Norwegian Church Aid Documentation of Gender Justice Programme Consultancy Opportunity

Expression of Interest
 

Background: Norwegian Church Aid has worked in Kenya since 1984. Currently the Kenya Country Programme has Climate Justice and Gender Justice as its prioritized thematic areas. The Climate Justice component focuses on climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation. 

The Gender Justice component has a focus on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Women in Governance (WIG), with gender mainstreaming as a cross-cutting concern. The NCA Kenya Programme works in 6 cluster locations in the country which are in Kajiado, Tana River, Lamu, Mt Kenya Region-Embu, Mandera, Yatta and Nairobi.  Implementation is mainly through partners.
 

The Gender Justice Programme is implemented by National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK), Women Empowerment Link (WEL), Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK), Nosim Women Organisation and Habiba International in Nairobi, Embu, Kajiado and Mandera. ACK also implements some work in Machakos.  With regards to its GBV component, NCA’s work mainly focuses on Harmful Traditional Practices with a specific emphasis on FGM. 

NCA Kenya has adapted a multi-pronged approach to deal with the concerns in this area which includes; the use of community conversations as a methodology for mobilising communities to fight the vice and also to enhance communities’ capacities to look into the practice to a point where they reach a consensus leading to its abandonment by entire communities and not just individuals.
 

Another approach that has been used is advocacy for the implementation of the anti-FGM law as well as general awareness creation and sensitisation on the provisions contained in the law. Additionally custodians of culture and religious leaders are also sensitised and lobbied to take a stand against the practice. Further, mentorship sessions for girls in primary and secondary school are another approach used to reach young girls. 

This ensures that the girls are able to make informed decisions concerning the rite. Moreover it also contributes to support the girls against succumbing to peer pressure. Education support to most at risk secondary school girls was another initiative that NCA has been engaged in, which contributes to the girls not being subjected to FGM.
 

The anticipated outcome is that the people reached by the programme will increase their awareness on the issue and their views and perceptions about the practice will be changed to an extent that they will join in the quest for its abandonment. 
 

NCA’s Women in Governance Component seeks to change people’s perceptions and view about women’s involvement in leadership and decision making.  The programme supports women to build their confidence, self-esteem, capacities and desire to actively seek elective and other positions in institutions relevant to their wellbeing .The ultimate objective is to achieve gender parity within the governance structures relevant to NCA partners and programmes. 
 

To achieve the above the programme has adopted different approaches which include   gender sensitization in partner organization. There has also been capacity building for women in the project areas and mentorship sessions for girls in schools.  Additionally there have been an emphasize for NCA partner organisations to develop gender action plans (GAPs) as well as Gender policies. 

On the overall the Gender Justice programme seeks to achieve the following outcomes

• Faith and Community Based Organisations are mobilised to prevent and reduce all forms of harmful traditional practices
• Duty Bearers are influenced to implement national laws and to domesticate legal frameworks preventing GBV and promoting the Rights of women and girls
• GBV survivors and groups at risk have access to safely and justice
• Women actively participate in governance processes and structures
• Duty bearers respect women´s rights to participate in governance structures
• Duty bearers have been influenced to institutionalize the principle of gender balance and equity in governance structures
• Young girls and/or women leaders have accessed mentoring, coaching and support

In view of what has been happening the Gender Justice programme for the last three years, NCA seeks to profile project initiatives that have led to positive outcomes among the beneficiaries by capturing lessons for learning, as well as change stories for sharing purposes with communities, among partners, donor funding organizations and other stakeholders. Focus will mainly be on results achieved.
 

Purpose of the Assignment: The aim of the assignment is to capture and document inform of a booklet, in-depth cases studies or successes or most significant change stories that capture the significance of the implementation of the Gender Justice Programme. This information will be collected from our above mentioned partners who have been implementing the Gender Justice Programme. 

This will provide feedback and progress and impact of efforts spearheaded by our partners and the change that has been realized in the communities where they work.
 

The stories will be gathered from individual beneficiaries, community groups and implementing partners. The stories must be compelling, genuine and should tell the NCA and her partner’s story. In summary the booklet should, and indeed shall tell the story on how the programmes have promoted positive change in regards to FGM and led the larger society in behaviour change and attitude towards the practice. 

Also to be documented is how the programme has promoted and contributed towards the participation of women in leadership processes at different levels. This will be guided by examples of successes of approaches used which could have contributed to changes even at the different levels of the project. 

Other issues that need to be considered is the impact of the project in targeted communities, their level of participation in advocacy work and benefits realized.

Objectives of the documentation

• To profile projects initiatives that led to the present outcomes among the communities  by capturing lessons for learning and sharing purposes
• To document the key results and impact of the projects at the national,  county and grassroots levels
• To tell the stories of the  successes of the programme

To achieve the above, those carrying out the assignment have to visit the areas where the project is being implemented in consultation with NCA and Partners. 

The final product will be a B6 50 page booklet (500 Copies); four paged summarized brochure 500 copies, 500 folders and 15 minutes audio-visual which will showcase best practices and stories from the different project areas.

Timeline: The work is expected to commence in the third  week of November and completed before second week of December 2014.

Application Requirements 
 

Applicants for this consultancy are required to provide  

• Brief overview of consultancy firm and the skills and experience they would bring to assignment – maximum 1/2 page per consultant
• Provide a concept /proposal, work plan and budget for undertaking the assignment with separate Itemized costs under: (a) Professional fee, Data Collection Costs and documentation costs, (b) Field expenses
• Be prepared to undertake the assignment in any part of NCA project areas
• Submit a CV for each lead and key consultant/s – maximum 3 pages or a Company/firm profile
• Provide contact details of three referees from organizations that have recently contracted the consultant/s to perform similar or related work
• Samples of  previous work undertaken

All proposals should be submitted electronically to lonah.wanjama@nca.no  and CC w.musyoni@nca.no by COB 14th November 2014