Feminist Consultancy

1.         Introduction

1.1 Introduction

Diakonia is an international faith-based development organization rooted in two churches in Sweden, the Swedish Alliance Mission and the Uniting Church in Sweden. The organization currently works through local offices in 24 countries in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia by supporting local partners. Diakonia’s vision is a Just, Equal, and Sustainable World. Our mission and goal are to change unfair political, economic, social, and cultural structures that cause poverty, oppression, inequality, and violence.

The basis for all our work is the will of people to change and improve the world. Our efforts are aimed at people whose lives are compromised by poverty, oppression and/or violence in various ways. Our strategy for change is to raise the awareness of individuals of their rights and empower vulnerable groups in society to come together and organize themselves to work for sustainable change. As a result, Diakonia organizes its strategies into the levels of knowledge/awareness, organizing, action and influence. Diakonia wants to give a voice to the poor and seeks to empower the rights holders to be the agents of change and owners of the process of demanding their rights.

We work in strong partnerships with local organizations based on common values, open dialogue, and trust. With few exceptions, Diakonia does not implement projects but strengthens and empowers civil society organizations to change their own reality. The concept of “good donor ship” is key to our work, characterized by partners’ ownership, support for partners' agendas and strategies, and long-term, predictable funding.

In each country, the partners form a country program. Diakonia promotes cross-fertilization and encourages synergy and coordination within the partner group in a country program. In each country, we identify central obstacles and problems within our thematic areas, as well as forces for change in civil society. We search to find our specific niches and build strategic alliances with whom to have a greater impact.

Diakonia focuses on six thematic/intervention areas: Human Rights, Democracy, Gender Equality, Social and Economic Justice, Conflict and Justice, Emergency Response, and Disaster Resilience.

1.2 Program Background

Ending Gender-Based Violence and Discrimination Towards Gender Justice and Inclusion Program 2021-2025 is the current country program for Diakonia Egypt, the program is connected to Diakonia Egypt country strategy 2021-2025, and is part of Diakonia’s global Civil Society program.

The program focuses on several strategies to strengthen the national organizational capacity to end gender-based violence, enhance community awareness of the cost of gender-based violence, advance women’s capacity to contribute to the local decision-making process through effective political participation, and develop knowledge and learning regarding combating gender-based violence. Where the program targets feminist organizations, NGOs, CDAs, and DPOs toward ending gender-based violence and discrimination.

Diakonia promotes democracy, human rights, and gender equality in Egypt. Together with our current five partners (located at Cairo and Assiut), we focus on three groups who are particularly marginalized: gender-based violence survivors, women, particularly potential political candidates, people living with disabilities, and youth. The country program also works with broader segments of local communities, national authorities, and young women and men as actors in eliminating gender-based violence and discrimination. Diakonia has significant expertise in Egypt and the entire region in these areas. The program empowers civil society organizations at the local level to combat gender-based violence and discrimination, to advance women’s political participation on the local level, and to advance PWDs' attainment of their sexual and reproductive rights. We strive to improve the quality of life for persons with disabilities and enhance their possibilities to integrate into society. We facilitate networking among partners and support organizational capacity building among our partners and our own staff.

Currently, Diakonia Egypt's country office is implementing its five-year strategy for 2021-2025. This strategy plays a key role in determining what Diakonia and its partners focus on during the strategy period. Diakonia continuously monitors the results and impacts of the implementing partner´s work.

Diakonia’s country program's main goal is to enhance the capacities of the CSOs to adopt strategies and mechanisms that eliminate GBVD and enable them to play an active role in advancing gender equality.

Diakonia’s Country Office in Egypt is in the process of establishing new partnerships within the context of the new strategy and program 2021-2025. This assignment is part of the new strategy process.

1.3 Purpose of the Assignment

This assignment aims to improve Diakonia Egypt's partner's understanding of feminist principles and advance cognitive and skill abilities to adopt feminist principles in their work and disseminate them in their contexts.

This assignment also aims to advance Diakonia's partner's capacity to analyze the MENA region's current context and identify the main aspects of the gender justice issue in the region and how these aspects can be translated into regional programming.

1.4 Scope of the Assignment  

In order to successfully complete this assignment, the awarded consultant/s must:

• A Desk Review of Diakonia's Global Strategy, Egypt Country Strategy and Program, and Feminist Principles.
• Preparation of training material on the history of women's movements and feminism globally and in the Middle East. The training material should be resilient to the partners' different levels of knowledge and institutional capacity. It should give an overall look at feminism theories, focusing on Islamic, Christian, and liberal feminism theories.
• Conduct a four-day workshop in the third week of July to advance partners' knowledge and skills on the tools and best practices that could be adopted in their organizations to incorporate feminist principles into their work.
• Presenting a model and lessons learned to implement feminist principles in the MENA region successfully.
• Promoting partners' knowledge and skills in feminist advocacy and applying feminist principles to the project cycle and organizational management.
• Leading a critical analysis reading of the context of the MENA region, focusing on feminist principles and gender justice issues.
• Framing program priorities based on the context analysis. To be incorporated in Diakonia MENA region program.

2.         Terms of Reference

2.1       Deliverables  

• A four-day workshop will be held in the third week of July, upon Diakonia Egypt's approval of the training materials and program.
• An Arabic document proposing a set of feminist principles (using Diakonia feminist principles) for the partners to adopt/include in their institutional system.
• A detailed MENA region context analysis focusing on gender justice and feminist principles.
• A comprehensive final report covers the assignment.

2.2  Qualification of the Consultant and Team Composition

 The Consultant should have the following qualifications:

1. Good understanding of international development cooperation, particularly preconditions for civil society development.
2. Advanced degree in social sciences, development, sociology, business administration, or other relevant/related fields.
3. A proven track record of conducting beneficiary capacity building of a similar nature.
4. Strong working knowledge of the NGO sector in the MENA region.
5. A minimum of ten years of professional expertise in international development cooperation, gender equality, women’s rights advocacy, and feminism.
6. Team members proposed to be involved in this consultancy should have relevant experience for the consultancy assignment.
7. Extensive experience working with donors.
8. Demonstrated analytical and excellent report-writing skills in the English language.
9. Excellent communication and presentation skills.

2.3  Time Schedule

Trainers / Consultants are expected to be available from 15 July 2024 through October 2024. Kindly note that these are projected dates and are subject to rescheduling based on specific dates for each training.

1- Task: Desk Review - Maximum Level of effort/number of days: 1 day

2- Task: Training and Material Preparation - Maximum Level of effort/number of days: 1 day

3- Task: Workshop Implementation in the third week of July - Maximum Level of effort/number of days: 4 days

4- Task: Developing MENA Context Analysis - Maximum Level of effort/number of days: 3 days

5- Task: Final Report - Maximum Level of effort/number of days: 1 day

Total number of days : 10

The number of days here are estimated numbers.