Terms of Reference for Intersectional Context Analysis

MAKE WAY Programme

The ‘Make Way programme’ is a five-year programme (2021-2025) aiming to break down barriers to Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) by promoting a new way of considering discrimination through an intersectional lens. This examination of inequality does not rely on a single dimension such as solely race or gender but acknowledges the multiple aspects that make up one’s identity. By exploring the impact of converging dimensions such as wealth, ability, ethnicity, migration status, the overlapping vulnerabilities are made visible to understand their effects on people’s SRH.

Thus, the Make Way programme uses an intersectional approach to acknowledge systemic discrimination due to overlapping aspects of a person’s identity (gender, race, economic status, immigration status, national origin, etc) and the subsequent impact on access to SRH services.

PARTNERS

The consortium consists of Akina Mama wa Afrika, The Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians,  Forum for African Women Educationalists, Liliane Foundation, VSO Netherlands, with Wemos as lead, in partnership with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Make Way programme is implemented in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia, the (Eastern and Southern) African region and at the global level. In Ethiopia, the consortium consists of VSO Ethiopia, FAWE Ethiopia and Ipas (partner of Liliane Foundation).  

On behalf of the Make Way consortium, VSO wishes to conduct this social exclusion, gender and political economy analysis. VSO is an international organisation working towards building communities that are resilient, inclusive and accountable across all its programmes. VSO uses three fundamentals 'core approaches' - social inclusion and gender, resilience, and social accountability in all its programming in order to bring about change among people’s lives. VSO carries out continuous evaluation of its work and systematic assessments of all projects, programmes and policies before intervention in order to understand and improve the work of reducing poverty.

As a development agency, VSO’s vision and mission is to create a fair and just world in which everyone has a chance. This comes through fair and just laws and systems that respect the rights of everyone, including the most marginalised people. VSO carries out PEA in order to establish the power imbalances that exist in different contexts. This understanding in turn helps VSO to design appropriate interventions that address the power imbalances through empowering those affected by inequalities, exclusion and marginalisation.  

Scope of Consultancy                                          

Data collection areas

• At national level
• The consortium partners will start implementation of the programme in Addis Ababa (Bole, Lemi Kura, Yeka & Arada sub city) and Oromia (Adama) and Amhara (Debrebirhan).  

The Consultant will fulfil the following tasks:

• Provide the overall coordination, supervision, and quality assurance for this intersectional context analysis.
• Develop a comprehensive proposal outlining the methodology and rationale, choice and design of data collection tools, timelines, roles and responsibilities of personnel involved. Consideration should be given to the inclusion of youth participatory methods. Select/design appropriate data collection tools that are inclusive and intersectional; to be approved by the Make Way M&E team.
• Ensure recruitment, training and renumeration of data collectors.
• Undertake the data collection and analysis, adhering to the ethical and confidentiality requirements of the VSO data protection policy [insert link].
• Provide hands on expert advice to the Country Coordination Group Ethiopia and PMEL-Programme Coordination Unit on the tools/means of verifications to be integrated in the continuous monitoring of the programme, specifically on the study indicators, current narratives[1]/Policy analysis/media tracing and youth participation in decision making.
• Carry out validation and dissemination exercises before as detailed in the deliverables.

VSO will:

• Make available existing documents from Make Way programme to provide background and context, preventing duplication of work.
• Provide technical guidance during tools development and approve the data collection tools before the start of the data collection.
• Facilitate stakeholder participation in the exercise, including availability of the CCG youth panel.

Deliverables

• An inception report including technical and financial proposals
• Presentation of intersectionalised data collection tools for agreement by MW team
• Step 1 draft report identifying who are left behind and the social construction responsible for their position (objectives 1 & 2)
• Step 2 draft report identifying why they are left behind, the effects of the social construction on them, and the implications for the Make Way programme (objectives 3 & 4)
• Revision of reports following feedback and validation meetings
• Final report
• Dissemination of the main findings to consortium members, collaborating partners and youth representatives

For More Information Click Here: VSOJD_ToR_SRH_Intersectional_Context_Analysis

Skills and experience required

• Ability to build up a good relationship in short period of time with stakeholders and youth with compounded vulnerability
• Good writing and editing skills (proven by track record).
• Ability to design appropriate research methodology and use of monitoring and evaluation frameworks.
• Facilitating actor mapping/power analysis is a plus.
• Understanding of the policy framework for ‘Strengthening Civil Society’ of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the grant instrument on the SRH Partnership Fund is a plus. 

Selection Criteria

• Strong understanding of gender and social inclusion approaches, particularly concerning youth with (compounded vulnerabilities) such as young sex workers, adolescents with a disability, out-of-school youth, teenage mothers and internally displaced young people
• Knowledge on the current SRH situation of youth in Ethiopia especially for those with multiple, compounded vulnerabilities
• Knowledge on health financing
• Expertise and track record on methodologies and conducting baseline studies in the scope of a lobby and advocacy programme 
• Demonstrated ability to work with minoritized population with compounded vulnerabilities and understanding of safeguarding principles in research
• Experience with assignments/projects related to policy analysis, capacity strengthening, civic space, gender, inclusion & participation (the applicant has experience with at least 2 of the mentioned expertise above)
• Experience in working with project teams, from diverse backgrounds
• Experience with requests for ethical clearance is highly appreciated