Terms of Reference- Expert to develop a training manual on, National, Regional, and International influencing mechanisms

1. Background

Oxfam is a member of Oxfam International (OI) – an international confederation of organizations working together with partners and allies around the world to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice. On a global level, OI strives to help communities suffering because of natural disasters, climate change, conflict, injustice, and poverty. OI helps those communities who are most in need, whatever their race, creed, religion, ethnicity, or nationality. Oxfam has been working in oPt since 1982 and supports humanitarian, development, campaigning, and advocacy programs both in the West Bank and Gaza, including East Jerusalem.

Oxfam is implementing the five–year project, the “Palestinian Women and Girls Lead and Engage on Women Peace and Security in oPt,” funded by the Government of the Netherlands. The project is led by a consortium of War Child, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy-MIFTAH, Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC), and Oxfam in oPt; and is implemented in the West Bank and Gaza strip starting

2. Project Introduction

The project aims to supporting the civil society contributes to an enabling environment that empowers Palestinian women and girls to combat violence and uphold their agency in state, security, and peacebuilding processes. The project has three intermediate outcomes: Outcome 1– enhanced prevention of and protection from violence and human rights violations; Outcome 2- increased the meaningful participation of women, girls, and women’s rights organizations (WRO) in decision-making processes at local, national, and international levels; Outcome 3– strengthened accountability for the rights of women and girls at national and international.

Project interventions address the issue of structural inequalities and violence against women and girls in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) – a long-standing problem that stems from the protracted Israeli occupation, political division between Palestinian factions and harmful social and patriarchal norms that continue to exacerbate marginalization of and violence against women and girls across the oPt.

MIFTAH and Oxfam will work on supporting the National Coalition for implementing the UNSCR 1325to develop and implement the UNSCR 1325 strategic advocacy plan2021-2024. MIFTAH will support the implementation of the Advocacy Strategy by conducting a mid-term and final evaluation. The results of these, coupled with the updated needs and priorities assessment initiated by MIFTAH will feed into the development of the third generation of the Advocacy Strategy 2024-2027. Oxfam will build the capacities of the UNSCR 1325 women’s coalition in international influencing and contribute to financial support for CSOs for the implementation of UNSCR 1325 strategic advocacy plan 2020-2023, complementary to MIFTAH. Each organization will focus on different pillars of the strategy, while using each other’s work to enhance complementarities.

Consequently, the purpose of this TOR is to seek a consultant to work closely with Oxfam to develop a training manual on national, regional and international advocacy, influencing mechanisms mapping collations and support groups. Noting that MIFTAH will work in parallel to develop a manual that focusses solely on international influencing using UN advocacy mechanisms.

3. Context

On October 28th , 2020 following the first National Action Plan adopted in 2016, Palestine launched its second UNSCR1325 National Action Plan for the period of 2020-2024, which was developed through a national effort led by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs as the head of the Higher National Committee for the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 in partnership with UN Women. The development of NAP is considered a remarkable achievement for the Palestinian women’s rights and Human Rights Organizations in oPt that aims to realize the UNSCR 1325 objectives of increasing the participation of women in peacekeeping and conflict resolutions, integrating the perspectives of women into peace agreements and reconciliation processes, addressing the impact of conflict on women, and protecting them from human rights violations including sexual violation. On a similar note, Oxfam and MIFTAH spearheaded the establishment of the Palestinian Women’s Coalition for the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 and facilitated the process of the development of the coalition’s Strategic Advocacy Plan in 2015 that is included in the current NAP. In addition, to the development of the women’s coalition second strategic framework for lobby advocacy (2021- 2024). **

4. The Overall Objective of the Assignment: **

The overall objective of the assignment is to support the Palestinian Women’s Coalition for the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 to enhance and strengthen their regional and international advocacy capacities that enable them to implement their Strategic Framework for Lobbying and Advocacy for the year 2021-2024, through developing a training and user-friendly manual on regional and international advocacy and influencing mechanisms aiming to achieve the following:

1. Building and activating an international network to exert pressure on the international community at the level of individual countries and the United Nations. The consultancy aims at mapping of women and human rights institutions, networks collations and support groups that are specialized in the WPS agenda as well as international unions and institutions in solidarity with the Palestinian people. The consultant will work on adding sections in the training manual on how to connect with these groups to exert influence.

2. Analysis of plans, political stands, political social and economic relations of individual countries and united nations countries, key moments of states and regions directed abroad for the implementation of UNSCR 1325; in addition to identifying opportunities for advocacy and influencing. The manual should include practical tools for developing and improving advocacy strategies based on this analysis and defining advocacy messaging for the implementation of UNSCR 1325 and the recently developed Strategic Framework for Lobbying and Advocacy for the year 2021-2024.

3. After the first draft of the manual, the consultant will conduct a training for Oxfam staff and members of the women’s coalition, addressing the technicalities and practical implementation of the manual.

4. After the training, it is expected that trainees should be able to devolope advocacy and influencing plans and are able to target their audiences on global and international level.

5. Upon the evaluation, feedback and identification of the gaps during the training, the consultant should be able to edit and optimize the content of the manual before submitting the finale version.