Terms of Reference for the Human Rights, Gender and Key Population Consultant for the Development of the Kenya HIV and Aids Strategic Framework 2014/15 – 2018/19
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Additional Category: National Planning
Type of Contract: SSA
Languages Required: English
Expected Duration of Assignment: 60 days
Background: In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. UN Women, a dynamic and strong champion for women’s rights and gender equality, provides women and girls with a powerful voice at the global, regional and local levels.
Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the UN Charter, UN Women works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; empowerment of women; achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.
Kenya has the third largest population of people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa.
There is a mixed and geographically heterogeneous HIV epidemic with an estimated adult HIV prevalence of 5.6% In 2012, there were approximately 1.2 million people living with HIV.{KIAS preliminary report, 2012c} percent {KIAS preliminary report 2012}
In the 2012 Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey, prevalence among women was found to be higher (6.9%) than for men (4.4%). Overall, women represent 58% of the total number of people living with HIV (NACC and NASCOP, 2012).
The KMOT 2008 study identified the various drivers of the epidemic which included Injecting Drug Use, Sex work, homosexuality and heterosexual sex among those in stable or casual relationships.
Over the years Kenya has invested in interventions to reduce sexual transmission of HIV among these key groups who comprise of young people and women.
According to the KNASP ETR findings, efforts were made towards enhancing access to HIV services by the various population segments such as Key Populations and women with some of the notable achievements being efforts to improve policy and social environment through the development of policies and guidelines.
The other notable achievement included scaled up services through targeted interventions. These were largely achieved through application of Right Based Approaches.
However, the KNASP III ETR did not look at the gender and HIV in detail as it was grouped among other cross cutting issues such as (Key Population) MARPS and Human Rights during the review. Gender still remains one of the monumental challenges to HIV response owing to the deep-rooted gender norms which make it difficult for women and young people to protect themselves from HIV infection, and to negotiate safer sex as revealed by other studies in this area.
The ETR also noted that stakeholders are still concerned with the many structural barriers including the impact of criminalisation, the pervasiveness of stigma and discrimination, retrogressive cultural practices and commonality of violence against MARPs and women which continue to hamper access to HIV services by all the sub-groups of these populations.
Human rights and gender inequalities remain a central issue in the HIV and AIDS interventions and are recognized as key structural determinants to HIV vulnerability. It is also acknowledged that Human Rights violation is usually one of the immediate and most probable consequences of HIV infection.
Kenya’s commitment to human rights and gender equality in relation to HIV stems from a number of national and international legal instruments. The Constitution of Kenya 2010, particularly chapter four, is the cornerstone and legal basis of incorporating human rights.
Our legal framework for the protection of human rights is based on laws such as the HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Act 2006 and The Employment Act. There are also policies and guidelines which have been developed to address the gender inequalities which are yet to be implemented effectively.
From the ETR report, the structural issues that continue to affect the country’s HIV response were reemphasized with a major concern that little or no effort had been put in place to ensure that structural issues are well addressed in the HIV response.
It is from the foregoing that the NACC sought Technical Assistance from UNWOMEN in helping her address this critical component of the HIV response that has continuously been left out in key policies and guidelines geared towards an effective HIV response.
To support this process, UN Women is seeking the services of a consultant to work on the gender, human rights, disability and key populations within the KASF to support the National AIDS Control Council in developing the Kenya AIDS Strategic Framework 2014/15 – 2018/19.
Objectives of the Consultancy
The objectives of the Consultancy is to:
- Analyze the information from stakeholders and Task Team on Human Rights, Gender and Key Populations and develop strategies that are responsive in the KASF;
- Draft the section of the Strategic Framework for which the Gender, Human Rights and key Population working group is responsible for in the KASF, to the quality acceptable to the Chairs of the Task Teams, the Lead consultant and the NACC. This includes input into the National Plan of Operations and other M & E instruments.
Tasks: Working with the various working groups, the consultant working on gender, human rights and disability will be expected to specifically look at and address the following:
(i) Relevance
- Assess the relevance of KNASP strategic responses to the structural causes of the gendered patterns of HIV prevalence and social injustices in the HIV and AIDS context in Kenya.
(ii) Effectiveness
- Assess the effectiveness of the previous interventions aimed at addressing gender inequity and human rights violations and propose ways in which this can be mad emore effective in the KASF implementation period.
- Identify the key gaps, constraints and barriers in mainstreaming these key issues (gender, human rights, disability) across the key intervention areas and strategies in the KASF and its impact on achieving the country’s targets for Universal Access.
- Propose key strategies/activities across the identified thematic areas in the KASF
(iii) Learning and Innovation
- Using the recommendations from the KNASP III ETR report, propose recommendations on interventions and strategies that NACC and stakeholders need to make to enhance efficiency in incorporating gender, human rights and addressing PWD and Key populations in the KASF that are in line with the key lessons learnt, challenges, best and bad practises that were noted in the KNASP III implementation period. .
- dentify what new evidences we have in the area of (gender, Human Rights, Disability, Key Populations) that can be used a sa critical knowledge base contributing to teh game-changing strategies in the response that focus on gender, Human Rights, key Population s, Persons with Disability.
Scope of Work and Deliverables.
In Summary, the Consultant working on gender, human rights and disability will be expected to:
- Consult stakeholders and review the relevant legal and policy documents including the Kenyan constitution as well as the evidence of emerging best practices, lessons learnt, gaps and key recommendations from the KNASP III and other relevant context to draft broad range of Rights-based and Human Rights issues into the KASF.
- Develop a checklist to assist other drafters in ensuring the integration of disability, human rights and gender issues into their sections of the KNASP IV.
- Integrate robust Human Rights, Disability and Gender transformative results and strategies into the entire transition plan and KASF.
- Provide support and ensure the integration of Human Rights, disability and Gender issues into the documents of the National Plan of Operations (Action Plans), ensuring targets, budgets and evaluation indicators are consistent with the Rights-Based Approach.
- Integrate other cross-cutting issues related to MARPS, GIPA and vulnerable groups in need of special focus across all the task forces in the KASF, in the NPO and associated documents (in terms of Gender, Human Rights and Disability
- Consolidate the various drafts prepared by the teams in the different task teams and integrate them into the relevant sections of the KASF with the help of the lead consultant.
- Provide inputs into the situational analysis to be prepared by in consultation with all the other consultants on gaps and constraints related to human rights, disability, gender and other crosscutting issues causing risk and vulnerability.
- Develop a tracking tool (mechanism) for tracking and annual review of the identified results and indicators. This should however be linked to the monitoring and evaluation framework for KASF.
- Perform an audit of the consolidated KASF draft to ensure that, disability, gender and human rights issues have been firmly integrated.
- Working closely in collaboration with teh KASF costing consultant, propose parameters for costing gender, human rights and disability within KASF.
The key deliverables will be:
- Detailed Inception Report and work plan – this will be informed by participation in the meetings with the different task forces and task forces on the development of KASF as well as desk reviews
- Guidelines, templates and tools- relevant for integration of gender, human rights, key populations and disability.
- Indicators for measuring the proposed results that are responsive to gender and human rights;
- A policy and programming brief on ‘developing gender transformative HIV frameworks and plans’.
- Develop a work-plan to present the deliverables to different forums (guidance on this will be provided).
Modalities of work
The consultant will:
- Be administratively responsible to the Director, NACC through the Lead consultant and to UN Women Country Director;
- Maintain a functional relationship with the Chairs of the Task Teams and other levels of the KASF management structure;
- Working with technical backing from the Gender Task Force and HIV Specialists at NACC and UN Women to,
- Finalized guidelines, templates and tools- to facilitate analysis and integration of gender, human rights and key populations within KASF IV
- Identify key results and respective indicators against each of the KASF objectives that will address gaps, constraints and barriers identified in KNASP III reviews on gender, human rights and key populations
- Ensure that prioritized results on gender, human rights and key populations are integrated in KASF by negotiation and consultations within Task teams while linking with KASF Taskforce and KASF consultants
- Utilize agreed upon tools and structure and consolidate information from the Task teams into the agreed structure of the document and present these in a timely manner to the Lead consultant and technical team lead (Head Strategy Development , NACC) ;
- Report back to the lead consultant and technical team lead on any issues, challenges, delays in delivering the process.
Characteristics of the Consultancy: Type of Consultancy is Individual and the assignment is on a contractual basis that is signed between UN Women and the Iindividual consultant.
Timeframe: This assignment will be carried out between July- October 2014 for a period of 60 days.
The consultant will be expected to report progress to the lead consultant on a weekly basis and the lead reports to the Taskforce Team on the progress of the work of the Human Rights, Gender & Key Ppopulation and Disability consultant after every 2 weeks.
Skills and Experience
- Advanced degree (Masters) in Social/Political Sciences, Law, Public Health or closely related fields;
- Minimum 7 years of working experience in Human Rights, Gender, Social accountability, MARPs in HIV and AIDS at the national and/or international levels.
- Proven experience in creating National HIV and AIDS Strategic Frameworks/Plans through the consultative process including donors, UN agencies, government agencies, and civil society organizations.
- Undertaken at least 3 similar assignments at national and/or international level.
- Demonstrated a clear understanding of the Kenyan constitutional requirements as relates to the health sector service delivery
- Demonstrated understanding of HIV and AIDS programming and other related programmes such as Tuberculosis in Kenya.
- Excellent writing and communication skills
Interested and qualified applicants should submit their applications through the email address - consultancies.eharo@unwomen.org on or before 15 July 2014 with the following subject line: Gender KP Consultant.
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