TECHNICAL BACKSTOPPING TO TICAH FOR A SCOPING STUDY ON CLIMATE JUSTICE

Background

TICAH is a feminist organization that works to promote health, equitable relationships, and community action. We dream of safe and just societies where barriers to equitable health and social outcomes are removed including for the most marginalized populations, where rights are realized, holistic health is attained, and where the beauty of culture and diversity is celebrated. Our definition of health recognizes the links between health, values, and culture, the role of art in communication, and the elevation of marginalized voices and ideas, that there is much to be gained by engaging with our traditional cultures, that access to quality health information & services is critical and the power of nutrition and herbs in overall wellness cannot be overlooked. We work toward communities driving and owning all implementation through our tried and tested methodologies: Listening and Co-Creation of interventions with communities, Creation of Safe Spaces for Values Clarification and Training of Trainers; Advocacy, where we raise our voices to advocate for better laws, policies, and practices to protect rights, access to holistic health services, freedom of expression and sexual & reproductive health & rights. We celebrate the beauty and diversity of ideas, ethnicities, religions, sexuality, music, art, genders, indigenous cultures, and traditions as expressions of a healthy society.

Our priority areas are Gender Justice, Climate Justice, and Holistic Health. TICAH’s 4 programs are:

● Art for Connection & Healing: Working with artists and through arts practices to build community, activate and revitalize public spaces, raise marginalized voices, and find healing and wellness.

● Healthy Households: working with households to stay healthy and prevent illness by incorporating practical, affordable, and sustainable practices by focusing on food and herbal remedies.

● Indigenous Knowledge and Culture: Working closely with cultural practitioners and elders to bring positive indigenous knowledge and culture into holistic health and solving community challenges.

● Our Bodies, Our Choices, an SRH program encouraging more honest and healthy approaches to sexual life through curricula, training, peer discussions, and a hotline. With like-minded organizations, we advocate for comprehensive sexuality education, and access to safe legal abortion.

As TICAH implements its programs, challenges and missed opportunities on the issues of environment and climate are evident as we work with the communities. Some of the groups who are already socially disadvantaged and marginalized suffer disproportionately from the Page 2 of 5 adverse effects of climate change, resulting in greater inequalities. Research indicates that this tends to happen to indigenous communities, women, and girls in different ways:

i) increase in exposure to the adverse effects of climate change;

ii) increase in their susceptibility/ vulnerability to damages caused by climate change;

iii) decrease in their ability to cope and recover from the damages suffered;

TICAH appreciates that the climate crisis is not gender-neutral. It amplifies cultural and social barriers that will hinder women and girls from enjoying their rights and their participation in economic and political life. It is a “threat multiplier”, meaning it escalates social, political, and economic tensions in already fragile and conflict-affected settings. Climate change fuels conflicts across the world due to reduced access to resources and sources of livelihood. Women and girls face increased vulnerabilities to all forms of GBV, including conflict-related sexual violence, human trafficking, child marriage, and other forms of violence as a result of the impacts of climate change.

In TICAH’s strategic plan 2022-2026, Climate Justice has been identified as one of the three priorities for community-level challenges in addition to gender justice, and holistic health. TICAH being a multisectoral organization, we would like to mainstream this climate justice approach across all the programs. TICAH is looking for a climate justice/climate change expert, with a demonstrated track record in conceptualizing and developing projects/programs that amplify the voices of indigenous or marginalized people, to provide backstopping during an inception phase of a climate justice program. Specifically, the purpose of this assignment is to conduct a scoping study on climate justice and formulate an approach that will be adopted by TICAH’s programs in line with the Strategic Plan.

Objectives & Purpose of the Assignment

Objectives:

i) To conceptualize, plan and conduct a scoping study to provide baseline data that will inform the development of a TICAH approach to the Climate Justice work. The study will:

a. Produce a diagnosis of the TICAHs programs’ area of influence and target groups: Generate verifiable data and indicators that benchmark climate justice themes in the selected program sites. Data collection, analysis, and interpretation should describe the existing environmental and social conditions, including the biophysical, socio-economic, and cultural context.

b. Produce a diagnosis of the institutional and legal framework: A description of the relevant regulations, system, and requirements for authorizations necessary for the implementation of TICAH strategic goals and program outcomes. This includes scoping national and local environmental legislation, international obligations, and agreements (e.g., Multilateral Environmental Agreements), identifying gaps, and the need for institutional strengthening in institutions responsible for the execution and environmental and social management of the program.

c. Propose a monitoring system and plan: Develop a methodology/ grading system for impacts to record severity in a matrix (long vs short-term, reversible vs irreversible, etc.) for the analysis, and rating of the environmental and social effects identified, whether positive and negative, direct, indirect, or cumulative impacts of the program as well as for each potential sub- program during Page 3 of 5 the different phases of the program cycle (inception, implementation, closeout, and future).

d. Provide information that will guide TICAH programs in the co-creation of interventions that bring about climate justice to communities.

e. Map out and engage networks and alliances in the climate justice sector in Kenya, and globally that are aligned to TICAH’s core programming areas (Sexuality, Indigenous knowledge, Art, and Health) to expand opportunities for TICAH in advocacy, research, learning, and partnerships.

Specific assignment tasks:

The Consultant will be expected to carry out the following tasks:

• Working directly with the Senior Programme Manager in charge of Indigenous Knowledge and Culture (IKC), support in the planning and execution of a Scoping Study and thereafter, a clear Climate Justice framework or approach to be adopted across TICAH’s programmes (Indigenous Knowledge and Culture, Healthy Household, ART and Our Bodies Our Choices).

• The consultant will provide guidance in shaping the scoping study in order to generate key information/data required for the design of TICAH’s interventions in relation to climate justice. Among the key sets of information that the scoping study should generate include:

i) The target population with whom TICAH will co-create interventions in the area of climate justice;

ii) Key climate issues as identified and prioritized by the target communities for immediate intervention.

iii) Local and international stakeholders and alliances that TICAH can collaborate with for scaling up the interventions and mobilization of resources. iv) Local and global debates that TICAH can be part of especially for advocacy work.

• The consultant will conduct background work and provide answers to the following high levels questions:

i) Considering the outcome of the assessment, what are some of the possible projects that TICAH can co-create with the respective communities to address the challenges they have identified in order to bring about climate justice?

ii) How can the new project ideas fit into TICAH’s Culture – Art- Health Framework and contribute to TICAH goals as stipulated in the Strategic Plan?

iii) Who are the indigenous or less-represented communities that TICAH will begin to work with and for what reason?

iv) How can TICAH use the data collected to advocate for the rights of the identified communities and influence the local and global debates on climate issues?

v) In what ways can the identified project ideas build synergies among TICAH program areas of intervention (Indigenous Knowledge and Culture, ART, Our Bodies Our Choices, Healthy Household)?

vi) Who are the strategic partners with whom TICAH can collaborate for advocacy work as well as fundraising for climate justice work?

On the other hand, TICAH will:

• Facilitate inception meeting at TICAH,

• Provide all literature to the consultant including the Strategic Plan, relevant program proposals, work plans, etc.

• Mobilise community participants for the study Methodology.

The consultant will outline a clear methodology for this assignment. This will include the following:

● Desk review of existing relevant literature on climate justice, TICAH literature leading to an inception report and presentation of the same (full Word document and PowerPoint presentation)

● Conduct interviews with relevant TICAH staff and volunteers in order to develop the plan, methodologies, and tools for the scoping study. This will include liaison with the Monitoring and Evaluation Manager, Head of the Program to agree to the format of the study report.

● Train the research assistants/ volunteers on data collection tools and interview techniques.

● Join research assistants and TICAH focal points in field visits to collect primary data from target populations.

● Perform the overall backstopping to TICAH during the entire process of the scoping study and the recommendation of TICAH’s approach to Climate Justice work.

Deliverables

The main deliverables from this assignment will be:

i) A scoping study plan and budget ready for fieldwork in the month of September 2023.

ii) A comprehensive Scoping Study report with recommendations, proposed project ideas and answers to the open questions in section C above. The structure/template of the report will be discussed with the successful bidder at the beginning of the contract.

iii) Facilitate a dissemination workshop with the project team .

Specific competences

Required Technical competencies:

● At least a Master’s degree with at least 5 years’ experience or,

● A relevant Bachelor’s degree with at least 7 years’ experience in a field related to Climate Change / Justice.

● Confirmed expertise in facilitating programs related to climate justice

● Experience in co-creating programs with indigenous communities or less-represented groups

● Experience working with or engaging with global communities on the issues of climate change

● Familiarity with concepts of building community resilience to climate change Personal competencies :

● Ability to work in multicultural teams

● Excellent analytical skills

● Good communication skills

● Ability to provide innovative solutions

● Proven facilitation skills

● Proven leadership skills

Timelines

This consultancy will begin on August 2023 and end on October 20 23. A period of 3 calendar months. The exact working days will be calculated at the contracting time.