Expression of Interest for Gender Equality Assessment - Building Leadership, Opportunities and Options for Marginalized Women and Girls in East Africa (Bloom Africa) Project. Closing Date: 7 Jul 2025 Type: Consultancy Background Program Summary: BLOOM Africa is a 5-year, gender transformative, women-focused, human rights-based initiative that seeks to improve the economic empowerment of marginalized adolescent girls and young women aged 15-24 in enabling them to enjoy dignified, gender transformative work. This major initiative is focused on the achievement of three distinct yet interrelated intermediate outcomes: 1) enhanced enabling environment for marginalized young women and girls participation in and benefit from skills learning and employment opportunities., 2) enhanced utilization of financial and business development services by marginalized young women and girls and 3) increased equitable access to TVET institutions and employment enablers by marginalized young women and girls. The Project is expected to directly benefit 25,200 young people (15,120 women and 10,080 men) and indirectly benefit 273,200 people (151,860 women and 121,340 men) in the three countries. The Project is adopting a gender transformative approach and prioritize the meaningful participation and leadership of adolescent girls, young women, people with disabilities as both direct and indirect participants. Rapid Gender Analysis (RGA) conducted At the proposal design, gender assessments were carried out in target areas of each country through a combination of rapid gender assessments and review of secondary data. The RGA included FGDs with young women and men and Key informant interviews with government officials and TVET staff. Review of reports from Youth Ready and GAC-Funded AHADI as well as secondary data contributed to the analysis. The RGA demonstrated that Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) face limited access to employment opportunities, vocational training and decision-making processes which restricts their ability to pursue their economic aspirations and development. More revealing was the intersectional vulnerabilities experienced by AGYW particularly girls with disabilities due to existing negative stereotypes which puts them at a greater risk of violence especially sexual and gender-based violence. It further creates a barrier in access to educational and economic opportunities as institutions are not equipped to support their unique needs. In Somaliland, the assessment revealed that gender dynamics and power relationships are deeply influenced by traditional and patriarchal norms. Men hold most power in public and private spheres in political, economic, and social structures in leadership roles with women underrepresented in decision-making. Traditional gender roles enforced for women and girls to adhere to domestic responsibilities act as barriers to accessing education, healthcare and employment. The percentage of female survey respondents who received no education or have attended only Quranic school is nearly 51% compared to 26% of men. Girls access to education is widely seen as linked to their future reproductive role. Youth opt for vocational training programs in line with gender stereotypes strongly limiting womens options to learn a trade or non-traditional job. Pervasive gender norms influence which training and trade is deemed appropriate for young men, such as any physical craft, and which for YW (e.g. cooking, tailoring and henna art), which further limits womens options to enter the labor market. Objectives of the Gender Equality Assessment (GEA) The GEAs specific objective seeks to examine the power dynamics, barriers and root causes of gender and intersectional inequalities and other social factors and their impact on womens vulnerabilities, resilience and capacities around challenges/issues caused by lack of economic empowerment of marginalized young adolescent girls and women in Somaliland. Moreover, the findings will be used by the Projects staff and partners to inform all project interventions so that they can be implemented in ways that are empowering to project participants, especially women and girls. The GEA results will also ensure that the project will effectively respond to women and girls specific needs and realities and contribute to increasing their economic empowerment. Based on WVCs GEEHR framework, the GEA will focus on three key themes/domains related to women and girls: 1) agency and decision-making power over social and economic aspects that affect their lives (Agency & Empowerment; and Social Norms, Beliefs and Practices); 2) participation in systems concerning their economic empowerment (Human Rights in Systems; & Intersectional Influences); and 3) access and control over diverse, safe livelihoods and accruing benefits (Human Rights in Systems; and Social Norms, Beliefs and Practices; & Agency & Empowerment). The GA will identify contextual information that will examine gender inequalities, gender dynamics, barriers and root causes, other social factors, and the impact on the economic empowerment, of adolescent girls and young women in the BLOOM-Africa Project areas. More specifically, the GEA will examine the following issues: Agency and decision-making power of women and girls, especially in relation to social and economic aspects that affect their lives; Access to and opportunities to enroll and continue in TVET programmes Capacities of TVET institutions to provide gender responsive and disability inclusive TVET Programmes Access to and control over productive resources (e.g., land, labor, capital, technology, information) and assets by women and men; Intersectional analysis of vulnerability and marginalization of various stakeholders particularly; Woman and girls, persons with disabilities, Survivors of SGBV etc. Economic constraints and opportunities to participate in in employment and entrepreneurship, as well as safe and diverse livelihood options Socio-cultural norms, beliefs and practices (including harmful socio-cultural practices) that impact the economic empowerment and well-being of women and girls, and men and boys; Participation of women and female youth in savings groups and cooperatives; Women and mens access to safe/diversified livelihood and financial and non-financial services. Access of young women, particularly entrepreneurs, to childcare and other social services (available, affordable, acceptable); understanding unpaid care burdens of women; Knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding the gender equality of diverse groups of women/girls and men/boys Power dynamics at the household and community levels (examining decision-making and participation), identifying key influencers in the community regarding the economic empowerment of adolescent girls and young women Distribution of resources at the household level (access to and control over); Roles and responsibilities of diverse groups of women, men, girls and boys (gender division of labor); Cultural norms and beliefs including religious taboos, myths and practices, around economic empowerment and SGBV of diverse groups of young women, adolescent girls and children; and Gender equality and Human Rights advocates/supporters and opponents (enabling environment) including stakeholders mapping and analysis. Formal and informal systems implicated in the upholding Gender equality and access barriers and opportunities, including the legal and policy environment (existence of laws/policies as well as level of implementation), existing protection and safeguarding systems, social protection services available to survivors of SGBV, reporting mechanisms in schools, and community-based protection mechanisms. Sexual and Gender-based violence (prevalence, reporting systems, and community mechanisms/capacity to address the problem); The findings from the GEA will inform all interventions to ensure programming is responsive to the contextual practical and strategic gender needs of project participants. The project will work to redress existing gender gaps and address pervasive gender and intersectional inequalities. Womens Economic Empowerment Approach to Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (Womens Economic Empowerment MEAL) The GEA will conform to GACs Gender Equality (GE) Policy and Women Economic Empowerment International Assistance Policies. The GEA will be grounded in BLOOMs Women Economic Empowerment MEAL approach, ensuring the research process is empowering for women and girls. A Women Economic Empowerment approach: Prioritizes women and girls voices in the process and outcomes, and emphasizes their ownership through co-design and co-management Meaningfully includes women and girls in the design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation of results, and in the generation of recommendations and actions going forward Evaluates the status and change of power dynamics between men and women/boys and girls through complex concepts like agency, choice, and empowerment Uses a robust mixed-methods approach with both quantitative (what changed) and qualitative (why it changed) approaches Qualitative and less formal or structured methodologies: more participatory; more likely to acknowledge and challenge the power dynamic between data collector and subject; more effective at capturing individual and subjective experiences Should be empowering, not extractive Methodology Based on the approved ToR for the conduct of GEA, BLOOM will recruit a consultant who will lead and be responsible for preparing a detailed research plan, training of facilitators and note-takers, conducting the GEA/implementing the approved research design/plan including data collection, analysis and report writing, in close collaboration with the Projects Program Manager (PM), GTS and M&E Specialist. Using the relevant project and other doc Tender Link : https://reliefweb.int/job/4162025/eoigender-equality-assessment-building-leadership-opportunities-and-options-marginalized-women-and-girls-east-africa-bloom-africa-project
