Developing a Project Design and Implementation Strategy for Women’s Economic Empowerment and Care Phase V

Oxfam is a global movement of people who are fighting inequality to end poverty and injustice. Across regions, from the local to the global, we offer lifesaving support to help people survive crises right now and we tackle the root causes of poverty and work with people to bring change that lasts. Our work is grounded in the commitment to the universality of human rights. Driven by diversity and founding our asks in evidence and experience, we take sides against poverty and injustice everywhere. Feminist approaches guide all our analysis, action and interaction. Know more about Oxfam here.

Project Background

The Women’s Economic Empowerment and Care (WE-Care) program is a multi-country program that has been running since 2013. Phase IV (2020-2023) is implemented in four countries across East and South Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe), with regional and global components to support local-global-local influencing. In previous phases, the Philippines and Tanzania have also been implementing countries. WE-Care tools and methodologies such as the Rapid Care Analysis and Household Care Survey have been used by Oxfam and partners in over 25 countries since they were developed in 2013. For more information about WE-Care, click here.

WE-Care Phase IV represented an increased ambition from previous phases, enabled by a larger budget and longer implementation period. Specifically, Phase IV seeks to focus on three key areas of change:

• Deepening partnerships with CSOs, WROs, and youth groups
• Building an enabling environment for policy change; and
• Shifting public narratives and discourse on care work.

While COVID-19 has hampered some aspects of implementation, a positive side effect of the pandemic has been the increasing interest and momentum in recognizing unpaid care work as a public policy issue, from the general public and civil society organizations to policymakers, business leaders, and donors. While the extent of these developments has varied in different contexts, it has overall provided a more fertile ground in which to undertake macroeconomic policy influencing and movement building. The next phase of WE-Care represents a critical juncture for WE-Care partners whose influencing of public policies on the care economy is gaining momentum and impact.

In August 2022, Oxfam and the WE-Care partners from East and South Africa met in Kampala, Uganda, and took stock of the 2 years of implementation and also envisioned how the next phase of the project will look like as informed by their changing context, different natural and man-made crisis and the lessons learned from Phase IV. The full report from the learning event can be found here.

One of the lessons learned and commitment was on the need to co-create with existing partners, external strategic partners who are working on the Care agenda, donors, and key stakeholders as we move to phase V. Some of the areas outlined for phase V are as follows: -

• Movement Building - Deepening partnerships with Women’s Rights Organisations (WROs) at

the national and regional levels

• Deepening WE-Care’s focus on systems change and macro-economic policy influencing through feminist movements and collective action.
• Learning and Linkages - Working across interconnected issues including women’s unpaid

care work, paid care work, and informal work.

• Embedding program management and advisory in countries and regions in the Global South to shift power and resources.
• Integrating Unpaid and Underpaid Care and Domestic work across other thematic areas e.g.

Climate action, Tax, and debt among other thematic areas

• Shifting narratives and perceptions on UUCDW including men’s and boy’s engagement
• Research and Evidence
• Leveraging WE-Care’s significant experience and track record on the care agenda across

countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America and at the regional and global level.

• Grounding our work on Women’s Economic Empowerment

It is on this premise that we are seeking an experienced feminist team of consultant to lead/ support a programme design process which will culminate into a programme design and Theory of Change for We-Care Phase V. The specific objectives for this task are: -

1. To propose, support and coordinate a co-created process, including a timeline with clear deliverables, with selected partner organizations, country teams, and other stakeholders (and/or reference groups) for the design of WE-Care phase V
2. To guide the development of a deeper and more strategic project proposal that is partner centered
3. To support in linking the past work, learnings and innovations and integrating them into the next phase of the project
4. To support in synthesizing and collating ideas from different consultations and delivering a full final proposal

Tasks

• Provide high-quality, substantive technical advice and practical guidance to the project design steering committee in the different stages of the project design process – TOC, Feminist strategy, safeguarding and sustainability aspects.
• Consolidate inputs at the output and activity level to ensure the log frame and Theory of Change resonate with what is envisioned.
• Develop the methodology and work plan for formulating the design process
• Convene and document a series of online and one face-to-face workshops to engage in consultations with different partners and external stakeholders on the different outcomes of the new project.
• Validate the draft design and implementation strategy both internally and externally for comments for improvement.
• Incorporate comments and finalize the design and implementation strategy and submit all

documents to OXFAM’s WE-Care's Project Management Unit (PMU) team for approval.

Output

• Clear project indicators, objectives, and outcomes of WE-Care Phase V with a strong sense of ownership from the partners
• Theory of change (it includes a power analysis and a gender analysis)
• Advocacy and influencing plan
• Implementation plan
• Project budget
• Coordination and facilitation of meetings and one face-to-face project design session, including a final presentation of the work to all the stakeholders.
• A full project proposal

GUIDING FEMINIST PRINCIPLES

1. Partner-led
2. Safe space for learning and unlearning
3. Mutual accountability and respect
4. Participatory and consultative
5. Creative and engaging

Task Description

Interested team of consultants, should submit their proposals in not more than five pages, including detailed activities and budget demonstrating how you intend to carry out the assignment. Below is a detailed description of the tasks.

The team responsibilities include:

1. Developing the methodology and work plan

2. Consulting with selected stakeholders by:

   1. selecting the panel of experts and other participants
   2. arranging workshop venues and all logistics, including participant travel and accommodation
   3. facilitating workshop sessions and documenting outcomes

3. Developing WE-Care’s project design in the agreed format, including a log frame theory of change, implementation plan, advocacy and influencing strategy, MEAL framework, budget, etc.

4. Presenting the design to different stakeholders, and soliciting and incorporating feedback from stakeholders

5. Finalizing the report including all the above elements not later than COB on 30th March 2023

Consultant Qualifications

The consultant(s) must have:

1. A strong understanding and demonstrated experience of designing, managing and/or implementing gender equality and women's economic justice and rights programmes
2. A strong understanding of Women’s Economic Empowerment and Justice programming, particularly tackling issues of unpaid and paid care work at multiple levels, including, community, sub-national, national, regional, and/ or international
3. Demonstrated skills in gender and power analysis, theory of change, monitoring and evaluation framework and other strategy development and program design tools
4. A strong track record of working with, and knowledge of, civil society, WROs, feminist organizations/ movements, the public sector, regional economic bodies, and private sectors from Africa
5. A strong understanding of East and Southern African Regions’ social, economic, and political context
6. Demonstrated experience in conceptualizing and implementing feminist strategy development and program design processes
7. Experience in facilitating dynamic workshops and reflection spaces with multi-cultural groups
8. At least seven years of experience working with civil society organizations, including, WROs and feminist movements/organizations, on project design and execution
9. Proven established networks with national and regional policy-makers, civil society actors, WROs, feminist movements/organizations and the private sector.
10. Excellent (demonstrable) command of spoken and written English.

How to apply

Interested consultants should send their applications to ssc.consultancy@oxfam.org not later than 17:00hrs EAT on 27th November 2022.

Final documents submitted and approved by COB on March 30th ,2023. Dates may change due to internal processes among other challenges that may result in delays.