Country: Ghana, India, South Africa
Closing date: 20 Jun 2016
ActionAid International Young Urban Women’s project: Terms of Reference for developing a tool-kit on inter-linkages between SRHR, Decent Work and Unpaid Care Work.
ActionAid International is inviting applications from experienced consultants to develop a tool-kit that can help community practitioners and young women understand how issues of economic justice, bodily integrity and unpaid care work are inter-linked.
About ActionAid:-
ActionAid International is an international NGO that puts women’s rights and gender equality at the centre of its work. One of the five strategic objectives of Action Aid’s 2012-2017 strategy is to: “***Ensure that women and girls can break the cycle of poverty and violence, build economic alternatives and claim control over their bodies.***” The “Young Urban Women” programme contributes to meeting this organisational objective. This intervention is centred around putting young women at the heart of the programme and is designed around their needs and issues. The “Young Urban Women” programme also aims to influence both decision-makers at a local and national level in India, South Africa and Ghana as well as decision-makers at the international level to uphold the rights of young urban women on economic participation and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). This project is innovative in that it attempts to bring together these two key areas of young women’s lives that are frequently dealt with separately in development interventions despite the strong linkages between them. In targeting both, ActionAid foresees that this programme will have a greater impact by empowering young women to claim their rights.
Details about the proposed consultancy:-
Background:-
Action Aid International has been implementing the Young Urban Women (YUW)’s project across three countries- India, Ghana and South Africa since July 2013. This project is designed around ensuring access of 5800 young women (15-24 years) to their Economic rights[1] and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. This project is a unique attempt to bridge the existing programmatic silos between economic and sexual and reproductive health rights of young urban women. Rather than addressing SRHR or Decent Work and livelihoods separately, the rights framework conceived for this project is inclusive of young women’s economic, social and sexual empowerment. The idea of inter-sectionality is important here; young women’s experiences of being marginalised in one aspect of their lives are closely connected to other forms of marginalisation as well. For instance, women concentrated in the informal economy in precarious conditions of work due to their gender, class, religious affiliation, sexual orientation or caste are also often denied access to education and SRH services.
Research on inter-linkages:-
ActionAid conducted a multi-country research study in 2015 to generate evidence on how young women’s economic rights and their enjoyment of SRHR are linked and have an impact on each other. This multi-country study (in India, Ghana and South Africa) provided a platform for young women to describe and assess their experiences in relation to economic security, bodily integrity and equitable distribution of unpaid care responsibilities[2] in Accra, Ghana, Hyderabad, India and Johannesburg, South Africa. The study stresses that governments are failing to ensure young women have access to their sexual and reproductive health and rights, decent work and that they are overburdened with unpaid care responsibilities. The issues: bodily integrity, economic security and unpaid care responsibilities are not explored in isolation from each other, rather the study foregrounds that there are linkages between these concepts. Understanding interconnectedness of these linkages is crucial for state and non-state actors so as to develop interventions that improve the lives of young women. The study findings were shared through an international dissemination workshop in November 2015 which was attended by CSOs, trade unionists, UN agencies, besides a large number of young urban women themselves. The study report is now being finalised internally for publication.
The proposed tool-kit will build on the research findings and will break them down to develop simple yet meaningful and practical participatory tools and exercises in a manner that will be used as an empowering tool primarily for young women and secondarily for NGO practitioners at the community levels. In particular, the tool-kit will be specially written in a language that’s youth-friendly and is written in a manner aimed at ensuring that young women from across the global south are able to utilise the tool-kit to the fullest.
The tool-kit will be developed around the following objectives:
The objective of this consultancy is to develop a practical toolkit of participatory methods both for the communities of young women and ActionAid’s partners that will be used for community capacity building on how inter-linkages play out in reality in the lives of young women. The toolkit will build on existing ActionAid methodologies of Action-Reflection. The toolkit will be a simplified and practical tool that covers a variety of participatory methods relevant and adaptable to the diverse country contexts. The toolkit will present an easy to use reference with a step-by-step and practical instructions in how to apply the various participatory methods, with further summary notes regarding when to apply the method, how to organize the sessions, how to capture the information, and advantages and limitations of the methods, etc.
Target audience:-
The target audiences will be ActionAid partners and the young women that we work with. This tool-kit will be will be aimed at increasing their understanding on how the inter-connections between SRHR and Economic Rights play out in the lives of the young women.
Scope of the consultancy:
The consultant will be undertaking the following tasks:
- Review the inter-linkages research report produced last year (both international and national). Also review other Young Urban Women Project related documents (such as baselines, annual reports etc).
- Producing a draft tool-kit in consultation with ActionAid’s Women’s Rights Team at the International Secretariat.
- Conduct piloting/field testing of the tool-kit with ActionAid’s partners and young women.
- Finalise the tool-kit based on the feedback received.
Proposed tool-kit outline:
Acknowledgements
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction: why the tool-kit? Who can use it? How?
Chapter 2: Economic Rights and Bodily Integrity: defining the terms and exploring the inter-connection? (chapter to include findings from the global and national researches laid out in a easy-to-understand language).
Chapter 3: tools to help understand how economic rights and control over one’s body are linked (focusing on decent work/access to paid employment)
Chapter 4: tools to help understand how economic rights and control over one’s body are linked (focusing on unpaid care work)
Chapter 5: practical tips for advocacy
*Ti**me-frame:-***
The toolkit is expected to be initiated by 1st July 2016 and to be completed by end of November 2016. The consultant is required to share a detailed timeline with specific dates for each output of the process as part of the application process. The consultancy will be for a total of 30 days, including field testing and finalisation.
Competencies:
We’re looking for a consultant well-versed in the thematic areas (women’s rights/economic rights/bodily integrity) with demonstrated experience of having developed manuals using participatory tools and conducted trainings, particularly with young women. Knowledge of a feminist approach to participatory approach is a must.
Assessment method:
Evaluation of qualified consultants will include a substantive assessment, which will be followed by a competency-based interview with the short-listed candidates.
Location of consultants:
The consultant is required to be in one of the three project countries: India, South Africa and Ghana. The consultant will be expected to undertake travel to the project sites in that particular country for conducting field testing prior to finalisation of the tool-kit.
[1] Action Aid defines young women’s economic rights as young women’s access to Decent Work and Livelihood opportunities and reduction and redistribution in their burden of unpaid care work.
[2] Unpaid care burden emerged as a key issue in all three countries at the design stage of the project and was identified as one of the key reasons for young women not being able to pursue greater economic opportunities.
How to apply:
Application procedures:
Please apply with an Expression of Interest (EOI) detailing how you meet the criteria including relevant experiences. The EOI must include a time-frame and a budget (excluding field travel costs). Please apply by 20th of June 2016 at the following id: