Consultancy: Gender Accountability, Youth, and Protection Training for Staff and Partners at Search For Common Ground’s International

About the Project

The Borno, Adamawa Yobe Water for Agriculture project (BAY-WAFA) is a 3-year project aimed to increase agricultural production and income for over 62,722 herders and farmers in an equitable, inclusive and sustainable manner. BAY-WAFA will cover Kaga, Biu and Kwaya Kusar Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Borno State; Gombi and Mayo-Belwa LGAs of Adamawa; and Jakusko and Bursari LGAs of Yobe State.  

Project Strategy (Approaches and Methodology)

Component 1: Water Infrastructure for Livestock and Small-scale Irrigation

Component 2: Strengthening Capacity for Water Governance and Management

Component 3: Strengthening Capacity for Smallholder Farmers’ Cooperatives and Livestock Herders Groups

While the project focuses on the three components, Search for Common Ground is responsible for implementing activities under a fourth Cross-cutting component for Conflict Transformation, Gender, Accountability, and Youth.

The Cross-cutting component: Conflict transformation, Gender, Accountability and Youth

Restoring social cohesion and trust is the most critical precondition to recovery and peace building.   In seeking to transform the way parties in conflict deal with conflict away from adversarial approach towards collaborative solution, we are likely to create more conflict and in the end do more harm than good to beneficiaries.

On this project, Search is implementing alongside the Consortium (CRS) as an international partner and other local partners- Pastoral Resolve (PARE), Diamond Development Initiatives (DDI), Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC) and the Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN) will be implementing the Water For Agriculture (WAFA) project at different stages and this means that partner organizations will be interfacing with stakeholders at different stages of the implementation of their activities.

These organizations are key therefore the need for them to possess the skills which will guarantee the smooth implementation of their various activities that will create safe space and  transform the way people deal with conflict in a way that does no harm is the reason for this training.

Overview of Content Analysis

More than 80 percent of livelihoods in the NE depend on rain-fed agriculture (both pastoral and crop cultivation).  These livelihoods are being threatened by the ever-decreasing quantity of and access to water. Climatic variability, inadequate investment, poor water management and population growth have significantly reduced the amount of water available for productive use. Insecurity, private acquisition of pastures, destruction of water infrastructure by violent extremism and settlement on grazing lands have reduced access to existing water points.  The resulting acute water needs have increased conflict and fueled violent extremism. Limited productive skills, poor marketing infrastructure and lack of appropriate technology has further reduced livelihood options. To compound the situation, herders and farmers lack access to credit and are unable to manage emergencies such as disease outbreaks that destroy their coping mechanisms and asset-base.  Gender and protection issues, including sexual violence, forced marriages and survival sex, are rampant in the NE.

This has become imperative as Gender inclusivity, Youth and protection issues still remain a greater challenge. Search with her expertise is expected to conduct a Gender Accountability, Youth and protection training to CRS Staff and other implementing partners 

Purpose or Summary of the consultancy

We are looking for a consultant that is well grounded in training staff and partners on Gender and protection issues involving youth  sexual violence, forced marriages and survival sex. The consultant must possess a requisite skills in promoting gender equity by engaging both men and women in project activities, designing specific activities for women and girls, and encouraging culturally acceptable means of increasing participation by women in community meetings, decision-making and planning. The consultant will train staff to recognize gender biases and tackle staff behavior that promotes inequality. Staff will additionally be trained on scheduling activities to enable women (who are often in charge of household chores) to participate. 

Methodology

The methodology of training will be a Hybrid process- Involving both virtual and In-Person training with some participants joining the training online and the trainer either physically present or deliver the training virtually. The methodology of the training will be experiential learning , powerpoint presentation, role plays group tasks, questions and answers. Training will involve:

Trainer being either In-person in Yola with 70% of the participants and other 30% join virtually

Trainer delivers the training virtually with 70% of the participants in Yola and 30% join virtually

Reporting Line

The consultant will work closely with the Senior training coordinator, project Coordinator and report to the Head of Office North East. S/He will be supported by the state teams in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States.

Timeframe

The training will take place between 7th- 9th July, 2020 (3 days) 

Deliverables

•  

  • Preparation of training manuals and materials in powerpoint slides
  • Delivering a 3 day training (Virtually or In-Person)
  • Submission of activity report 4 days after completion of training

Required Profile

• • Five years’ experience as a trainer in gender related topics
  • A minimum of 5 trainings provided to participants on Gender and protection issues
  • Excellent command of English and Hausa
  • Excellent command of technology to provide virtual training
  • Training Experience providing  in the NGO sector in West Africa and Nigeria is an added advantage

The Consultant will respect the following ethical Principles:

• • Comprehensive and systematic inquiry: Consultant should make the most of the existing information and full range of stakeholders available at the time of the review. Consultant should conduct systematic, data-based inquiries. He or she should communicate his or her methods and approaches accurately and in sufficient detail to allow others to understand, interpret and critique his or her work. He or she should make clear the limitations of the review and its results.
  • Competence: Consultant should possess the abilities and skills and experience appropriate to undertake the tasks proposed and should practice within the limits of his or her professional training and competence.
  • Honesty and integrity: Consultant should be transparent with the contractor/constituent about: any conflict of interest, any change made in the negotiated project plan and the reasons why those changes were made, any risk that certain procedures or activities produce misleading review information.
  • Respect for people: Consultant respect the security, dignity and self-worth of respondents, program participants. Consultant has the responsibility to be sensitive to and respect differences amongst participants in culture, religion, gender, disability, age and ethnicity.
  • In addition, the team will respect SFCG’s evaluations standards, to be found in SFCG’s evaluation guidelines: https://www.sfcg.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/SFCG-External-Evaluation-Guidelines-FINAL.pdf