Gender Audit and Development of a Gender Strategy for SOS Children’s Village Guinea Bissau

Terms of Reference

1. Background

SOS Children’s Villages International is a global organization established in 1949 that works to meet the needs and protect the interests and rights of children who have lost parental care and those at risk of losing them. SOS Children’s Villages International works through member associations in 135 countries around the world. SOS Children’s Villages of Guinea-Bissau is a national non-governmental development association and member of the International Federation of Children’s Villages SOS that since 1994 has been developing its activities to meet the needs and concerns of children. SOS Guinea-Bissau develops and manages a wide range of programs and projects in Bissau, Gabú and Canchungo, including family strengthening programs, youth programs, primary and secondary schools, children’s gardens, a vocational training center and various community projects.

Gender integration in Guinea-Bissau is based on adhoc and no coordinated effort is observed. In addition, the attempts to promote gender equity is observed in very few ministries and organizations in the sector. Gender integration is still a problem in many organizations, public and private and a number of reasons have been given for the marginalization of gender/women issues.

A ‘‘gender audit’’ is one aspect of what is referred to as ‘‘mainstreaming’’ analysis, mainstreaming gender in public policy, including legislation, regulations of different organizations, allocations, taxation and social projects, from the point of view of their effect on the status of women in a general society. The basic assumption of gender audits is that policies impact differently on men and women. The variance stems from the different roles of women and men in the family and from the level economic status of women. The purpose of gender audits is to lead to changes in policies and practices that contribute to an increase in gender equality.

Although SOS Children’s Villages Guinea-Bissau is making efforts to ensure gender integration and female empowerment initiatives at all levels of its programs in Bissau, Gabú and Canchungo, it does not yet have a national strategic plan on gender equality in each workplace. However, in recent years, several initiatives have been made to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment in Guinea-Bissau. To further reinforce this, as well as in SOS Children’s Villages programs at all levels. The national office of SOS Children’s Villages in Guinea Bissau is seeking to conduct a gender audit. This ToRs is designed to inform its development. Thus, it is prepared to outline the purpose/objective, scope, and methodology to undertaking organizational gender audit and the development of a gender strategy.

2. Mission purpose

2.1 Overall objective

The overall objective of the mission is to analyze gender considerations in the care of children/young people in our target group regarding the implementation of SOS Children’s Villages International policies and strategic guidance documents.

2.2 Specific objectives :

1. Assess the understanding of gender with employees, children and youths in SOS CV targets groups (both in alternative care and in family strengthening)
2. Appreciate how gender is taken into account when applying policies and strategic guidance documents within the National Association NA (SOS Children’s Villages International Gender Policy, Child Protection Policy, Gatekeeping Guideline, Service Description Guideline, Youth Development Guideline, SOS Parent Guideline, etc.).
3. Analyze gender considerations and practices in NA programs and widely in SOS CV Guinee Bissau’s areas of intervention
4. Identify gender mainstreaming strengths and weaknesses in all SOS CV Guinea Bissau’s operations
5. Develop a gender equality strategy to inform and frame future gender practices in all areas of work of SOS CV Guinea Bissau

Methodology

Both primary and secondary data will be gathered on various indicators of gender, and using both quantitative and qualitative tools. Focus group discussions, key informant interviews, semi-structured interviews and questionnaires are suggested to be used to assess key issues related to gender mainstreaming; practices of SOS CV Guinea Bissau and to come up with key recommendations for future programming.

The mission will focus on two main phases:

-The first step will focus on gender audit that will use various research tools. Before the beginning of the audit, the methodology and all the tools proposed by the consultant should be discussed and validated at the end of a restricted methodological framework workshop.

The audit report, after the integration of the various contributions of the NA and the regional office, will be validated at the end of a national workshop that will have the participation of the main stakeholders of SOS CV Guinea Bissau (staff, youth, partners, communities, etc.).

-The second phase will focus on the development of the gender strategy, which the consultant will always have the task of facilitating. Based on the audit report, the consultant will work with key people to develop a gender strategy that meets the recommendations and areas of improvement raised by the audit.

The draft strategy, after the integration of the various contributions of NA and the regional office, will be validated at the end of a national workshop that will have the participation of the main stakeholders of SOS VE Guinea Bissau (staff, youth, partners, communities, etc.).

3. Scope of the Study

Gender audits will address the gender-related work of all departments and programs of the 3 SOS working locations in Guinea-Bissau (Bissau, Gabú and Canchungo) to provide a baseline for gender equality status and inform the development of gender integration and the development of a gender strategy. The mission will cover the following points (but not limited):

• analyze whether internal practices and support systems related to gender integration are effective
• Analyze key organizational policies and guidelines and identify how gender is taken into account in their implementation.
• Recommend how to confront gaps and develop a strategy for better gender mainstreaming; present the findings in the validation workshop.

NB: the mission will cover three program locations of SOS Children’s Villages Guinea-Bissau: Bissau, Gabú and Canchungo. Using the participatory self-assessment methodology, the mission is expected to collect unbiased data from staff, children, youths and community related to gender awareness and equality, policies and processes, programme design and implementation, in order to better obtain a clear understanding of the situation and recommendations for future actions.

More specifically the gender audit will be extended to the following areas:

• Gender mainstreaming in programme designing, implementation and monitoring and evaluation,
• Gender considerations in policies and processes designing and implementation

4. Work plan

The gender audit shall be conducted and finalized between October 2022 – December 2022.

The preliminary work plan is as follows:

• October 28, 2022: Posting the ToR on job sites in Guinea-Bissau and a Regional office level.
• November 10, 2022: submission of the detailed proposal (technical and financial) with a draft methodology
• November, 15, 2022: selecting the consultant and commissioning the work
• November, 22, 2022: submission of inception report
• November 25, 2022: Data Collection, analysis of data and write-up of the draft report
• December 14, 2022: Validation workshop- Comment, feedback and reflection
• December 28, 2022: submission of final report

5. Deliverables

The consulting firm should produce the following deliverables:

• Gender audit report with the following sections: executive summary with major findings and recommendations; introduction with objectives, scope, methodology, timeline, constraints and limitations; key findings based on the above-mentioned issues under section 4 and recommendations.
• A gender strategy with a structure that will be defined according to the findings

6. Required Qualification and Experience

The consulting firm needs to be licensed and have a renewed license for the current Guinea fiscal year. Those firms who can avail testimonies of undertaking gender audit studies will be given priority to this assignment. Specific requirements include the following:

• Master Degree in gender studies, development studies or any other relevant social science subjects.
• A minimum of 5 years of progressively responsible experience in areas of gender analysis, auditing and related baseline studies.
• Excellent command of oral and written French (or English) & Portuguese
• Knowledge of gender audit tool
• The consulting firm needs to assign relevant professional background to undertake the gender audit study. It would be advisable to recruit gender professionals at second degree qualification as deemed necessary.

7. Mechanism to Apply

A technical proposal with two financial proposals (one original and one copy) in Portuguese and French, separately sealed in an envelope clearly marked to be submitted in person within 7 days of the advertisement.

8. Suggested Reporting Outline

The gender audit study will be reported using the following format but this does not necessarily mean the consultants’ innovations are not welcomed. The report should roughly include:

• Front cover with title page
• Acknowledgement (communities, advisers, team members, funding agencies)
• Abbreviations/acronyms
• List of contents
• Executive summary
• Background information
• Purpose of the audit
• Assessment methods and sampling
• Description of the process of conducting the rapid assessment
• Key Results of the audit and discussions
• Conclusion and recommendations
• Annexes

9. Standard procedures in the delivery of the products

Should the consultant need specific assistance/materials from the SOS Children’s Villages Guinea-Bissau office and/or national partners, he/she is requested to do so at least 5 days prior to implementation.

10. Remuneration and payment arrangement

The consultant will be paid 50 % of the amount upon approval of the proposal; 25% after completion and submission of the first draft study, and the final payment of 25% will be paid upon completion and submission of the final report.

11. Monitoring and evaluation of the assignment

The selected consultant will work under the direct supervision of SOS Guinea-Bissau and Program location staff. In the absence of the above, the consultant is expected to report directly to the Gender Focal Point.