Canada: Consultancy, Guide on Climate Justice in Gender and Youth Engagement by Local Partners

Jul 12, 2021 | Oxfam-Québec
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Oxfam is a global movement of people who are fighting inequality to end poverty and injustice. Across regions, from the local to the global, Oxfam works with people and their organizations to bring change that lasts. Climate justice constitutes one of its core strategic strands, along with gender justice, just economies and accountable governance.

Equality in Action Volunteer Cooperation Program, funded by Global Affairs Canada and managed by Oxfam-Québec, supports local partners—women’s rights and youth organizations and networks in 11 countries across three regions:

• Middle East (Jordan and the Occupied Palestinian Territory)
• West Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Senegal)
• Latin America and the Caribbean (Bolivia, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, and Peru)

Background

While Oxfam has been integrating climate change into its campaigns and programs for more than 15 years, it recently made climate justice one of the four core pillars of its Global Strategic Framework (GSF) 2020–2030. So far, many Oxfam frameworks and tools, for example those developed by the Resilience Knowledge Hub, have sought to better integrate gender justice and women’s transformative leadership into resilient programming (i.e., livelihood projects), however few tools have been designed to support women’s rights and youth organizations and networks to mainstream climate justice into their work.

With climate justice being a strategic theme in Oxfam’s work, colleagues based in these three regions have expressed the need to create a guide to support local partners and Oxfam country offices to integrate climate justice into their work on gender justice and youth engagement. It is also an opportunity to strengthen the knowledge and engagement of women’s rights and youth organizations on a just transition to post-carbon economies and more resilient food systems.

Objective

Oxfam-Québec is looking to recruit an individual or an organization responsible for producing a guide to support local partners and Oxfam teams to mainstream climate justice and just transition initiatives into their work on gender justice and youth engagement.

Responsibilities and Tasks

The work will be performed entirely remotely, considering the availability of the consultant(s), and respecting the schedule of deliverables. Under the supervision of Oxfam-Québec’s Climate and Environmental Advisor, and in close collaboration with the program’s working group on climate justice, the selected individual or organization will be expected to perform the following tasks:

1. Consult women’s rights and youth partners on their learning needs and expectations regarding climate justice.
2. Select flagship initiatives from Oxfam and its partners on climate justice, gender justice and youth engagement in Latin America, West Africa, and the Middle East (a list of potential initiatives will be provided).
3. Develop a guide (25–30 pages) that includes the following sections:
   a) Conceptual framework: Lay out a comprehensive definition for climate justice, just transition and explain convincingly how these concepts relate to inequality and human rights in general, and gender and intergenerational justice in particular.
   b) Brief literature review: In accordance with local partners’ learning needs, summarize the current state of knowledge on i) climate change impacts on women and youth, especially in fragile contexts in the Global South, and ii) pathways of change that women’s rights and youth organizations and networks in the Global South envision for achieving a just transition to post-carbon societies.
   c) Context analysis tool: Provide local partners and Oxfam teams with a practical methodology that helps them identify entry points and opportunities to integrate climate justice in their interventions based on their local context. The tool should look at how vulnerabilities to climate and environmental impacts manifest locally for women and youth and how they are amplified by the intersectionality of discrimination/oppression.
   d) Entry points: Illustrate how partners can engage for a just transition by showcasing inspiring interventions that Oxfam and its partners are already carrying out with women’s rights and youth partners on key issues of regional or global relevance.
   e) Annotated bibliography: Provide links to additional tools and references.

Deliverables

1. Work plan and schedule review.
2. Partial guide: sections on the conceptual framework and literature review.
3. Complete guide: items listed above and sections on the context analysis tool, entry points and bibliography.

Schedule

• Selection of the consultant or organization: Early August 2021
• Production and validation of the work plan (deliverable #1): Third week of August 2021
• First draft of partial guide (deliverable #2): Mid-September 2021
• First draft of the complete guide (deliverable #3): End of October 2021
• Finalization of the complete guide: End of November 2021

Budget

The budget available to carry out this mandate is a maximum of $CAD 25,000. Candidates who are interested in applying will have to specify the level of effort and their daily fees in their technical and financial proposal.

Required Profile

Experience

• Experience in designing, implementing, or evaluating projects/initiatives that contribute to climate justice and a just transition toward post-carbon societies.
• Experience working with Southern civil society organizations on climate or environmental justice.
• Adherence to Oxfam’s feminist principles.
• Experience in producing training resources.
• Experience in designing, implementing, or evaluating projects/initiatives that contribute to sustainable food systems (an asset).

Skills and knowledge

• Knowledge of the challenges related to just transition, human rights, and inclusive governance (especially of land and natural resources) in the Global South and with indigenous peoples.
• Capacity to do a literature review and write synthetically on a complex topic (climate change impacts and implications on gender justice and intergenerational justice).
• Capacity to analyze the agency and vulnerabilities of individuals and communities through the lens of intersectionality (multiple identities overlapping) and connect these with action opportunities for just transitions tailored to the local biophysical context.
• Knowledge of topics such as extractive industries, territorial rights, climate-resilient agriculture, agroforestry, and the water-energy-food nexus (an asset).
• Ability to work in English (spoken and written) and in a second language (French or Spanish). Proficiency in a third language is considered an asset.

Useful Links

• Oxfam’s Global Strategic Framework 2020–2030
• Transforming gender inequalities: Practical guidance for achieving gender transformation in resilient development (Oxfam)
• Shaking Up to Move Forward: Visions for stronger partnerships between youth movements and social organizations (Oxfam)

How to apply

Interested individuals or organizations must submit a short technical and financial proposal of no more than 5 pages, including the expected level of effort (number of days and daily fees). The Curriculum Vitae of the person(s) who will be directly involved in carrying out the mandate must also be provided as an appendix. Proposals must be sent no later than August 4, 2021, to the following address: Simon.Laflamme@oxfam.org.