception report (with clear milestones and timelines).

· A Review Report on the existing women leadership tools

· A Validation Workshop Report

· A Draft of NEXUS Women Leadership Tool Report

· A Final NEXUS Women Leadership Tool**

Proposed Workplan.

Activity Timeline Parties responsible

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Kick off meeting Day 1 SSWC and NEXUS Secretariat

Inception report submission and feedback Day 5 to 7 Consultants, SSWC and NEXUS Secretariat

Review report on existing women leadership

tools among NEXUS members Day 7 to 13 Consultants, SSWC and NEXUS Secretariat

Women leadership tool development Day 14 to 24 Consultants

Validation workshop Day 25 Consultants and NEXUS Secretariat

Submission of draft women leadership tool Day 27 Consultants

Submission of final women leadership tool Day 30 Consultants

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