TOR for Development Guidance for Gender-Responsive Budget Planning

Girls’ Education and Empowerment Project (GEEPS)

Terms of Reference (TOR) for Development of Guidance for Gender-Responsive Budget Planning **

Background:

The Girls’ Empowerment and Education Project (GEEPS), or Hayaanka Hablaha Soomaaliyeed, is a three-year initiative that seeks to address the systemic and pervasive gender inequalities that prevent adolescent girls in Somalia and Somaliland from the full and equitable enjoyment of their rights to a safe and inclusive education and learning in Somalia and Somaliland. GEEPS will work in 70 urban/and rural locations in Somalia and Somaliland to implement an integrated and innovative package of interventions that intend to: 1) Increase equitable access to safe, secure, quality, inclusive education and learning by adolescent girls, including girls with disabilities (GwDs), girls from traditionally marginalized groups, and those girls who have been heavily affected by conflict and displacement and 2) Enhance quality, gender responsiveness and inclusiveness of the Somali education system at all levels addressing the needs of marginalized girls, including those with disabilities, in service provision.

Objective of the Consultancy:

GEEPS project focuses on improving gender equality and empowerment of women and girls, it intends to achieve this by i). increasing women’s and girls’ participation in education system decision-making through strengthening of girl leaders, female mentors, and Gender Units/ Departments, ii). supporting local movements to advance women’s rights to address barriers to girls’ education, iii). strengthening the capacity of education stakeholders (local officials, Gender Focal Points, Head Teachers, CECs, REOs and DEOs) on gender equality and addressing barriers to girls’ attendance, retention, and learning, especially for GwDs, IDPs, and minority groups, and iv). building MOEs’ capacity through evidence-based gender sensitive budget planning processes to ensure education services respond to girls’ needs.

Gender sensitive budgeting remains a powerful tool for achieving gender mainstreaming by reducing gender inequalities in program budgeting and ensuring the benefits of development reach women and girls equally as they do men and boys. It provides direction in a process of keeping a gender perspective in policy/program formulation, implementation, and review. It is a part of an initiative that promotes linking knowledge on gender and program budget planning. Its rationale arises from the recognition that most budgets are generally gender-neutral and therefore are unaware or blind to how they impact men and women differently through patterns of resource allocation. It is noted women and girls constitute equally a greater percentage of the total population, but often remain behind men and boys on many social indicators including health, education, economic opportunities, security, etc. Resource allocations targeting women and girls usually comprise a very small proportion of most budgets. Due to their vulnerability, exclusion, and lack of access to basic resources, women and girls warrant special attention during budget planning. The way resources are allocated during budget planning and actual budgeting has the potential to exacerbate already-existing gender inequalities. Gender responsive budget planning is therefore a critical piece in the process of achieving gender mainstreaming and equitable resource distribution. It promotes equality between women/girls and men/boys by influencing the budgeting process to address development challenges such as poverty, persistent inequalities, and social exclusion.

Gender responsive budget planning prioritizes generating relevant tools and utilizing participatory approaches when preparing budgets to reflect the impact of expenditures on women and girls. It supports holding relevant institutions accountable for gender equality commitments and investments and ensuring that gender equality is explicitly included in their priorities and matched by adequate resources to address inequalities and eliminate biases that deepen social exclusion. Gender responsive budgeting also supports government/organization agencies in the process of conceiving, planning, approving, executing, monitoring, analyzing, and auditing budgets in a gender sensitive way.

The project seeks to engage a consultant for the development of a guidance document on gender responsive budget planning to strengthen the capacity of MoEs (at the Federal and Member State levels) on gender-responsive budget planning to influence future gender-transformative policymaking, support in eliminating barriers and inequalities, and improve education for girls, including girls from IDPs, minority groups and girls with disabilities (GwDs). The guidance document will help groups involved in budget planning to think through the actions to take at each stage of the budget planning, development, and monitoring process.

Specific Objectives: **

§ Develop guidance for gender responsive budget planning to respond to the following:

ü improve quality of decision-making processes on gender responsive budgeting.

ü support government to decide how policies need to be made, adjusted, and reprioritized according to the set data on gender inequalities.

ü define the expected results of gender responsive budgeting.

ü improve gender outcomes in budgets, policies, and service delivery.

ü analyse actual expenditures and revenues allocated for women and girls against men and boys.

ü improve budget transparency, accountability, and participation through proper monitoring.

§ Strengthen the capacity of MOEs on gender responsive budget planning approaches.

Scope of work:

The consultant will be expected to:

§ Identify linkages between policy making, programming, and budgeting and the added value of gender responsive budget planning approaches to achieving policy outcomes.

§ Review CARE International’s new Gender Equality Impact Area Strategy (GEIAS) to ensure alignment between approaches, tools, objectives, indicators, and guide developed under the consultancy and the GEIAS.

§ Review in the education sector the existing government gender responsive budget planning objectives, approaches, tools, indicators, and evidence to date of efficacy of approaches and tools in achieving policy outcomes related to girls’ and women’s empowerment.

§ Develop relevant user-friendly gender responsive budget planning approaches, tools, objectives, and indicators for effective policy implementation to check if the allocations are in line with policy commitments and desired impacts.

§ Develop a user-friendly guide on gender responsive budget planning to achieve gender equality and girls’ and women’s empowerment.

§ Review the gender responsive budget planning approaches, tools, objectives, indicators, and the developed user-friendly gender responsive budget planning guide by the relevant FGS MOECHE Department, FGS MOPIC and CARE technical staff.

§ Prepare and deliver a presentation to a team of FGS MOECHE and MOEs’ staff on developed tools, approaches, objectives, indicators, and agender responsive budget planning guide

§ Conduct a practical training to select key MOE staff in charge of planning and budgeting on gender responsive budget planning.

Deliverables:

o A final package of approved gender responsive budget planning tools, approaches, and guide (both English language and Somali language versions).

o A training workshop for select FGS MOECHE and MOEs’ staff.

o A training report with clear recommendations.

Timeframe:

The consultancy shall be executed within a maximum of 35 days, commencing after signing the contract. The Proposal should include a detailed schedule.

Consultancy experience and expert qualifications:

The consultant should possess the following qualifications and experience:

• A degree in education or in international development with a focus on gender responsive budgeting.
• At least three years of relevant experience in gender responsive budget planning and development.
• Demonstrable experience in developing and supporting implementation of gender responsive budgets.

· 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 19/03/2022…. .