Introduction

The Girls Advocacy Alliance (GAA) is a joint initiative of Plan Nederland, Terre des Hommes Netherlands and Defence for Children - ECPAT Netherlands. The GAA is led by Plan Nederland and is implemented in strategic partnership with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the Dialogue and Dissent framework (2016-2020). In the Africa Regional Programme, the Girls Advocacy Alliance consists of Plan International, Terre des Hommes, Defence for Children – Sierra Leone and ECPAT International. GAA Regional Africa Programme also has FAWE- RS and EACH Rights as regional partners, and 5 sub-regional CSOs with presence in GAA countries.

The regional programme aims to influence regional governance bodies in Africa (African Union and Regional Economic Communities) and is complementary to the GAA influencing in the six African countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone). The project also aims at capacitating girls and young women in Africa and their civil society organizations to use regional monitoring and accountability mechanisms to hold their governments accountable on the fulfilment of their protection and rights.

Rationale of the learning publication

In the Girls Advocacy Alliance learning is an integral element of the alliance planning, monitoring and evaluation processes. The learning agenda is built upon the core assumptions underlying the GAA Theory of Change. Through continuous learning about the relevance and validity of these core assumptions, the GAA learning agenda helps to ensure that our understanding of the pathways of change remains relevant, clear and useful; and we continuously adjust and improve our strategies and actions in accordance to the generated learning.

In the Girls Advocacy Alliance Outline Programme Document ‘Advocating for Girls’ Rights. Equal rights and opportunities for girls and young women’ (August 2015) identified 10 core assumptions pertaining to the GAA Theory of Change. These 10 assumptions can be clustered in three main issues: as the importance of social norms change for eliminating GBV and economic exclusion; the role of a strong civil society in ensuring policy and practice change for gender equality and the connectedness of gender based violence and economic exclusion. 

Learning in the context of the GAA is not limited to research or documenting information, or to a particular stage in the PME cycle. The alliance aims to firmly embed learning in its regular planning, monitoring and evaluation cycle. The Outcome Harvesting process during the Annual Monitoring meeting of the Alliance Programme Teams sets the stage for addressing the learning agenda questions.

Learning also includes continuous reflection on what works, the creation of a ‘learning culture’ to promote exchange, and the introduction of new tools that facilitate learning, e.g. Basecamp. Learning is addressed in every meeting. The focus of learning activities lies at the level of the joint programme components.

Alliance Programme Team organisations and partner CSOs use a variety of learning methods and actions to collect, analyse and value information on the key learning questions. These include expert meetings, research, literature review, Outcome Harvesting sessions, Alliance Programme Team (monitoring and planning) meetings, interim programme reviews, reflections and exchanges with partner CSOs and other expert organisations, as well as meetings and surveys with girl panels.

Each Alliance Programme Team develops a learning calendar that indicates how the identified learning issues and related questions will be addressed. Findings and progress of all learning activities undertaken will be discussed at least once a year by each Alliance Programme Team. Alliance Programme Teams report on a yearly basis to the alliance desk on the progress of the learning agenda and its findings. Strong and valid learning results has been translated into adjustments in programming during the past annual planning exercises. 

Objectives:

As it is mentioned above in the rationale of the learning aspect in the GAA program as a whole the overall objective of the production of the learning publication of the GAA Africa program is to document and clearly indicate and focus on our learnings/lessons learnt as a result of the five years program as Africa Regional Program and the 6 GAA Africa country programmes (Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia) and how are GAA national and regional influencing processes linked? How effective CSOs develop as a result of the learnings? In addition to documenting lessons learned, the publication will also be used as an input for future program design and learning such as for the upcoming She Leads Program. The specific objectives of the learning publication will be as follows:

Specific Objective of the learning publication:

1. To produce a creative publication with the very significant learnings on how are GAA national and regional influencing processes linked within the alliance operations in Africa. This will be based on the successes, mistakes, challenges and failures across the project countries as well as the regional program as a learning for the future engagement.
2. To present compelling stories of change as well as stories of advocacy targets within the GAA across the project countries as well as the regional program working with Member States, the AUC,RECs and African CSOs
3. How effective CSOs develop in influencing and advocacy as one of our core learning for the future development of different advocacy initiatives.

 Expected Outcomes:

We expect from the publication of the learning document:

1. A summarized and well organized learning document for the last four years and nine months produced and availed for use on how are GAA national and regional influencing processes linked and how effective CSOs develop in influencing and advocacy. Designed, copy edited and ready for publication both in soft copy and hard copy.
2. A 5-10 minutes video that shows the lessons learned/key learnings including successes, failures and challenges as per the GAA learning questions in a creative manner, based mostly on available footages
3. Separate learning publication/designed copy of 2 stories of change for each program component
4. Real time interview and story of changes as well as stories of advocacy targets (successes, failures, mistakes and learnings) produced and included in a leaflet format for easy dissemination
5. Presentation of the documentation on a learning publication dissemination workshop organized with the presence of all the alliance organization, implementing partners as well as the program committee from the Netherlands.

Scope and Methodology

The learning publication provides analysis and compilation of the learnings that has been accumulated and harvested for the last four years and nine months throughout the GAA program implementation period within and among the alliance organization as well as the partner organization and implementing CSOs. The publication will make use of qualitative and quantitative tools and methodologies to gather and analyse data. In addition the documentation will follow a personal interest story approach. In addition, the consultant will also conduct field visits to selected GAA implementing countries. Considering the situation we are in the COVID 19 context, most of the learning publication will also use the existing footage of experiences and learnings that are already documented and have it in our recordings.

The consultant will be responsible for designing tools necessary for the task and share this with the project manager for review and approval before undertaking the assignment. 

Deliverables

The following deliverables are expected from the consultant;

1. An inception report detailing major components of the learning publication ; detailed work plan, highlighting operational methodology, data gathering and data analysis instruments attached to the inception report;
2. A designed, copy edited learning publication on the Girls Advocacy Alliance Programmes in Africa both in hard and soft copy, A 5-10 minutes video that shows the stories of change in a creative manner.
3. Separate learning publication/designed copy of 2 stories of change for each program component (7 program components) in a leaflet format for easy dissemination
4. The consultant will be responsible for timely delivery of the reports as per the deadline 

Timeframe

The learning publication is expected to take place from September 15, 2020 to October 31^st, 2020. The consultant shall submit the inception report within [two days upon signing the agreement. The final report of the learning publication and all the expected deliverables must be finalized and submitted by 5^th of November, 2020.

Budget Indication

The consultant should indicate the estimated budget including:

• Consultancy Fees;
• Any other relevant cost related to and required for the proper conducting of the learning publication as per all the objectives and requirements detailed in the ToR.
• Note, Plan International AULO legally required to deduct withholding tax from the total fee of the consultant, this tax is part of the consultancy fee, and therefore it can’t be considered as additional cost.

Required Competencies

The consultant must have undertaken similar works and must have the following competencies;

• An advanced university degree in communications, journalism, multimedia production and experience in stories for transformation change
• Track record on conducting documentation, learning publication, video production
• Proven experience with qualitative and quantitative methodology.
• In-depth understanding of gender, girls rights advocacy and child rights context in Africa;
• Experience in facilitating and documenting/publishing social development best practices (case stories) for development organisations
• Experience working with virtual teams
• Excellent English communication skills
• Expertise on Experience with child friendly and gender-sensitive approaches;
• Fluency in spoken and written English;
• Excellent conceptual and analytical skills;
• Conduct her/himself in an ethical manner at all times.