Terms of Reference Consultancy to conduct Consultant to Map progress towards and challenges related to the implementation of KP-specific commitments at the SADC level
GENERAL INFORMATION
Services/Work Description: Senior Consultant(s) to Map progress towards and challenges related to the implementation of KP-specific commitments at the SADC level.
Duty Station: Anywhere in Southern Africa
Duration: 10 days in total
BACKGROUND
The AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) was established 20 years ago 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.
Since then, ARASA has been widely recognised in the region and internationally as a champion of health-related rights; a civil society convener; a strategic influencer of laws and policies; and a health and human rights expert with a principled and uncompromising stance. ARASA has successfully raised and increased the visibility of key, and often contentious, human rights issues such as the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women, sex workers, transgender people, LGBTQ+ person, and people who use drugs. This has contributed significantly to enhanced efforts by governmental and regional bodies to mainstream human rights in HIV, TB and SRHR policies and programming and has contributed to the removal of legal and policy barriers in several countries in the region.
Since 2019, as part of its strategic focus, ARASA aims to promote respect for and the protection of the rights to bodily autonomy and integrity for all to reduce inequality, especially gender inequality, and to promote health, dignity, and well-being in southern and east Africa.
CONTEXT
Since the 2016 Political Declaration, ARASA has worked tirelessly to hold SADC Member States accountable for their high-level commitments. In 2017, ARASA launched the Missing Piece of the Puzzle campaign highlighting the need to scale up interventions to eliminate structural barriers to HIV prevention, particularly with SADC structures. Discussions about the legal environment for HIV service delivery have been progressive and ground-breaking given that several SADC countries were moving in the opposite direction with increasingly punitive measures towards KPs.
To improve reporting on KP-related issues and the ensuing discussion on progress in addressing KPs’ needs, it is essential that engagement continues between CSOs, as has happened with the HIV prevention scorecards and the SRHR scorecards. There is a need to renew dialogue at the SADC level, including with the SADC National AIDS council Directors, SRHR Managers, Ministers of
Health and Parliamentary Forum (PF) and secretariat, about how to operationalise and implement HIV/SRHR standards and measure progress. To facilitate this in a sustainable way, it is important that such work considers the need to ground regional advocacy in national contexts; national and local KP activists and organisations are best placed to represent their communities and the specific issues that they are facing.
ARASA is implementing a regional advocacy programme under the Love Alliance, focusing on regional advocacy, particularly SADC and the African Union structures, for the period September 2022 to December 2023. This project aims to provide activists and organisations with the knowledge and capacity that will allow them to strengthen their advocacy at both national and regional levels: at the national level through utilising regional instruments in their engagement with diverse stakeholders and decision-makers, and at the regional level through ensuring increased visibility, KP leadership, and engagement.
This programme aims to:
- • Increase and strengthen the advocacy of People who Use Drugs (PWUD), Sex Workers, and LGBTIQ+ -led organisations in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa, focused utilisation of regional policies and commitments on SRHR and HIV for advocacy and accountability, in the context of regional structures, in Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe;
- • Increase KP visibility and inclusion in ongoing policy discussions at the regional level through sustainable engagement between PWUD, Sex Workers, and LGBTIQ+ -led organisations and SADC (including the SADC PF and the SADC secretariat) and AU (such as African Commission on Human and People’s Rights) structures; and
- • Strengthen commitment and understanding of key regional stakeholders, such as UNFPA, UNAIDS, UNDP and others to the SRHR and removal of structural barriers to HIV prevention for KPs in the SADC region.
To do this, ARASA aims to Map progress towards and challenges related to the implementation of KP-specific commitments at SADC level (SADC Parliamentary Forum Minimum Standards for the Protection of the SRH of KPs In the Region, SADC Regional Strategy for HIV Prevention, Treatment and Care and SRHR among KPs, and the SADC Strategy for SRHR in the SADC Region 2019 – 2030), among others. The resulting report will be used as a basis for the development of capacity building tools for key population organisations in the region, as well as to guide regional advocacy at SADC level.
SCOPE, AND DELIVERABLES
The consultant(s) will conduct the mapping through a diverse methodology consisting of
desktop review, augmented by an online survey and key informant interviews with CSOs in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, National Implementers, and SADC officials (English, Portuguese).
The consultant(s) will provide a first draft for review by the ARASA team, before providing a final draft to be submitted for approval. 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.
Upon completion of the report, in the first quarter of 2023, ARASA will Convene a validation webinar of the resulting mapping report where the consultant(s) will present the outcomes to a broader audience and initiate a broader discussion on the key challenges identified with the report.
TIMEFRAME
The consultancy should be completed within a maximum of 10 days between 1 February 2023 – 15 March 2023. Additional time is allocated for the ARASA team to review drafts.
REQUIREMENTS
● In-depth understanding of human rights and SRHR, with a focus on LGBTIQ+, People who use drugs, and sex worker communities and issues in the SADC region.
● In-depth knowledge and experience with the different SADC structures and diverse policy documents related to HIV, SRHR, key populations broadly, LGBTIQ+, People who use drugs, and sex workers specifically
● Excellent written English and ability to write clearly and concisely;
● Ability to conduct key informant interviews with Portuguese-speaking informants, either directly or through interpretation (the latter to be included in the costing of the proposal)
● 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 ARRANGEMENT / REPORTING RELATIONSHIPS
The consultant shall work with several members of the ARASA Team although reporting and correspondence will be with HeJin Kim, Regional Key Populations Officer at ARASA.
TO APPLY
Please send a proposal 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 recruitment@arasa.info. You are welcome to attach or link to relevant work done. Proposals should include an overview of all expenses, including interpretation for interviews, needed. joint proposals will be considered as well.
Kindly put “Expression of interest: Consultancy to Conduct Map progress towards and challenges related to the implementation of KP-specific commitments at SADC level” in the email subject line.
The closing date for the submission of expressions of interest is 15 January 2023.