Feminist influencing and advocacy capacity building

Terms of References

Feminist Influencing and Advocacy capacity building for CSOs

Background

Oxfam has been working in Lebanon since 1993 providing humanitarian assistance to vulnerable people affected by conflict, and promoting economic development, good governance at a local and national level, and women’s rights through Oxfam’s work with partners. Oxfam also works with local partners to contribute to the protection and empowerment of marginalized women and men.

Oxfam in Lebanon is currently implementing “Masarouna” project aiming to support young people to achieve more freedom to enjoy their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in inclusive societies. The project will improve social justice for young people, empowering them to reclaim civic space and speak up for their SRHR to make their societies more inclusive, underpinned by principles of equality and non-discrimination. The project follows two interlinked pathways:

Pathway 1 is focused on influencing with and by young people for their SRHR, direct influencing of decision-makers, service providers and other stakeholders, and challenge harmful traditional social and cultural norms and values, countering misconceptions and misbeliefs by providing accurate and up-to-date information on the importance of SRHR for young people.

Pathway 2 is focused on strengthening civil society and reclaiming civic space. We will work with young people and support their inclusion in civil society, build partnerships, and safeguard and reclaim space for young people’s voices.

Purpose and objectives

As part of Masarouna, Oxfam in Lebanon is planning to provide a comprehensive capacity building program for CSOs and grassroot organizations to enable them to effectively lobby and advocate for gender rights and SRHR.   

This capacity strengthening is expected to support CSOs to develop and monitor advocacy, lobbying and influencing strategies and use tactics and techniques to address formal and informal stakeholders at local, national, regional, and international level.

At the end of the capacity building, the participants should be able to develop influencing and advocacy strategies, identify tactics to influence decision makers on policies and practices related to SRHR and gender rights and use different offline and online channels to engage, mobilise and connect with audience, assess and mitigate advocacy risks and monitor and evaluate advocacy actions.

Scope of work

Oxfam is looking to hire a consultant/consultancy firm to deliver advocacy and lobbying capacity building to a total of 35 CSOs and grassroot organizations in Beirut and Bekaa.

The main key responsibilities of the consultant/consultancy firm are:

1. Develop comprehensive training modules that are relevant to the MENA and Lebanese context and inspired by feminist principles.
2. Create training materials to be shared with participants including presentations and handouts, etc.
3. Facilitate interactive training sessions to ensure that participants gain the needed knowledge and skills to lobby and advocate for gender rights and SRHR.
4. Conduct pre and post assessments and training evaluation to measure the impact of the training.
5. Provide a final training report summarizing the training outcomes, challenges, and recommendations.

The topics of the curriculum to be developed should include (but are not limited to) the following:

1. Definition of influencing, advocacy, and lobbying
2. Feminist influencing and advocacy for gender rights and SRHR
3. Development of advocacy and influencing strategy
4. Analysing key stakeholders and spheres of influence
5. Influencing, lobbying, and advocacy tactics and approaches
6. Building alliances and managing opposition
7. Developing and delivering advocacy messages
8. Developing action plan for advocacy
9. Use of online and offline tools and channels (social media, traditional media, digital channels, public events, etc.) to engage and mobilize audience and influence target groups/officials.
10. Risk management in advocacy and lobbying more specifically managing backlashes and in anti-gender contexts
11. Monitoring and evaluation of advocacy, lobbying and influencing activities

The training will be provided in 2 workshops of 2 full days each: 1 workshop in Beirut and 1 workshop in Bekaa. The trainings will be provided in Arabic.

Timeline

The total number of working days allocated for this consultancy is set at 20 days starting on August 26, 2024, and running until October 30, 2024.

Activity

Deadline

1. Submit a comprehensive capacity building program (training material, handouts, pre and post-test, evaluation form, etc) to Oxfam team for review

06 September

1. Conduct 2 workshops (each of 2 sessions)

20 October

1. Submit a final report to Oxfam team for review (two rounds of feedbacks are expected)

28 October  

Expected Outputs

The main expected outputs are:

• Detailed training curriculum and schedule
• Training materials
• Training delivery
• Pre and post assessments
• Evaluation survey
• Final report

Qualifications of the consultants/consultancy firm

• Proven and substantial experience in SRHR advocacy and campaigning, training and facilitation, and youth empowerment approaches.
• Familiarity with CSOs work in Lebanon.
• Demonstrated expertise for more than 5 years in gender and SRHR advocacy in the Lebanese context, particularly in the non-profit sector.
• Demonstrated cultural sensitivity and ability to work with people from different backgrounds (refugees, migrants, youth, etc.)
• Good experience and knowledge in women rights, gender justice, SRHR, and feminist approaches.
• Excellent knowledge of the Lebanese context.
• Proven experience in developing manuals and training materials.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver high-quality written reports.
• Experience in using participatory workshop facilitation methodologies.
• Excellent communications skills (written and oral) in Arabic and English.

Management of the assignment

The tasks and deliverables of the consultant will be coordinated with Masarouna’s project team at Oxfam in Lebanon. Oxfam team will conduct regular follow up with the consultant, will review and provide feedbacks on the materials and reports developed. 

Expression of Interest (EOI)

Interested consultant(s)/consulting firms should submit their:

• CVs of consultants and/or role of each consultant recruited under the scope of this assignment for firms;
• A cover letter detailing the interest in the assignment and relevant experience;
• A proposal including a detailed methodology, workplan and timeline of delivery, in addition to primary outline for the curriculum
• Financial proposal detailing the consultancy fees as well as all the costs associated with this assignment;
• A sample of relevant previous training material;
• Minimum of three references of similar activities implemented, preferably INGO or local NGO experiences;
• Registration and official government documents, if applicable. Noting that 7.5% will be deducted from the total amount if not registered.

Oxfam in Lebanon reserves the right to reject any and all bids, including the Bidding processes, or not to award the contract at any time, without thereby incurring and liability to the affected Bidders.

Please submit the full application documents (as mentioned above) to [email protected] by August 18, 2024 midnight mentioning “Feminist influencing and advocacy capacity building” in the subject line.