Gender Specialist Consultant 202 views

Procurement of Services

TOR Reference No.: GP-TOR-ADM-2026-001

Introduction and Background

Gambia Participates (GP) is an NGO dedicated to advancing democratic governance, civic participation, accountability, and inclusive development in The Gambia. As part of its commitment to strengthening inclusive democratic institutions, GP is implementing a gender mainstreaming initiative targeting political parties and civil society organizations.

Despite important progress in The Gambia’s democratic transition, women and other underrepresented groups continue to face barriers to meaningful participation and leadership within political parties and civil society organizations. These challenges are reflected in unequal representation in decision-making, gender-blind institutional policies and practices, limited accountability mechanisms, and organizational cultures that do not fully support inclusion. Addressing these gaps requires strengthening institutional systems, policies, leadership practices, and organizational culture to promote gender equality and inclusive governance.

As part of its commitment to advancing democratic governance and inclusive participation, Gambia Participates (GP) with funding from the EU-UNDP GREAT Project is implementing a gender mainstreaming initiative targeting four political parties and four civil society/community-based organizations. GP seeks to engage a Gender Specialist Consultant to undertake comprehensive institutional gender assessments, identify key gaps and opportunities, and develop or revise Gender Policies and Gender Action Plans tailored to each organization. Through a participatory and evidence-based approach, the consultancy will support participating organizations to institutionalize gender-responsive policies, systems, and practices that strengthen inclusive governance and align with national legislation and international gender equality standards.

Objectives of the Assignment

The overall objective of this consultancy is to strengthen the institutional capacity of political parties and civil society organizations to mainstream gender equality and social inclusion through comprehensive institutional gender assessments, the development or revision of gender-responsive institutional policies, implementation frameworks, and support for organizational ownership and adoption of sustainable gender mainstreaming practices.

The assignment has the following objectives:

• To conduct comprehensive institutional gender assessments for eight (8) organizations to identify strengths, gaps, and opportunities for gender
• To Assess Institutional Policies , governance systems, organizational culture, leadership and practices that influence gender equality and
• To develop or revise institutional Gender Policies and accompanying Gender Action Plans tailored to the needs of each organization and aligned with national and international gender equality frameworks
• To facilitate stakeholder review, validation, and adoption of the Gender Policies and Action Plans to strengthen institutional ownership and

1. Produce a consolidated comparative report highlighting common findings, good practices, and strategic recommendations to inform future gender mainstreaming efforts

Scope of Services

The consultancy will be implemented over four phases through a participatory and evidence-based approach to assess institutional gender mainstreaming, strengthen organizational systems, and support the development and adoption of gender-responsive institutional policies and action plans.

Phase 1: Inception and Methodology Development (Month 1)

• Conduct inception meeting with GP senior management, programs team and UNDP focal person to align with the assignment objectives, scope, deliverables, reporting arrangements, and implementation .
• Review relevant project documents organizational profiles, stakeholder lists, and applicable national and international gender equality frameworks to inform the assessment .
• Develop:
• Comprehensive Institutional Gender Assessment Framework outlining the assessment methodology, key thematic areas, assessment criteria, and data collection approaches.

Develop data collection tools, including:

• Key Informant Interview (KII) guides;
• Focus Group Discussion (FGD) guides, where applicable;
• Membership survey questionnaires;
• Document review checklist; and
• Organizational Gender Policy and Gender Action Plan templates aligned with national legislation and recognized international good practices.
• Prepare a sampling strategy that ensures adequate representation of leadership, staff, members, women, youth, and other relevant stakeholder groups across participating organizations.

Submit an Inception Report for GP’s review and approval, outlining the methodology, assessment framework, work plan, sampling strategy, data collection tools, quality assurance measures, and implementation timeline.

Phase 2: Institutional Gender Assessments (Month 2)The Consultant will conduct comprehensive institutional gender assessments across the eight (8) participating organizations using a participatory and mixed-methods approach.Institutional Analysis

The Consultant Shall:

• Review relevant institutional documents, including entity by-laws or constitutions, HR manuals, recruitment and promotion policies, strategic plans, codes of conduct, safeguarding anti-harassment/ PSEAH policies, financial and budgeting frameworks and other relevant governance documents
• Examine existing institutional policies, procedures, and practices to identify strengths, gaps, barriers, and opportunities for advancing gender
• Assess resource allocation and budgeting practices to determine the extent to which they support gender-responsive programming and institutional Assess institutional governance systems, leadership structures, decision-making processes, gender representation, organizational culture, accountability mechanisms, and institutional capacity for gender mainstreaming.

Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and Stakeholder Consultations

• Conduct structured interviews with organizational leadership, board or executive committee members, staff, and other relevant (minimum 3–4 per organization).
• Explore institutional culture, leadership commitment, informal norms, barriers to gender equality, existing good practices, and organizational readiness for

Membership Surveys and focus group discussions

• Administer membership surveys using an agreed sampling strategy that ensures adequate representation of women, men, youth, persons with disabilities, leadership, and members, as
• Collect sex- and age-disaggregated data on participation, leadership opportunities, organizational inclusion, decision-making, perceptions of institutional culture, and experiences of discrimination or exclusion.
• At the conclusion of the assessment, the Consultant shall prepare an Institutional Gender Assessment Report for each participating organization, outlining key findings, institutional strengths, gaps, and prioritized recommendations for gender mainstreaming.

Phase 3: Development and Revision of Gender Policies and Gender Action Plans (Months 2–3)

Based on assessment findings, the Consultant shall develop or revise organization-specific Gender Policies and accompanying Gender Action Plans.

For organizations without gender policies the consultant shall:

• Develop a comprehensive Gender Policy aligned with national legislation and gender policies, international gender equality commitments, and recognized good practices in democratic governance and institutional gender

For organizations with existing Gender policies the consultant shall:

• Review and revise existing policies to strengthen:
• Institutional commitments to gender equality and inclusion
• Equal Opportunity and Affirmative action measures
• Gender-responsive governance and leadership;
• Prevention of discrimination, sexual harassment, and safeguarding;-
• Safeguarding and harassment prevention
• Gender-responsive budgeting and resource allocation
• Roles, responsibilities, accountability, and reporting arrangements;
• Monitoring, evaluation, and policy review mechanisms
• In addition, the Consultant shall develop a Gender Action Plan for each organization outlining priority actions, implementation arrangements, responsible persons, timelines, performance indicators, and resource considerations to support effective implementation of the Gender Policy

Phase 4: Validation, Institutional Adoption, and Final Reporting (Month 4) The Consultant Shall

Facilitate one technical review and one validation workshop with representatives of the participating organizations to review assessment findings, Gender Policies, and Gender Action Plans.

• Incorporate stakeholder feedback and finalize all
• Provide technical support to participating organizations throughout their internal policy approval and adoption processes, in accordance with their respective governance
• Prepare a Consolidated Comparative Gender Assessment Report highlighting common institutional strengths, key challenges, emerging trends, good practices, and strategic recommendations to strengthen gender mainstreaming across political parties and civil society

Deliverables

The table below lists all deliverables expected from the Consultant.

Timeline

The total duration of the assignment is 4 months, commencing on [TBD] and concluding on [TBD].

Qualifications and Experience of the Service Provider

• Advanced degree in Gender Studies, Political Science, Development Studies, Law, Sociology, or related
• Minimum 7 years’ experience in gender mainstreaming and institutional strengthening, organizational development, or democratic governance

• Demonstrated experience conducting institutional gender assessments or gender audits and developing evidence-based recommendations for organizational
• Proven experience in developing or revising Gender Policies, Gender Action Plans, and other institutional gender mainstreaming frameworks for public institutions, political parties, civil society organizations, or governance
• Demonstrated expertise in mixed-method research and participatory
• Experience supporting organizational policy adoption
• Strong analytical and report-writing skills in
• Familiarity with The Gambia’s governance and civil society landscape is highly desirable.

Reporting and Communication

• The Service Provider will report directly to the Programs
• Regular progress meetings will be held weekly with GP to discuss progress, challenges, and next steps.
• All reports and deliverables should be submitted in English and in electronic format (PDF and editable Word document), with hard copies for key

Payment Schedule

The total contract value for this 4-months assignment is D415,000. Payments will be made as follows:

Payment Conditions:

• All payments are contingent upon satisfactory completion and approval
• GP reserves the right to withhold or adjust payment in cases of unsatisfactory performance

GP’s Responsibilities

GP will provide the following to facilitate the assignment:

• Access to relevant available documents and information as
• A dedicated program support staff
• Introduction to key stakeholders and facilitation of
• Timely review and feedback on
• Facilitate access to the stakeholders needed

Ethical Considerations and Compliance

• The Service Provider shall adhere to the highest ethical standards throughout the
• The Service Provider shall comply with all applicable laws and regulations of The
• The Service Provider shall adhere to Gambia Participates’ policies, including but not limited to, those on Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Sexual Harassment, Code of Conduct, and The Service Provider will be required to sign relevant declaration forms.

Confidentiality

All information shared by GP with the Service Provider, and all information generated during the course of the assignment, shall be treated as confidential and shall not be disclosed to any third party without the prior written consent of GP. This obligation shall survive the termination of the contract.

Intellectual Property Rights

All intellectual property rights arising from the services rendered under this TOR, including but not limited to reports, data, and other materials, shall be the sole property of Gambia Participates.

Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated based on the following weighted criteria:

How to apply

Interested applicants, whether individual consultants or firms/teams of consultants, are required to send a one page cover letter, CV(s) and past similar jobs (portfolio) to careers@gambiaparticipates.org not later than 20th September 2026. Firms or teams of consultants shall also include the CV of each individual consultant proposed to work on the assignment. Clearly indicate on the email subject “Application for Gender Specialist Consultant”. All shared files should be PDF documents.