FNT/EOI/40/2023-Rapporteur for the THE AFRICAN FEMINIST MACROECONOMIC ACADEMY (AFMA) – Southern Africa

1. About FEMNET.

The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) is a pan- African, feminist and membership-based network based in Nairobi, Kenya with over 800 individual and institutional members across 50 African countries and in the diaspora. FEMNET envisions a society where African women and girls thrive in dignity and well- being, free from patriarchal and neoliberal oppression and injustices.

Over the years, FEMNET has strategically positioned herself as a convener, organizer and facilitator of critical dialogues around women’s economic justice and rights; transformative women’s leadership; sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR); climate justice and natural resource governance as well as, ending all forms of violence and harmful/ discriminatory practices against women and girls.

FEMNET continues to be intentional in influencing decisions made at national, regional and global levels, constantly ensuring African women voices are amplified and their needs, priorities and aspirations are prioritized in key policy dialogues and outcomes that have direct and indirect impact on their lives. FEMNET mobilizes African women to hold their States accountable to women’s rights and gender equality commitments. For more information about FEMNET’s work, visit our website: www.femnet.org.

2. Background and rationale.

The 2023 AFMA Southern Africa will reflect on the global economic context, both pre-and ‘post-’ Covid-19, providing participants with the space to situate their realities within continental and global macro-level economic policy changes. In the same vein as the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC), the current economic crisis stemming from the pandemic has uncovered how the neoliberal turn in development from the 1970s onwards has simultaneously drastically lowered living standards while undermining social protection systems and eroding public investments. This neoliberal economic model introduced a wave of policies that saw the retreat of the state and an increased reliance on the private sector under the assumption that the efficiency of markets would automatically lead to better social outcomes. This disproportionate reliance on the financial sector has resulted in income increasingly transferring from the real economy that traditionally produces goods and services towards the financial sector. A key illustration is that over the past 40 years, the total volume of trade in foreign currency exchange markets, a particular type of financial trading, is estimated to be about 100 times larger than the total volume of global trade in goods and services. In Africa, financial flows have also been increasingly dominated by private interests; for example, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Senegal, and Zambia owed more than 50 per cent of their debt to commercial creditors in most of 2020.

Women’s rights organisations and feminist economics scholars have long countered the international financial architecture’s exclusive concern with advancing financial and commodity markets, which overlooks the numerous adverse impacts on women and girls. This speaks to an ongoing struggle for economic justice, advanced by feminist activists, against an increasing replacement of public provisions by market-based, individualised entitlements for those who can afford them, creating an economy that directly commodifies daily life – from privatised healthcare to privatised utilities such as water. And unlike any crisis before, the Covid-19 pandemic has reaffirmed more concretely what feminist activists have long been pointing out: that the crucial role of care work, and social reproduction more broadly, has been severely undermined under an economic system that prioritises profit over life and that it is predominantly women who have subsidised the role of the state in the context of a global financial order that directly invisibilised care work, unless in instances where it can be commodified for the benefit of private interests. Some of the sub-themes to be explored in the programme:

• Introduction to feminist political economy as a critical framework for understanding some of the post-Covid-19 realities, with a focus on economic trends in Southern Africa;
• Debates on the evolving trajectory of financialised capitalism in SSA and contemporary manifestations of private sector influence through de-risking and blended finance mechanisms;
• Sovereign debt and the role of international financial institutions;
• Financing for development and the role of the state.

3. Objectives of the consultancy and Scope of work.

Working closely with the facilitator, the rapporteur is expected to:

• To record and document the proceedings from the sessions from 10th-14th July 2023.
  • Specifically, the rapporteur is expected to capture main action points, discussions, outputs, recommendations and conclusions in line with the workshop program that will be shared.
  • To take high-resolution workshop photos and include these in the final report.
  • Provide main highlights of each day of the conference to be used by the moderator during the recap for subsequent days.

4. Deliverables & expected results.

Workshop report that includes photos (not more than six pages) and highlights the main content of discussions organised according to the workshop program that will be provided.

5. Required Qualification, Skills and Competencies.

Academic Qualification.

• Diploma or Bachelor’s degree in communications or development studies.

Experience

• Sound experience in rapporteur
• Outstanding editing skills
• Experience in report writing for non-profit organisations

6. Duration of Assignment.

This is a 5-day assignment from 10th to 14th July 2023.

7. Liaison, Coordination and Reporting.

The consultant will report to the Economic Justice and Rights Lead.

8. Selection of Consultant

FEMNET shall contract the rapporteur. The contract will include Withholding Tax (WHT) deduction in line with the contracting laws where FEMNET is headquartered. A WHT certificate will be issued to the consultant. Payment will be made through bank transfer to the consultant’s bank account, and FEMNET will not meet the costs of bank charges. The payment schedule will be agreed upon with consultant upon successful selection.

9. Intellectual Property Rights.

The consultant expressly assigns to FEMNET any copyright arising from the outputs produced while executing the service contract. The consultant may not use, reproduce, disseminate, or authorise others to use, reproduce or disseminate any work produced under the service contract without prior consent from FEMNET.

10. Terms of Service.

This is a non-staff contract; therefore, the consultant is not entitled to insurance, medical cover, or other status or conditions as FEMNET staff.