Bots: Call for Expression of Interest for Project Evaluation

Type of Contract: Consultancy

Based in: Botswana

Consulting days: 10 days

Assignment duration: 28 February 2022- 11 March 2022

Application Deadline: 28 February 2022

Gender Links (GL) Botswana and Boys for Gender Equality (MBGE) have been implementing a two-year project with the financial support of the Delegation of the European Union (EU) Botswana. The overall objective of the project was to promote and protect women and girls’ rights through local action to end violence and empower women. This was to be done by enhancing the capacity of local government and local communities to respond to both the community engagement in ending violence and economic empowerment of women and girls though an integrated partnership between local governments, the Botswana Association of Local Authorities (BALA), Gender Links (GL) and Men and Boys for Gender Equality (MBGE).

The overall objective of the project was to contribute to gender justice through acceleration of transformative gender policies, strategies and legislation, prevention of GBV and advancement of economic empowerment of women and girls.

1. Background and Objectives

GBV remains a substantially damaging aspect of human rights violations against women and girls. More robust measures to tackle GBV at community level are urgently needed.  GBV is complex and requires many levels of engagement to address the scourge. At GL, work is rooted in GL’s Theory of Change which posits that of all the sources of inequality and exclusion across the globe, gender is the most cross-cutting of all. Reinforced in formal and informal ways, gender inequality begins in the home; is perpetuated by the family; schools; work place; community, custom, culture, religion and tradition. To tackle GBV it is necessary to acknowledge and address a multiplicity of interventions at the individual, close relationship, societal and ultimately the public space.

This project thus sought to advance GLB and MBGE’s endeavours to tackle GBV in a multi-faceted and community centred approach strengthened by the element of male engagement. This element will ensure that men play a significant role in GBV prevention in solidarity with the feminist movement. Men’s roles in GBV prevention include those of perpetrators, victims, witnesses and men as agents of change. Men have the potential to change attitudes and behaviours, negative power relations and violent masculine identities that create and sustain GBV.  It is therefore an important window of opportunity to engage men and boys in gender transformative ways to deal with GBV prevention. Working with Men at local government level is a strategic approach since communities are close knit and influential to culture, norms and practices at family and societal levels. In the spirit of Botho (humaneness) as per Botswana culture, ‘Kgetsi ya Tsie e kgonwa ke go tshwaraganelwa’ (Unity is strength) towards the realisation of gender equality and elimination of GBV working with men.

GLB and MBGE will also use this action to further cascade the End Violence, Empower Women Sunrise Campaign, cascaded in Botswana with the support of the EU, for finding sustainable solutions to ending GBV through the economic empowerment of survivors of GBV. GLB has brought together its work on gender responsive local governance and ending GBV in an innovative project for empowering the survivors of violence with entrepreneurship and life skills.

The project will therefore create a concrete link between national policy initiatives and practical implementation mechanisms to promote women’s political and socio-economic empowerment and address GBV in communities. The specific objectives of the Programme are to:

• To popularise the GBV indicators research undertaken by Gender Links Botswana (GLB) with the Government of Botswana, launched in May 2019.
• To support 365 Day Flagship Programmes to End Gender Based Violence (GBV) developed by 16 Centres of Excellence for Gender in Local Government.
• To give effect to these plans by working with councils to offer entrepreneurship training to survivors of GBV as part of GL’s “Sunrise Campaign” for empowering women and ending violence.
• To engage men as partners in the campaign.
  1. Description of the Intervention

  This two-year project named “Ending GBV Community by Community in Botswana” was implemented nationally and in 21 local authorities that are already part of the COE programme including Gaborone, Francistown, Lobatse, Sowa Town, Jwaneng, Selibe Phikwe, North East, South East, Chobe, Tsabong, Hukuntsi, Ghanzi, Mabutsane, Goodhope, Moshupa, Okavango, Maun, Palapye, Bobirwa, Tonota and Tutume. Below is the project matrix showing the overall objectives, activities, target groups and expected results;

1. Purpose and use of the evaluation

The Delegation of the European Union in Botswana has established a bold investment in women’s rights, testing a more focused and better-resourced modality for catalyzing and sustaining gender equality and efforts. The project agreement sets forth the EU’s mandate to track, assess, and widely share the lessons learned in this two- year programme and to contribute to global know-how in the field of gender equality. Undertaking Strategic Final Evaluations of projects are a vital piece of this mandate. The main purposes of this final evaluation are the following:

Accountability:

• Provide credible and reliable judgements on the project results, including in the areas of programme design, implementation, impact on beneficiaries and partners, and overall results.
• Provide high quality assessments accessible to a wide range of audiences, including EU donors, women’s rights and gender equality organizations, government agencies, peer multi-lateral agencies, and other actors.

Learning:

• Identify novel/unique approaches to catalyse processes toward the development of gender equality commitments.
• Identify particular approaches and methodologies that are effective in meaningfully and tangibly advancing women’s economic and political empowerment. 

Improved evidence-based decision-making:

• Identify lessons learned from the experience of grantees in order to influence policy and practice at the local government, national, regional and global levels.
• Inform and strengthen the EU’s planning and programming by providing evidence-based knowledge on what works, why and in what context.

Final evaluations are summative exercises that are oriented to gather data and information to measure the extent to which development results have been attained. However, the utility of the evaluation process and products should go far beyond what was said by programme stakeholders during the field visit or what the evaluation team wrote in the evaluation report.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL CALL FOR EOIs

The deadline for submission is Monday, 28 February 2022

Proposals should be emailed to botsmanager@genderlinks.org.za

Queries? Gender Links Botswana Manager on botsmanager@genderlinks.org.za