Terms of Reference for Documenting Impact of AGES Gender and Social Inclusion Component

Terms of Reference for Documenting Impact of AGES Gender and Social Inclusion Component

1. Background and Introduction

The Gender Inequality Index for Somalia is 0.776 (where 1 denotes complete inequality), placing Somalia as the 4th worst country in terms of gender parity globally.[1] Additionally, Somalia was recently ranked the fifth most dangerous country in the world for a woman.[2] Somali society is strongly patriarchal with clearly delineated roles and responsibilities between men, women, boys, and girls. Men are traditionally identified as protectors of family security, primary breadwinners, and primary decision-makers, in both public and private settings. Women are responsible for bearing and raising children, food production, and most domestic tasks. However, decades of conflict in Somalia, compounded with recurring drought and famine and patterns of out-migration by men and boys, have precipitated significant shifts in gender roles and dynamics related to the household economy.

Within this context, the Adolescent Girls’ Education in Somalia (AGES) project is a long-term program funded by both FCDO and USAID which aims to improve learning outcomes and positive transitions for ultra-marginalized adolescent girls in the Banaadir Regional Administration as well as Hirshebele, Jubaland, and Southwest states. The project is targeting over 80,000 ultra-marginalised and out‐of‐school girls to enrol in formal education, accelerated education, or non‐formal education classes. The project also indirectly benefits 14,000 boys enrolled in targeted formal schools. The project works with teachers, participatory governance mechanisms (Community Education Committees (CECs)), parents/caregivers, and education officials to address barriers to girls’ attendance, retention, and learning. AGES is also supporting schools and non-formal learning centres to implement activities to develop leadership skills and financial literacy and to improve girl’s knowledge of reproductive health and menstrual health management.

Furthermore, the program objectives include but are not limited to the expansion of critical life skills around finances to prompt girls to stay in school, re-enrol in school, enrol in alternative education, or move into meaningful and dignified employment opportunities. Given the context and the barriers girls in the targeted areas face, the project takes a multidimensional approach while addressing these key barriers affecting the most marginalized girls. At the individual and household levels, the project is supporting Village Savings and Loans (VSL) groups; providing bursaries to 959 girls with disability; providing them with essential life skills related to resilience building and socioemotional learning through Girls’ Empowerment Forums (GEFs); mentoring boys through parallel Boys’ Empowerment Forums; and sensitizing mothers to pro-education norms, especially for girls and those with disabilities. At the community level, religious leaders have been mobilized to advocate for inclusive education and trained on Islamic principles that emphasize gender equality and girls’ education, delivering messaging through radio and social media.

1. 1. AGES Context

While Somalia is often portrayed as ethnically and culturally homogeneous relative to other countries in the region, linguistic and cultural differences do exist and can be particularly relevant for achieving learning and life outcomes. The regions in which the project is being implemented include large swathes of territory associated with the traditionally agriculturalist clan families, as well as other marginalized groups.

On the other hand, most of the schools targeted by AGES are situated in the oldest urban areas of Somalia, with traditions of governance, educational attainment, and trading cultures in the coastal cities of Mogadishu and Kismayo. Prior to the outbreak of civil war, many of the cities in question were centres of significant power, which may be reflected in positive attitudes toward education or greater access to financial resources for education. Unfortunately, little is known about cross-regional levels of income, and even less about attitudinal outcomes such as support for education. Nonetheless, the proliferation of private schools can be used as a proxy to estimate strong support for education among urban populations, despite potential biases in favour of boys and majority groups.

1. 1. AGES Gender and Social Inclusion Strategy

In the target areas where the AGES project is being implemented, clan and ethnic identities have grown even more important as determinants of rights and access to protection and resources. Minority clans and historically marginalized groups not only lack access to basic services but often face significant socio-economic challenges. The poorest households are highly vulnerable to natural disasters including Covid-19. The exclusion of marginalized and hard-to-reach children from accessing quality education is both by default and by design. Across the globe, education equity has been a challenge and continuously emphasized in all international commitments.

From a Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) perspective, the project’s targeting emphasizes the most marginalized girls with strong emphasis on girls with disabilities (GWDs). The project has so far successfully identified 47,493 out-of-school and ultra-marginalized girls and enrolled them in the project’s three different learning pathways: Accelerated Basic Education (ABE) pathway, Formal Education Pathway and the Non-Formal Education through the intentional targeting pillar. The following three pillars inform the project’s inclusive education strategy by concentrating on establishing conducive learning systems, including viable structures within which ultra-marginalized girls can learn and thrive while underscoring the essentiality of regularly collecting and analysing real-time data to maintain, strengthen, and improve the strategy.

Daigram1. AGES Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Strategy

GES Dual-Disability Strategy

Secondly, in line with the GESI Strategy, the program also designed a comprehensive “dual strategy” to respond to the needs of girls with disabilities and streamlined two pillars to achieve this strategy. These pillars divide the target beneficiaries in two tier categories: those girls with severe disabilities and those girls with mild disabilities. During the identification and registration process disability-disaggregated data was collected to measure disability prevalence. The Washington Group short set of questions[3] was used to ensure consistent and reliable data, which mainly focused on core functional domains to capture the full spectrum of functioning from mild to severe forms of disability. As result, so far, 2,000 OOS GwDs are accessing and advancing through learning pathways, i.e., those with mild cases of disability have been enrolled in mainstream schools/centres of the three project pathways (ABE, NFE and Formal). Those with severe impairments that require specialized facilities with teachers trained on special needs education (SNE) have been enrolled in special schools.[4]

Additionally, the feedback, complaints, and response mechanism (FCRM), safeguarding SOPs, and IEC messages have been rolled out including safety SOPs to support GWDs. Additionally, girls are being supported in having spaces and opportunities to meet safely, carry out recreational activities, sports, drama, poetry, etc., develop and practice life and leadership skills, and become agents of change and activists for children’s rights. Moreover, Boys’ Empowerment Forum (BEF) mentors are working closely with Girls’ Empowerment Forum (GEF) mentors on promoting gender equality and implementing activities that foster the use of a synchronized approach to ensure adolescent empowerment for both adolescent girls and boys.

1. 1. Purpose

The AGES project was designed to provide girls with an opportunity to transform their lives through access to quality education, expansion of critical life skills around finances and sexual and reproductive health and menstrual hygiene management; prompt girls to stay in school, re-enrol in school, enrol in alternative education, or move into meaningful and dignified employment opportunities; acknowledging that gender and social inequality can be a driver for the challenges faced by millions of school-age marginalized girls. An explicit gender and social inclusion analysis of these dimensions of girls’ lives is critically important. Specific gender-related and social inclusion barriers must be understood in real time, and this understanding should be fed into the design, delivery, monitoring, and evaluation of projects as illustrated in the AGES project’s strategy diagram.

Furthermore, the GEC has a clear objective of understanding and addressing various forms of educational marginalization faced by girls, leading to project activities being socially inclusive. Social inclusion under the GEC is recognized as the provision of opportunities to ensure all members of an intended target group are included in an activity irrespective of their ethnicity, language, disability, religion, sexual orientation etc. This is a non-exhaustive list, as different contexts will have a wide range of social identities which will have their own histories and exclusion dimensions. For FCDO-funded projects under the GEC, it is essential to have an intentional approach to inclusion that involves careful data collection, planning, delivery, and feedback loops so that project activities do not result in any unintended consequences that result in girls’ exclusion from interventions based on any individual or group characteristic.

1. 1. Objectives

The FCDO-funded initial phase of the AGES project will end in August 2022. Hence, it is critical to document and capture lessons learnt from the project to inform the second phase of the project’s second phase with USAID funding by focusing on:

1. Conducting an impact assessment or review of AGES gender and social inclusion components (outlined above).
2. Documenting project successes, lessons, and best practices (both in print and video formats) for learning and sharing with project stakeholders, beneficiaries, and donors.
3. Reviewing existing secondary data, quarterly survey findings, and assessments/research studies and developing learning briefs aligned with the project’s social inclusion components.
4. Capturing project-related photos and key video footage on thematic topics, relating to the social inclusion component of the project, showcasing key project success stories, and producing a short documentary film (3-5 minutes) on the inclusion component of AGES project being implemented.
5. The study will particularly analyse and document learnings considering differences by state, marginalized/minority group, sex, ability/disability, etc. as well as by the impact of the various crises (natural and man-made) that have affected the project’s target areas and communities?
   1. Methodology

The exercise will involve collection of both primary and secondary data. Secondary data will focus on but not be limited to the review of relevant project documents such as the proposal, progress reports, quarterly survey findings, and other relevant non- project documents. Primary data collection will involve focus group discussions with various community groups and key informant interviews with relevant project actors such us religious leaders, government staff, project staff and community resource persons as well as human interest stories with selected project beneficiaries supported by pictures (photographs).

Additionally, the study will give high priority for the inputs, and voices from the target girls, boys, and ultra-marginalized beneficiaries including historically marginalized communities.

Scope of work:

The consultant will be expected to:

1. Develop inception reports detailing how data is going to be collected, with clear time frames and roles.
2. Develop data collection tools in consultation with the project staff
3. Review AGES quarterly and annual reports, quarterly girls’ surveys, baselines, midline, and third-party monitoring reports including project related assessments.
4. Conduct data collection

Deliverables:

1. Inception report
2. Data collection tools
3. Two documentaries (print and video content)

Timeframe: It is estimated that the assignment will take one month.

Consultancy experience and expert qualifications:

The consultant should possess the following qualifications and experience:

• Master’s degree in Sociology, gender studies, education, or development studies with experience in inclusive education and gender sensitive programming.
• At least 4 to 8 years of relevant experience in impact studies, research, and documentation on best practices.
• Demonstrable experience in developing and supporting implementation of integrated programs.
• Experience of working in and knowledge of Somalia context.
• Excellent analytical and conceptual skills to think and plan strategically.
• Ability to lead and manage a complex and demanding workload.
• Excellent training and report writing skills.
• Excellent written and spoken English; proficiency in Somali language is a plus.

Application Procedure:

The interested candidates are requested to submit:

• Technical proposal showing how the consultant intends to carry out the assignment
• Financial proposal
• Qualifications

Relevant experience related to the assignment including samples and references of most recent similar work done.

Applications should be submitted to: [email protected]. no later than 11th of June 2022

Kindly indicate in the subject line Documenting Impact of AGES Gender and Social Inclusion Component