Job Description

Title: Rapid Gender Analysis Consultancy Services
District: Buhera District
Organization &Department: Methodist Development and Relief Agency (MeDRA): Programs
Reporting to: Acting National Director
Languages preferred English and Shona
Contract Date(s): 18 to 31 March 2024
Duration: 14 days

Background Information
Buhera District is one of the seven districts of Manicaland and is wholly communal which lies within natural region 3, 4 and 5 which are perennially characterised by an average rainfall of between 400mm to 151,89 mm. The area experience severe droughts which lead to acute food shortages. In most cases
summer seasons are characterized by strong winds, sandstorms, and lightning. Due to the
environmental degradation, when it rains there is more of run-off which causes flash floods, siltation
of rivers and dams downstream. Since 2019 the district has been negatively affected by the effects of
climate change with cyclones, flooding, heat waves, drought resulting in the most vulnerable and
marginalised communities suffering. The humanitarian situation has been worsened by Cholera
pandemic that has hit the district since 2023 as well as the current effects of El Nino phenomenon.
Focusing on prevention and control of Cholera, MeDRA in partnership with Christian Aid supported
the Ministry of Health towards reducing the outbreak, prevention of new cases and bringing it under
control through implementation of an Emergency Cholera Response project. The rate at which women,
men, adolescent boys and adolescent girls and children experience impact of various emergencies
especially the recent cholera outbreak in Buhera district varies and will most likely continue to vary
with women, adolescent girls and children mostly affected (both in the short term and long term).
Based on already existing data from primary sources and experiences implementing humanitarian
response and development programs in Buhera, the district is known to have inherent inequalities
and bias against empowerment of women and girls which are/were scaled up by the cholera outbreak.
It is against this background that MeDRA is partnering with Christian Aid to conduct a Rapid Gender
Analysis to establish the relationships between women, girls, men and boys and considers their
respective roles, access to and control of resources and the constraints each group faces relative to
others. This will be conducted from a humanitarian and emergency response lens to identify the
gender issues and gaps and providing an understanding of who in the population is affected by crisis,
what they need and what they can do for themselves along the pathway to recovery. This will also
allow tailor made solutions and strengthen other existing interventions to ensure sustainable socio-
economic empowerment of adolescent girls and women.
Acknowledging various ways in which gender relations are organised assist in identifying likely gaps
that leads or perpetuate Gender Based Violence, including sexual exploitation; and to establish and
strengthen measures to reduce the impact and include the gendered issues and risks into the design
of the humanitarian response and development work (for both current and future programming).
Rapid Gender Analysis Objectives
A Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA) provides information about the different needs, capacities and coping
strategies of women, men, boys and girls in a crisis by examining their roles and their relationships,
and the implications of these during an emergency or disaster such as cholera outbreak and its
recurring effects in the district and country at large.
MeDRA is requesting consultancy services of a seasoned and experienced Gender Expert (consultant)
to conduct a Rapid Gender Analysis and produce a report with clear recommendations and action
points for inclusion in our current programming and in designing new projects. The findings from this
research will provide an initial analysis of the gender dynamics, informed by the pre-cholera outbreak
information and experiences and the immediate survey conducted by MeDRA in partnership with
Christian Aid. The following are the objectives of the Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA)
• To better understand how women, men, girls and boys were/are affected by the disasters and
the severe climate change effect.
• Assess the impact of the disasters on gender dynamics.
• Establish emerging opportunities to provide emergency and developmental responses that
meets the differing needs and vulnerabilities of women, men, boys, and girls.
Purpose and Ethical Considerations:
Consultant to ensure that program activities minimize unintended consequences that cause harm to
target beneficiaries. MeDRA and its funding partner (Christian Aid) have an ethical responsibility and
is committed to preventing unintentional harm by ensuring high quality program designs,
implementation procedures, monitoring, and evaluation plans; through ensuring due process in the
engagement, support, and supervision of consultants during implementation of tasks. The consultant
should detail the practical steps and outline a checklist to minimize risk, especially of gender-based
violence (GBV), ensure safety, respect, confidentiality, and informed consent throughout the
implementation of the task.
Promote empowerment of target groups: MeDRA is obligated to ensure meaningful participation and
proper feedback mechanisms to the rights holders/beneficiaries that we work with. The consultant is
mandated to ensure active participation and feedbacking of communities during and post
implementation of the research.
Transparency and Accountability: MeDRA is accountable to various stakeholders. As such the research
findings and key lessons learnt to inform present and future programming will be disseminated
externally with partners and target groups communities. All processes involved should engage men
and women to explore biases about gender and diversity.
Addressing Stigma and Discrimination: MeDRA’s work including that of consultants engaged to offer services should challenge stigmatization and/or exclusion on the basis of gender, ethnicity, disability,
sexual orientation and religion.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work:
Under the overall supervision of the Acting National Director and in liaison with other program staff,
the Consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:
• Review various information and documentation availed by MeDRA and other key stakeholders
at provincial and district level.
• Development of an initial inception report providing a summary of the objectives, scope and
outputs of the assignment, organisation, and methodology for achievement of the outputs.
• Develop and share a schedule of work.
• Identify and assess already existing policies and gender mainstreaming instruments and tools
used in Zimbabwe and how they impact the target population.
• Identify already existing institutional arrangements and structures at the national, provincial,
district and ward level and identify gaps in promoting active participation of women and girls
at various levels of decision-making processes.
• Assess the socio-economic challenges and opportunities existing in the district for women,
girls, boys and men.
• Plan and conduct separate focus group discussions with key stakeholders including the target
population/beneficiaries to identify critical issues and proffer strategies to ensure gender
inclusion in the design, planning and budget processes.
• Evaluate the impact of climate change (including the El-Nino induced drought) and the effects
of the cholera outbreak on women, girls, boys and men and how it affects their livelihoods
and wellbeing.
• Assess and identify the potential gender-differentiated impacts of the recent (2023) cholera
response by MeDRA and other humanitarian and development partners.
• Awareness raising and capacity building and/or strengthening of program staff, district
stakeholders and target/direct beneficiaries on the importance of gender integration and
inclusion in all aspects of programming and at every stage of the project cycle.
• Support MeDRA and the district in developing tools and strategies including a manual or step
by step guide to ensure gender integration and inclusion in all key thematic areas and sectors
in the district.
Expected Outputs/Key Deliverables:
• An inception report summarizing the objectives, scope and outputs of the task and the
methodology to achieve the outputs, documentation review, meetings, findings, and setting out
a detailed planning of the assignment and the accompanying schedule.
• Detailed Gender Analysis findings/report
• A guide on designing and integrating gender responsive interventions or programming at all levels
from local to national with active participation of local people especially women and girls.
• Training Manual on basic Gender Mainstreaming and Inclusion.
• Develop a gender responsive monitoring and evaluation framework and indicators.
Duration of assignment:
• This assignment is to be carried out in 14 working days. The assignment will commence upon
formal approval from the Acting National Director.
Financial Proposal:
• Provide a detailed financial proposal outlining the costs associated with conducting the
assignment inclusive of all costs for the process.

Qualifications and Experience

Qualifications and Desired Experience
• Advance degree in Sociology, Gender studies, Environmental Science, Management, Development
studies or any other relevant field.
• In-depth knowledge of the constraints and best practices on gender equality and barriers women
face in fully benefiting from and participating in socio-economic empowerment programs.
Knowledge and experience in climate change programming and emergency responses.
• Proven experience (5+ years) of supporting local and/or international NGOs in conducting multi-
dimensional gender analysis and mainstreaming gender into climate change programming,
disaster risk management, emergency response, economic strengthening/ empowerment of
vulnerable groups especially women or any related field.
• The consultant should have experience and knowledge working and engaging with key
government line ministries and local authorities and structures.
• Provide evidence and relevant experience in developing gender responsive monitoring and
evaluation framework.

How to Apply

How To Apply
Interested candidates to submit their expression of interest with technical and financial proposals and annexes as a single pdf document: [email protected] copying
[email protected] by the 13th of March 2024.