Location:                                                                                Home-based

Type of Contract:                                                                  Individual Contract

Languages required:                                                            English; Spanish and/or French (benefit)

Starting Date:                                                                        11 January 2020

Duration of Contract:                                                            60 days over 4-month period

Deadline for applications:                                                    15 December 2020

Programme Description

ACT Alliance is the largest coalition of Protestant and Orthodox churches and church-related organisations engaged in humanitarian, development and advocacy work in the world. It consists of 138 members working together in over 120 countries to create positive and sustainable change in the lives of poor and marginalised people, regardless of their religion, politics, gender, sexual orientation, race or nationality, in keeping with the highest international codes and standards.

Gender Justice is one of the milestones identified in ACT Alliance’s current global strategy. In order to achieve this milestone, ACT created a Gender Programme whose primary objective is to enable the coalition to become a leading faith-based alliance speaking out on gender justice. Through the programme, ACT is also seeking to develop structures and processes that will deliver a strong record of results and effective programming that respond to intersecting inequalities.

The Government of Sweden, through Sida (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency), has agreed to fund ACT’s Gender Programme for a three-year period through its Strategy for Global Gender Equality and Women’s and Girls’ Rights. Sida’s funding will be used to support the capacity of the Gender Programme and of ACT Member organisations through focus on four programmatic outcomes.

ACT would like to engage a consultant with gender expertise to carry out a number of tasks needed for the development of a baseline assessment for the programme, as described within the Terms of Reference below.

Scope of Consultancy

ACT Alliance’s structure is unique, with national, sub-regional and regional forums that bring local, national, regional and international church-related organisations to work together under the same principles and standards, bringing different skills and expertise to support each other and leverage collective action in humanitarian, development and advocacy engagement. Thanks to the presence of national ACT forums in over 50 countries, and of its global secretariat in several strategic locations (Geneva, New York, Nairobi, Bangkok, Amman, Brussels, Toronto and San Salvador), ACT Alliance is able to bring local and regional concerns to the global arena. Conversely, global trends and development can be transmitted to the regional and national levels using these structures.

With a view to furthering and ensuring ACT’s global gender justice policy and advocacy capacity in the temporary absence of key staff, the consultancy will require closely working with ACT Alliance key Gender Justice member colleagues and close engagement with the voluntary Reference Group structures. The work of the consultant will primarily contribute to the following outcomes:

• Outcome 1: Enabling and mobilising ACT Alliance members’ commitment to promote changes in attitudes and structural arrangements towards a more gender just distribution of power;
• Outcome 3: Use its unique position and networks to act as a global progressive force for gender justice, contributing to the SDGs and connecting the national to the regional and global levels.

More specifically, the support will focused on:

1. Global advocacy towards (virtual) policy fora in early 2021

• Namely the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) and Commission on the Status on Women (CSW) 2021 (virtual).

This will include support to:

• Organise or co-organise all ACT Alliance side/parallel events’ logistics with speakers and main organisers
• Coordinate with ACT Alliance Gender Justice communications for effective (and safe) communication of ACT position
• Prepare oral statements (in collaboration with ACT Secretariat and ACT member organisation colleagues)
• any virtual “participation/delegation” and logistics
• work on digital security of delegates (and other ACT members)
• Coordinate with other ACT members sending own delegations and sponsoring events
• On-going support to the General Secretary’s representative role (ensuring smooth process with ACT Gender Justice Reference Group inputs and message harmonisation).

2. Coordinate meetings between task groups and ensure close communication with the reference group

This will include support to:

• Regular meetings as needed with task groups for Policy and Advocacy (incl. CSW planning) and CPD/SRHR
• Organise or co-organise one task group meeting with each of the other groups during Q1: Transformative Masculinities, GBV/16Days, and LGBTQI.

Approach and Methodology

The Consultant is expected to work closely and collaboratively with the ACT Global Gender Justice Programme core team (coordinator, manager, communications) as well as the ACT EUNO office, Gender Justice Reference Group, its members and structures, in particular the task groups on Policy and Advocacy and CPD/SRHR. The Consultant will do so as per the programme’s logical framework, and all existing documents and statements. The Consultant’s approach is expected to include, but is not limited to, the following:

• A review of existing documents, public statements, logical framework, past planning documentation (including lessons learned), etc.
• Coordinate meetings between task groups and ensure close communication with the reference group.

Expected Deliverables

1. A final report
2. Oral statement for CPD and CSW (written with others)
3. Draft (digital) delegation materials for CPD and CSW
4. Workshop (with security lead) on digital security related to events around CPD and CSW
5. ACT Alliance side/parallel events organised and successfully conducted.

Required Skills and Experience

• Demonstrable expertise on gender justice, especially in relation to faith-based organisations and faith-based approaches;
• Listener and highly cooperative;
• Effective facilitation of discussions and meetings;
• Ability to write high quality, clear, concise reports and advocacy/policy statements in English – working knowledge of French or Spanish an asset;
• Excellent logistical skills;
• Strong computer and virtual meeting including experience using Microsoft Word, Skype, Zoom (and Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, an asset);
• Sets priorities, meets deadlines and manages time efficiently;
• Highly organised and detail oriented.

Reporting

The consultant will work in collaboration with the Gender Programme team and report to the ACT Gender Justice Programme Manager.

Timeline

The consultancy is expected to be conducted over a period of four months based on 60 working days. The starting date is anticipated to be 11 January 2021.

Application Process

ACT will evaluate the following documents:

1. Expression of interest outlining how the work will be developed and the understanding of the Terms of Reference and expectations of the assessment;
2. Copy of CV.

All documents must be submitted via email to: elaine.neuenfeldt@actalliance.org by 15 December 2020.