Gender Analysis Consultant – CGPP at International Medical Corps

International Medical Corps is a global, humanitarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development programs. Established in 1984 by volunteer doctors and Nurses, International Medical Corps is a private, voluntary, nonpolitical, nonsectarian organization. Its mission is to improve the quality of life through health interventions and related activities that build local capacity in underserved communities worldwide. By offering training and health care to local populations and medical assistance to people at the highest risk, and with the flexibility to respond rapidly to emergency situations, International Medical Corps rehabilitates devastated health care systems and helps bring them back to self-reliance.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Expression of Interest (EOI) for Gender Analysis Consultant – CORE Group Partners Project (CGPP)

Locations: Abuja (FCT) and Maiduguri, Borno
Contract Duration: 14 days

Essential Job Duties / Scope of Work
(Essential functions, quality/quantity expected list of marginal duties and number of national/and or expat staff supervised):

• The purpose of this General Call for Expression of Interest is to engage a Consultant to conduct a Gender Analysis of the CGPP country program. The eligible consultant are invited to submit proposals for partnership highlighting their relevant capacities, expertise, skills and ability to support the delivery of sought results for Gender Analysis as outlined below
• CORE Group Partners Project (CGPP) is a 10-year activity (2014 – 2024) that aims to contribute to Polio eradication by increasing population immunity and enhancing surveillance for Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP). The well-established Secretariat model supports the project to collaborate in a unified manner with relevant ministries, international, and local stakeholders in Nigeria. Central to the Secretariat model is an in-country secretariat – a small team of neutral technical personnel, independent from anyone implementing partner.
• CGPP activities focus on the 4 pillars of polio eradication:
  • Routine Immunization
  • Supplementary Immunization
  • Surveillance, and
  • Targeted “mop-up” Campaigns.
• CGPP works with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partners to implement the End Game Strategy that has four components:
  • Polio virus detection and interruption
  • Routine Immunization strengthening and Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) withdrawal
  • Containment and Certification, and
  • Legacy Planning.
• Specifically, CGPP works to detect the virus through surveillance and to interrupt it through National and State Immunization Plus Days (NIPDS and SIPDs), outbreak response (OBR) campaigns, and routine immunization.
• CGPP is increasingly working on certification activities and legacy and transition plans, including inventories of polio assets, plans to integrate various polio functions and staff into continuing government programs and departments once the polio program is no longer needed.

Project Goal:

• The overall project goal is to contribute to polio eradication by increasing population immunity and enhancing surveillance for Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP).

Intermediary Result 1:

• Increased Percentage of Children, under-five years of age fully protected by Routine Child Immunizations.
• Routine Immunization (RI) is a critical factor in preventing under-five children from vaccine-preventable diseases including Poliomyelitis. Women play a critical role in ensuring eligible children are taken to the health facilities (HF), RI Fixed Post or are allowed to take the vaccine at home during RI outreaches.
• To get women to go to the HF for RI, they need to be informed on the benefits of immunization so they can overcome the myths and misconceptions inherent in the societies in which they live.
• In addition, the men who are often the decision makers in the family also need to be informed and their behaviour changed such that they empower women with the ability to make decisions that affect their health and that of their children.
• Volunteer community mobilizers (VCM) that go house-to-house to deliver convergent messaging will play a significant role in raising the awareness of the men, mothers and caregivers on the benefits of vaccination.
• The Male Peer Educators will play a significant role in ensuring their male counterparts are sensitized and mobilized to take action in empowering women to seek for their own care and that of their children.

Intermediary Result 2:

• Increased OPV coverage among children less than one year of age.
• Increasing OPV coverage amongst children less than one year of age requires intensive social mobilization and behaviour change communication that ensures the decision makers at the community-level as well as every household head and caregiver understand the benefits of the vaccine.
• VCMs have a critical role to carry out the House-to-house awareness raising, sensitization and community engagement of religious and traditional leaders that ensures buy-in to the program with resultant increase in vaccine uptake.

Intermediary Result 3:

• Increased number of AFP cases identified within 14 days of onset with 2 stool samples 24 hours apart.
• Community-based Surveillance (CBS) is CGPP’s main approach to ensuring that suspected cases of Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) and Priority Zoonotic Diseases (PZDs) are detected.
• CGPP Volunteer Community Mobilizers and Community Informants (CIs) have had extensive capacity building in Surveillance and are able to detect AFPs and PZDs at the community level through House-to-house visits and Active Case search.
• Most CGPP volunteers are female who are trained and work closely with their male counterparts in case identification reporting and interventions to nip potential outbreaks in the bud.

Background on Gender Considerations for CGPP:

• There is no significant gender gap in the percentage of males and females vaccinated against polio in Nigeria. In 2017, 96.41% of females and 96.36% of males were vaccinated.
• Although there are no major differences in vaccination rates, polio programming should integrate gender and inclusion considerations as related to risk factors and vulnerabilities, health knowledge, access to and decision-making related to healthcare, experience in healthcare settings, and participation in eradication efforts.
• A brief review of literature on gender and vaccination in Nigeria identified considerations that need to be further explored through gender analysis.
• A study of missed children in routine polio vaccination did not find significant differences between boys and girls vaccinated. However, communities with high maternal illiteracy rates had higher rates of children who were not vaccinated for polio. Children of mothers who were less educated, unemployed, and in poorer households were less likely to be vaccinated. Lack of knowledge is the most common reason for non-vaccination given by women.
• Of mothers who have never vaccinated their children, 66% reported reasons related to lack of knowledge. There are also misconceptions about vaccination and trust in vaccination safety is a barrier; 14% of mothers surveyed in northern Nigeria believed vaccination may cause infertility. Another barrier to vaccination is spousal permission. Women cited lack of permission from their husbands to immunize their children as a reason for non-vaccination (37% of mothers in Zamfara state, 32% of mothers in Borno state.)
• Access to vaccination sites can be a barrier to accessing vaccinations. In a study of three states in Nigeria and the Federal Territory, lack of financial resources to cover transportation or services was the most commonly reported barrier. Women also reported not having a person to accompany them as a barrier.
•  A study in Borno state found that mothers living eight to 10km away from an immunization facility were least likely to immunize their children. Literature indicates door-to-door immunization activities improve rates.
• Reports from CGPP interventions in Yobe state, North-east Nigeria, underscored the importance of understanding the motivations and time use for males’ involvement in polio vaccination interventions.
• There was a clear linkage between religious beliefs, religious leaders’ affirmation of the polio intervention and the willingness of men to renege on vaccination non-compliance.
• Women have played a critical role as vaccinators, however, are less represented in surveillance activities. The WHO notes two reasons for why involving more women in surveillance activities would improve vaccine uptake: (1) women are more often taking care of children and are more likely to detect cases of acute flaccid paralysis given their role in the household; (2) women are better positioned to gather historical data and improve stool/blood adequacy, given cultural and religious norms.
• By conducting a gender analysis, GCPP aims to (1) address gender and inclusion-related barriers to polio vaccination coverage, and (2) increase women’s meaningful participation and leadership in polio eradication efforts.

Purpose of the Gender Analysis:

• The purpose of this gender analysis is to inform the integration of gender equality considerations in CORE Group Partners Project (CGPP) design, planning, implementation, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning. Per USAID Automated Directives System (ADS) 205, USAID implementing partners are responsible for integrating gender in programming. When a gender analysis is completed early on in the activity, its findings can inform strategic decisions about each program component.

This gender analysis will examine key gender dynamics that will influence and inform the CGPP activities and how gender is integrated throughout the life of the project. The gender analysis will:

• Identify how gender inequalities and constraints could impede the program’s goals and how to address the root causes of those inequalities.
• Examine anticipated levels of and possible barriers to the participation of men and women and how they may benefit from the program.
• Identify how the program might affect men and women differently, including unintended or negative consequences.
• Identify ways the program can narrow gender gaps, address inequalities, and/or empower women and girls in the specific activities and areas of the program.

The goal of the gender analysis is to result in practical recommendations for how to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment across the program. Based on the gender analysis, CGPP will develop a gender integration strategy with recommendations that consider:

• The program’s design, such as specific gender and inclusion related objectives, strategies to incorporate within the program’s workplan to overcome gender and inclusion challenges, and potential new or adjusted activities.
• The monitoring, evaluation, and learning plan, such as adding/modifying indicators and identifying gender and inclusion related learning questions.
• Staffing and HR approaches, such as hiring and workforce practices, components of job descriptions, and required competencies for staff.

Analytical Framework for the Gender Analysis:
Gender Analysis Domains: The analysis will gather data to examine gender dynamics across the five gender analysis domains, per USAID ADS 205:

• Laws, Policies, Regulations, and Institutional Practices
• Cultural Norms and Beliefs
• Gender Roles, Responsibilities, and Time Use:
• Access to and Control over Assets and Resources
• Patterns of Power and Decision-making
• Gender Analysis Questions per Intermediary Result (IR): CGPP will refine key analysis questions to be examined in consideration of activities planned under each IR and findings of desk reviews. Possible questions include but not limited to:

Intermediary Result 1:

• What resources do women and men in projectcommunities need to ensure that their child is immunized?
• Who has access to and control over these resources?

Intermediary Result 2:

• How do gender-related beliefs and practices in projectcommunities impact polio service acceptance and use?
• What gender-responsive platforms and leadership structures are available and can be used for galvanizing support for OPV?

Focus Areas of Analysis: The gender analysis will consider how characteristics like age, education, and geographic location affect how participants and beneficiaries interact with the CGPP.

• Geographic Focus. CGPP works in two different geographical locations, Northwest and Northeast Nigeria. The Gender Analysis will be done in the two Geographical zones by selecting one state each from each geographic location. This is to ensure that the information from both contexts is harvested to enrich the findings. For the purpose of getting information from across the two zones, Borno in the Northeast and Katsina in the Northwest will be selected for the Gender Analysis.
• Intersectional Variables and/or Key Groups. The analysis will focus on open and closed groups for maximal comparison and context analysis. For example, it will look at women at home with no source of income (closed group) and women with a source of income (open group). It will also consider variables such as age, level of education, language, religious affiliation, class, ethnicity, nationality, and disability status.

Methodology
The analysis will utilize a mixed-method approach. Quantitative and/or Qualitative data will be accessed and analysed through:

• A desk review of relevant national and state reports/studies: Information from the Health Sector Gender Analysis will be used to enrich the analysis. Research questions may be refined based on the findings of the desk review.
• Sampling and data collection: To bridge the information gap from desk review, the analysis will involve primary data collection at various levels using various data collection techniques including:
  • Household level: The study population will be reached through Questionnaire deployment and semi-structured interviews
  • Community level: The study population will be reached through key informant interviews and focus groups
  • Institutional level: The study population will be reached through key informant interviews,
• Design and pre-test of primary data collection tools, collection of data and analysis of data
• Draft gender analysis report.
• CGPP will conduct internal presentation of findings to staff/partners/stakeholders to validate findings and brainstorm recommendations for how to improve gender integration in the project.
• Finalize gender analysis report and strategy.

Task & Deliverables:

• The consultant will lead the gender analysis process supported by the gender point of contact (POC) for CGPP. Other project staff at HQ and State levels will also be involved in tools development and data collection to strengthen in-house capacity for identifying gender issues in project.

The consultant will:

• Develop a proposal to conduct the gender analysis, outlining the consultants understanding of the task, proposed methodology, and work plan.
• Desk Review – Review relevant reports/studies that provide answers to gender analysis questions and identify information gaps not covered by secondary data.
• Finalize sampling strategy and data collection plan
• Develop data collection tools and pre-test them
• Train staff/data collectors
• Lead the data collection and make available electronic copy of raw data including list of persons contacted and assessment participants.
• Conduct gender analysis and submit draft report (Soft copy)
• Prepare slides and facilitate validation meeting (s)
• Facilitate the development of the gender action plan with CGPP team.
• Finalize and submit the gender analysis report.

Qualifications and Experience

• Graduate Degree in Development Studies, Gender Studies or relevant social sciences field.
• A minimum of five years’ experience in project/program design and strategy development.
• Specific experience and expertise in gender analysis and strategy development.
• Demonstrated experience working on gender issues in the northern Nigeria.
• Experience of working in health projects is desirable.
• Understanding and experience of USAID’s approach to gender equality and inclusion
• Excellent communication skills and well-developed interpersonal skills.
• Excellent computer literacy skills (Word, PowerPoint and Excel)

Level of Effort

• The Consultant is expected to conduct the assignment during the period for a total of 14 days.

Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse:

• Actively promote PSEA (Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse) standards within International Medical Corps and amongst beneficiaries served by International Medical Corps.

Compliance & Ethics:

• Promotes and encourages a culture of compliance and ethics throughout International Medical Corps. As applicable to the position, maintains a clear understanding of International Medical Corps’ and donor compliance and ethics standards and adheres to those standards. Conducts work with the highest level of integrity.

Disclaimer:

• This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.

Application Closing Date
16th February, 2023.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should express their interest electronically to: imcnigeriavacancy@internationalmedicalcorps.org using the title as the subject of the mail.

Note
The following are required from consultants in response to this call:

• A technical and financial proposal including a tentative work plan of the planned activities
• CV of the consultant
• Reference list of previous gender-related consultancies and sample gender analysis report.