Study on Perspectives of Feminism in the target countries

About Diakonia

Diakonia is a Swedish faith-based development organization that works to change unfair structures that generate poverty, inequality, oppression and violence. Diakonia works with around 400 partner organizations in 25 country offices and four regional offices in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the MENA (Middle East and Northern Africa) region and Sweden. 

Diakonia believes that every person regardless of gender or sexual identity or preferences should have the power, knowledge and resources to contribute to shaping their own life and the society they live in. This is what we mean when we talk about gender justice. It has been proven that across the world, the women’s and feminist movements have been, and still are, the primary actors in the fight for gender justice. They are the ones that pressure States and raise the awareness of the general public, so that change happens. Therefore, we know that a feminist approach is the most effective way to work for gender justice. As a consequence of this understanding, Diakonia made a commitment in 2019 to work towards becoming an organisation that operates based on feminist principles.

Background

About the Transformative Knowledge (TraK) Programme

The Transformative Knowledge (TraK) programme is a global five-year programme (2021-2025) of Diakonia aimed at transforming through knowledge. The overall objective of the programme is that Program stakeholders (partner and Diakonia) develop and gain transformative knowledge and competences to deal with selected change processes, allowing them to examine, question and address the root causes of power imbalances. The programme deals with five change processes related to Diakonia strategic priority areas namely:

1. Re-thinking democracy
2. Local knowledge and alternative views of development for resilience
3. Business and Human Rights
4. Intercultural and intersectional lenses for gender justice
5. Rights-based and faith-based agendas in civil society.

The ownership of the program is at national, regional, and head offices, and with partners; all understand the commitments, benefits, and demands that the program has. The program is jointly planned and managed through close collaboration between partners and the different Diakonia offices staff. 

About the Intercultural and Intersectional Lenses for Gender Justice project

A specific project has been developed for each of the change processes above. The Intercultural and Intersectional Lenses for Gender justice project aims to improve understanding of gender justice from a national, regional and global point of view, based on the exchange of experiences and learning, and the construction of knowledge with an intercultural approach (interaction in diversity).

The specific objectives of the project are:

1. To increase the level of knowledge amongst project stakeholders to be able to make change at the policy level (at/or beyond the organization level).
2. Women to know and enjoy their rights in the different contexts.

In line with the above, the project seeks to conduct a study on different perspectives of feminism in the target countries and regions, namely Kenya in Sub Saharan Africa, Egypt and Lebanon in the Middle East, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand in the Asia Pacific region, Bolivia, Colombia and Paraguay in the Latin America region.

Rationale of the study

Feminism is a movement for the social, cultural, political, and economic equality of all genders. It starts from an analysis of patriarchal norms and structures. There are different strands of feminism, but all of them recognise the existence of unfair power relations based on sex and gender and aim to eliminate discrimination based on gender. The issues related to feminism may differ for different societies and cultures, but they are broadly tied together with the underlying philosophy of achieving equality of gender in every sphere of life.

 Like all political thinking and ideologies, feminism has evolved with time and when confronted with changing societies. Over the last decades, the forms of feminism that have been given the most attention in Europe and North America have been criticised for ignoring the lived experience and strategic interests of women in Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East etc., and its limited worldview has been challenged by new forms of feminism such as indigenous feminism, queer feminism, postcolonial feminism, ecofeminism and others.

The project Intercultural and Intersectional Lenses for Gender Justice includes participants from different regions and countries across the globe. Participants to the project work at national and regional level and acknowledge the different perspectives of feminism together with their commonality as a way to achieve gender justice. In order to build a shared view of the main current feminist perspectives, the project proposes to conduct a study on the different perspectives of feminism in the target countries and regions.

Objectives of the study

The main objective of the study is to analyse how feminism manifest itself in the target regions (Sub Saharan Africa, Middle East and North Africa, Asia and Latin America) so as to allow the project to align and adapt its work to the specific contexts.  

Scope

The study will include country specific examples that will be drawn from the target countries. A regional analysis will be derived from the country analyses and desk review. Specific areas to be considered by the study include experiences, success factors, challenges/barriers around the following areas:

• Feminism as a political force for change:
• Political participation of marginalized groups such as youth, indigenous women
• Levels of acceptance and legal status for LGBTI groups
• Feminism in the development sector
• Feminism in the different faith/religion
• Transformative masculinity work and its contribution to gender justice.       

Fhe study shall further identify opportunities for future engagements on gender justice.

Finally, the study will strive to show diversity of feminism and highlight intercultural and intersectional factors at play regarding feminism in the different regions.

Methodology

It is expected that the team of consultants will describe and justify an appropriate approach/methodology and methods for data collection in their technical proposal. This may include both qualitative and quantitative methods. The proposal should include a cost-effective ambition level.

The team of consultants should take into consideration appropriate measures for collecting data in situations where sensitive or confidential issues are addressed and avoid presenting information that may be harmful to some stakeholder groups.

Expected deliverables

A work plan will be presented in the technical proposal. Upon selection, the consultants will meet with Diakonia to clarify expectations and confirm the workplan. Afterwards, an inception report with further details on timelines and methodology will be submitted to Diakonia at an agreed date.

The agreed work plan shall include clear timelines for submission of a draft report from the consultants, review by Diakonia and submission of revised report for validation purposes.

The following meetings are regarded as a prerequisite:

• A start-up meeting with the Diakonia procurement team.
• Inception meeting to present the inception report including work plan and schedule with Diakonia and partners
• Interviews with a wide range of stakeholders including Diakonia staff, partners, rights holders in the target countries, targeted stakeholders (e.g. gender commissions, ministries of gender, women’s rights/feminist organisations, youth organisations, women parliamentarians, feminist academician, religious organisations, etc.). Diakonia staff in each target country will advise on a reasonable number of informants to be interviewed and the most appropriate method in the context.
• Meetings with the contact person in Diakonia will be held every two weeks to assess progress for the study and address any challenges arising in the process
• A validation session with Diakonia and partners will be held
  • A presentation of final report to Diakonia including experiences, success factors, challenges/barriers around the prioritized thematic areas together with identified opportunities for future engagements on gender justice will be required. 

The final report shall be written in English and professionally proofread at the cost of the consultant. The final report should have a clear structure and follow the report format agreed with Diakonia. An executive summary of maximum three pages shall be included. Conclusions shall be substantiated by findings and analysis and it should be possible to follow the line of reasoning. The final consolidated report shall be no more than 15000 words, excluding annexes. Specific country and regional reports should be annexed to the main report. The consultants shall submit the final report through e-mail to the contact person at Diakonia.

Profile of the consultant

Suitable candidates should fulfill the following requirements:

• A university degree in Gender Studies or related field. A postgraduate degree would be an added advantage
• At least 5 years’ experience working on gender justice and feminism in the specific regions
• At least 5 years’ experience conducting similar research at national and regional level
• Excellent written and spoken skills for the chosen working language of the regions (Spanish for Latin America, English for Sub Saharan Africa and Asia, English/Arabic for the Middle East and North Africa region)
• Strong understanding of the rights based and feminist approach.
• Proven skills in conducting social research including facilitation of relevant discussions.

Budget

The estimated budget for the study is USD 30,000 (inclusive of all applicable taxes).

A payment plan will be included in the contract and will be pegged on key deliverables.

Payment shall be made through a bank transfer upon receipt of an invoice, denominated in US dollars.

Timeframe

The study is expected to be conducted between July and September 2022. A launch event will be planned for October 2022. The estimated number of working days will be agreed with the consultants based on the agreed methodology.

Terms and Conditions

The consultant is responsible for remitting all applicable taxes to the relevant authorities, travel insurances, and interpretation and translation if needed. The consultant is required to sign and follow Diakonia’s code of conduct. The consultant should also follow the Diakonia Child safeguarding policy if children are involved in some way during the work.

Please check this link for more details: Study on Perspectives of Feminism - Consultancy (diakonia.se)