May 6, World University Service of Canada Knowledge & Learning Mobilisation Consultant – Power to Girls, LEAP Jobs in Kenya

Background of the LEAP Project

LEAP is designed to address gender, social, cultural, and economic barriers that affect adolescent girls’ and young women’s ability to access education and employment opportunities and make critical decisions about things that affect their lives. The project specifically targets two of the most critical moments in a girls’ educational journey: 1) upper primary grades and the transition to secondary school, when girls are most at risk of dropping out of the education system; and, 2) the transition from basic education to post-secondary education or employment.

LEAP was launched in 2019, and will run until 2025, and aims to reach a total of 40,000 adolescent girls and young women. To give a brief overview of the scope of the activities under LEAP, the project components can be broadly categorized into activities to support education, employment opportunities, and community behavior change:

Education

LEAP supports a total of 15 schools (11 primary schools and 4 secondary schools) located within Kalobeyei Settlement (5 primary schools and 2 secondary schools) and the surrounding host communities (6 primary schools and 2 secondary schools). Conditional cash transfers support vulnerable girls and their families to overcome the economic barriers to accessing education, and a combination of teacher training, life skills education, strengthening school policy, and psychosocial support are designed to help improve the overall quality the education girls receive.

Employment Opportunities

LEAP aims to increase equitable participation in gender-responsive, market-based skills training to equip adolescent girls and young women with critical skills to improve their future life options and livelihoods.

The project supports 21 young women to access diploma level technical and vocational courses at a number of Kenya National Technical Vocational Education Institutions through providing TVET scholarships; 814 young women supported to access certificate level vocational technical skills training within Kalobeyei camp, and digital skills training courses delivered to 930 young women leading to online freelance working opportunities.

Community Behaviour Change

LEAP works to generate community support for girls’ empowerment, recognising that a supportive and enabling environment is a critical component for girls to exercise their voice, choice and agency. LEAP is implementing several methodologies to achieve sustainable community-wide shifts in gender-related norms and behaviors.

First is direct community mobilization led by a network of passionate community-based leaders to promote shifts in power dynamics and reduce violence against women and girls. Second is the use of mass media, specifically radio programming to promote women’s economic empowerment. And third is male engagement in which male partners and family members of skills training participants are engaged in a several-weeks course to promote positive masculinity.

Assignment Scope and Methodology

As part of the project, WUSC would like to embed a strengthened and more robust learning agenda that goes beyond project-level performance measurement to drive evidence generation and the documentation of key learning. Through this work, our goal is to strengthen WUSC’s contribution to the broader evidence base on education and empowerment programming within refugee and refugee-hosting contexts.

To do this, WUSC is seeking to engage a consultant to support knowledge mobilisation in relation to the Power to Girls component of the project; a holistic approach to social behaviour change to promote gender equality and inclusion with interventions through Girls

Clubs (building girls’ voice, choice and agency), with teachers and school leaders (enhancing the school environment), and within the community (creating an enabling community environment).

Through an analysis of secondary data sources, including project monitoring and evaluation reports, partner implementation reports, etc., and a select number of key informant interviews with relevant project staff, participants and other stakeholders, the Consultant will collate knowledge, learning, and evidence that relates to the following questions:

What are the key components of the Power to Girls approach? How was the approach adapted to the LEAP context and why?

What impact/change is evident as a result of the Power to Girls work led by LEAP:

At the level of girls themselves?

In schools?

In the community?

What is the effect of girl-centered empowerment programming and holistic community engagement, either in combination or individually?

Have there been any unintended outcomes as a result of the Power to Girls interventions, both positive and negative?

What are the key drivers of success in relation to:

Increased voice, choice, and agency amongst girls themselves?

Changes in attitudes and behaviours within school environments?

Changes in attitudes and behaviours within communities?

What challenges/barriers were encountered that affected the effectiveness of the model, and how were they overcome?

How do girl-centred empowerment programming and holistic community engagement, either together or separately, impact the social acceptance of gender inequality and violence against women and girls?

What, if any, indications of sustaining the impact of this work beyond the length of the project are evident? How could this be strengthened?

NB: Please note that this is an initial list of questions for this assignment and may be adjusted through co-creation in the inception of the consultancy.

Key Deliverables

Kick-off meeting with WUSC team

An inception report including work plan, methodology, and necessary research tools;

Desk review of existing documentation and qualitative and quantitative data;

Key informant interviews with project staff, participants, and other relevant stakeholders;

Knowledge mobilisation strategy (co-designed with the LEAP team; see Annex A for a preliminary strategy);

Draft knowledge products for review;

Final designed knowledge products that are appropriate and align to the strategy (e.g. learning briefs, blogs, slide decks, etc.)

Required Experience and Competencies

Bachelor’s degree in social science, monitoring and evaluation, communication for impact, or related qualification from a recognized institution;

Minimum of five (5) years of relevant professional experience;

Strong knowledge and experience in relation to learning and evaluation, preferably within education and, economic opportunities and empowerment programming;

Strong analytical skills and an ability to synthesize data from a range of sources;

Knowledge of the refugee context in Kenya, as well as girl’s education interventions;

Excellent qualitative research and writing skills;

Written and oral fluency in English;

Experience in photography and/or graphic design is an asset.

How to Apply

Please submit proposals electronically to [email protected] with the subject line ‘LEAP Knowledge Mobilisation Consultant – Digital Hub’.

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