FNT/EOI/28/2023- Creation of a Training Manual for the African Feminist Transformative Leadership Academy.

1. About FEMNET

The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) is a pan- African, feminist and membership-based network based in Nairobi, Kenya with over 800 individual and institutional members across 50 African countries and in the diaspora. FEMNET envisions a society where African women and girls thrive in dignity and well-being, free from patriarchal and neoliberal oppression and injustices.

FEMNET recognizes that the commitment to alter relations of power, structural injustices, and systemic oppression lies at the heart of feminism. FEMNET is therefore committed to pushing towards altering power structures that perpetuate gender inequality by nurturing the African women’s movement to enable women and girls in their diversity to effectively claim, affirm, and use their collective power to end all forms of exclusion, oppression, exploitation, and injustices against them.

Founded in 1988, FEMNET exists to facilitate and coordinate the sharing of experiences, information, and strategies for human rights promotion among feminists, activists, and women’s rights organizations as a strategy for collective organizing; policy influencing & advocacy; strategic communication; capacity strengthening as well as feminist solidarity and movement building.

Over the years, FEMNET has strategically positioned herself as a convenor, organizer, and facilitator of critical dialogues around women’s economic justice and rights; transformative women’s leadership; sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR); climate justice and natural resource governance as well as, ending all forms of violence and harmful/ discriminatory practices against women and girls.

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 direct and indirect impact on their lives. FEMNET mobilizes African women

to hold their States accountable to women’s rights and gender equality commitments.

Vision: African women and girls thrive in dignity and well-being, free from patriarchal and neoliberal oppression and injustices.

Mission: To mobilize African women for the achievement of gender equality and the realization of women’s and girls’ rights at all levels.

FEMNET’s Core Values

• Feminist solidarity
• Respect for diversity
• Intersectionality
• Integrity
• Commitment to women’s rights
• Professionalism and learning

2.About the Project.

Advancing Gender Equality through Civil Society (AGECS) is a 3-year (2022-2025) initiative implemented by the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), with support from Global Affairs Canada (GAC). The Gender Equality transformative initiative aims at supporting CSOs/WROs to address the root and structural causes of gender inequalities, transforming gender norms and socio-cultural barriers that hold women and girls back from advancing gender transformative change at household, community and societal levels.

FEMNET in close collaboration with AKF’s AGECS Program is implementing a Gender Equality Advocacy in Practice (GEAP) project to strengthen the policy advocacy capacities of CSOs/WROs that are advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment to effectively advocate for gender transformative policies and practices at national, regional and global policy spaces through co-created gender transformative interventions. Directly, the GEAP project targets GEAP partners and indirectly the policymakers, government officials, women rights organizations, gender activists, religious and cultural leaders as key influencers of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

3.Rationale of the African Transformative Leadership Academy manual.

Socially entrenched norms reinforced through politics, culture, religion, and patriarchal structures, undermine women’s voices and choices. These, coupled with restrictive laws and policies, a prevailing inauspicious political will to implement gender policies, and inadequate allocation of resources to gender-specific priorities for women and girls have resulted in persistent violations, discrimination, and injustices. Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), particularly Women’s Rights Organizations (WROs) have been at the forefront of advocating for transformative societal norms, influencing policy formulation and reforms, and monitoring the implementation of gender equality policies. Despite these critical roles, CSOs and WROs face institutional and technical capacity challenges that inhibit meaningful and sustainable engagement.

Feminist leadership strives for equality in social, cultural, economic and political realization of human rights for all, regardless of gender, sexuality, age, race, or other forms of identity. Gender inequality remains a major obstacle in achieving human rights and sustainable development in Africa. Through the African feminist transformative leadership academy, FEMNET will strengthen the policy advocacy capacities of AGECS partners in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Madagascar, and Mozambique to advocate for gender transformative policies and practices at national, regional and global policy spaces. As key influencers of gender agenda, FEMNET will heighten the consciousness of the GEAP partners to address and challenge myths, misconceptions, and contradictions about women’s rights within their male-dominated institutions and constituencies. FEMNET will therefore ensure that GEAP partners will gain requisite knowledge and skills that would leverage their work towards practical application in their programming and effective policy influencing in their interventions.

The training will encompass topics on women’s leadership, gender equality, policy formulation, advocacy and influencing and expand CSOs’ access to policy and decision-making spaces at the national, regional and global levels. Through enhanced capacities, it is believed that CSOs and WROs organizations in the GEAP project and identified stakeholders will collectively advocate for gender transformative policies and practices as well as hold governments accountable to gender equality commitments such as the Maputo Protocol and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG5).

Through the African feminist transformative leadership academy, FEMNET in close collaboration with AGECs, FEMNET seeks to strengthen the policy advocacy capacities of the GEAP partners from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Madagascar, and Mozambique to advocate for gender transformative policies and practices at local, regional and global policy spaces. Moreover, FEMNET seeks to also heighten their consciousness in addressing and challenging myths, misconceptions, and contradictions about women’s rights within the male-dominated institutions and constituencies.

FEMNET through a multi-sectoral approach and leveraging on a creative medium, seeks to create a youth-friendly, diverse and inclusive, easy to understand, practical, resonating, clear and concise training manual as a guiding tool to put a limelight on Feminist leadership with its intersectionality with Gender and Policy Advocacy in line with:

• SOUL: To ensure that the voices of African women and girls are a feature of advocacy in real practice to have an autonomous African Authenticity
• SOLIDARITY: To work as a team in unison and stand in harmony with each other with the aim of movement building within the GEAP project
• VOICE: To enrich the partners with the aim of enabling them to speak for themselves and push them to participate in local, regional and global advocacy and transformative leadership spaces
• POWER: To put into perspective the transformative learnings gained to empower the partners to be agents of change in transformative leadership spaces, be able to track policy making process at local, national, regional and global level spaces.

Lastly, the manual will provide guidance to the GEAP facilitators in organizing for future training sessions with clear guidelines on how to plan, prepare for and conduct a gender responsive training on transformative leadership and gender and policy advocacy.

4. Objectives of the Consultancy

The consultant will co-create curate and design content for the African Feminist Transformative Leadership Academy manual, with reference to other co-created thematic training manuals at FEMNET, on feminist leadership with its intersectionality with Gender and Policy Advocacy

5.Deliverables/ expected results

• Inception report: Outlining methodology and provide a detailed plan for developing the African Transformative Leadership Academy Manual.
• Development of guiding tools on the development of the manual.
• Lead consultation meetings with the core technical team at FEMNET.
• Design and develop a 3-day training model for the African Transformative Leadership Academy Manual.
• Present the first version of the assignment to the technical working group for final input to the material.
• Deliver the final version of the assignment for review and approval by FEMNET.
• NOT be reproduced anywhere

6.Timeline/ Duration of the Assignment.

This is a 10-day assignment form 4th to 15th May 2023 and the consultant is expected to submit their bid and share their workplan for the assignment with the expected end date for the assignment by 1st May 2023.

7.Required Qualification, Skills, and Competencies

The call is open to consultant/s able to demonstrate the following skills, knowledge, and experience:

Academic Qualification

FEMNET wishes to engage a strategic ledership consultant with a background of gender and development studies with a minimum of a master’s degree in Gender studies, public policy and any other related fields.

Experience

• Over 5 years of progressive experience in conducting capacity needs assessment, design and delivery of training manuals/tools, to relevant stakeholders.
• At least 3-4 years’ experience implementing and consulting on Gender and governance work across the African region
• Proven ability to work on strict timelines
• Current knowledge of the latest developments and trends in the field of feminist leadership will be an added advantage.
• Strong communication skills, and experience of presenting complex technical information and content in a user friendly or in an easily comprehensible way that is creative with practical application models.
• Bi-lingual (French, Portuguese and English) is an added advantage
• A trailblazing Pan – African Feminist and transformational leader

8.Liaison, Coordination and Reporting.

The consultant will report directly to the Women In Leadership Coordinator at Femnet.

9.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. Payment schedule will be agreed upon with the consultant upon successful selection. In case of team/firm applicants, a designated assignment contract manager will be the contact between FEMNET and the team and responsible for all deliverables.

10.Intellectual Property Rights.

The consultant expressly assigns to FEMNET any copyright arising from the outputs produced while executing the service contract. The consultant may not use, reproduce, disseminate, or authorize others to use, reproduce or disseminate any output produced under the service contract without prior consent from FEMNET.

11. Terms of Service

This is a non-staff contract and therefore the consultant is not entitled to insurance, medical cover or any other status or conditions as FEMNET staff.