Consultancy: Develop a self-care tool kit for the Youth
Services/Work Description: Regional Consultant to develop a self-care tool kit for the Youth.
Duty Station: Anywhere in Southern Africa and East Africa
Duration: 20 days in total
Background
Established in 2002, the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) is a regional partnership of civil society organisations working together in 18 countries in southern and east Africa to promote the rights to bodily autonomy and integrity in order to reduce inequality, especially gender inequality and promote health dignity and wellbeing in southern and east Africa. The Regional office of ARASA is in Windhoek, Namibia.
ARASA through Aidsfonds is providing technical assistance in capacity strengthening and advocacy to the partners of the You(th) Care project, a project implemented in Zambia, Tanzania, and Kenya.
Context:
You(th) Care (2022-2025) enables 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 can 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 project 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;
- 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.
- 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.
Rationale for the development of self-care toolkit
Increasing self-care has never been more relevant than now, as health systems around the world are overwhelmed by COVID-19. Growing adolescent self-care frees up health workers to focus on conditions that require medical intervention, reducing pressure especially in low resource settings, approach to achieve universal health coverage for SRHR, reduce unwanted teen pregnancies and adolescent birth rate (SDG 3.7.2), decrease adolescent HIV infections, increase adolescents living with HIV on treatment and realise a world without AIDS by 2030 (SDG 3.3).
In southern and east Africa, adolescents, and young people (10-24 years) represent 33% of the population, which will likely double by 2050. Of the 23% (12.1 million) vulnerable adolescents’ girls aged 15-19 in Sub-Saharan Africa have a need for modern contraception, 62% have unmet need.
Given the immensely challenging environment described above, ARASA recognises the need to develop a standard self-care toolkit for the You(th) Care partners as part of the training manual and guide for partners to embracing self-care holistically as they implement their work. The self-care tool kit will strengthen partner’s 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 develop a self-care module/toolkit to assist partners in their advocacy work.
Objectives of Self-care Toolkit
The toolkit will help You(th) Care partners at regional, national and community levels to:
- Strengthen their understanding of the self-care principles, self-care coping strategies and evidence-informed and rights-based responses needed to protect the rights to bodily autonomy and integrity, and to address key SRHR challenges facing youth in the 3 countries and the region.
- Develop advocacy and campaign plans (to identify key messages, strategic partners, allies, targets, and tools) for their advocacy for the respect for and protection of the rights to bodily autonomy and integrity for youth in the context of SRHR.
Terms of Reference of the Assignment
ARASA will facilitate the development of a self-care tool kit for partners of the You(th) Care project in Kenya, Zambia, and Tanzania as well as support advocacy for adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) using the self-care guidance of the World Health Organisation and the bodily autonomy and integrity framing of ARASA’s regional “Every Body Counts” campaign.
While the ARASA staff will support the consultancy as appropriate, the consultant(s) will be expected to make use of their own resources to complete the task.
Target of the Assignment
The self-care toolkit will be used by adolescents and young people in the region, including You(th) Care partners in Zambia, Tanzania, and Kenya to train the community and other duty bearers including community advocates and caregivers, at supporting advocacy on health rights and sexual and reproductive rights with a particular focus on youths as well as a resource material for ARASA for the training initiatives.
Deliverables:
A high-quality, user-friendly self-care toolkit aimed at strengthening the capacity of You(th) Care project partners to advocate for the promotion and protection of the rights to bodily autonomy and integrity for youth, with a focus on access to SRHR and HIV services. The deliverables will include:
- An inception report for the assignment with tools
- A user-friendly self-care toolkit
The consultancy should be completed within a maximum of 20 days between 30 August – 27 September 2022.
Requirements:
- In depth understanding of human rights, self-care, 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 public health, humanities, communication, social sciences, or any other relevant training.
Institutional Arrangements/Reporting Relationships
The consultant shall work with members of the ARASA team although reporting and correspondence will be with Bruce Tushabe
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 and copy nyasha@arasa.info
Subject line to read: “Expression of interest: Consultancy to develop self-care toolkit”
The closing date for the submission of expressions of interest is Monday, 22 August 2022.