Remote: Supporting gender equality outcomes in the World Bank’s Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Programme

Jan 14, 2024 | Development Alternatives Incorporated
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Objective:

The objective of this assignment is to provide technical assistance to support the Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Programme to help shape the SASPP’s future vision and ambition on addressing gender equality. Specifically, the TA will support the development of a narrative on gender outcomes of Adaptive Social Protection in the Sahel, work with the SASSP World Bank team to determine operational changes that can be made for programme delivery for more gender responsive outcomes, and provide technical assistance to SASPP work streams. Furthermore, the technical assistance will help define and coordinate additional STAAR assignments in at least two areas related to gender equality. 

Background:

The Sahel Adaptive Social Protection Programme (SASPP) is implemented by the World Bank and funded by a multi-donor trust fund (MDTF) with contributions from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ); the Agence Française de Développement (AFD); the Denmark Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and the United Kingdom Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO). Its objective is to support six Sahelian countries—Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal —in building ASP systems primarily to help vulnerable households adapt to the impacts of shocks, with a particular focus on shocks induced by climate change. Adaptation in this context is understood as the process of adjusting to the current and future effects of climate change by anticipating the adverse effects of climate change and taking actions to prevent or minimize the damage they can cause or taking advantage of opportunities that may arise. SASSP is currently in its second phase (2021 – present), and now starting to design the next one – Phase III – which is due to start in 2025. This is therefore a key time to evaluate lessons learnt to date, and to set the strategic direction for the next phase.

With a careful gender responsive design, social protection programmes can promote women’s empowerment and address gender inequality, which can be exacerbated by crises as women and girls are disproportionately impacted by adverse events and often encounter different risks from men and boys. In 2019/2020, a gender sensitivity analysis of the SASPP was conducted, which identified a number of areas for future engagement. The following six areas were identified as priority areas for action:

  • Develop a gender strategy for SASPP: outline a clear vision for integrating gender into SASPP operations and achieving gender equality outcomes through the SASPP.
  • Build capacity to understand gender and promote gender equality and inclusion: The review found that levels of capacity amongst staff, implementing partners and local community committees to promote gender and inclusion, including skills, knowledge, and attitudes were variable.
  • Promote institutional structures to support actions that promote gender equality in SASPP systems: The review found that strengthened institutional structures and mechanisms were needed to support the implementation of a gender strategy and to facilitate attention to gender-responsiveness across the programme cycle and systems.
  • Propose changes in programme/system design to deepen the focus on gender equality and inclusion: The review identified specific programme design elements which could be amended to promote equality and inclusion, such as incorporating indicators for gendered vulnerabilities in targeting and social registries for both routine and shock-response interventions; including gender-responsive provisions to ensure that women are able to participate and benefit from public works programmes; and choosing accompanying measures that address needs in times of crisis.
  • Strengthen routine M&E to inform programme design and implementation: The review found that the World Bank and FCDO should improve the M&E systems of the SASPP in relation to how it captures, reports and uses relevant gender-related data to inform programming and implementation.
  • Develop, implement and disseminate a gender-responsive research agenda: The review indicated that there were specific knowledge gaps in the programme which need to be filled with tailored gender analysis and further research and evaluation.

Recent evaluations show that SASPP is delivering encouraging gender results through its work on productive inclusion which includes psychosocial interventions aimed at contributing towards the creation of conditions and an enabling environment for gender equality and women’s empowerment. Also, the strong gender focus in the selection of beneficiaries of programmes supported by SASPP contributes to its impact on women’s empowerment and gender equality. There is now an opportunity to define a clear vision and ambition on gender equality for the next phase of the programme, and to capitalize on good practices.

Recipient of services:

The embedded adviser will work in the World Bank SASSP regional team, which is split between Washington DC, Paris and the Sahel region, to ensure the required oversight is provided for the implementation of the requisite tasks. In particular, the adviser will report to Aline Coudouel, World Bank SASSP lead economist (based in Paris) on a day-to-day basis.

The adviser will also be expected to provide updates to Sarah Furrer (FCDO Sahel Social Development Adviser) and Sara Labbate, FCDO regional economic adviser and Senior Responsible Owner for the UK Shock Response Programme, on a monthly basis.

Other beneficiaries of services:

While the technical assistance will be provided to the World Bank SASSP team, it will benefit a wider range of stakeholders, including World Bank Social Protection and Job Practice and relevant Task Teams; government counterparts working on the SASPP; FCDO Sahel team; FCDO Social Protection team.

Scope and responsibilities of the role:

  • The role will be directly embedded within the WB team working on SASPP. The assignment will consist of the following interlinked streams of work:
  • Articulate a narrative on how ASP in the Sahel (and the SASPP programme more specifically) currently addresses gender equality.
  • This narrative can build on the note recently prepared by the programme and highlight good practices from past or ongoing programmes.  It should include:
    • Developing a written output (“narrative”) on how ASP (and the SASPP in particular) can or does address gender equality.
    • Identifying key achievements and good practices/examples that illustrate the various points of the narrative, based on interactions with the teams and/or desk review, and insert in the output.
    • Validating the output with the SASPP team (initial discussion of a first rough draft, then discussion of complete narrative)
    • Developing a dissemination and uptake plan for the narrative. This should be led by this position until the conclusion of STAAR funding. Include a handover process to be continued by the World Bank SASSP Team.

Identify opportunities/priority actions to strengthen the SASPP programme:  

  • Desk-based analysis of key SASPP documents to identify the extent to which the different components of the SASPP respond to good practice on gender-sensitive adaptive social protection, as well as those that could be strengthened from a gender perspective.
  • Consultations across country and regional teams working on SASPP as well as external stakeholders to identify opportunities for implementing gender-responsive and transformative approaches to ASP in the context of the SASPP.
  • Identify key actions for the future SASPP (actions should be split into a short-medium-longer term, with an analysis of costs as relevant) and work with SASSP team members to identify ways to integrate recommendations The postholder will also be responsible for implementing some of the actions identified, in collaboration with the teams, as well as considering how actions could be taken forward by teams beyond the lifetime of this role. Propose indicators to monitor progress on gender equality as part of the SASPP monitoring framework, aligning with donors’ reporting requirements where possible. Where relevant initial baseline reporting against those indicators should be drafted by this position within the lifetime of the STAAR funding.

On demand/draw-down gender technical assistance inputs into SASPP workstreams:

  • With the SASPP management team, identify specific requests for technical assistance. Areas of focus could include, but are not limited to:
    • Capacity building activities
    • Gender mainstreaming activities
    • Specialist gender technical advice on key programmatic outputs (e.g., support to the team working on social registries to ensure their gender sensitivity)
    • Gender analysis of existing data

Define and scope two in depth tasks, for consideration for future STAAR support:

  • In consultation with the SASPP team, identify two priority tasks for consideration for future implementation through the STAAR facility. Areas which have been discussed include:
    • the climate change and social protection agenda,
    • measurement and analysis of the impact of safety net programs in the Sahel on gender norms/women’s empowerment, as part of the analysis of the relationship between safety nets and social cohesion,
    • systematic documentation of selected good practices (including communications material to share beyond the SASPP program actors),
    • training of SASPP staff and/or technical partners from the region on options to mainstream gender in program design and implementation choices (e.g., using the systematic improvements of social registries to illustrate how gender-blind guidelines/design might not be gender neutral), or
    • review the evidence on the adequacy of digital payments for gender-specific constraints and their impact on women and girls, building on CGAP/SASPP diagnostics and implementation experience.
    • Support to integrate inclusion of other marginalised groups, e.g. people with disabilities, into the future SASSP programme

METHODOLOGY

  • Desk review, including drawing on examples of best practice from other relevant interventions / programmes
  • Key informant interviews with Social Protection actors outside of the SASSP team, including for example WFP and UNICEF social protection teams
  • Consensus building and consultations
  • Identification of key actions to integrate gender equality into the future SSASP programme
  • Technical assistance to deliver some of the identified actions
  • Skills transfer/capacity building

Deliverables

The post/team should provide a workplan  by the end of the first month of the contract which highlights the timelines for the various streams of work and intended key days. This workplan should then be reviewed for progress and updated to reflect changes monthly in partnership with the World Bank and FCDO leads.

Likely deliverables to be included in the workplan:

  •  A narrative on the role of social protection in achieving gender outcomes for the Sahel Region
  • Key actions/opportunities to strengthen SASPP activities. to better achieve gender equality outcomes
  • Technical assistance to SASPP work streams.
  • Terms of Reference for layered opportunities through STAAR assignments
  • Competencies of expert/team
  • Knowledge and understanding of gender-responsive social protection systems and how to design or tweak existing systems to be more gender-responsive
  • Proven operational experience in gender mainstreaming in programme design and implementation.
  • Experience with the WB’s social protection operations
  • Prior knowledge or experience of social protection in the Sahel context is preferred
  • Fluent French is a requirement

In line with STAAR’s preferences, where possible national expertise is included in the team, preferably leading the work.

Timing: This is intended to be a 12 month long position with a review point at the 3month, 6month and 9month period to ensure that the postholder is advancing against the intended workplan. Initial drafts of the narrative and key actions should be shared by the end of the first 3 months.

Duty of care: DAI as the lead supplier will hold Duty of Care responsibilities for the embedded TA. The assignment may involve travel to the Sahel region, which should be factored into DAI’s Duty of Care considerations.

DAI Global UK Ltd, as the lead supplier of the STAAR facility, retains duty of care and contracting requirements for consultants funded through STAAR. Security provisions and hosting requirements may be discussed and negotiated with the World Bank or other implementing actors.

All partners, under the oversight of DAI Global UK Ltd, are expected to provide a sufficient duty of care to experts/teams of experts who carry out assignments via STAAR, including the provision of appropriate insurance coverage. If the assignment takes place outside of the consultant’s home location, the STAAR partner will make the necessary travel bookings, ensure all duty of care arrangements are in place and provide pre-deployment security briefing where required. All potential international travel should be managed considering any COVID-19 travel restrictions and quarantine requirements, and security assessments. On occasion, DAI may request support from a STAAR partner (other than the one which is delivering a particular assignment) to support the partner which is delivering the assignment with in-country logistics (such as support to obtain a visa).  Such costs will be costed into assignment budgets. Where two or more partners are collaborating in the delivery of an assignment, certain arrangements and measures that form part of the provision of duty of care to the assignment consultant/team may be shared.  Such joint arrangements will be determined on a case-by-case basis, with the starting point being that each partner retains responsibility for their consultant(s) unless confirmed otherwise in writing by DAI. Managing duty of care and security arrangements must be a continuous process of assessing and understanding a given threat environment, analysing vulnerabilities within that environment, and applying countermeasures to mitigate risk. It is acknowledged that security measures will vary between locations and assignments, to be specifically adapted to the security environment at the location and the assignment’s scope.

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