BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
ABOUT OXFAM
Oxfam is an international confederation of 21 organizations working in over 60 countries worldwide seeking to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice around the world. Oxfam is determined to change that world by mobilizing the power of people against poverty. Around the world, Oxfam works to find practical, innovative ways for people to lift themselves out of poverty and thrive. We save lives and help rebuild livelihoods when crisis strikes. And we campaign so that the voices of the poor influence the local and global decisions that affect them. In all we do, Oxfam works with partners, public and private sector institutions alongside vulnerable women and men to end the injustices that cause poverty. Read more about Oxfam from https://kenya.oxfam.org/
1. PURPOSE AND BACKGROUND
Since last decade, Oxfam has been calling for the transformation of the global humanitarian system to shift the power balance to local and national humanitarian actors[i], as well as deep changes in the values, culture, and language of the aid system (Cairn 2012). Oxfam is a signatory to both the Charter4Change and the Grand Bargain, both of which lay out specific targets to which Oxfam has agreed to hold itself accountable[ii]. In addition, Oxfam has led and/or been a key part of a number of projects that have sought to demonstrate and advocate for LHL.[iii]LHL is defined as when “local humanitarian actors (whether civil society, government, or both) lead humanitarian action, ensuring that it is fast and appropriate and meets the needs of the affected population” (Kergoat et al, 2020, 4).
The purpose of this project was to understand how well Oxfam has upheld its Local Humanitarian Leadership (LHL) commitments and principles in our COVID-19 response, with women’s rights organizations[iv] at the core of the study. Our focus was on three countries: Colombia, Iraq, and Kenya but each country conducted its own research. This project united both research and evaluation, to allow us to both situate the Oxfam experience in the broader context of the humanitarian response to COVID-19, as well as provide primary data that speaks to the lived reality of women’s rights organizations, exacerbated by the pandemic, responding to the needs created by the pandemic. We included local and national humanitarian actors in the analysis, to see what differences in experiences between these groups.
While LHL and localization are often used interchangeably, this project intentionally saws LHL as different from localization, as the latter has been critiqued for disempowering local actors, in that it emphasizes partnership with as opposed to the leadership of local actors (Wall and Hedlund 2016; Jayasinghe et al, 2020).
Building from these formal and informal commitments, in 2019 OUS identified several principles that should underpin LHL (see the Annex for the full list). These principles address formal LHL commitments and Oxfam’s principles of partnership but also seek to move beyond these to include aspects not covered, such as influencing and gender justice. The LHL principles are divided into six main buckets: (1) partnerships, (2) capacity sharing, (3) funding, (4) public engagement, (5) influencing, and (6) gender justice.
Related to the sixth bucket of gender justice, we focused specifically on the experiences of women’s rights organizations[v] for the following reasons: women’s rights organizations are often sidelined from the global humanitarian system, which has the result of denying them opportunities to influence decision-making and access to resources.[vi] Yet they are often first responders in humanitarian crises and have been during COVID-19. Indeed, with the intensity of the COVID-19 pandemic, support to women’s rights organizations – as well as gender issues – are among the first to get cut.[vii] While these issues may not seem unique to humanitarian action, it still represents a problem within the sector.
In addition, if organizations like Oxfam are not pursuing their commitments in relation to women’s rights organizations, then that is a deep gap considering Oxfam’s aspiration to be a gender just organization, guided by our feminist principles. We therefore seek to avoid furthering that marginalization by centering women’s rights organizations in our analysis.
2. AUDIENCE AND USE
The primary audience for this research findings is Oxfam as well as the local actors from the countries involved in the case studies, providing additional evidence to support LHL endeavours. We anticipate the findings will also be useful for other actors in the humanitarian sector as well as donors and, ideally, policy makers and influencers.
The graphic illustrations are highly shareable and this will be used to convey messaging on our social media platforms.
3. OBJECTIVE
Infographics are powerful visual tools that play crucial role in conveying information, data and complex concepts in a concise and engaging manner. Further, Infographics have the ability to simplify complex concepts and ideas , making them more accessible and easier to understand.
Oxfam in Kenya intends to engage a consult that will design infographics from the evaluative research on Oxfam’s evaluative research on Oxfam’s COVID-19 response .
4. SCOPE OF WORK AND DELIVERABLES
The scope of work under this consultancy will specifically consist of:
- Designing infographic illustrations of the evaluative research study on Oxfam’s COVID-19 response in Kenya with a focus on Women Rights Organisations( WROs)
- Printing / Hard copies of the report
5. DURATION
The provision of the services is to commence on 18th September 2023 – 27th September 2023 unless agreed by both parties that this Agreement is terminated early or amended in accordance with the terms of this Agreement.
6. TAX AND VAT ARRANGEMENTS
Oxfam in Kenya will deduct withholding tax from the consultancy fees which will be in conformity with the prevailing government rates and submit the same to the Government of Kenya. The consultant will be entitled to a copy of the tax submission certificate on request.
7. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND CONFIDENTIALITY OF INFORMATION
All documents, data and information accessed will be treated as confidential and used solely to create visibility for the project and should follow the GDPR regulation on data control and storage.
All the required documents and deliverables in their draft and final versions shall be submitted to Oxfam in Kenya within agreed timelines and shall remain the explicit property of the organisation.
8. SUPERVISION
The overall supervisors of this assignment will be Oxfam’s MEAL Advisor and Communications Advisor
9. BID REQUIREMENTS
Interested and qualified consultants are invited to submit their expressions of interest, which should include the following:
- A suitability statement, including commitment to availability for the entire assignment.
- Information demonstrating specific experience of the consultant relevant to the assignment including the scope and scale of similar assignments. Please provide details of similar assignment undertaken.
- A detailed financial proposal showing a clear breakdown of the costs including all the chargeable taxes.
10.ADHERENCE TO OXFAM PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES
Once hired, the consultant shall operate under the principles governing Oxfam ways of working including adherence to policies and procedures of Oxfam with regards to such key issues as non-partisan, neutrality, gender sensitivity, impartiality and accountability, mainstreaming of Gender and safeguarding as well as other policies governing Oxfam operations on transport usage, security guidelines and confidentiality of information collected.
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2 Local and national humanitarian actors include both civil society and governmental organizations.
3 See https://charter4change.org/ for more information on the Charter 4 Change commitments and https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/ grand bargain for information on the Grand Bargain commitments.
4 See https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/turning-humanitarian-system-its-head and https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/research-publications/power-local-action-oxfam-learning-compendium-local-humanitarian-leadership/ for examples.
1. Oxfam does not have a confederation-wide definition for women’s rights organization. For the purposes of this ToR, we adopt AWID’s definition (K. Miller and R. Jones 2019, 14): “We define women’s rights organizations as crucial actors supporting, building and contributing to feminist movements, an organized set of constituents pursuing a core political agenda of protection, promotion and fulfilment of women’s human rights through collective action [including]: • Work from feminist and/or women’s rights perspectives.
- Are led by the people they serve.
- Have the promotion of women’s, girls’, trans and or intersex people’s human rights as their primary mission, and not just as the focus of part of their programs.
- Push for structural change.
- Work on issues that are marginalized and/or contested.”
5 In some contexts, focusing on women’s rights organizations may be too limiting. Preliminary conversations with country colleagues recommended we also include women-led organizations in the research. We will do so and will be careful to clarify the differences between women’s rights organizations and women-led organizations (noting that it is possible for a women-led organization to be a women’s rights organization, but that not all women-led organizations are women’s rights organizations).
6 https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/research-publications/women-leading-locally-exploring-womens-leadership-humanitarian-action/
7 https://actionaid.org/sites/default/files/publications/WLO-Covid19-Joint%20Policy%20Brief.pdf
Oxfam Kenya invites individuals who meet the criteria to submit Expression of Interest that clearly articulates the consultant(s) understanding of the terms of reference, methodology for executing the work including key deliverables and tentative budget should and clearly indicated *“*Evaluative Research on Oxfam’s COVID-19 response in Kenya Infographics Consultancy”
Expression of Interests shall be sent to [email protected], no later than close of business on 14th September 2023. Only applicants who qualify will be contacted.
