[swpm_protected for=”5-6-7″]
TERMS OF REFERENCE
Assessment of the Impact of the Capacity Assessment Tool for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights on Women’s Rights Organizations and Civil Society Groups
HER FUTURE, HER CHOICE (HFHC)
1. Background
Oxfam is an international confederation of 21 organizations that work together with partners and local communities in more than 80 countries as part of a global movement for change. Our mission is to build lasting solutions to poverty and injustice with a focus on improving the lives and promoting the rights of women and girls.
We work directly with communities, partners and women’s rights organizations to challenge the systems that perpetuate inequality and keep people poor. Together we seek to influence those in power to ensure that women trapped in poverty have a say in the critical decisions that affect them, their families and entire communities.
Her Future, Her Choice (HFHC) is a Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SHR) project funded by Government of Canada and Oxfam. HFHC is a response to gender inequality and women’s rights violations in four countries in tast and Southern Africa. With an ultimate outcome of improved SRHR for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in targeted districts of Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia, the project directly addresses barriers that hinder access to SRHR in program communities. These barriers include harmful social norms, traditional practices, and taboos about gender and sexuality; lack of access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information and services; and AGYW’s lack of meaningful decision-making power regarding their health and sexuality. In addressing these areas, HFHC contributes to transforming gender inequality and discrimination, which are foundational to these barriers.
In Malawi, Oxfam is implementing the project in partnership with Centre for Alternatives for Victimized Women and Children (CAVWOC) Family Planning Association of Malawi (FPAM) and Point of Progress (PoP) in Lilongwe and Balaka districts. Her Future, Her Choice has completed 5 years of its implementation cycle and is set to finalize activities in August 2024. The project seeks to improve comprehensive SHR for AGYW through three strategic pillars, each corresponding to one of HFHC’s expected intermediate outcomes:
Pillar 1: Engage AGYW and community members (women, boys, influencers) to understand and transform discriminatory social norms, enabling AGYW to exercise more meaningful decision-making power regarding their SRHR This pillar seeks to promote the uptake or “demand” for SRH information and services by transforming negative social norms through awareness-raising and positive behaviour modelling, strengthening linkages and referrals for SRH services, working with schools, and supporting the creation of community-based youth friendly spaces for SHR peer dialogue and information sharing.
Pillar 2: Strengthen knowledge and capacity of health providers and healthcare facilities to improve the provision of comprehensive SRH information and services. This pillar seeks to address the “supply” of comprehensive SRH information and services, including access to contraceptives, safe abortion (where legal), and post-abortion care and secondary prevention services for Gender-based Violence (GBV). The project aims to achieve this by training health facility service providers in delivering gender-responsive and youth-friendly services free from stigma and discrimination; strengthening health system management capacity, governance structures and quality improvement practices; community outreach; and supporting supply-chain management of SRH commodities.
Pillar 3: Promote change in SRHR policy frameworks through strengthening the capacity of local and Canadian women’s rights and vouth-led organizations to influence change. This pillar will support partners in research, knowledge exchange, collaboration, and innovation on SHR, and promote public engagement and mobilization on global and domestic SHR issues.
Review more project information here: https://www.oxfam.ca/publication/her-future-her-choice-impact/.
Capacity Assessment Tool for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (CATSRHR)
Oxfam Canada (OCA) has developed a Capacity Assessment Tool for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (CAT4SRHR) which is:
- A guided self-assessment tool for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Women’s Rights Organizations (WROs) to begin a structured dialogue on existing organizational capacity strengths, weaknesses and gaps on SRHR programming;
- Designed to support an organizational conversation for reflection, analysis and development and planning, including the implementation of a capacity strengthening action plan;
- Designed to focus on identifying key strengths and opportunities for improvement on its SHR programming, and therefore plan accordingly.
The CATSRHR is designed to support the implementation of Pillar 3 (capacity strengthening activities) by the HFHC project partners. The use of its innovative, evidence-based practices and accountability systems helps to change policies and behaviours that represent barriers to the access of SRHR information and services by young women and adolescent girls. Organizations that conducted self-assessments using OCA’S CAT45RHR tool received funding to implement actions identified within their organizational capacity strengthening action plans.
2. Purpose and Scope
This assessment aims to collect impact stories from two CSOs partners of the HFHC project in their journey of applying the CATSRHR tool in Malawi. The primary audience will be partners delivering SHR programming supported by Oxfam and funded by Global Affairs Canada, civil society organizations, especially WROs engaged in the project cycle.
The HFHC project through the CATSRHR assessment will employ a participatory evaluation method.
Oxfam expects the consultants) leading the case study to use a gender lens. In its work, Oxtam seeks to apply a Feminist Approach to Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (FMEAL). In doing so, it prioritizes seven key foundations, including:
- Understanding feminist MEAL as an approach,
- Positioning MEAL as an integral part of social transformation,
- Shifting power to participants in evaluations,
- Understanding the role of the evaluator as a facilitator,
- Valuing collective, context-driven knowledge generation,
- Providing a learning orientation to evaluative exercises, and
- Rooting feminist MEAL in sate programming, guided by ‘do no harm’.
The successful consultant(s) should reflect these foundations in their proposal and subsequent work.
3. Objectives of the Final Review
Overall, Oxfam and its partners envision a feminist case study that draws on a range of stakeholder voices and contextual experiences to:
- Collect significant change stories from organizations participating in the assessment.
- Identify and prepare minimum 4 impact stories (minimum 2 per organization) from selected CSOs who implemented OCA’s CATSRHR to strengthen their capacities around SRHR programming
- Consolidate experiences and lessons learned from selected CSOs applying the CATSRHR.
- Capture opportunities for improvement, adaptation and potential changes required in the CATSHR.
- Identify whether the CATSHR aligns with Oxfam principles of working with an intersectional and feminist rights-based approach as well as the consideration of OCA feminist MEAL principles.
4. Methodology
The case study is intended to be done through the Most Significant Change (MSC) Methodology. The MSC technique is a form of participatory monitoring and evaluation. This technique has been widely used by a variety of organizations, especially CSOs. MSC involves the collection and selection of stories of change, developed by program or project stakeholders. It is a participatory technique which relies on engaging stakeholders in a process of discussing, analysing and recording change.
MSC is normally used as an ongoing monitoring technique, assessing change throughout the lifetime of a program or means it can easy be adapted for use (ovalue ons is wact) Oxfam is open to discussing other qualitative methods with the successful consultant(s). Oxfam will prioritize methods that highlight the role of community stakeholders and facilitate bringing new voices to the centre of this work, including transferring power to participants of this project.
We would look favourably on use of a qualitative method that the project team could replicate in future project monitoring and evaluation.
5. Guiding Principles and Values
The successful consultant(s) should include and address all potential ethical issues related to this review in its proposal and subsequent inception report. Additionally, the successful consultants) are expected to undertake the case study with high respect given to transparency, cost-effectiveness, and gender transformative potential, consideration of the feminist MEAL principles and collaboration with a range of stakeholders.
6. Safeguarding and Media Products
The consultant will be guided by the Oxfam Media and Comms Team on the communications requirements as adhered to by Oxfam, such as consent forms and guidance on photographs to use.
7. Consultant profile
Qualified candidates are required to meet the following criteria:
- Advanced University Degree in gender / development / human rights / international aid / social sciences / law or any other relevant field.
- Experience in using participatory and engaging workshop facilitation methodologies
- Experience conducting research and evaluation, especially using participatory methods.
- Minimum 7 years of professional experience working on organizational capacity issues in developing countries, Experienced in facilitating workshops and discussions.
- Well-developed writing skills.
- Skilled in facilitation with civil society organizations. In particular, neutral, non-judgmental facilitation skills that can foster constructive conversations around sensitive subjects.
Knowledge and Skills (desired):
- Experience working with women’s rights and gender rights organizations.
- Applied understanding of gender theory, research and practice in organizational and developmental settings.
- Strong interpersonal communication skills.
- Experience applying participatory monitoring and evaluation methods.
- Excellent recording, impact analysis and reporting procedures.
- Extensive experience working with CSOs.
- Experience of conducting capacity assessments in Malawi
8. Work Schedule
Oxfam expects the consultant to finish the exercise in 20 days from the day of signing the contract. Failure to adhere to timelines is a violation of a contract and may lead to sanctions as guided by Oxfam policy on contracts.
9. Supervision and Management
Oxfam in Malawi and OCA will supervise the process.
Specifically, the consultant will report to the MEAL Coordinator and Project Coordinator from Oxfam in Malawi, and Programme Officer from OCA.
10. Submission of Proposals
Interested consultant (s) should submit technical and financial proposal (not more than 8 pages), detailing how they will undertake the assignment including up-to-date CVs of the candidates. Proposals should be submitted to the address below either in electronic or hard copy form and must be clearly indicated ‘Assess the impact of the CATSRHR on WROs under HFHC Project’ by 17:00 hours local time on Sunday, 26 May 2024.
All correspondence for the consultancy should be addressed to:
Internal Procurement Committee (IPC)
Oxfam in Malawi
Green Heritage House (Area 13 Market)
P/Bag B331 Lilongwe 3, Tel: +265 1 770 489/525
Email: procurement.malawi@oxfam.org.uk
Note: Full Term of References can be requested from the same email address above
[/swpm_protected]