Consultancy at Christian Aid to produce a People’s Stimulus Advocacy Toolkit. at Christian Aid

Terms of Reference

Background

There Are Two Key Anticipated Outcomes We Are Seeking From This Work

“Building back with justice; dismantling inequalities after Covid-19” is the basis for the post-Covid-19 (ability to live with it notwithstanding) reconstruction Strategy for Christian Aid (CA) countries dubbed “*People’s Stimulus”*. The purpose of this consultancy is to develop a toolkit for advocacy for CA and its partners that challenges the current model of development and seeks to build back with dignity, justice, equity and with a care for creation in mind.

• Christian Aid Countries and partners will be equipped with and motivated to use a toolkit that supports the People’s Stimulus Advocacy at national, regional and global levels.
• Policy makers, private sector, international financial institutions, and, other political and economic intergovernmental institutions are targeted to a C-19 reconstruction advocacy to take concrete measures to ensure long-term sustainable development rooted in a shared prosperity.

Christian Aid is keen to ensure that the reconstruction efforts post-Covid-19 do not replicate the pre-existing conditions of inequality, corporate power and power imbalances that pervade modern society, but ensures adequate levels of social protection for those who are most marginalised. The indignity of poverty is counter intuit­ive to modern day “*prosperity*” as the extremities of poverty and wealth disenfranchise a large segment of society leaving wealth and incomes in the hands of the few. The key issue is to ensure that we continue fiscal expansion towards a just and green stimulus and reconstruction, rather than accept an agenda of austerity and cuts that put the interests of big corporates, creditors and fossil fuel sectors before the interests of the people, who should be able to receive greater access to social protection, health services and access to income generating opportunities especially for the poor and the most marginalised people.

Purpose of this toolkit

This Toolkit Will Seek To Chart a Path Towards Effectively Influencing Policy And Practice By Suggesting And Outlining Practical Strategies At National, Regional And Global Level How To

The toolkit aims to equip CA countries and partners with a practical resource for advocacy to influence the post-Covid-19 political agenda. The two guiding themes for the reconstruction agenda should be economic justice and climate justice however the toolkit will integrate gender and social inclusion as cross cutting themes in its reflections and proposals. Covid-19 has demonstrated the inadequacies of the current broken economic system which is in essence fuelling poverty. Its hallmark traits are riddled with inequality, over consumption, mass deprivation and environmental degradation. The effects of which are an imbalance in power that often hits the poorest first and hardest especially women and those experiencing intersecting discrimination.

• Empower CA staff and partners on how to develop and maximise effective campaigns and advocacy activities themselves
• Build movements and coalitions (traditional and non-traditional); persuading their members, constituency, congregation, partner organisations and pertinent stakeholders to join the People’s Stimulus movement.
• Equipping Caid staff and partners with theological reflections which will enable them to engage effectively and appropriately with faith-based actors

The toolkit will provide an easy to use resource kit that will highlight:

• The devastating impact of Covid-19 and why a sustainable reconstruction model is crucial in the post-Covid-19 era as a key change objective identifying cross linkages with areas such as gender and social inclusion.
• That Covid19 stimulus packages put interests of big corporates in terms of tax incentives, tax cuts and bailouts ahead of the interests of those most impacted by the crisis,
• It will also look at support to fossil fuel companies / mining companies that create particular risks and harmful impacts on environment, climate and human rights, while supporting stimulus to community owned and managed enterprises.
• It will detail how to lead and engage in an effective advocacy strategy at national, regional and global levels including with and towards faith leaders.
• It will identify key advocacy moments at the regional and global levels and detail opportunities for influencing
• It will also identify key stakeholders at national, regional and global levels working on social, economic and political reconstruction efforts post-Covid-19 to engage and their prospective roles during recovery advocacy
• It will also detail plans and strategies for measuring impact and outcome
• It will also make provision for reflection periods on advocacy and a follow-up plan.
• It will also incorporate guide case studies for reflection on effective and ineffective advocacy.

The toolkit will provide guidance for advocacy, public campaigning and media outreach, thus enabling CA and partners to develop their own tailored initiatives.

Audience(s)

This toolkit aims to empower Christian Aid Country Offices and their partners to effectively engage in People’s Stimulus Advocacy. It will deliberately reflect on the interconnectedness of post-Covid-19 reconstruction efforts and a need for concerted efforts by states, regional economic blocs, international financial institutions, inter-governmental organisations, private sector, civil society, the faith-based community and citizen(s) to spearhead and commit to a sustainable reconstruction trajectory.

How we think the toolkit will be used by these audiences, including in the UK

The toolkit will be used as a training, capacity strengthening and building resource for CA Country Teams and partners. This will be integrated and can also be adapted for the needs of community of practices not only working on Economic Justice and Climate Justice, but also Health, Gender, Inclusive Markets, Governance, Resilience and other themes related to the Recovery agenda. The resource will further be shared with country staff. Support and training can be provided to its use. The toolkit will further be posted on CA website and on yammer as a resource kit for CA Staff across the organisation. The resource kit will also be translated into French to ensure that it is useful to French Speaking Countries and their partners.

Length and format:

The proposed length of the toolkit is 30 pages, including visual presentation of the entire toolkit as a step by step flow chart, cover, visual images and diagrams which give clear instructions on how to deliver different advocacy tactics with practical case-studies and examples.. In terms of word count, we anticipate a text of around 12,000 – 15,000 words.

The toolkit will be mainly distributed on-line as a pdf file in a short and long version. A power point presentation and an audio-visual film will also be made available as complementary resources to the toolkit (these additional resources will be produced in-house and are not included in this consultancy).

• Draft content:
• What does Building Back With justice mean?
• A brief reflection on the theology of building back with justice and of our understanding of prophetic voice
• How countries and citizens have continually been disenfranchised from a shared prosperity by a system that perpetuates over consumption, inequality and degrades the environment.
• How to analyse recovery packages from a climate (fossil fuel vs. renewable energy access), economic justice (stimulus to corporates vs. stimulus to people and small enterprises),
• How to analyse country debt data, including private creditors on where to find the up to date data sources to look up who the country owes its debt, how much and what mechanisms there are to improve transparency, accountability and reduce debt payments / burden.
• Feminist Bailout analysis by CSOs, and UN Women tracker on spending and policy issues that overcome gender inequality, and advance women’s rights.
• Draw on key independent analysis fossil fuel phase out of stimulus spending that is aligned with Paris Agreement as ambition rather than empty promises that do not achieve Paris ambition.
• Different ways to advocate for change of policy and practice in a new dispensation post Covid-19, detailing strategies and activities to be undertaken.
• How to get involved in advocacy and build a critical mass for campaigning on Recovery Advocacy including to churches and other faith actors.
• To present case studies for learning on effective and ineffective advocacy including to and by churches and other faith actors.
• Advocacy resources, glossary, useful content on campaigning and advocacy.

The task required

• To research the toolkit content (including the selection and incorporation of relevant material from existing resources already produced by Christian Aid and other organisations).
• Create a reference group where key stakeholders and partners feed in the key data sources that we consider are the building blocks for a just, green and rights-based stimulus and just recovery.
• To present a detailed outline of the toolkit content, based on the research undertaken and consultation with Christian Aid.
• To write up the text of the 30-page toolkit
• To liaise closely with Christian Aid staff for the delivery of the product.

The number of days for this consultancy is roughly calculated as follows:

Research and collection of relevant case-study material 7 days

Production of first draft of toolkit 8 days

Consultation and review 5 days

Production of final draft of toolkit 5 days

Contingency 5 days

Total 30 days

Time-frame

The toolkit will need to be ready for publication by mid-March 2021. Therefore, this consultancy will need to be undertaken from mid-January through February 2021, with final drafts ready in the first week of March. After which, design and publication of the final document will proceed. The budget allocation for the consultancy is £8,500.

Item

December

January

February

March

April

Terms of reference completed

Procurement of consultant(s)

Production of first draft of toolkit

Consultation and Review

Production of final draft of toolkit

Contingency

Launch of Final Version of Document

Skills and experience required

Essential

• Proven knowledge and experience in the international development sector, including relevant graduate and/or postgraduate qualifications.
• Excellent knowledge of development politics and how to influence stakeholders in policy and practice including at national, regional and global levels.
• Outstanding writing skills, including experience of writing accessible communications and/or educational materials for public audiences.
• Substantial experience on advocacy and campaigning
• Understanding of the importance of faith in development

Desirable

• Knowledge and experience of the issues surrounding economic policy, development and social movements.
• Experience of producing capacity building or training materials for CSOs.
• Ability to read French desirable