Job Description
Job Description
Assignment location Zimbabwe: Chipinge district
Contract start date August 2026 to October 2026
How to apply Interested candidates are invited to submit:
Interested candidates are invited to submit:
1. A technical proposal describing how the evaluation will be conducted.
2. Financial proposal
3. CV (s)
4. Work samples of similar assignments, if any.
See section ‘8. Application Process’ for further details
Application deadline 7 August 2026
1. PURPOSE OF THIS CONSULTANCY
The purpose of this consultancy is to provide technical leadership and facilitate a participatory process for the development of a Gender-Transformative and Socially Inclusive Climate Resilience and Food Security Strategy for Chipinge District. The consultant will work closely with partner organizations, government stakeholders, communities and other local stakeholders to identify and prioritize climate resilience and food security challenges, opportunities and strategic interventions that respond to the needs of vulnerable and marginalized groups.
The consultant will be responsible for coordinating stakeholder engagement processes, facilitating consultations and co-creation workshops, conducting analyses and leading the drafting, validation and finalization of the strategy. In addition, the consultant will develop accompanying monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) frameworks to support effective implementation and adaptive management of the strategy.
Through an inclusive and evidence-based approach, the assignment will generate a shared understanding among stakeholders of the most critical climate and food security challenges affecting communities in Chipinge District. It will also build consensus around priority actions and transformative solutions that strengthen resilience, promote food security, advance gender equality and enhance the meaningful participation of women, youth, persons with disabilities and other socially excluded groups. The resulting strategy will provide a practical framework for guiding future climate resilience and food security programming while ensuring that interventions are sustainable, locally owned and aligned with national and international development priorities.
2. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
Zimbabwe is experiencing increasing climate-related challenges, including droughts, floods, erratic rainfall patterns, pest outbreaks and declining agricultural productivity. These challenges disproportionately affect women, youth, persons with disabilities, elderly people and other socially excluded groups due to unequal access to productive resources, climate information, adaptive technologies and decision-making spaces. These groups possess valuable indigenous knowledge, local adaptation practices and community leadership capacities that can contribute significantly to effective climate resilience programming when appropriately recognized and supported.
It is against this background that Oxfam and its partners are developing a Gender-Transformative and Socially Inclusive Climate Resilience and Food Security Strategy for Chipinge District. The strategy will provide a common framework for addressing climate vulnerabilities, strengthening food security and promoting resilience among vulnerable communities while ensuring that interventions are equitable, inclusive and responsive to the different needs, capacities and aspirations of women, men, youth and other marginalized groups. Oxfam and its partners seek to develop and adopt the strategy that will be evidence-based, participatory and locally led by December 2026. Building on lessons from the Chipinge climate resilience pilot and other relevant initiatives, the strategy will be informed by climate risk assessments, food security and livelihoods analysis, gender and social inclusion assessments, indigenous knowledge systems and political economy analysis.
A central principle underpinning this work is the recognition that sustainable resilience requires addressing the structural barriers, inequalities, power dynamics and social norms that shape vulnerability and adaptive capacity. The strategy will therefore adopt a gender-transformative approach that promotes the inclusion of women and marginalized groups and strengthen their voice, agency, participation, leadership and equitable access to opportunities. The strategy development process will engage a broad range of stakeholders, including government institutions, local authorities, civil society organizations, women's rights organizations, youth-led organizations, community-based organizations, traditional leaders, private sector actors, research institutions and community representatives to ensure ownership, legitimacy and sustainability. Participatory methodologies such as stakeholder consultations, political economy analysis (PEA), power analysis, Gender Action Learning Systems (GALS), co-creation workshops and multi-stakeholder prioritization processes will be used to ensure that diverse perspectives are reflected throughout the process.
The resulting strategy is expected to provide a long-term framework for strengthening climate-resilient livelihoods, improving food security, advancing gender equality and social inclusion and enhancing community resilience. It will identify strategic priorities, implementation pathways, partnership opportunities and monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning mechanisms necessary to deliver sustainable and inclusive climate resilience outcomes.
To support this process, Oxfam and its partners seek the services of a qualified consultant to provide technical leadership and coordination of the strategy development exercise. The consultant will guide stakeholder engagement, facilitate the identification and prioritization of strategic interventions, and lead the drafting, validation and finalization of the strategy. This assignment represents a critical investment in establishing a shared vision for climate resilience and food security programming that is gender-transformative, socially inclusive, evidence-driven and capable of guiding future policy, programming, advocacy, partnership development and resource mobilization efforts in Zimbabwe.
Duties and Responsibilities
3. SCOPE OF WORK
The consultant will undertake the following tasks:
3.1. Inception Phase
• Review all available project documents, climate vulnerability assessment findings, food security and livelihood assessments and gender and social inclusion analyses.
• Participate in inception meetings with Oxfam and partners.
The key deliverable is an inception report which includes methodology, stakeholder engagement plan, workplan, data collection tools and budget.
3.2. Stakeholder Mapping and Analysis
The consultant will identify and analyse relevant stakeholders including government stakeholders, the civil society (women's Rights Organizations, youth-led organizations, disability Organizations, community-based organizations), communities (women farmers, male farmers, youth groups, persons with disabilities, traditional leaders and community volunteers), development Partners. The consultant should produce a stakeholder mapping report which has a clear stakeholder influence-interest matrix and institutional landscape analysis.
3.3 Political Economy and Power Analysis
The consultant will conduct a participatory political economy analysis examining the institutional factors (existing climate governance systems, decision-making structures, resource allocation processes), power relations (gender power dynamics, community power structures, representation of marginalized groups), inclusion barriers (social norms (cultural practices, policy barriers, economic barriers), opportunities (existing champions, policy opportunities and institutional reforms). The consultant should produce a political economy and power analysis report which includes recommendation for gender-transformative programming.
3.4 GALS-Based Community Visioning and Prioritisation
The consultant will facilitate GALS exercises to understand (community resilience aspirations, climate adaptation goals, household decision-making dynamics and gender roles and responsibilities), identify (priority climate risks, food security challenges, livelihood vulnerabilities, social inclusion concerns) and prioritize (adaptation options, resilience-building initiatives, institutional strengthening measures and gender-transformative actions). The consultant to produce a GALS findings report.
3.5 Multi-Stakeholder Prioritisation Workshops
The consultant to organize and facilitate participatory workshops to validate findings (review evidence generated), prioritize strategic focus areas. The consultant to produce a workshop proceedings and prioritization matrix.
3.6 Development of Strategic Prioritisation Framework and a participatory theory of change
The consultant to prepare a prioritization framework which may include prioritization criteria (relevance, climate resilience impact, gender-transformative potential, social inclusion potential, feasibility, cost-effectiveness, scalability and sustainability), strategic themes (priority issue, justification, evidence base, proposed interventions, lead actors and target beneficiaries). The consultant should come up with a strategic prioritisation framework and a theory of change to ensure that this strategy is implementable through illustrating how strategic interventions contribute to resilient livelihoods, improved food security, gender equality and social inclusion.
4. EXPECTED OUTPUTS
The consultant is expected to produce the following deliverables:
• A detailed Gender-Transformative and Socially Inclusive Climate Resilience and Food Security Strategy report max. 30 pages (excluding annexes) responding to the scope of work above. The report should include an executive summary, methodology, stakeholder analysis, political economy analysis findings, GALS findings, theory of change, prioritized climate resilience issues, prioritized food security issues, strategic focus areas among other key areas.
• Annextures: attendance registers, workshop reports, prioritization tools and stakeholder lists.
5. Objectives
Overall Objective
To identify and prioritize strategic climate resilience, adaptation and food security interventions that are gender transformative and socially inclusive.
Specific Objectives
The consultant shall:
1. Review findings from the climate risk, vulnerability, food security, livelihoods, GIS and gender analyses and produce a risk management framework.
2. Conduct a political economy and power analysis to identify:
• Key actors and institutions influencing climate resilience.
• Existing power relations affecting access to resources and decision making.
• Barriers to inclusion and participation.
• Opportunities for transformative change.
3. Facilitate participatory consultations with stakeholders to identify priority climate resilience and food security challenges.
4. Apply Gender Action Learning System (GALS) methodologies to understand:
• Barriers to gender-transformative and socially inclusive climate resilience and food security in communities.
• Community priorities and aspirations.
• Gender-specific opportunities and constraints.
• Household-level resilience aspirations and pathways.
• Social norms influencing adaptation decisions.
5. Facilitate prioritization of climate adaptation and resilience options based on:
• Feasibility.
• Impact potential.
• Inclusion potential.
• Sustainability.
• Cost-effectiveness.
• Alignment with national policies.
6. Develop a prioritization framework to guide strategy development.
7. Theory of change, results framework, implementation plan, MEAL and knowledge management framework,
8. Produce a consolidated report outlining agreed strategic priorities and focus areas.
6. METHODOLOGY
Methodology
The study will utilise a participatory, gender-transformative and socially inclusive mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative data collection with in-depth qualitative inquiry to ensure a comprehensive, nuanced and evidence-based identification and prioritisation of climate resilience and food security issues, opportunities and strategic interventions in Chipinge. The methodology will be grounded in the principles of local ownership, gender equality, social inclusion, participation, political economy analysis and evidence-based decision-making. It will adhere to the highest ethical and quality standards to ensure credibility, validity, inclusiveness and stakeholder ownership of the findings and recommendations.
The assessment and prioritisation process will seek to answer the following key questions:
• What is the most significant climate change, food security and livelihood challenges affecting vulnerable communities in Zimbabwe?
• How do climate risks interact with gender inequalities, social exclusion, poverty, food insecurity and governance challenges?
• Which population groups are most vulnerable and what factors contribute to their vulnerability or resilience?
• What social norms, power relations and institutional barriers influence access to resources, climate adaptation technologies, information, services and decision-making processes?
• What existing climate resilience, food security and livelihood initiatives are currently available and how effective and inclusive are they?
• What adaptation, resilience and food security interventions are considered most relevant and impactful by communities, government institutions and other stakeholders?
• What opportunities exist to promote gender-transformative change and advance social inclusion within climate resilience and food security programming?
• What strategic priorities and interventions offer the greatest potential for strengthening resilience, improving food security and advancing equitable development outcomes?
• Which actions are most feasible, sustainable, scalable and aligned with national policies and community priorities?
• What institutional arrangements, partnerships and implementation mechanisms are required to effectively deliver inclusive climate resilience outcomes?
The consultant will collect practical, first-hand and evidence-based information through a combination of desk review, stakeholder consultations, political economy analysis, Gender Action Learning System (GALS) exercises, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, community visioning exercises and multi-stakeholder prioritisation workshops.
Inception and Secondary Data Review
The assignment will commence with an extensive review of available documentation and evidence generated. This may include climate vulnerability and risk assessments, food security and livelihood assessments, GIS and spatial analyses, gender and social inclusion assessments, relevant policies, strategies and frameworks, existing climate resilience and adaptation programmes and national development and food security policies. The review will establish the baseline evidence, identify key issues requiring prioritisation and inform the design of data collection tools and stakeholder engagement processes.
Qualifications and Experience
by robust evidence.
Continuous Engagement and Validation
The research process will include regular brainstorming and reflection sessions with Oxfam and partners and other key stakeholders. These engagements will provide opportunities to review emerging findings, validate preliminary conclusions, address evidence gaps and strengthen stakeholder ownership.
7. DELIVERABLES AND PAYMENT SCHEDULE
The commissioned Consultant or Consulting Firm will be held fully responsible for the timely and quality submission of the following specific deliverables:
1. Inception meetings, virtual brainstorming sessions, including power point presentations, with the Oxfam team and stakeholders to share and discuss preliminary results of the research and agree on the next steps.
2. An evidence-based Gender-Transformative and Socially Inclusive Climate Resilience and Food Security Strategy report max. 30 pages (excluding annexes) responding to the research questions (see above) that identifies and ranks the most critical gender-transformative and socially inclusive climate resilience and food security priorities.
Content and format of the final report:
The consultants are expected to submit a Gender-Transformative and Socially Inclusive Climate Resilience and Food Security Strategy report with a page limit of 30 excluding annexes responding to the research questions.
Selection criteria (Total Score 100 Points.
Consultants who meet the above qualifications and experience should submit a technical proposal and a proposed budget.
For the avoidance of doubt, selection of the consultants will be based on the following criteria:
1. Sound technical proposal: consultants should demonstrate understanding of the terms of reference as well as a clear methodology including approach, design, and a schedule.
2. Financial proposal - this should indicate all costs including consultant fees as well as field visit costs. The financial proposal should be a lump sum amount, all-inclusive and include all cost components including VAT required to perform the deliverables identified in the ToR.
3. Experience and educational background of the consultant and other team members. Evidence of experience of similar assignments is key.