This Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Review will assess the extent to which gender and social inclusion issues for Awardees and Alumni have evolved since the implementation of the strategy, identifying areas of improvement and the implications the activities have had on the program’s ability to address GESI issues.

The program takes two approaches in implementing GESI by ensuring the reasonable support and adjustment for women, persons with disability and persons with HIV across the awards cycle; and promoting and advancing social inclusion as a development issue where all stakeholders (and especially awardees and alumni) are encouraged to embed social inclusion through policy, practice or changing culture within their workplace and communities.

Study Purpose/ Objectives

The purpose of the review is to assess how GESI have been incorporated into the program and review any GESI related obstacles that Alumni or Awardees face at any point of the Awards cycle, i.e. application and selection phase, on award, reintegration and as Alumni and how these can be addressed. Further, the review will target female applicants that requested for an application form but ended up not applying for the scholarship to get an understanding to the reasons for not submitting the application. The Scope of Requirements for the new program outlines the need for the GESI strategy to ‘analyse and address factors that restrict women’s access to the awards, their effective reintegration into the workplace and the utilisation and transfer of their skills’. The study purposes to address these issues. The objectives of the study review are;

• To complete an assessment of contextual factors in participating African countries that influence marginalised groups’ (marginalised groups including women, people based in rural areas and people with disability) participation in the program. Assess the implication of flexible learning on the program’s ability to reach its GESI targets.
• Obtain an understanding of the GESI issues and their implications at each stage of the Awards cycle – targeting communication, application, selection, pre departure, on award, reintegration and Alumni engagement activities
• Analyse the implications and outcomes of GESI strategies that have been implemented by Australia Awards – Africa since 2013 and identify any instances and possible consequences where GESI related barriers may have been overlooked with no specific strategies implemented to address such by the program
• Draw on relevant experience on addressing GESI from other international scholarships programs particularly those implemented in the Africa region.
• Provide recommendations of how to more successfully integrate GESI in the Australia Awards program at all stages of the program (based on evidence of key issues within the program) including key objectives.
• The review should also make recommendations of what should be included in the GESI Strategy (including key milestones and objectives based on current issues and trends) addressing how to monitor program results including Alumni understanding of GESI and involvement in GESI issues and marginalised people’s empowerment after they have returned from scholarship.
• Test the assumption that the program eligibility criteria excludes marginalised groups’ participation.

Scope

The study will target Awardees, recently returning Alumni that were exposed to the program’s new GESI strategies implemented since 2013 and female applicants that requested for an application but did not submit their application. Other Australia Awards stakeholders to be targeted include Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Gender Focal persons at the institutions, Australia Awards – Africa Palladium Staff and other international scholarships program.

The study will be comprised of a literature review, data collection in three countries and phone interviews, and data analysis per country and award type to be completed by 3 June 2017. A table of dates is available with the linked Terms of reference.

The consultant will be responsible for:

• Overall review management and key technical inputs of the assignment, including overall approach and study methodology
• Develop and implement the study plan including refining review questions based on the literature review, developing a detailed field work plan
• Draft preliminary key findings report for consultation with Palladium and DFAT
• Produce the draft and final report in accordance with the agreed Study Plan;

The consultant will be remunerated according to the Advisor Remuneration Framework Discipline Category B, Level 3.

Reporting requirements

• Detailed Study Plan including data collection tools and field work plan
• Data Analysis Plan
• Preliminary Findings Report outlining key issues and proposed recommendations
• Draft report including detailed recommendations
• Final report with recommendations on the GESI activities for the program

Consultant skills and responsibilities

Skills required from the consultant:

• Extensive experience in program review, monitoring and evaluation;
• Appropriate tertiary qualifications and at least 10 years of experience in Gender and Social Inclusion work and Social Research;
• Strong knowledge and experience in technical aspects of education/training/scholarships programs, especially GESI
• Sound knowledge of the delivery and operation of donor-funded scholarship programs
• Knowledge of DFAT’s systems and policies
• Excellent analytical, research, evaluation and writing skills