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Advocacy Strategy Development Going for Gold Programme

Terms of Reference
Advocacy strategy development Going for Gold programme
December 2016
BACKGROUND OF Going for Gold
Going for Gold (GfG) is a 5-year programme from 3 international NGOs - Simavi, Healthy Entrepreneurs and Solidaridad - working towards economic empowerment of women living in and around artisanal and small-scale gold mines (ASGM) in Ghana and Tanzania. Women working in mines face discrimination at multiple levels. Men control and benefit from most resources - access to land for mining, incomes, credit, mining and household commodities - thus limiting women's opportunities for economic and social development. The responsibility to have (and care for) children, limited access to health services and prevailing sociocultural norms further prevent women benefitting from mining and other economic activities. Beyond the mines, women's opportunities to engage in economic activity and improve their status are affected by their limited access to health care, contraception and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) education. Access to health facilities is low in areas around ASG mines and when present, an estimated 60% of facilities have inadequate capacity. A lack of contraception and SRHR knowledge means that women are unaware of family planning, resulting in early and repeated pregnancies and threatening women's health and economic productivity.
For the next 5 years we will be working in carefully selected informal gold mining communities in Western Region, Ghana and Geita district, Tanzania, to improve working conditions for women within gold mines. We will also be working closely with communities and women outside the gold mines to improve women's status and abilities to engage in economic activities,, increase their SRHR knowledge and create an environment in which communities, health workers and authorities recognise women's health rights.
Advocacy plays a cross-cutting role in this programme. The Going for Gold partners have a unique opportunity to bring this agenda to the attention of a wide range of stakeholders from different sectors. Within their individual programmes the Going for Gold partners work with, inter alia; Ministries of Mining and Resources, Ministries of Economic Affairs, Ministries of Health, Ministries of Gender, Food and Drug Associations, Ministries of Foreign Affairs, UN bodies and international brands. We believe that through a carefully thought out advocacy strategy we can target these diverse stakeholders to improve women's economic participation and empowerment.
The unique combination of expertise and networks of the GfG consortium enables us to bring the everyday needs of communities to the attention of a wide range of stakeholders within national and international governments, and vice-versa.
The GfG consortium has identified a common vision for the programme of: opening gates for women by removing barriers at mine, community and policy level. In order to achieve this objective and make this a shared programme, we aspire to develop a joint advocacy strategy to guide our work over the next 5 years.
OBJECTIVE
This ToR relates to the further development of the advocacy strategy within the Going for Gold programme.
During the proposal stage, the consortium developed high-level advocacy goals for the international and national levels. These include: 1) raise the profile of gender in ASGM-related policies among governments, donors, and partners; 2) strengthen commitments to and investments in gender-specific and -sensitive actions, and 3) strengthen calls for gender-sensitive mining and health policies and practices through community engagement and evidence-based advocacy in Ghana and Tanzania.
Now in Year 1, the consortium is ready to identify the objectives and activities to reach those goals. The consultant will lead the consortium members in further developing a comprehensive advocacy strategy that is expected to include a needs assessment, audience identification, design of interventions, work planning, indicators and measurement tools.
In order to capture the complexity of the subject matter, the players and the different advocacy levels, the consortium identifies two separate work streams:
  • National and international advocacy focused on increasing policymakers' consideration of gender in policies and practices related to mining.
This approach will contribute to gender-sensitive policies and appropriate incentives for better working conditions and opportunities among women in ASGM in Ghana and Tanzania, and possibly beyond. This work stream will focus on bring these issues to the international level and bringing international commitments to the national level for implementation.
  • Grassroots and national-level advocacy in Ghana and Tanzania, focusing on raising the voices of women and communities regarding women's rights, in order to influence national priority setting and policy making.
This is a form of bottom-up, evidence based advocacy. The programme will enable women to claim their rights as agents of change at home, in the workplace and in the community, while also engaging with communities in challenging existing gender norms and enhancing social accountability for women's rights, including in health. Changes in norms and values at the community level are needed to bring about sustainable change and hold governments to account. The first step here is identifying which laws and policies that women find relevant to their lives are currently restrictive to women's space, opportunities and health. Strategies include social accountability mechanisms and national advocacy for improved policies, and implementation of said policies, on maternal health and violence against women.
We anticipate that 3 separate strategies will be forthcoming from these work streams: 1) international, 2) Ghana, 3) Tanzania. This will ensure that local contexts are sufficiently respected and represented. These will be brought together within one overarching advocacy strategy for the Going for Gold programme. The overarching strategy should ensure alignment between the national and international levels, and information flows both from top-down and bottom-up.
SCOPE OF WORK
The GfG consortium is looking to hire a Consultant to lead the development of the advocacy strategy, giving due consideration to the context-specific factors. The Consultant will be expected to undertake and complete the following tasks:
  • Map existing policies related to mining in focus countries (Ghana, Tanzania, the Netherlands and EU-level, including OECD Due Diligence Guidance).
  • Identify provisions that may affect men and women differently.
  • Identify gaps in policies and commitments relevant to the objectives of Going for Gold that the consortium can help address through an advocacy strategy and action plan.
  • Conduct a mapping exercise of all stakeholders, partners and/or potential allies, platforms, networks, target audiences and key influencers to inform advocacy strategy and relationship-building strategies.
  • Facilitate stakeholder consultations to identify priority areas and appropriate mechanisms for awareness raising and advocacy.
  • Facilitate workshops to consult with consortium members and identify priority areas for advocacy over the next two years. Three workshops are needed to gather input from all relevant parties - the consortium based in the Netherlands, the Ghana partnership and the Tanzania partnership. The workshops should be participatory in order to draw on the knowledge and experience of the participants.
  • Draft a complete advocacy strategy for the coming 4 years for comment by the GfG consortium, outlining clear objectives, target activities, allies, deliverables and indicators, and budget, as well as an implementation plan for the first year. The different work streams should be clearly differentiated. Advocacy strategy should also provide recommendations to communications team regarding key topics for communications and audiences.
  • Prepare final Advocacy strategy incorporating the comments of the GfG consortium.
Simavi will contract the consultant on behalf of the consortium. Selected consultant(s) will be expected to sign and abide by organisational values and key policies.
KEY DELIVERABLES
The consultant will work closely with the Going for Gold consortium and partners to develop the advocacy strategy. All deliverables will be submitted to Simavi as the contracting partner on the mutually agreed deadlines. Simavi will take responsibility for disseminating information and gathering feedback. The consultant should submit following key deliverables:
  • Workplan outlining details of activities with proposed methodologies and timeline/delivery dates.
  • A mapping of the key policies that relate to programme goals.
  • A gap analysis summarising commitment gaps among government/donors/partners with the potential to be addressed through advocacy by the Going for Gold consortium.
  • A comprehensive stakeholder mapping to give a picture of potential allies, key influences and target audiences for the key Going for Gold messages.
  • Schedule of workshops and session plans.
  • Reports of all workshops.
  • Draft advocacy strategy for feedback and comments. The strategy should include suggested indicators that feed into the overall PME framework of the GfG programme.
  • A final strategy incorporating consortium feedback and including implementation plan for the first year and recommendations for communications team.
THE CANDIDATE
The Going for Gold team is looking for a consultant (individual or organisation) to ensure the development of the advocacy strategy in line with these objectives, in partnership with the programme team. The GfG team recognises that the different components of the programme require specialised expertise. We encourage the consultant to identify a team with the necessary specialisations and to explain the combined strengths of the team.
The candidate and/or the final team should possess the following skills and competencies:
Required
  • Extensive work experience and proven record in advocacy, policy, campaign, strategic management
  • Extensive experience in the thematic areas of gender and women's empowerment
  • Demonstrable experience on similar assignments
  • Good analytical and documentation/report writing skills
  • Good communication and facilitation skills
  • Excellent command of oral and written English
  • Strong interpersonal skills and a team oriented spirit
Desirable
  • Knowledge of gold mining
  • Knowledge of SRHR
  • Understanding of labour laws and policies, particularly in relation to gender focus
  • Experience working with consortia
  • Experience with one or more of the relevant countries or government agencies
APPLICATION PROCESS
Interested consultants are requested to submit the following application documents:
  • Expression of interest addressing track record and selection criteria
  • Technical proposal including proposed activities schedule/work plan with time frame
  • CV(s) of applicant(s)
  • Budget, including travel costs and expenses for workshops in Ghana and Tanzania
Please submit applications to: jenni.sawyer@simavi.nl. Applications must be received before the deadline 11 January 2017. After reviewing applications, selected candidates will be invited for (skype) interview.