Consultancy to Undertake a Gender Audit at FIDA

EOI/09A/2020: CONSULTANCY TO UNDERTAKE A GENDER AUDIT.

1.0 About FIDA-Kenya

• The Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Kenya is a non-governmental, non-partisan, non-profit making organization established in 1985 with a mission to promote women’s individual and collective power to claim their rights in all spheres of life. FIDA-Kenya is a membership organization with over 1,100 women lawyers and law students committed to the creation of a society that is free from all forms of discrimination against women in Kenya. The organization works towards addressing challenges facing women’s access to their social, political and economic rights.
• To address these challenges, FIDA-Kenya has two key programs: Access to Justice and Women and Governance. The Access to Justice Program focuses on providing Legal Aid, Public Interest Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in the form of Mediation as well as Psychosocial Support. The Women and Governance Program focuses on advocacy, policy engagement and transformation of formal and cultural systems to ensure that they are gender sensitive and responsive, uphold and respect women’s rights.

2.0 Background

• Kenya is largely a patriarchal society, which has contributed to women’s subjugation in both the private and public spheres. Women have historically taken a secondary position to men, and this tradition is manifested in the practices, policies, and laws of the country. Cultural attitudes and low levels of education also impede women’s participation and representation in decision-making at all levels, as well as their lack of access to economic opportunities. Women's empowerment and the promotion of gender equality are key to achieving sustainable development. Greater gender equality can enhance economic efficiency and improve other development outcomes.
• Over the years, FIDA-Kenya has established offices in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu with each serving the counties within their regions. The organization’s two main programs, Access to Justice and Women and Governance have the overall objective of addressing challenges facing women’s access to their social, political and economic rights. This is achieved with the support of various development partners, key among them being DANIDA (Danish International Development Agency).

3.0 Scope of Consultancy

• FIDA-Kenya would like to undertake a Gender Audit whose purpose is to understand gender patterns in the design and delivery of policies and legal services in Kenya; performance and management of gender equality at national level and focus counties Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu. The role and impact of FIDA-Kenya’s programs in enhancing women’s rights and access to justice at the national and focus counties level.
• The organization would like to contract the services of a suitable firm or individual to undertake this evaluation.

4.0 Overall Objective of the Consultancy

• The overall objective of this consultancy is to gather evidence based information to determine the relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability and impact of FIDA-Kenya’s programs and the extent to which women’s and girl’s constitutional gains / rights have been realized in Kenya and measure their level of access to justice at national level and focus counties Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.

4.1 Specific Objectives of the Consultancy

More specifically, the gender audit will:

• Determine the level of public knowledge on women’s and girls’ rights, and their perception of gender equality.
• Measure percentage increase in the realization of women and girls’ constitutional rights in Kenya.
• Determine relevance and effectiveness of advocacy activities carried out by the organization to promote gender responsive policies, laws, processes and programs at national level implemented to promote compliance with constitutional provisions and international standards Indicators.
• Measure the impact of reviewed and implemented gender responsive policies, laws, processes and programs at County levels in promotion and compliance with constitutional provisions and international standards Indicators.
• Ascertain the impact of work done by FIDA-Kenya on Strategic Impact Litigation.
• Determine the effectiveness and efficiency of women causes established and supported by FIDA-Kenya.
• Measure percentage increase in access to justice by women in Kenya.
• Measure percentage increase in the number of women filing cases to court over the past five years.
• Establish whether Court decisions delivered by the Family Court, Land and Environment Court and the Employment and Labor Court reflect an understanding and respect of the principles of gender equality and non-discrimination.
• Determine what role Alternative Justice Systems (Mediation and Traditional Justice System) have played in enhancing women’s access to justice in the focus counties.
• Determine impact of FIDA-Kenya’s publications in informing and guiding intervention by public and private institutions on women’s rights concerns.
• Gauge the level of knowledge on issues of women’s and girls’ rights among public staff in national and county departments (gender expertise, competence and efforts at capacity building).
• Determine the level of information and knowledge management within the national and county departments, and gender equality policy as reflected in its products and public image, which can be in formal and informal means of information and knowledge sharing.
• Establish how gender issues are mainstreamed in various departmental work and programming in national and county government.
• Ascertain gender issues in staffing and human resources concerning balance of women and men in the national and county government.
• To establish the perceptions of achievement on gender equality among public staff in the national and county governments.
• Determine systems and instruments in use for accountability, evaluating and monitoring on gender equality in the national and county governments.
• Ascertain the level of female political participation in decision making / leadership processes.
• Gauge the level of sustainability of the program.

5.0 Methodology

• The consultant will be expected to utilize a multi-method, qualitative and quantitative participatory approach to conduct the evaluation. The questionnaires will be administered on FIDA-Kenya clients and public officers in departments that have worked with FIDA-Kenya at the national and county levels. The Consultant will also be expected to carry out an analysis of case law and other relevant Court documentation from the identified Courts.

NB: The consultant will be required to provide a methodology that takes cognizance of the prevailing WHO/MOH Guidelines on COVID-19 Pandemic.

6.0 Indicative Time Frame

• It is expected that the whole task should be completed within 45 calendar days.

7.0 Deliverables

The following are the deliverables:

• Inception report detailing the methodology, work plan and budget.
• Submission of all data collection tools for approval before data collection.
• First draft narrative report.
• Submission of hard and electronic copies of materials, data collected/analyzed and other gender audit documents.
• A summary PowerPoint presentation highlighting main findings and recommendations.
• Final narrative report of the gender audit detailing the process and methodology, findings, lessons learnt and key recommendations.
• The consultant will report to the Deputy Executive Director and have direct communication with FIDA-Kenya’s Senior Program Officer and Monitoring and Evaluation Officer during the execution of this assignment.

8.0 Expected Profile of the Consultant

• Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences, Law, Research or Gender Studies. (Master’s degree in the above will be an added advantage.)
• A minimum of 10 years’ experience undertaking research on human rights.
• Evidence of undertaking of similar work in the last five years.
• Excellent analytical and report writing skills.

9.0 Requirements

Interested individuals, companies or research firms should submit a detailed expression of interest (technical and financial proposal):

• The technical proposal should include an interpretation of the objectives of the consultancy, detailed methodology and an elaborate work plan. Organization/individual capacity statement, past experience and activities related to the gender audit, CVs of the consulting team and their roles in the achievement of the assignment; names, addresses and telephone numbers of three professional referees.
• The financial proposal should include a detailed budget proposal; a detailed profile of the firm including contact and physical address, telephone numbers and copy of registration certificate, VAT and PIN where applicable.