Interpeace Intersectional Gender Analysis – Northern Kenya Jobs in Kenya

Interpeace Intersectional Gender Analysis – Northern Kenya Jobs in Kenya

Interpeace is an international organization for peacebuilding. With over 25 years of experience, it has implemented a broad range of peacebuilding programmes in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Interpeace tailors its approach to each society and ensures that its work is locally designed and driven.

Through local partners and its own local teams, it jointly develops peacebuilding programmes based on extensive consultation and research. Interpeace helps establish processes of change that promote sustainable peace, social cohesion, and resilience. The organization’s work is designed to connect and promote understanding between local communities, civil society, governments, and the international community.

Interpeace also assists the international community – especially the United Nations – to play a more effective role in peacebuilding, based on Interpeace’s expertise in field-based work at grassroots level. Interpeace achieves this primarily by contributing innovative thought leadership and fresh insights to contemporary peacebuilding policy.

It also assists the international community through ‘peace responsiveness’ work, in which Interpeace provides advice and practical support to other international organizations (especially those in the security, development, and humanitarian aid sectors), enabling them to adapt their work systemically to simultaneously address conflict dynamics and strengthen peace dynamics.

Background

Interpeace has been active in Kenya since 2014, when it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC); a government agency mandated to foster lasting peace and cohesion between Kenya’s various ethnic communities. This partnership was first put into practice in Mandera County, achieving significant peace gains since 2016.

NCIC and Interpeace interventions succeeded in largely stopping cyclical communal violence and in establishing local peacebuilding infrastructures that today are widely able to manage intermittent clashes. Given this track-record, NCIC recommended in the 2018 report “Footprints for Peace” to adopt the approach from Mandera County as a model for locally owned and locally driven peacebuilding architectures in all the 47 counties of Kenya.

NCIC and Interpeace therefore scaled up their activities to Wajir County and the North Rift (a region spanning the county borders of Turkana, West Pokot, Elgeyo Marakwet, Baringo and Samburu) in 2019 and further expanded to the counties of Laikipia and Marsabit in 2022.

The gender- and age dimensions of the conflicts between pastoral communities in Interpeace’s areas of intervention have been highlighted in a number of research processes conducted by the programme. For example, young men tend to be the primary perpetrators of violence, being particularly exposed to socio-cultural pressures that promote their engagement in violence.

Women can contribute to these dynamics in their ascribed gender roles by encouraging men to participate in raids. At the same time, different identity factors (including those related to gender, age, marital status, or class) also shape the resilience capacities of individuals, and the ways in which they participate in peace processes.

In North-Eastern Kenya, for example, married women can build important bridges between different communities, as they are seen as part of both their husbands’ and fathers’ clans. Interpeace seeks to further develop its understanding of the gendered nature of conflicts in Northern Kenya with the goal of informing more nuanced, gender-inclusive peacebuilding practices in its Kenya Country Programme.

Service or Assignment Description and Objective(s)
Interpeace aims to engage a consultant with extensive experience working on gender and peacebuilding in Northern Kenya to draft an intersectional gender analysis, covering the Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC) region, as well as Baringo, Elgeyo-Marakwet and Laikipia (FCDC+3).

Through the study, Interpeace aims to develop a nuanced understanding of how gender differences intersect with other identity factors (including age, ethnic and religious background, social class, sexuality, disability, or marital status) to shape the drivers and impacts of conflicts, and resilience capacities that provide opportunities for transformational change.

This is aimed at enabling Interpeace to strengthen and enhance gender-inclusive peacebuilding practices in its Kenya country programme.

More specifically, the report is expected to answer to the following research questions:

How do gender differences interact with other identity

factors to shape drivers and impacts of violent conflict, and the ways in which different groups participate in conflict?

How do gender differences interact with other identity factors to shape resilience capacities and the ways in which different groups participate in peace processes?

How can peacebuilding efforts in the FCDC+3 region effectively address gendered drivers and impacts of conflict, and harness the potential of gendered sources of resilience?

Activities, Deliverables and Timeframe

The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Interpeace Kenya Senior Programme Manager, to deliver several research activities that will achieve these objectives. Provisional activities are outlined below, although these may be reviewed jointly by Interpeace and the consultant.

Production of research plan

Based on initial engagements with the Interpeace Kenya programme, the consultant will develop a research plan that will guide the subsequent research process. The research plan will outline methods used for data collection and data analysis, identify locations for data collection, and develop a timeline for the creation of the report. The research plan will also specify in more detail the components and structure of the report. Research questions may be reviewed jointly by Interpeace and the consultant.

Data collection

The consultant will conduct a desk review of existing literature and initiatives on gender and peacebuilding/conflict in the FCDC+3 area and the wider region to inform subsequent data collection. The consultant is further expected to conduct focus group discussions with community members and interviews with other key stakeholders (i.e. government officials, Interpeace project teams, civil society actors etc.) in Marsabit and, potentially, the North Rift and/or North-Eastern Kenya (Mandera or Wajir). Further interviews with key stakeholders will be conducted virtually and/or in Nairobi.

Analysis & report writing

Following data collection, the consultant will produce a draft report that should include information on the following areas:

Background/overview of conflict context

Intersectional analysis of gendered drivers and impacts of conflicts.

Intersectional analysis of gendered resilience capacities.

Lessons learned, challenges and best practices for past/ongoing intervention.

Recommendations for strengthening gender-inclusive peacebuilding.

The draft report will be shared with the Interpeace Kenya team for feedback, which will be incorporated by the consultant to produce a final report.

Deliverables Deadlines

The assignment is expected to begin on 1 July 2023 and is estimated to take the consultant approximately 12 days (flexible and to be negotiated). Final deliverables will need to be submitted by 30 September 2023.

Qualifications

The supplier, and the attached individuals delivering the work, are expected to have the following qualifications:

A minimum of 10 years of experience in peacebuilding, and conflict management and prevention, with a focus on women, peace, and security and gender inclusive peacebuilding.

Strong research and report writing skills with demonstrated track-record in drafting high-quality publications in English language.

Demonstrated experience in programme development related to gender, conflict and peacebuilding.

Strong contextual knowledge of conflict and socio-political dynamics in Northern Kenya.

Willingness and ability to various locations in Northern Kenya.

Knowledge of community languages of Northern Kenya is desirable.

How to Apply

Please submit a complete Expression of Interest to recruitment-eca@interpeace.org with the subject line “Gender Analysis Kenya” by 19 June 2023 including:

CVs of persons undertaking the work, including three references.

Two writing samples of previous similar work.

Technical and financial proposal (max. 2 pages), containing a proposed daily rate and total fee in USD (excluding travel-related costs during the assignment). The cost of preparing an application and negotiating a contract, including any related travel, is not reimbursable nor can it be included as a direct cost of the assignment.

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