Terms of Reference for Gender Protection Assessment in the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Sector in Kenya, Oxfam

1. ABOUT OXFAM

One person in three in the world lives in poverty. 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 partner organizations and alongside vulnerable women and men to end the injustices that cause poverty. Read more about Oxfam from https://kenya.oxfam.org/

1.1 Background of the Project

Under the Natural resources pillar, Kenya Program is currently implementing the Power of Voices Partnership FAIR for ALL project which aims to achieve fundamental, systemic change through a paradigm shift in the roles of the state and the market. This means moving away from the dominance of the market and towards more responsive and responsible states, citizens, companies, and investors. It requires challenging vested interests, tackling power imbalances and helping to build new economic models and principles that put people and the planet before profit.

The project seeks to ensure that communities (with a key focus on grassroots women) from Taita Taveta, Turkana and Kwale counties where gemstones, gold and mineral sands respectively are mined, fully benefit from the sector’s value chain and have the space to meaningfully engage private sector and government in securing benefits from these resources. The project activities are based on strengthening the capacity of communities and civil Society organizations (CSOs) to meaningfully engage private sector players in the mining sector and holding the government to account on the governance of the sector, revenue raising, allocation and utilization as well as maximize their public engagement in realization of their rights throughout the value chain. This also entails considering land, human rights and environmental issues throughout the value chain.

2. A CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND ON THE ARTISANAL AND SMALL-SCALE MINING SECTOR

Kenya has the largest economy in East Africa and the third largest in sub-Saharan Africa. Agriculture and mining are big drivers of Kenya’s economy- agriculture provides a livelihood for most Kenyan people.

Despite its potential, Kenya has disproportionate levels of poverty, 82 per cent of the population works in the informal sector. Profitable operations are often owned and controlled by a few individuals and big companies, who dominate policy processes to protect their own interests. Rural communities, already struggling against a changing climate, lack voice and power to defend their land and benefit from (global) trade and value chains – either through increased national state revenues being reinvested in rural livelihoods or better jobs incomes for communities in mining and agriculture.

ASM is most prevalent in developing countries where it is an important source of livelihood for a diverse cross section of local populations. A largely informal sector, ASM tends to operate inefficiently, damage the environment, and put the health and safety of workers and surrounding communities at risk. In several areas of the world, ASM is associated with conflict and gross violations of human rights. To address such challenges, actors across civil society, mining associations and cooperatives, government departments and agencies, philanthropic foundations, and the private sector have been working to formalize the ASM sector. In ASM, women often work as part of a family unit that includes children. These units are commonly headed by husbands, which is part of the reason why women’s contribution to the sector remains unrecognized.

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has grown significantly with approximately 40.5 million people directly involved, and an additional 150 million dependent on the sector for their livelihood. Though not often acknowledged, the role of women in ASM is significant, as they make up around 30 per cent of the total workforce, and up to 50 per cent in some regions. Although cultural and historical aspects have relegated women’s participation to the periphery, women have always been part of the mining workforce. Women have primarily been involved in crashing, sluicing, washing, panning, sieving, sorting, mercury-gold amalgamation, amalgam decomposition and, in rare occasions, actual mining. Women are also active in the provision of goods (e.g., food and drink vending, sales of artisanal equipment such as sieves, and credit for mobile phones) and services (e.g., transporting dirt, ores, ore particles and water; cleaning; laundry; sex; nightclub entertainment; and trading). However, the cultural and institutional constraints women face have ensured their involvement in the most value-bearing places such as pits and fair markets is practically non-existent.

According to the UN Women brief on opportunities for women in the legal and regulatory frameworks for mining, artisanal mining in Kenya is poorly regulated and often not taxed, and artisanal miners are exploited by companies who buy their produce cheaply. The use of child labour and mercury in small-scale mining are critical human rights and health issues that need to be addressed. The legalization of artisanal mining in Kenya’s new Mining Law 2016 provided a great opportunity for artisanal miners, including women, to properly organize their activities and have potential access to legal markets.

Nonetheless, despite the significant involvement and contribution of women to artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), a growing body of evidence reveals that women have not fully benefited from the sector, since their presence has been mainly at the bottom of the value chain. Indeed, their role is largely as workers or supporters (e.g. as cooks or service providers), with minimal participation in decision making relating to the management of the sector. In addition to the work they carry out in the extraction and production of minerals, women and girls also perform the largest share of unpaid care work, which is equally invisible. This shows that there is still a long way to go to reconcile the worlds of “work” and “care” as a means of promoting gender equality.

Oxfam conducted a baseline assessment on the state of the ASM sector in the country and the findings established the following:

• women are essential to artisanal mining
• women have great potential as economic and political actors in the sector
• women continue to face significant barriers in the sector
• women disproportionately face discrimination and gender-based violence
• women depend on ASM for their livelihoods

3. PURPOSE OF THE ASSESSMENT/CONSULTANCY

Through our work on the ground and across all levels of natural resource management around the world, Oxfam and our partners see first-hand the ways in which women are directly involved in ASM, such as panning, processing, and trading goods and services. Yet their diverse and active participation is repeatedly ignored. The lack of gender sensitive approaches across the sector leaves women vulnerable, particularly in areas where security and human rights are at risk. Given the important contributions women make to the sector, they must be more meaningfully considered in any projects and policies related to artisanal mining.

It is against this pretext that Oxfam seeks to carry out a gender and protection assessment of the Artisanal Mining sector seeks to provide evidence on the gendered dimensions of the artisanal mining sector by seeking to undertake a contextual analysis of the sector with focus on gender division of labor, women and men’s access and control over resources state, market and community institutions and how they may perpetuate gender inequality; and protection issues that women, girls, men and boys are exposed to within the ASM sector. The assessment will alsoderive and provide recommendations for future programming. It will useful for mapping and guiding the implementation of the Power of Voices Programme especially in setting benchmark indicators for monitoring progress as well as evaluating impact on gender equality during the project period

The objectives of the assessment are as follows:-

1. Establish a clear understanding of the different gender and protection issues affecting women is ASM
2. Analyze the root causes of gender inequalities in the context of ASM in Project implementation areas
3. Analyze the impact of SGBV on the successes of women led ASMs and the coping strategies being adopted by survivors
4. Establish the different SGBV services available within the ASM sector, their access by SGBV survivors (specifically legal, health and psychosocial services) and the main blockers for gaining access to the services
5. Establish the level of gender sensitivity within ASM and private and Government institutions working with ASM and how this affects service delivery to women led ASMs
6. Identify programming and recommended strategies for designing a gender responsive programme to meet the needs of women led ASMs to enhance programme effectiveness.
7. Establish how enabling the environment is to sexual exploitation and abuse in the ASM sector in project implementation areas
8. Defining clear recommendations for intervention strategies on ASM development with a feminist approach

4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

PVP covers three counties namely Turkana, Taita Taveta and Kwale. The consultant will be expected to travel to the three counties and collect data from selected respondents that will be randomly sampled and the data representative of the population that is targeted by the project. S/he will be required to present a methodology for collecting, analyzing and presenting the data, details of which should be in the inception report. The methodology will be discussed and finalized in consultation with Oxfam’s MEAL and Natural Resources Programme staff. The respondents will be derived in consultation with Oxfam in Kenya and partners.

5. SAMPLING AND METHODOLOGY

Proposed Study methodology

The consultant will be expected to adopt a mixed methods approach in undertaking the assessment, using desktop research and Key Informant Interviews with subject matter specialists. The final methodology will be agreed upon with Oxfam and the consultant at inception phase.

Gender Sensitive methodology: The consultant will adopt gender equality principles that will aim to address any gender biases that may arise during the study

Sample size Calculation: The identified consultant is expected to identify an appropriate sampling technique for the qualitative and quantitative data collection methods which will be discussed and agreed with Oxfam prior to the data collection exercise.

Data collection tools and Instruments: The identified consultant will develop relevant data collection tools and identify the appropriate means for collecting the data which will be discussed and agreed with, prior to the data collection exercise.

The data will be analyzed using appropriate data analysis packages. The data should be presented in a logical, meaningful, reader friendly and simple language on a date agreed with Oxfam.

Ethical Considerations: The consultant will put in place measures to ensure data collection adheres to all necessary ethics and guidelines provided by local laws on data protection, the GDPR and ethics standards.

Research Principles and Approach: The research approach will be informed by a feminist participatory action research model. Grounded in principles of empowerment, accountability, respect and transparency.

6. DELIVERABLES

Output 1: The consulting firm/bidder will submit a comprehensive assessment survey report in both electronic version and signed hard copy. The document should be very precise and address each specific objective.

The consulting firm/bidder will submit the following:

1. Inception report on the execution of the assignment within three days of the commencement of the consultancy; setting out how they will approach the assignment, proposed methodology and timetable and data collection tool, including draft discussion guide for collection of field-level data in the selected counties.
2. Share transcripts and field test results with Oxfam and agree on the final discussion guide that includes signed consent forms from the respondents, with detailed understanding of their data rights as per the General Data Protection Regulations (2016).
3. Draft comprehensive assessment survey report which should include at least the following:

• Executive summary (2-3 pages)
• Introduction
• Purpose and objectives
• Methodology
• Findings
• Conclusion and recommendations

Output 2: The consulting firm/bidder will produce a database for the survey and deliver with draft assessment report.

Output 3: The consulting firm/bidder will deliver a high-quality Power-Point presentation of the report before finalizing the assignment.

Output 4: Facilitate a stakeholder validation workshop to receive input and feedback from Oxfam.

Output 5: Final report, incorporating Oxfam’s, partners’, and stakeholders’ input, completed after input is received.

The written report will be:

• Produced in English language and using accessible and concise language.

• The report format and text shall be in A4 paper size and a legible Arial 12 font size.

• The report should not exceed more than 35 pages.

• At least one signed hard copy and one electronic copy by the agreed deadline.

7. SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE OF CONSULTANT

The desired specification and qualities of the consultant(s) are as hereunder:

• Postgraduate in Gender and Developments studies, Women studies, Development Studies, or related field. A strong understanding of gender justice and women’s rights, development, humanitarian and protection issues and the social, cultural, and economic context.
• At least 5 years of experience in conducting comprehensive studies or assessments on various aspects, preferably in ASM related fields, using advanced research methodologies.
• Knowledge and experience in mining, environmental management, chemical usage and assessment in training needs on safety, gender and formalization in ASGM sector
• At least a master’s degree in Social Sciences (A PhD in Environmental and Natural Resources would be an added advantage) for the lead consultant and a minimum of bachelor’s degree on the relevant academic areas for research assistants will be an added advantage.
• Demonstrated experience in conducting gender and protection assessments in the ASM sector.
• Experience of effective interaction with private and national institutions, both government and financial on gender and protection issues.
• Be conversant with current gender laws, policies, and practice in Kenya.
• Practical application of cross cutting themes like gender mainstreaming, protection, M&E, Advocacy.
• Excellent report writing and quantitative and qualitative data collection and analytical skills.
• Experience in working with international and national organizations to work within limited time frame
• Demonstrated track record in preparation of documents, project proposals, evaluation reports
• In-depth knowledge and experience on using participatory research methods (household survey, key informant interviews and focus group discussions).

Confidentiality of information: All documents and data collected will be treated as confidential and used solely to facilitate analysis. Interviewees will not be quoted in the reports without their permission.

8. TIME FRAME

The process will be as follows:

The total study period is 40days that include preparation, field work, data analysis and report writing. The expected date of the start of the study is 19th October 2022 and gender and protection assessment study report will be produced on 28th November 2022.

9. TAX AND VAT ARRANGEMENTS

Oxfam 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.

10. BID REQUIREMENTS

Consultant(s) who meet the above requirements should submit bids, which at minimum include the following:

• Suitability statement, including commitment to availability for the entire assignment in the months – October 2022 – January 2023.
• Brief statement of the proposed study methodology including a detailed work plan.
• Detailed financial proposal, including daily costs.
• Information on the team composition and level of effort of each team member – include updated curriculum vitae that clearly spell out qualifications and experience.
• Contacts of three organizations that have recently contracted the consultant to carry out relevant study.

Budget financial proposal must indicate all-inclusive costs for conducting the survey.

N/B: The entire bid should be a MAXIMUM OF TEN (10) PAGES inclusive of CVs and Budgets. Bids not meeting this requirement will not be considered.

11. REPORTING LINES

The consultant shall work under the supervision of the Oxfam’s MEAL Advisor with a strong liaison with the Extractives Strategist and Programme Officer.