Policy Writing Consultant

Terms of Reference

Individual Consulting Services: To Develop a Policy Brief on Rural women food production catastrophe during COVID-19

Project: Strengthening a Gender-Responsive Environment in Rural Development and Cooperative Sector

Project Duration: 2019 - 2022

About PWWSD

Established in 1981, The Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD) is a non-governmental women’s, mass, developmental, and learning human rights organization that contributes to developing feminist struggle within national, social, and developmental dimensions. The organization believes that liberating women is connected directly with ending the occupation and establishing a full Palestinian democratic sovereign civil state. PWWSD is active all over West Bank including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip and is an active member in several local, regional, and global networks and coalitions. 

The Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD) aims for a free and democratic Palestinian society based on gender equality, respect for human rights and social justice. The organization promotes women empowerment, women’s participation in the national struggle against the occupation, women’s contribution to the development processes, the entitlement of woman to political, economic and civic rights, women’s access to justice and their right to a life free of violence.

About the Project

In October 2019, the Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD) was selected by We Effect to serve as the Feminist Expert Organization to support strengthening gender mainstreaming approaches in policies, strategies and programs within its program titled “Equality First”. The latter aims to strengthen civil society actors in rural development and gender equality in Palestine.

The project “Strengthening a Gender-Responsive Environment in Rural Development and Cooperative Sector” is implemented in close partnership with the Economic and Social Development Centre of Palestine (ESDC), The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ), the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), the Land Research Centre (LRC), and the Palestinian Agricultural Cooperative Union (PACU).  The overall objective of the project is to contribute to strengthening a gender equal environment for women’s access to land and productive resources through improving their livelihood conditions and active opportunities in development processes. Our aim is to create an advanced gender mainstreaming system within partner organizations that reflect different models, mind-sets, values and purpose in rural and cooperatives development.  

General Description and Purpose of the Policy Brief

PWWSD seeks to procure the services of an external individual consultant to develop a Policy Brief on Rural women food production catastrophe during COVID-19. The policy brief is aimed to provide a concrete and evidence based information on how the emergency committees act as distributors of Palestinian food from rural areas, mainly from women farmers, to the public. 

The main objective of this assignment is to provide a brief background on the situation of rural women food production in Palestine and the effects of COVID-19 on their productivity. In addition to providing a critical evaluation of the governmental policies regarding the food production of rural women. The goal of the policy brief is to provide a thorough yet summarized  content on the extent of gender sensitivity of the emergency committees, who act as the first hand responders in times of crisis, towards the Palestinian rural women and more specifically, how the COVID-19 crisis has affected them.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will undertake the following tasks:

• Provide a background on the rural women food production prior to and during COVID-19.
• Demonstrate how emergency committees act as distributors of Palestinian food from rural areas.
• Outline the effects of COVID-19 on the rural women food production.
• Use evidence to support the claims in the policy brief.
• Evaluate the government’s policies in improving the situation of rural women food production.
• Present recommendations. 
• Present the draft policy brief to PWWSD and project partners, and amend the draft, as needed.
• Submit the policy brief in high quality Arabic and English Languages. 

Key Deliverables:

• The policy brief draft (by 31 August). 
• The final policy brief in high quality Arabic and English Languages with integrated comments and inputs provided by PWWSD and Project Partners providing graphics and a policy draft summary (by 04 September)

The Individual Consultant is required to:

• Maintain an open and frequent communication with PWWSD. 
• Submit the key deliverables including the policy brief in a timely manner under the terms of the contract.
• Submit the policy brief in high quality Arabic and English Languages
• The policy brief must not exceed one page. 
• The maximum duration for the consultancy services is 10 days from signing date of the consultancy contract.

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Required Qualifications

• Graduate or post-graduate degree in gender and development, human rights, or any other related social sciences.
• At least 5 years of proven professional experience in women’s empowerment, gender equality and academic reports. 
• Strong background on rural women in Palestine.
• Proven experience in applying human rights-based-approach (HRBA) in researches (samples will be requested).
• Very strong understanding of national and international policy and legal frameworks on gender equality, women's rights, and women’s access to economic and productive resources, including understanding of social, cultural, economic and political context of Palestine.
• Very strong knowledge of the impacts of the occupation on the Palestinians, with at least 5 years’ experience researching women and girls rights in rural areas, including area C.
• Fluency in written and spoken Arabic and English are required. 

Interested consultants are required to prepare and submit the following:

• CV/s of the consultant/s.  
• Financial offer: budget breakdown of the proposed costs in ILS including VAT. 

Interested Individual Consultants are requested to send the above package to [email protected], with the subject line: “Policy Brief on Rural women food production catastrophe during COVID-19”

Deadline for Submission

Interested consulting firms are requested to submit their offers by 24 August 2020