Consultancy - Adolescent Girls in Fragile and Conflict Affected Settings - Research and Analysis

About Plan International UK

Plan International UK strives to advance children’s rights and equality for girls all over the world. We recognise the power and potential of every single child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And its girls who are most affected. As an independent development and humanitarian organisation, we work alongside children, young people, our supporters and partners to tackle the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

Background and rationale

Ahead of the next Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting taking place in Rwanda in June 2020, Plan International UK will be working with consulting with adolescent girls and boys to develop a Call to Action (CTA). The CTA will call on Governments and other key stakeholders to make make strong commitments towards achieving Sustainable Goal 5 on gender equality (with specific reference to adolescent girls) in fragile and conflict affected settings (FCAS). We will be urging the Commonwealth to take a leadership role in taking forward and championing the Call to Action. In order to strengthen our engagement and advocacy efforts around the CTA, we will be developing a policy report to “make the case” for the Commonwealth and its member countries signing onto, championing, and implementing the CTA. This report will be based on a series of consultations we will be conducting with young people (both girls and boys) - particularly adolescent girls living in FCAS - and our country offices, as well as desk-based research and policy analysis.

Purpose and objectives

The selected consultant(s) will be responsible for undertaking desk-based research and analysis that will inform the findings of the ‘Making the Case’ report. It is expected that the consultant(s) will deliver on the following analysis in the following areas:

• The frequency, type and duration of humanitarian crises (e.g. conflict; natural disaster) as well as any trends, throughout the Commonwealth over the past 20 years
• Humanitarian funding needs and gaps in crises affecting Commonwealth countries over the past 10 years
• Where it exists, the numbers of affected populations, disaggregated by age and sex (by country and aggregated), in humanitarian crises across the Commonwealth in the past 10 years
• The different impacts of humanitarian crises on girls and boys, women and men, and the similarities and differences between each population group
• Existing commitments made by the Commonwealth (as a block) at Heads of Government and Ministerial level, as well as programmes of action undertaken by the Commonwealth Secretariat

The consultant(s) will also be requested to develop country / crisis-specific case studies that highlight the key challenges faced by girls, boys, young women and young men as a result of humanitarian crises in five Commonwealth countries. The profiled countries will be agreed in consultation with Plan International UK staff. 

The analysis will form the basis of the policy report that will be used in Plan International UK’s influencing of CHOGM 2020. It is intended to be presented at a range of high-level events in the UK, across the Commonwealth, as well as during CHOGM itself. Following CHOGM we will look to expand this work to ensure sign on to the CTA from other targets and stakeholders beyond Commonwealth Governments. It will be used to support Plan International UK’s engagement with, and influence of, decision makers, civil society and other actors in policy making and programming working in this field. These include government officials, civil servants, UN agencies and other actors.

Application Process

Plan UK welcomes a response to these Terms of Reference, with a CV and short written statement including:

• A capability statement demonstrating how they meet the required qualifications and competencies
• A suggested approach including methodology and schedule
• An outline of costs and timescales
• Examples of relevant previous work
• Copies of all relevant Curriculum Vitae (CVs).

Responses should be sent to: Anthony Davis ([email protected]) no later than 5pm on 27th October. Phone interviews will be conducted the following week.