Consultant- WELD 2 Capacity Building Program on Social Accountability (INT7469) – Philippines – Manila

Philippine Nationals Only

 

Oxfam is a global movement of people working together to end the injustice of poverty.

Background

Since 2009, wth active push from Oxfam Great Britain’s East Asia office then in Bangkok, Oxfam’s country team in the Philippines has worked to mainstream social accountability – demand-side public accountability approaches and/or mechanisms that hinge on active citizens’ monitoring of public policies, programs and services, and engagement with power-holders and decision-makers to assert their rights – in its programs. This strategy stems from Oxfam’s analysis of poverty and vulnerability in the Philippines as being perpetuated by long-standing conflicts, control of the country’s resources by a powerful minority, gender inequalities, and poor governance.

Social accountability initiatives – participatory planning and budgeting, expenditure tracking, and performance evaluation or assessments – contribute to addressing this situation by promoting and working for more government accountability towards the protection of the rights of women and other vulnerable groups and the formulation and implementation of sound policies that will reduce poverty, help overcome conflict, and strengthen communities to face impending threats of disasters and climate change. Underlying such initiatives are the beliefs that active citizenship, especially active leadership of poor women, is critical to the transformation of unequal power relations. The strategy gains critical importance within the current national governance context wherein there are growing concerns with regard to lack of respect for people’s rights, corruption, and unresponsive government policies and programs in light of the COVID 19 pandemic.

WELD 2, as a third iteration1 in Oxfam Pilipinas’ programmatic efforts to promote poor women’s leadership and participation towards addressing conflict, poverty, and vulnerability within the transition to a reconstituted Bangsamoro, embarks on a region-wide initiative to build capacities of implementing partners, local decision-makers and service providers, and communities in doing social accountability. With a focus on ensuring accountability of regional and local government structures, officials, and frontliners in delivering policies, programs, and services that promote and address women’s economic empowerement, rights and leadership in the Bangsamoro, this social accountability capacity building program will build on the past engagements and gains of the WELD 2 partners and look at strategically contributing to efforts aimed at positioning poor Bangsamoro women leaders for electoral participation in the upcoming 2022 elections.

In line with these, Oxfam Pilipinas’ WELD 2 project team proposes to contract a consultant who can support it in delivering the said capacity building program. This ToR outlines main objectives, initial design parameters, key deliverables, and suggested work plan for the engagement.

Objectives for the consultancy

The proposed engagement revolves around the design, implementation, and assessment of a social accountability capacity building program with partner civil society organizations (CSOs), community women’s groups, selected decision-makers and service providers within the relevant regional governance structures of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and its constituent local government units wherein the WELD 2 project operates (i.e. Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi). Specifically, the program aims to:

1. Produce competent social accountability champions and practitioners from the identified targets groups who have a basic understanding of the social accountability framework for good governance and an initial knowledge for designing, customizing, and implementing various social accountability approaches and tools within the Bangsamoro context;

2. Generate project designs with work plans to pilot selected social accountability tools and approaches with WELD 2 implementing partners and identified decision-makers or local service providers within the context of WELD 2 project’s interventions and target results, and support stakeholders in carrying out and learning from the piloting initiatives;

3. Document and disseminate key experiences and insights from the social accountability capacity building efforts with WELD 2 partners and stakeholders, including the piloting of social accountability initiatives to guide any follow up initiatives of WELD 2 partners and future portfolio strategy development and project design within Oxfam Pilipinas.

Key Deliverables

The consultant is expected to produce the following major outputs:

1. An inception report to capture their understanding of the objectives and key deliverables for the proposed engagement, to be drafted and submitted after the inception meeting/s with Oxfam Pilipinas team and WELD 2 partners, and including a detailed work plan.

2. Capacity building program outlining more detailed learning objectives, proposed learning methods and processes, expected learning outputs, and time frame of implementation.

3. Reviewed social accountability pilot project designs and work plans of WELD 2 partners, and agreed mentoring and coaching plans based on the approved pilot initiatives;

4. Capacity building program implementation report documenting proceedings, discussion points, and insights from learning, mentoring and coaching, and reflection sessions;

5. An 8-page social accountability learning brief designed to effectively communicate the key elements, results, and lessons of the social accountability capacity building program.

Qualifications:

1. Extensive practice in designing and implementing capacity buiding programs and learning activities on social accountability with civil society groups and government officials.

2. Strong links and working relations with other social accountability practitioners from civil society groups and government, and can tap resource persons from both sectors.

3. Experience in supporting groups/organizations working on programs and projects around women’s leadership, women’s economic empowerment, women’s issues and rights.

4. Past or on-going engagements with civil society groups, local government units, regional government in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Mulim Mindanao (BARMM).

5. Track record in producing high-quality knowledge products and communication materials to disseminate results and lessons from social accountability-related engagements.

Period of Engagement:   May 17, 2021 until August 30, 2021

How to apply?

Interested applicants should send their CVs (if a team, CVs of all members) and an introductory letter outlining their qualifications for the consultancy based on those listed above on or before May 5, 2021.

Other Responsibilities

• Adhere to Oxfam’s principles and values as well as the promotion of gender justice and women’s rights.
• Perform priority organizational tasks related to his/her competencies as may be assigned from time to time.

Organizational Values:

• Accountability – Our purpose-driven, results-focused approach means we take responsibility for our actions and hold ourselves accountable. We believe that others should also be held accountable for their actions
• Empowerment – Our approach means that everyone involved with Oxfam, from our staff and supporters to people living in poverty, should feel they can make change happen
• Inclusiveness – We are open to everyone and embrace diversity. We believe everyone has a contribution to make, regardless of visible and invisible differences.

Our values and commitment to safeguarding

Oxfam is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behaviour at work including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, lack of integrity and financial misconduct; and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults. Oxfam expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment through our code of conduct. We place a high priority on ensuring that only those who share and demonstrate our values are recruited to work for us.

Note: All offers of consultancy will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks, which can include criminal records and terrorism finance checks.

In response to Covid-19 if you are offered a role where you are required to travel between countries please ensure you have been briefed by the Hiring Manager about any changes to working or precautions you should take as part of your role.