Consultant Job: Develop and Review the Safeguarding Policies

June 29, 2021

FEMNET continues to be intentional in influencing decisions made at national, regional and global levels, constantly ensuring African women voices are amplified and their needs, priorities and aspirations are prioritized in key policy dialogues and outcomes that have a direct and indirect impact on their lives. FEMNET has established her niche as a nucleus serving to mobilize African women and girls to lobby and advocate for the domestication and implementation of commitments made by African governments to the advancement of gender equality and realization of women’s rights. Such commitments include the global and continental declarations on gender equality and women’s rights that African governments are signatories to such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and Girls (CEDAW), Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), ICPD Program of Action, and the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development (SDGs) at the global level and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) at the regional level.

About the project

The Strengthening Networks for Greater Impact-STITCH is a 4-year (2019-2022) EU funded initiative implemented by FEMNET in partnership with Oxfam. This initiative is being implemented in 7 countries in Africa namely: Kenya, Mali and Tunisia DRC, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Mauritius. The initiative is working with 13 local partners across 7 countries. The initiative seeks to strengthen the institutional and operational capacities of women network organizations for coordinated actions at global regional and national levels.

Specific initiative objectives

Specifically, the initiative will:

Strengthen the institutional and operational capacity of the FEMNET secretariat to lead effectively, coordinate and support its wide membership and
Support FEMNET 13 members in 7 countries on policy advocacy, campaigning, networking, and information sharing.

Expected Initiative Results

Upon completion of the project, the following result areas will have been achieved:

FEMNET Secretariat has strengthened governance and management systems to mobilize, coordinate and carry out joint policy and advocacy with its members at national and regional levels.
Institutional and operational Capacities of members of FEMNET built to effectively influence policies on women’s rights and gender equality in their respective countries.
FEMNET members use emerging Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) to tell and document their stories and contribute to the body of knowledge on women’s rights and gender equality in Africa and globally.
African women know about their rights and gender equality as recognized in key policy and development frameworks.

Purpose of Assignment

As an organization and network, FEMNET is alive to the sector and human rights standards governing safeguarding. As such we have in place several policies to guide our day-to-day work to ensure the safety of all. Specifically, we have a Safeguarding Policy that addresses issues around Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (SEAH), a Code of Conduct and a Whistleblowing Policy. These documents will be available for reference and guidance during this consultancy.

In line with the project strategic objective on enhancing technical and operational capacities of FEMNET members, FEMNET is seeking a consultant based in Kenya to support the current 13-STITCH Partners to institutionalize a culture of protection and safety. This will include curating discussions with partners towards this end as well as supporting the co-creation, review, and revision of comprehensive Safeguarding Policies. Some of the thirteen of the partners have safeguarding policies in place and as such the support will be targeted to review and revision in partnership with their stakeholders. For the partners without policies, the consultant will focus on facilitating a participatory, partner-led co creation process to develop safeguarding policies. We invite applications from safeguarding experts to undertake the assignment.

Objectives of Assignment

The main objectives of this consultancy are:

To jumpstart and facilitate discussions among the organizations on creating organizational cultures that cultivate and maintain safe, open, and trusting environments which promote wellness.
To co-create and develop safeguarding policies with STITCH partners where needed.
To review the existing partner policies and update them to match the partner organization needs and ensure they meet the latest developments in the field of Safeguarding.
To draw on existing best practice in African Women Rights and Feminist organizing to develop a safeguarding framework as quick reference guide for the project partners.
To develop an implementation plan as a guide to future discussions and actions around safeguarding for the project partners.
To conduct a virtual training on safeguarding and child protection to the STITCH Project partners, FEMNET and OXFAM Key STITCH Project staff.

Scope of Work

The consultant will work with FEMNET to undertake the following activities:

Hold consultative meetings with partners to understand practices and contexts that will inform safeguarding policy, accountability culture and mechanisms development and review process.
Review, and analyze the safeguarding protection policies, accountability culture and mechanisms of the project partner organizations to identify areas of improvement.
Co-create safeguarding policies & accountability culture and mechanisms with project partner organizations and present and review redline versions to finalization.
Submit organizational reports on recommendations for improvements, revisions, and updates to the reviewed safeguarding policies, accountability culture and mechanisms.
Design and deliver a virtual safeguarding training that is informed by the discussions and reviews that have been held with them.
Consultatively develop a quick reference safeguarding framework that reflects the overarching mandates of the 13 partner organizations.
Develop a safeguarding implementation plan to guide actions post the consultancy.

Key Deliverables and Outputs

An inception report outlining how the assessment will be conducted including a detailed work-plan -not more than 3 pages.
Organization specific recommendation reports following the review of current safeguarding policies, accountability culture and mechanisms.
Safeguarding Implementation plan- Not more than 5 pages
Safeguarding training report-not more than 3 pages
Finalized 13 partner-approved organization safeguarding policies and accountability mechanisms.

Required Qualification, Skills and Competencies

The call is open to individual consultants. Teams/firms with the appropriate mix of skills are also eligible but should demonstrate justification and added value. The required skills and competencies for the assignment are:

Degree in relevant social science
Proven expertise and experience in undertaking working on SEAH, safeguarding or similar work in the African context.
Experience in feminist organizational development approaches and how to support organizations to think through policy, culture, and systems from a feminist and or gender perspective
A minimum of 3 years of working in the field of capacity-building, advocacy, influencing, movement building, and monitoring and evaluation.
Understanding and experience of working with women rights organizations (networks and movements).
Excellent ability to facilitate face-to-face and online meetings, interviews, and workshops using participatory and interactive approaches.
Excellent understanding of gender analysis, power, politics, and social change in the African context.
Strong understanding of feminist principles and institutional ethics per the African Feminist Charter
Excellent writing and literature review skills

Duration of Assignment

The assignment is for 40 days spread across a 2-month period.

Selection of Consultant

The consultant shall be contracted by FEMNET. The contract will include Withholding Tax (WHT) deduction in line with laws of contracting where FEMNET is headquartered. A WHT certificate will be issued to the consultant. Payment will be done through bank transfer to the consultant bank account. FEMNET will not meet the costs of bank charges. The payment schedule will be agreed upon with the consultant upon successful selection. In the case of team/firm applicants, the designated assignment contract manager will be the contact between FEMNET and the team and responsible for all deliverables.

Application Process

Interested applicants should send the following:

Technical proposal (not more than 3 pages responding to the scope of work outlined in 5 above). The technical proposal should include a work plan outlining how the consultancy days will be utilized.
Not more than a 1-page financial proposal.
CV/ CVs of not more than 3 pages for each consultant/team member which includes names and contacts of 3 professional referees
One sample work from the relevant assignment.

Applications are by e-mails only, sent to: recruitment@femnet.or.ke. Please indicate the reference on the subject line as Consultancy to Develop and Review Safeguarding Policies. The deadline for submission of applications is on 7th July 2021

Full Job description on: https://femnet.org/job/develop-and-review-the-safeguarding-policies/