Consultancy: Mapping of Advocacy Capacity Gaps for the You(th) Care project

General Information:

Services/Work Description: Regional Consultant to conduct a mapping of advocacy capacity gaps for the You(th) Care project partners in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia.

Duty Station: Anywhere in Southern Africa and East Africa

Duration: 10 days in total

Background:

The AIDS and Rights Alliance for southern Africa (ARASA) was established in 2002 to galvanise a regional partnership of progressive civil society actors working in 18 countries in southern and east Africa to advance a human rights-based response to HIV in the region.

Between 2019 and 2022, ARASA pledged to work to promote respect for and the protection of the rights to bodily autonomy and integrity for all in order to reduce inequality, especially gender inequality, and to promote health, dignity, and wellbeing in southern and east Africa.

ARASA with funding from Aidsfonds is providing technical assistance in capacity strengthening on advocacy to the partners of the you(th) care project, a project implemented in Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya.

Context:

The You(th) Care project will work to support adolescents and youth (aged 10 – 25), especially girls and other vulnerable adolescents, in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia to advocate for and practice self- care for their SRHR needs and to increase access to (digital) self-care services and commodities. SRHR self-care helps prevent unwanted pregnancy; reduce unsafe abortion; and combat sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV (and AIDS-related deaths); reproductive tract infections, cervical cancer and other gynaecological morbidities. When people participate actively in their healthcare, medication and treatment, adherence improves. When adolescents assess and manage their own care, they learn about their bodies and become more aware of their physical conditions. Worldwide, few advocacy programmes focus on fulfilling SRHR for adolescents through self-care. You(th) Care occupies a critical space in promoting SRHR for adolescents with (digital) self-care services led by adolescents themselves.

You(th) Care Objective

The overall objectives of the You (th) Care Project is to ensure that vulnerable adolescents and young people, especially girls (e.g. living with HIV, out of school and in remote and low -income urban settings) in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia benefit from a more supportive policy and community environment and a strengthened health system, enabling them to practice self-care to promote and maintain their SRHR, access family planning and prevent HIV and AIDS.

The You(th) Care project has two specific objectives;

  1. To encourage duty bearers and decision makers to improve, and implement laws and policies that respect, promote and realise adolescents’ SRHR and HIV self-care needs.
  2. Increase access to quality SRHR and HIV community and public services, including access to self-care services and commodities for adolescents and young people, specifically girls.

Background to the mapping of advocacy gaps

ARASA recognises the need to scale-up and sustain You(th) Care partner capacity for advocacy for rights-based approaches and holding policy makers accountable for the implementation of Sexual Reproductive Health Rights programmes including the respect for, and protection of, the rights to bodily autonomy and integrity of adolescent young girls and women.  To do this, there is a need to fully understand the context in which partners of the programme in the 3 countries find themselves, their challenges and specifically, capacity gaps in advocating for SRHR and self-care.

It is for this reason that ARASA intends to do a map of advocacy capacity gaps among the partners in the three project countries. The mapping will inform the technical assistance ARASA can offer to You(th) Care partners as well as the advocacy strategies developed by partners at country, regional and international levels.

Objectives of advocacy mapping

The mapping will help You(th) Care partners to: 

1. Develop an understanding of key advocacy challenges faced by You(th) Care partners

2. Inform the development of a self-care toolkit which will include a section on advocacy for self-care.

3. Inform the development of advocacy and campaign plans on self-care by partners in the 3 project countries as well as at regional and global level.

Target of the Assignment:

The mapping report will be used by ARASA to support You(th) Care partners in Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya. The mapping report will help ARASA to tailor trainings and capacity strengthening initiatives to support advocacy plans and implementation of advocacy initiatives in countries.

The country partners to consult include:

Youth-led and youth-focused national consortium partners:

  • Kenya
    • Ambassador for Youth and Adolescent Reproductive Health Programme (AYARHEP), Women Fighting AIDS in Kenya (WOFAK) and Network for Adolescent and Youth of Africa (NAYA)
  • Tanzania
    • Children Dignity Forum (CDF) and the Network of Young People Living with HIV and AIDS in Tanzania (NYP+)
  • Zambia
    • Copper Rose and Zambia Network of Young People Living with HIV (ZYNP+)

Deliverables:

  • An inception report for the assignment with tools
  • A report on advocacy capacity gaps among You(th) partners in Tanzania, Zambia and Kenya.

Timelines:

The consultancy should be completed within a maximum of 10 days between 25 May – 15 June 2022.

Requirements:

  • In depth understanding of human rights, health programming with a focus on the rights to bodily autonomy and integrity and SRHR;
  • Experience with civil society advocacy and campaigning at global, regional, national and/or community levels, preferably on sexual orientation and gender identity issues;
  • Experience in manual/toolkit development, research and advocacy at a regional level;
  • Excellent written English and ability to write clearly and concisely;
  • Ability to work independently and produce high quality outputs in a timely manner;
  • Minimum of 8 years’ experience with similar assignments or post graduate training in law, public health, humanities, communication, social sciences or any other relevant subject.

Institutional Arrangements/Reporting Relationships

The consultant shall work with several members of the ARASA team although reporting and correspondence will be with Bruce Tushabe (bruce@arasa.info)

To Apply:

Please send an expression of interest that includes the consultant’s daily rate and date of availability, as well as a Curriculum Vitae (of no more the 3 pages which shows experience with similar work) and a cover letter to bruce@arasa.info as well as  nyasha@arasa.info

Subject line to read: “Expression of interest:  Consultancy to conduct advocacy gaps mapping”

The closing date for the submission of expressions of interest is Wednesday, 17 May 2022.