Consultancy Opportunity for Programme Quality and Learning Review Graphic Illustrations

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/

OXFAM COUNTRY STRATEGY

Oxfam in Kenya Country Strategy (2021-2024) focuses on four key contextual issues, within an overall framework of fighting inequality and ending poverty and injustice as a way to increase resilience among poor and marginalized communities. The OCS is founded on four key strategic pillars;

Governance and Accountability: With positive economic growth and investment opportunities, Kenya has immense potential to mobilize tax revenues, provide public services to its people and reduce inequality. In the past decade, however, the government has borrowed extensively to finance large-scale infrastructure projects, undermining its ability to invest in development priorities and public spending. Kenya’s fiscal deficit coupled with imprudent budget management has led to increased external funding and borrowing. Kenya’s debt to GDP ratio continues to rise with the IMF Fiscal consolidation programme proposing austerity measures to reduce Kenya’s debt vulnerabilities. The austerity measures adversely affect social spending which has already historically been inadequate – again disproportionately negatively affecting the poor the most.

At the local level, the underperformance of own source revenue (OSR) has been attributed to the lack of proper and updated legal frameworks of county governments on revenue collection, the need to improve county governments’ capacity in revenue collection, and the need to improve on reporting on collection of non-tax revenue. Other forms of illicit financial flows (IFFs) have severely hampered Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM) A lack of transparency, progressive tax mobilization, gender responsive allocation and effective utilization of resources for public services perpetuate inequalities and hinder access to services for the most vulnerable.

Extractives and Land Rights: Progressive policy and legislative developments in regard to natural resources since 2015 along with the discovery of significant oil, water, gas and coal reserves have the potential to boost Kenya’s socio-economic development. Poor implementation of these policies together with a lack of community understanding and engagement have meant that revenues from extractives have not benefited communities living in and around such areas, and there is potential conflict over management of resources between national government, counties and within communities. Similarly, within the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs), there are inadequate community control of land and husbandry of natural resources, to enhance the resilience of communities and improve their development prospects.

Gender Justice and Women Rights: Women and girls in Kenya hold great potential and there has been some progress made in terms of gender equality and women empowerment. Despite such developments, only 29% of women are considered empowered, according to UN Women and Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) data published in 2020. Progress is still slow, hampered by inadequate implementation of laws, inadequate funding, weak accountability mechanisms and slow transformation of discriminatory and patriarchal gender norms, attitudes and practice that continue to limit women’s power and agency in political, economic and social spheres.

In Kenya women are affected both in the public sphere and within the household and as a result they face a much more restricted set of choices and opportunities in their lives than men. Women have less voice in decision making in the family, including in respect of their sexual and reproductive health choices, as well as less control over household income and assets. They bear the brunt of unpaid care work which is one of the main contributors to women’s concentration in low-paid care, precarious employment.

Humanitarian Systems Strengthening: Disasters have increased in the past decade, eroding the coping mechanisms of people and contributing to displacements, destruction of livelihood assets, resource conflicts and increasing poverty and inequality for marginalized people. Successive shocks- COVID-19 pandemic impacts, prolonged droughts, intense floods and the largest infestations of desert locusts in 70 years have compounded these effects, leaving the affected communities with little time to recover and improve their lives and livelihoods. Although the government, with support from donors, INGOs and local partners has been responding to the resultant humanitarian crises, a lot more still needs to be done to address the systemic and structural enablers of recurring crises- there are considerable gaps on resilience building, preparedness and emergency response while citizens/communities still need support to hold county and national government to account for prompt and effective use of the resources at their disposal. In addition, humanitarian system in Kenya is still fundamentally driven by the INGOs/UN while the local partners rooted in crisis affected contexts remain confined to the periphery. Oxfam has been championing localization agenda to challenge this state of affairs and vest more decision-making power on the hands of the local partners. This effort continues to bear fruits and will be nurtured further.

Objective

Graphic illustrations play a vital role in conveying information effectively by leveraging the power of visual communications. Further, graphic illustrations have the ability to simplify complex concepts and ideas, making them more accessible and easier to understand. Oxfam in Kenya intends to conduct a comprehensive programme review for each of its country programmes. As a result, this consultancy will provide support to all the pillars in creating reflective illustrations for their programmatic work within Kenya.

It will involve support from the MEAL Advisor, Communications Advisor and program teams to support in the planning, logistical, and execution of communication support to the strategic review of Oxfam in Kenya’s programmatic work.

Scope of work and Deliverables

The scope of work under this consultancy will specifically consist of:

1. 1 A3 Graphic illustration of reflection, learnings and review of Humanitarian Strengthening Systems Pillar
2. 1 A3 Graphic illustration of reflection, learnings and review of Natural Resources Pillar
3. 1 A3 Graphic illustration of reflection, learnings and review of Governance & Accountability Pillar
4. 1 A3 Graphic illustration of reflection learnings and review of Gender Justice & Women’s Rights Pillar
5. A3 Graphic illustrations of reflections learnings and review of each Business support Unit i.e., Monitoring and Evaluation, Donor Relations & Funding, Finance, Logistics and Procurement, Media and Communications departments

Duration

The provision of the services is to commence on 27th June 2023 – 7th July 2023 unless agreed by both parties that this Agreement is terminated early or amended in accordance with the terms of this Agreement.

Fees and expenses

The consultancy fees will be exclusive of expenses and payment of the agreed fee and shall be due on completion of this assignment. In accordance with the Expenses Summary for Consultants, Oxfam in Kenya shall cater for all travel costs, telephone calls, stationary, photocopying and printing related to this assignment. However, where necessary Oxfam in Kenya will reimburse those reasonable expenses necessary for the proper performance of the Services provided these are agreed in advance and that you provide all relevant receipts. These expenses are in respect of general overheads, which would reasonably be expected to occur in the provision of consultancy services.

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.

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 organization.

Supervision

The overall supervisors of this assignment will be Oxfam’s MEAL Advisor and Communications Advisor

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.

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