TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR ASSOCIATE ADVISERS: Gender equality and empowering women and girls
- Contexts
The British Council is seeking highly experienced gender experts to contribute to our international work. We will recruit ‘Associate Advisers’ (AAs) who will work, up to 30 days per year (dependent on demands from our global team and network), in close consultation with the British Council’s core Society team to provide additional technical input in specific areas. We are seeking AAs to support us across a broad range of areas of activity, including business development, programme design, programme delivery, research, and capacity building strategy. The scope of activity will include both our contract pursuit and our ‘core grant-funded’ and partnership work.
Our contract work represents a strong pipeline of opportunities from bi- and multi-lateral donors, including the FCO, DFID and the EU across a range of regions, particularly Africa, Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa. These opportunities require support to develop strong programme design, write compelling bids and deliver on contracts won.
The promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls has been a key theme for the British Council for many years. The British Council has worked to support women’s political participation, participation in economic life and women’s role in promoting social change worldwide. The empowerment of women and girls is one of four key strands of our Society work and our recently published study demonstrates the positive contribution of our global portfolio to gender equality.
Our programmes deliver outcomes in five areas in order to contribute to gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment:
Increased awareness and agency of women and girls
Fairer access to resources and opportunities
Supportive legal and policy environment
Changes in attitudes, beliefs, practices and discriminatory social norms
Dialogue, collaboration and collective action
We seek to share UK expertise on gender and empowering women and girls and enable mutual learning globally in order to deliver on these outcomes, a theme explored in greater detail in our research on gender equality in the UK.
- Our Associate Adviser Model
The British Council will recruit AAs to work alongside our core gender and inclusion team and will provide specialist input into our work, to help deliver the British Council’s Society objectives. AAs will take part in meetings with British Council staff when required. They will be recruited on a ‘call/draw-down’ basis, providing consultancy days as agreed for the British Council which can be accessed at any point in the year as the need arises. AAs will be expected to engage in knowledge-sharing activities and support colleagues in the wider British Council. This will be particularly important in 2017/18 as we start to gather and build internal expertise and capacity around gender equality with a view to embedding this more systematically into everything we do.
- Terms of Reference
Areas of work required
To meet the needs of the British Council, over the next three years we are seeking five AAs who together will provide comprehensive expertise on the sector and are capable of undertaking a range of activities. These will include:
- Development of strategy, tools and approaches to support global, regional and country programme development including analysis of gender issues; theory of change for empowering women and girls; guidance for country teams on strategy development.
- Gender strategies and mainstreaming through review and analysis of existing and new programmes from a gender perspective; developing recommendations for ensuring that outcomes are delivered for women and girls.
- Programme design and development of new programmes at a global, regional and country level that meet key outcomes for empowering women and girls, including development of core training programmes.
- Providing knowledge and insight in relation to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls to support internal planning, and technical advice and quality review of British Council projects during implementation.
- Gathering market intelligence for potential contract opportunities including intelligence related to potential clients, partners and consultants. This may include undertaking scoping visits to targeted countries and attending meetings or events with clients, partners and other stakeholders.
- Writing and/or quality assuring proposals for technical assistance projects in response to invitations to tender from international donors, governments, charitable foundations and other funding sources. This may include reading and analysis of the project Terms of Reference and background context provided by the British Council; developing full approach and methodology; contributing innovative solutions and ensuring that the implementation strategy and programme results are achievable; contributing to proposals being written by partners or colleagues.
- Supporting activities to raise the profile of the British Council and position it as a thought leader in gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment. This may include undertaking research, writing papers and dissemination activities including design of conferences and roundtables.
- Supporting the development of gender sensitive monitoring and evaluation strategies and tools for specific projects and programmes.
- Leading formal evaluations of projects and programmes focused on gender equality and empowerment of women and girls.
- Carrying out reviews of evidence and learning across programmes on relevant themes e.g. women’s leadership and participation, gender and education, VAWG.
- Supporting the capacity building of internal staff as well as partners and participants on gender and empowerment of women and girls, including developing and delivering the British Council’s gender training for key programme staff.
- Location and length of contract
Geographical location is flexible, and associates must be prepared to travel for assignments, (for usually up to one week) for which as much notice as practical will be given.
AAs will initially be contracted for two years for up to 30 days per year, with the potential to extend for another year. AAs will be used on a ‘call-down’ or flexible basis and will be required to attend meetings (by phone or in person) with British Council staff members as required, chargeable against agreed days.
- Monitoring and feedback
AAs will take part in scheduled reviews with a named managing staff member in the British Council’s team. These meetings will review progress against specified assignment outputs and deliverables.
6. Learning and development
As part of the call-down contract, AAs will be required to take part in knowledge transfer activities as agreed with the supervising staff member. This may include producing written briefs or delivering short talks or briefings.
AAs will be expected to keep up to date with relevant policy developments and share knowledge with the Gender and Inclusion team.
- Skills and knowledge required
Essential Criteria / At least two of the following / Desirable Criteria
5 years’ experience of working in one or more of our key thematic areas on women’s and girls’ empowerment (see below). We are keen to hear from individuals who are able to work in several of these areas / 5 years’ experience of programme design including developing/using theories of change / Professional qualifications in the specified thematic area(s)
Knowledge and experience of gender issues across more than one nation of the UK and internationally / Proven, recent, technical experience of gender analysis and gender mainstreaming / Knowledge of monitoring and evaluation methodologies and appreciation of value for money approaches
Strong network of contacts (UK and international) in gender and development / 3 years’ experience of undertaking quantitative and qualitative research on themes linked to women’s and girls’ empowerment and gender equality / Strong public profile in the specified thematic areas
Recent experience of working in cross-cultural and international teams / Strong facilitation, capacity building and training skills / Training of trainers experience
Excellent written and spoken communication skills in English, and demonstrable ability to represent the organisation with external stakeholders / 3 years’ experience of scoping opportunities and writing winning technical proposals for a range of funders including government, trusts and foundations / Experience of writing proposals for FCO, DFID or EU contracts
Proven experience of designing and undertaking gender sensitive monitoring and evaluation and/or evaluating gender focussed programmes / Understanding and experience of working with the British Council
Strong publication record
Strong ability in a second language such as French, Spanish or Arabic
Thematic Areas of British Council’s work on gender equality and empowerment of women and girls
- Women’s leadership and participation in decision-making (governance, political processes, community etc.)
- Gender, conflict and peace building, including preventing violent extremism;
- Capacity building of women’s civil society organisations, women’s movements and coalitions
- Gender and access to justice
- Prevention of violence against women and girls
- Gender equality in education (schools, vocational education and higher education)
- Women’s economic empowerment (including employment and entrepreneurship)
- Women and girls in creative industries and STEM (education and employment)
- Capacity building of women’s civil society organisations, women’s movements and coalitions
- Social norms approaches to addressing gender inequalities – including community-based and arts/creative approaches
- Engaging with men on gender relations and equality
8. Responding to this submission
Please provide a covering letter and copy of your CV detailing how your combination of skills and experience makes you eligible for an AA position and can add value to the British Council’s work on gender equality and empowering women and girls.
- Timeline
Activities / Date
Terms of reference is issued / 12 September 2017
Deadline for clarification questions / 22 September 2017
Publication of answers to clarification questions / 27 September 2017
Deadline for submission of applications / Midnight GMT, 2 October 2017
Evaluation of proposals and short listing / 3-6 October 2017
Communication to shortlisted applicants / 9 October 2017
Clarification interviews with short-listed applicants / 16-20 October 2017
Decision made on successful applicants / Week of 23 October 2017
The British Council should receive your submission no later than midnight GMT 2 October 2017. Please send your proposal to:
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