Somalia: Consultants for Gender Responsive Budget (GRB) Training in Somaliland

Location: Hargeisa, Somaliland

Application Deadline: 22nd July 2016

Type of Contract: Consultancy Firm/International and National Consultants

Languages Required: English

Duration of Initial Contract: 30 days from 5^th August 2016

Starting Date: As soon as possible

BACKGROUND

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA) in Somaliland was created in 2002 to cater for women's rights, child development and family welfare as well as labour and work permit related milestones. The Ministry’s key responsibilities are to design and implement social policies and programs, promote women empowerment and child development as well as consolidate and safeguard family welfare. The Ministry do this by supporting access to security, as well as social and economic opportunities especially in the areas of health, education, food security, and enabling access to clean water and hygiene. The Ministry’s goal is to facilitate national, regional and international processes on key areas of concern so as to implement concrete and significant change for women,social affairs and children in Somaliland.

Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) seeks to mainstream gender issues into the national budgeting processes from planning to implementation, monitoring and evaluation. In recent years, GRB has been increasingly used in various countries as an effective tool to channel financial resources and monitor progress towards achieving gender targets and priorities. With support from UN Women, MoLSA is planning to conduct gender responsive budgeting trainings for key officials or decision-makers of MoLSA together with Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Planning in Somaliland. Over the past eight years, UN Women has supported GRB work in more than 30 countries at national, sectoral and local levels and significantly contributed to positioning GRB within the framework of mainstream fiscal policy as well as national planning and budgeting processes.

It is expected that through the training work on GRB in Somaliland,a platform would be created for gender mainstreaming that will strengthen policies and budgets across sectors to better meet the needs of women and men in local communities. The Ministry of Finance along with MoLSA has a lead role in the institutionalization of GRB in Somaliland by requesting Sectoral Ministries to include activities in support of the implementation of the Women’s Policy and gender inclusive policies in the budgets and annual national budgeting process.

The long term objective of GRB work in Somaliland is to contribute to the effective implementation of gender sensitive policy commitments reflected in the national development strategyand other strategic documents through increased and better targeted resource allocations for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

In this context, MoLSA is planning to hire a consulting firm or individual consultantsthat will contribute to building capacity of stakeholders and developing relevant tools, guidelines and methodologies for the initiation of implementation of the GRB agenda in Somaliland in close collaboration and consultation with Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Planning and other national stakeholders as seen appropriate.**DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES**
Under the direct supervision of MoLSA and in close cooperation with the Director General and the related staffs from other departments, the consultant will accomplish the following tasks:

• Submit to MoLSA an inception report outlining detailed work plan, including methodology of training and steps to be followed towards meeting the objectives with a time-frame that will be used to guide and monitor the flow of work during the duration of the consultancy.
• Develop and use a needs assessment methodology to identify partner needs and priorities to feed into the design of the training sessions and share the methodology with MoLSA and partners as part of capacity building.
• Share and validate results of the capacity needs assessment and capacity building strategy with MoLSA and partners to ensure actual needs are understood and appropriate strategies are designed;
• Develop GRB guidelines to feed into and inform the development of country specific training tools and application of GRB throughout various sectors.
• Develop and share training materials on GRB to the needs of specific target groups as part of the training sessions.
• Conduct training sessions for selected key government officials and partners working on GRB in Somaliland.
• Conduct 1 sensitization session for members of relevant parliamentary standing committees.
• Provide guidance on effective strategies, models and practices in promoting gender accountability in budgetary policies and practices.
• Assist in the development of action plans at the end of each session as input into the development of a GRB strategy for institutionalisation and sustainability of GRB work. Prepare reports on the outcomes of the training sessions, including key decisions and action plans developed by the target groups.
• Assist in the development of a levelling/accountability tool to assess the results of gender mainstreaming/GRB across different sectors.
• Build capacity of staff of the ministry to carry on the GRB work in Somaliland.

DELIVERABLES

The deliverables of this consultancy are the following:

• A needs assessment questionnaire and a report on needs and priorities identified by partners and stakeholders in relation to the training sessions
• Somaliland-specific training materials (tool kits) for the training sessions;
• Somaliland national GRB guidelines;
• Training/sensitization session;
• Evaluation questionnaire and report on the key outcomes/results of the training sessions, including action plans on advancing the GRB agenda drafted by stakeholders and recommendations.

QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS REQUIRED

Competencies

• Ability to work with diverse stakeholders to ensure effective delivery of training on GRB of high standards;
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines;

• Ability to plan, prioritize and deliver tasks effectively as part of a team;

• Excellent communication and facilitation skills;

• Experience in working with various stakeholders, including government institutions, CSOs, and UN/multilateral/bilateral institutions is essential;

• Experience in participatory approach and social accountability work is an asset;

• Familiarity and previous working experience in Somaliland territory and culture is an asset.

Work Experience

• At least 5 years of professional experience on gender and development issues at regional and/or country level with a focus on GRB and social accountability;
• Proven record (of at least 3 years) and expertise in development of country specific training materials and facilitation of TOT and training sessions on GRB tools and methodologies;
• Extensive experience in facilitating the development of strategies and action plans on GRB by relevant stakeholders;
• In-depth knowledge of public finance management systems and public sector reforms and their implications for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Education

Master’s Degree or PHD in Economics or in any social science, preferably in gender and development studies.

DURATION AND START DATE

• The total time to complete the project specified under these ToRs shall not exceed 30 calendar days from the start date.
• The consultancy will commence on 5th of August 2016. The total duration of the contract is 2 months.

Interested firms/candidates are requested to submit to abdisabur.abubakar@unwomen.org and copy to luul_adan@hotmail.com a technical proposal that includes a detailed work plan and a presentation of the methodology for the completion of the assignment and a financial proposal that states the financial resources required for the delivery of the various activities.
Consultants are encouraged to apply both individually and as a part of a broader team.