Gender experts at African Development Bank

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

13 Rue de Ghana, B.P. 323 - 1002 Tunis-Belvédère, Tunisia Office of the Special Envoy on Gender

E-mail:  L.miriti@afdb.org - Tel: + (216) 7110 2358

1.      The African Development Bank hereby invites Individual Consultants to indicate their interest in being enlisted in the Bank Roster of Gender experts.

2.      The African Development Bank has recently launched its Gender Strategy (2014-2018)

Investing  in  Gender  Equality  for  Africa’s  Transformation,  whose  objective  is  to

operationalize the Bank’s commitment to gender equality as espoused in the Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy 2013-2022¹. The strategy guides the Bank in pursuing gender equality internally, and in promoting gender equality in Africa through effective gender mainstreaming in Bank-funded operations. The Bank will therefore contribute to inclusive growth and social progress by broadening opportunities for women and men to participate equally in, and benefit from, the creation of wealth. The strategy is anchored in the Bank’s overall vision of supporting Africa’s transformation into a competitive, diversified, integrated, and prosperous continent, fully participating in global trade and investment—a continent whose high-quality growth creates more employment opportunities for all, especially women and youth. This strategy seeks to strengthen gender mainstreaming in sectors that represent the Bank Group’s five core operational priorities- infrastructure, governance, regional integration, skills development and private sector.

3.      The Bank is seeks to build a Roster of Gender Experts, which draws on individual international and national gender experts to assist the Bank in improving gender mainstreaming in country programming and in operations. The Roster will primarily include qualified gender experts with sector specific experience relating to the Bank’s core operational sectors of infrastructure, regional integration, private sector development, skills and technology, and governance and accountability. The roster will also draw on gender experts in the two other areas of special emphasis – agriculture and food security, and fragile states (gender is the third one). More specifically, this EOI targets gender experts who have been operating in the following sectors/areas:

¹ More information on the Gender Strategy can be found at  http://www.afdb.org/en/news-and-events/article/gender- equality-at-the-heart-of-africas-transformation-a-vision-and-a-strategy-12761/

i.            Transport

ii.             Energy

iii.             ICT

iv.            Water and sanitation

v.            Agriculture

vi.            Human development

vii.             Governance and public financial management

viii.             Private sector development

ix.            Trade and Regional integration

x.            Natural Resources

xi.            Financial Sector development

xii.             Environment and climate change

xiii.             Fragile states

xiv.            Results based management

xv.            Capacity development and knowledge management

xvi.            Evaluation

4.      At various stages of the CSP process, and of the project cycle, the Bank may need consultants to provide specific assistance. To address this need the Bank issues context specific TORs to recruit and guide the consultant’s assignment. Generally the Bank’s work for which this EOI is issued involves the following activities/tasks:

For Country Programming

·         Provide technical and advisory support to RMCs in establishing appropriate consultative processes to ensure mean and women and stakeholders are consulted and their views included in the preparation of national development programs and country strategy papers (CSPs);

·         ensure that the RMC team has gender expertise on staff prior to the CSP mission;

·         Review analyses of social and gender differences and inequalities and ensure that they inform the development of country programs;

·         Prepare due diligence questions to guide the identification of gender issues and key constraints to gender equality at national level;

·         Identify and analyze key constraints (root causes) to gender equality in country policies and procedures, institutional framework, capacity, and resources that would constrain economic growth and poverty reduction;

·         Inform the design of the country program with key finding of gender analyses conducted;

·         Ensure that priority actions are defined to address the identified key constraints as necessary. This can be through policy level work, and/or country dialogue, stand-alone projects and/or through multiple objective projects or sector projects.

For Operations

·         Review country proposal to assess the adequacy, quality, and completeness of gender analyses and provide technical and advisory assistance to fill existing gaps if any;

·         Conduct gender analyses and assessments, and provide advice to inform/refine project design and implementation;

·         Review terms of reference and scopes of work developed to conduct prefeasibility/feasibility studies, detailed designs and tender documents with the view to ensuring that the TORs are gender-responsive and that gender expertise is included in key personnel to provide the necessary gender analyses and define concrete gender actions to address identified issues and promote gender equality;

·         Assess the adequacy of the gender dimension of project documents prepared by RMCs and submitted to the Bank for appraisal. These include studies, prefeasibility/feasibility reports and related Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMPs), Resettlement Action Plans (RAPs), HIV/AIDS risk management, violence against women assessments, health and safety plans, and other mitigation strategies, etc. that inform investment decision on projects submitted for Bank financing.

·         Provide technical and advisory support to counterpart project team to improve the social and gender dimension of policies, capacity building, legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks;

·         Ensure that the gender dimension of the environmental and social safeguards are appropriately addressed and that resettlement plans and compensation schemes promote gender equality, and provide gender disaggregated data that can be monitored through implementation and evaluated;

·         Provide support in drafting of gender technical briefs relevant to selected thematic area;

·         Undertake diagnosis and research to inform the Bank’s understanding of the gender issues and provide sound solutions;

·  Undertake  capacity  assessments,   capacity  development,  and/or          knowledge

management;

·         Provide support for project or programme monitoring, including beneficiary analysis, and d financial analysis;

5.      The Gender experts should have at least a Bachelor degree or a Master’s degree in gender studies, economics, rural development, social development, social studies or related areas with respectively 10 years and 5 years of relevant professional experience in:

·         Developing policies, strategies, approaches, and tools for effective gender mainstreaming in programs and projects funded by multilateral development organizations;

·         Conducting social and gender assessment in policy analysis, research, program design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation;

·         Designing and carrying out social and gender analysis for feasibility studies, and gender assessments of feasibility reports and related environmental and social management plans (ESMP’s), resettlement action plans (RAP’s), and/or risk management and other mitigation measures;

·         Developing gender indicators for performance monitoring and evaluation;

·         Developing and assessing methods, tools and indicators for monitoring, and evaluating gender impact assessment;

·         Demonstrable understanding of regional social issues, analysis and policy formulation;

·         Good knowledge of the socio-economic and political environments of the Bank’s member countries and experience working in African countries required;

·         Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively with internal/external partners in a multicultural environment;

·         English and French are the working language of the AfDB, hence the candidates must speak at least one of the languages, with a preference for both. Being bilingual is an asset;

·         Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and/or French, with a working knowledge of the other language;

·         Good mastery of standard computer applications (Microsoft office package).

6.      The Office of the Special Envoy on Gender invites Individual Consultants to indicate their interest in providing the above-described services. Interested candidates should submit:

·         Brief Letter of interest including a description of your qualifications and experience

·         CV that includes the following:

o  Education, areas and sectors of concentration, and additional training courses.

o   Detailed descriptions of work performed in each of the required areas/sectors based on the areas listed in # 4 above, including level of responsibility held

for each. Up to three areas of expertise can be selected. o Sub-regions and countries of relevant experience;

o Reports and publications in which you contributed substantially to the writing. o Language proficiencies in speaking, comprehension, reading, and writing.

o  Contact details for at least three references.

7. Following the review of candidates responses to this expression of interest, long-listed candidates will be notified and added to the Roster of Gender Experts. The Roster will be used by sector and regional departments to shortlist candidates, who will be invited by user departments to compete for specific assignments. Eligibility criteria, establishment of the short-list, and the selection procedure shall be advised to the short listed consultants to the specific assignments.

8.      Please note that responding to this expression of interest and being long-listed in the Roster of Gender of Experts does not imply any obligation on the part of the Bank to include a respondent in a shortlist for future assignments and/or to offer her/him any kind of employment.

9.      Interested Individual Consultants may obtain further information at the address below during the Bank’s working hours: 8:00 hrs – 17:00 hrs.

10.  Expressions of interest must be submitted by email and/or delivered to the address below no later than 17.00hrs, April 25, 2014 Tunisia time. Submissions should quote “Roster of Gender Experts in the subject line.

For the attention of:

Ms. Linet Miriti

African Development Bank

Office of the Special Envoy on Gender 13 Rue De Ghana

B.P. 323 - 1002

Tunis-Belvédère Tunisia

Tel: +216 7110 2358 Email:  L.miriti@afdb.org