A consultant to capacity build on policy dialogue, advocacy and leadership.

EMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH INVESTMENT AND INCLUSION NETWORKS IN SOMALIA (e-WINS

REQUEST FOR CONSULTANTS

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is a global humanitarian organization with a mission to work with people in poverty and distress to create just and positive changes. ADRA Somalia belongs to the worldwide network, comprised of more than 130 supporting and implementing country offices. ADRA Somalia is seeking to recruit a consultant to capacity build on policy dialogue, advocacy and leadership.

1. Background

Unpacking social norms and realizing shifts in gender discriminatory beliefs or narratives are integral to advancing women’s economic power and gender equality. Greater equality through positive social norms and behaviour change can lead to improvements in livelihoods and well-being, including better access to services and markets and increased access to and control over household assets and income. This transformation has implications not only to the lives and livelihoods of women and girls, but also for human development, labour markets, productivity, and economic growth. It is therefore important to understand, diagnose and address the social and economic implications of norms on women’s economic power and gender equality. Persistent normative and empirical expectations around gender roles and responsibilities tend to reinforce unequal status, power relations, and limited life options, and they can be harmful for men and women alike. The condition of women in Somalia is influenced by a myriad of factors including political instability, economic challenges, and traditional societal norms. Evidence from diverse scenarios underscores that gender inequality impinges on economic growth through diminishing women’s human capital and hampering overall productivity.

Economic empowerment for women in Somalia entails equipping them with essential decision-making skills and financial resources, along with fostering an equitable environment that facilitates equal access to employment and economic opportunities. Through such endeavors, Somalia can work towards mitigating gender disparities, thereby propelling its economic transformation and inclusive growth agenda forward. The financial inclusion of women, particularly entrepreneurs, is pivotal for Somalia’s economic development, considering women in Somalia play a crucial role in the nation’s economy, particularly through their substantial involvement in small business ownership. They own 60% of small businesses in the country, showcasing their entrepreneurial spirit and critical contribution to the economy. However, a significant majority (70%) of these businesses operate within the informal sector. This prevalence in the informal sector could be attributed to various barriers women face, such as lack of access to formal financial services, education, or other necessary resources required to operate in the formal sector (Sheikh, 2023). Despite commendable strides in Somalia’s economic revitalization, persistent challenges such as inadequate institutional frameworks, fragile security, and complex political scenarios thwart further economic recovery and transformation. A notable concern is gender inequality, with Somalia ranking fourth globally on the Gender Inequality Index. Women’s educational attainment is concerning, with only 32% literacy rate among women aged 15-49 and 48% of females aged six and above having never attended school.

Political regimes shape the dynamics of policymaking, and while some are open to civil society participation and are expanding spaces for this, others may be reluctant or opposed to open political debate, either because of concerns about their image and the public perception of policies and actions, or simply to demonstrate their power. There is no magic formula or instruction manual for the perfect timing for advocacy in political matters. An analysis of the context and opportunities, and an awareness of the risks involved, is the best and only resource. It is essential to judge both when to act and when not to. Engaging communities is crucial in all stages of a policy dialogue process, as they are the primary beneficiary of a policy intervention. It involves consolidating community needs and priorities, sensitization of the community on policy issues as well as involving them in policy negotiation, formulation, policy review and accountability. Policy advocacy is therefore a set of strategic, coordinated activities which may include research, policy engagement and lobbying, public awareness-raising, and campaigning to mobilize support for collective purpose. Policy engagement and lobbying involve working with decision makers who have the power to change policy and practice and/or with those who influence them. This area of advocacy is often done with little or no public visibility and seeks to bring about change by offering analysis, insights, technical expertise, and evidence-based recommendations and/or policy alternatives. It may be long-term, deal with great complexity, involve quiet diplomacy and require relationship building, personal contacts, and flexibility. Other forms of advocacy are likely to be more public, and may include publication of research, public awareness raising, media engagement and campaigns. Policy engagement and lobbying may be complemented and buttressed by public-facing advocacy activities.

1. Rationale

Policy formulation is a highly political process, and knowledge of its formal rules is required in order to participate.

While capacity is the ability of individuals and systems to perform functions effectively, efficiently and sustainably, it is also a process through which the systems or individuals develop, strengthen and maintain their skills, instincts, abilities and resources to achieve agreed upon goals or objectives over time. It is critical to embrace a “leaving no one behind” approach to policy advocacy to ensure that the most marginalized women are able to participate and make their voices heard within women coalitions created to advocate for defending their rights. This requires embracing intersectionality to analyze the convergent oppressions that women may face according to their specific context and the power dynamics that are present, like discrimination on specific backgrounds. The action is therefore intent on upholding the rights of the most vulnerable women by promoting inclusion and taking measures to ensure that they have access to economic rights, political participation and to decision-making spaces. Advancing a strategy for advocacy and policy dialogue therefore requires equipping women advocates with the skills to lead and participate in the political arena.

Developing and rebuilding local institutional capacity is core not only for implementing decentralization, but also to achieve the ultimate objective of local development as represented in local economic development and provision of improved services and infrastructure. Policy dialogue, advocacy and leadership are critical tools for the realization of vision, mission, purpose, and goals, and are important to contribute to the reform of the systems, structures, policies, practices, and attitudes that generate, enable, and perpetuate injustice and inequality; hold those with responsibilities (duty bearers) to account; mobilize constituencies for change; stand with those experiencing oppression and injustice; strengthen the capacity of communities, and other at risk and affected groups, to engage in their own advocacy, and local civil society organizations seeking to help them. Creating productive opportunities that cater for all requires an effective and practical, yet strategic framework for the development of human capabilities, and alignment with national policies for investment and the like. Moreover, enhancing public service delivery systems increases citizen satisfaction with government performance, particularly when adhering to good governance.

Strategic advocacy is a tool to be used to engage other organs of state, in particular the core departments that spearhead implementation, to ensure their programmes and budgets are geared to foster economic inclusion. In addition, partnering is a tool and approach that can be used across societal actors to get them to commit their action and resources toward mainstream economic empowerment. This capacity building initiative will therefore aim at enhancing the meaningful participation of local actors in the leadership and decision-making coordination platforms; increasing and supporting the existing capacities of local and national actor coalitions with a particular emphasis on strengthening the leadership for local women-led state and non-state actors; collating and developing evidence-based documentation and research that lead to collective advocacy action and serve as a reference for members in their advocacy and policy efforts, and increasing understanding and efforts to reduce barriers that prevent local and national actors from advancing their leadership and action.

1. e-WINS Project

The e-WINS Project is funded by the European Union (EU) to contribute to economic empowerment of women and girls in Somalia through gender inclusive and transformative approaches and actions. The project targets 10,000 women to benefit from enhanced participation in productive economic activities and decision-making processes. Through tailored capacity building initiatives, negotiation skills, inclusivity, entrepreneurship and business management, alongside the establishment of knowledge-sharing platforms among women-led organizations, the action seeks to strengthen the social capital of women in leadership, socio-cultural and economic spheres of life. Furthermore, by implementing digital platforms and strengthening women’s engagement in formal business associations, the action directly contributes to improving access to financial services for women entrepreneurs. The action will conduct research to identify gaps in the regulatory framework and organize policy dialogues to advocate for gender-inclusive policies supporting women entrepreneurship and access to finance.

1. Purpose of the Assignment

The overall objective of this capacity building initiative is to assess the existing national laws, policies and strategies to inform and strengthen leadership, stakeholder engagement and collective advocacy on policy influence tailored to the needs of target groups.

Specific Objectives of the Assignment

The specific objectives of the assignment include:

1. Build capacities for policy and advocacy to develop strategic advocacy/influencing and campaign plans and their delivery.
2. Equip policy and advocacy staff with knowledge and skills on different advocacy techniques/approaches, tools, and their application including public consultations.
3. Enable policy advocacy staff to understand how to undertake policy analysis including preparing policy briefs.
4. Leverage the knowledge, experience and relationships of the alliances and networks, and engage in continuous mutual learning for policy development and advocacy.
5. Build capacity for policy advocacy research, monitoring and reporting advocacy milestone achievements.
6. Strengthen the quality, accountability, and impact of advocacy work and ensure regular review and learning, identify gaps in competencies and areas for organisational capacity development, learning and adaptation.
7. Improve advocacy communications and documentation of advocacy work.
8. Expected Outcomes
9. Strengthened capacities of policy advocacy and review team in developing advocacy/influencing/campaign plans, tools and implementation.
10. Improved capacities to monitor, document and report advocacy processes and milestone achievements.
11. Increased capacities and knowledge on advocacy techniques, research, policy analysis and documentation.
12. Primary Target Groups

The demographics for the target women for this assignment include: Women entrepreneurs in urban, rural and peri-urban settings, women entrepreneurs with disabilities;, minority women entrepreneurs, women-led social enterprises, women-owned cooperatives and associations, women entrepreneurs in artisanal and creative industries, women in green and sustainable enterprises, Self-Help Groups (SHGs), women-led social enterprises, Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA), and displaced women entrepreneurs.

The other target group is the line ministry officials whose capacity will be strengthened for gender-responsive insights necessary to effectively engage stakeholders on development of Women Economic Empowerment Strategy and also articulate the provisions of the line ministry’s Strategic Plan and complement the National Transformation Plan (2025 -2029), and influence policy decisions that directly impact women businesses.

1. Scope of the Assignment

This training will be conducted in-person, in Somalia. It will involve country/regional policy advocacy and communications staff in addition to representatives of women target groups.

The training content is expected to include the following:

Advocacy, influencing and campaign: the consultant is expected to develop the narrative that defines key advocacy concepts and influencing. The aim is to train and help participants gain knowledge on what advocacy is, what advocacy is not and how best to conduct advocacy, lobbying, influencing and campaign in a non-confrontational manner.

National advocacy strategies: the consultant should develop narrative and train participants on the contextualised advocacy strategy. The advocacy strategy building blocks and key components. How to develop smart advocacy strategy goal and objectives. How to design advocacy interventions, indicators for the advocacy strategy and setting timeframe. How to select primary and secondary audiences, possible collaborators including partner, alliances, and coalitions. The aim is to help participants to practically learn and start to draft their advocacy strategies during the training through theoretical lectures and group assignment. The consultant should develop and present advocacy strategy template for alignment with the internal advocacy strategy.

Research and evidence generation to support strategy implementation: develop the narrative that will be used to train and help participants to understand the type of evidence needed to influence leaders and achieve strategy objectives. This can be but not limited to identifying available existing relevant topical research information on women economic empowerment, what are the gaps and how to fill in the identified research gaps. Where to access relevant sectors research, who are the partners/institutes that may have the research information. How can trainee initiate new research, prepare terms of reference for carrying out the research. How to develop and package compelling advocacy messages using the research evidence (advocacy messages, fact sheets, lobby letters).

Policy Analysis: develop step by step policy analysis guide and teach participants what is policy analysis, how to undertake policy analysis, how to prepare policy briefs. The aim is to give participants knowledge and confidence to develop necessary tools they need to engage with policy makers and decision makers. A practical learning exercise is preferred to help participants learn and practice the learned skills.

Planning and implementing advocacy interventions: develop content that explains what advocacy planning is about and how to successful plan advocacy interventions. How to implement advocacy plan and yield intended results. Describe advocacy and lobbying techniques and when to apply them. How to organise advocacy event and how to deliver clear advocacy messages to the target audience. How to map out advocacy allies, champions, and media to work with.

Monitoring, learning and documentation in advocacy: prepare narrative and teach participants on the monitoring mechanisms for advocacy interventions, appreciating the fact that advocacy end results may take time to achieve and how it is necessary to track, record and report the steady progress over time. How to document the process from the start to the result i.e., sharing the impact of advocacy through success story or documentary and organising knowledge sharing events to disseminate and replicate the lessons learnt and best practices. The consultant may prepare and share standard success story template/outline.

1. Approach and Methodology

The approach is understood as an inclusive and participatory process, in which the perspectives and agency of affected persons and communities are considered central; and in which such community concerns and perspectives may beneficially be amplified and projected into new arenas subject to strategic considerations including risk to affected parties. The capacity building initiative will take a rights-based and solutions-oriented approach, and it will seek to establish and strengthen links between experiences and occurrences at the local level and policy decisions and dialogues at the national, regional, and global levels.

Methodological approach will entail:

1. Desk review of the relevant documents
2. Consultative meetings/interview with relevant stakeholders
3. Workshop sessions
4. Documentation
5. Presentation

Communication and dissemination plan will be key to this assignment with the objective of ensuring that pertinent information and knowledge is available to the targeted stakeholders who have been identified based on the stakeholder mapping, in a timely and efficient manner, and that they are given the opportunity to provide feedback and interact with the evaluation team throughout the assessment process and beyond.

The consultant is expected to also propose the best approach and methodology to realize this assignment from an informed point of understanding of the context. The study methodology should however be participatory and inclusive, involving consultations with all stakeholders, including those related to gender, disability and other vulnerability considerations. It should also be sensitive to social norms and practices, ensuring ethical data collection with a focus on safety and obtaining informed consent. Additionally, the study should incorporate Intersectionality analysis to actively engage community members in identifying gender roles, challenges.

1. Expected Deliverables

The consultant should submit the following key deliverables:

1. Inception report detailing activities with proposed methodology and timelines
2. Schedule of workshop and session plan
3. Advocacy and communication strategy/plan jointly developed with stakeholders
4. Workshop report in English language.
5. Qualifications of the Consultant

Expected Qualification

• Postgraduate university degree in Social Science discipline or other relevant discipline.
• Demonstrable expertise in the development field, and work in the field of capacity development.
• Proven knowledge of social, economic, political and legal context including knowledge of gender related policies, and human rights issues and challenges, especially for women in Somalia.
• Extensive work experience and proven record in advocacy, policy, campaign, strategic management
• Experience in designing, delivering and facilitating training programs
• Strong communication skills, and ability to liaise with various stakeholders, including government officials.
• In-depth knowledge of institutional development, capacity building, and Somali local administration.
• Cultural awareness and sensitivity to gender issue
• Good understanding of Somalia context and experience working in Somalia.

Application Requirements:

All expressions of interest should include:

• A profile of the consulting firm/individual (including a sample report will be preferable)
• Relevant curriculum vitae, maximum three pages.
• Technical Proposal: maximum 5 pages interpreting the understanding of the TOR, detailed methodology of executing the task, and the draft work plan.
• Financial Proposal: provide cost estimates for services rendered including daily consultancy fees but to exclude accommodation and living costs; transport cost; stationery and supplies needed for the assignment as well as costs to be incurred by enumerators.

Note: Interviews will be held in-person in Mogadishu.