Consultant to develop Guidelines on Feminist Approach in the Pandemic Response & Mitigation

Hivos Southeast Asia (Hivos SEA) seeks qualified Indonesian candidates for the position of Consultant to develop the Guidelines on Feminist Approach in the Pandemic Response & Mitigation

Background

Women and girls are often disproportionately impacted in every crisis. In other words, a crisis is never gender-neutral. Many women and girls are more exposed to many layers of risks and impacts than that of men.

During the Covid19 pandemic in Indonesia, local transmission of Covid-19 took a massive toll on women who have been working towards ensuring their family’s health and safety. Women are responding almost round-the-clock, juggling with care work in the house while trying to explore ways to continue earning, as the crisis resulted in loss of jobs and livelihood. This positioned woman as the primary breadwinners of the family. With the social isolation, the crisis also prompted an increased risk of domestic abuse, particularly for women in violent relationships. Compare to the previous year, The National Commission and LBH APIK record increased number of violence against women and children significantly[1].

Around the globe, the majority of healthcare workers are women[2] and Indonesia is no different. The vast cases of Covid 19 imply that their workload has become more demanding and taken huge physical and emotional energy, yet they remain undervalued and underpaid. Worse, some hospitals lack personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical workers. Some even are forced to wear disposable plastic raincoats to protect them from the cases with transmission risk. All these have impacted on women’s mental health and increased their vulnerability.

Many businesses closed, severely impacting women-oriented work such as garment factories that lay off the women workers without paying their wages[3].

In the meantime, the Government has set up the social safety net program. They distribute a portion of funds and staple food packages through the Family Hope Program by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Presidential aid. The Government has allocated the social aid to the low-income families for two months, started in April through the state of emergency period. The implementation, however, is far from the program goal: to support the most affected people in surviving during the pandemic. This resulted in unfairness as the distribution of the aid did not reach the poor who have not been registered in the Government database. Many poor elderly, women-headed families, and the other vulnerable groups lack access to social aid[4]. This creates multiple vulnerabilities for those vulnerable groups, and it costs their lives.

Given this challenging situation, it is crucial to take a step back to reflect on the root causes of unequal relation in accessing the resources by women and men. This will feed into the strategy of pandemic response and mitigation, which considers intersectionality and power relation analysis layers.

The We Lead program, which supports women’s rights and promotes women’s leadership, is hiring an Indonesian consultant to develop Guidelines on Feminist Approach in Pandemic Response & Mitigation. At the heart of the feminist approach is the power imbalance which causes conflict and results in unequal access to the resources. It is therefore essential to realize power sharing to ensure equal access to the resources by making the women and vulnerable groups empowered. Moreover, it is crucial to integrate a feminist approach in the development of these guidelines based on a holistic understanding of the situation and impact of Covid 19 pandemic and formulate the recommendations towards cross-sectoral approach in planning, implementation and monitoring of the programs, policies, as well as service provisions.

Objective

We are hiring an individual/team consultant to develop the Guidelines on Feminist Approach in the Pandemic Response & Mitigation. The guidelines should base itself on a holistic picture of the gendered societal impact of Covid 19’ and formulation of a strategy that integrates the feminist approach to respond and mitigate the long-term implications of the pandemic at various levels: from the planning to implementation and monitoring of the programs, policies, as well as service provisions.

Who could use these Guidelines?

The Guidelines can be used by the Indonesian Government, non-government organizations, service providers as a reference tool for the planning, implementation and monitoring of the programs, policies, as well as service provisions.

What would be covered in these Guidelines?

The holistic context related to the situation and gendered societal impact of the Covid 19 pandemic covering various issues such as health (physical & psychological), education, economic, and social and power relationship including violence against women, multiple burden experience of the women, and fundamentalism issues. This should also include existing challenges faced by different sectors in responding to the Covid 19 pandemic;
The context should also include an analysis of the current policies and practices of the Government & non-government organizations in responding and mitigating the impacts of the pandemic;
The recommendation of the strategy followed by guidelines should integrate feminist approach to response and mitigation of the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic.

Scope of Work

The following task will be delivered by the selected consultant:

Conduct desk review and analysis of various relevancy external literature as well as related Hivos’ internal documents e.g. modules on Gender Equality and Diversity Inclusion, SOGIESC module, and other related documents as needed;
Conduct and facilitate a series of focus group discussions/meetings to gather inputs from various stakeholders including We Lead consortium members;
Develop the Strategy & Guidelines on Feminist Approach in Pandemic Response & Mitigation.

Deliverables

As the final product the consultant should present a comprehensive Strategy & Guidelines on Feminist Approach in Pandemic Response & Mitigation. The final product should have at least the following 3 sections:

A comprehensive context analysis on the gendered societal impact of the pandemic based on desk review of existing literature and stakeholder review
A forward looking multi-sectoral strategy in responding to and mitigating the impacts of the pandemic based on stakeholder consultation and analysis
A set of practical guidelines which can be used by various stakeholders including Government, Non-Government Organizations and Business.

Knowledge, Experiences and Competencies

We are seeking an Indonesian team / organization with the following qualities:

Having deeply rooted expertise and experience in gender equality, social inclusion, feminism issues with a strong understanding of intersectionality;
Having experiences in writing a relevant publication with the above issues;
Having knowledge of the Indonesian system and policy;
Having experience in working on the humanitarian/rapid response program is an advantage;
Having knowledge of the Global Affairs Canada’ Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) and its Principle is an advantage.

How to apply?

Interested applicant is expected to submit the technical proposal with the proposed outline, timeline and budget, portfolio of the individual/organization, CV/resume, and copy of sample of the relevant publication or previous examples of similar work undertaken to [email protected] with cc to [email protected] November 13^th, 2020 COB with the title “Consultant of Feminist Approach in pandemic” as the subject of the email.

Please be sure to compile all the documents into one file and send it along with the expression of interest if you are applying as a team. Only shortlisted candidates will be notified. For more information about Hivos Southeast Asia, visit https://www.hivos.org

[1] https://theconversation.com/angka-kdrt-di-indonesia-meningkat-sejak-pandemi-covid-19-penyebab-dan-cara-mengatasinya-144001
[2] https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/female-health-workers-drive-global-health
[3] https://www.alinea.id/nasional/buruh-tuntut-tetap-dibayar-saat-dirumahkan-b1ZLp9tmc
[4] https://tirto.id/pendataan-amburadul-picu-tersendatnya-distribusi-bansos-saat-corona-fpo9