1. Background

The American Red Cross (ARC) works with the Red Cross / Red Crescent network, volunteers, donors and partner organizations to meet the needs of the world’s most vulnerable communities. ARC mounted a major response, in collaboration with the Haitian Red Cross (HRC) to assist Haitian communities following the devastating 2010 earthquake. Over the past year, ARC’s program in Haiti has transitioned from a response and recovery mode to a programmatic approach aimed at enhancing resilience in targeted communities over the longer term.

Among other activities, ARC and HRC have launched the following three major programs:
• LAMIKA (“Lavi Miyò nan Katye Pa M”, Haitian Creole for “A Better Life in my Neighborhood”), implemented in the Carrefour-Feuilles area and using an integrated neighborhood approach. This program focuses on building back a better community than the one that existed before the earthquake.
• Gran Nò Pi Djanm (GNPD), implemented in the Greater Nord region (North, Northeast and Northwest departments) and aiming at increasing community resilience, building their capacity and reducing their exposure to external shocks.
• PrevSIDA, an HIV prevention project in 12 communes in different departments (North Northeast, Northwest, West, Southeast, Nippes, Artibonite. using a peer-to-peer approach and aiming at reducing the incidence of HIV among most at risk populations and in settings characterized by high risk behaviors in Haiti.

New programs have been developed with distinct but integrated pillars that address multiple community needs, contribute to strengthening HRC and build partnerships with diverse organizations to leverage additional expertise and resources to deliver concrete results.

ARC’s goal is to ensure that women and men have equal access to benefits of its programs according to their differing needs, and that equality of women and men is integrated as a core value throughout the organization. Fostering commitment to gender equality among ARC-Haiti and HRC personnel and enhancing their knowledge on gender mainstreaming program approaches is essential to achieving this goal. ARC-Haiti has appointed a Gender Advisor and is adding gender focal persons within each of its programs to support the capacity development of its team on gender mainstreaming.

2. Request for Services

In order to supplement the efforts of its internal gender resources, American Red Cross Haiti’s Delegation is seeking the Consulting Services of Gender Training Specialists to deliver training on Mainstreaming Gender into Operations and Programs of the delegation, Haitian Red Cross (HRC) and partners. The delegation program teams work in both urban and rural communities in a multitude of sectors: Water Sanitation and Hygiene; Health; Livelihoods; Disaster Risk Reduction; Urban Planning and Infrastructure; Rural Infrastructure; Monitoring & Evaluation; and Support to Institutional Strengthening of HRC.

The Gender Training Specialists will be comprised of a minimum of one International Gender Training Specialist and one Haitian National Gender Training Specialist. The International and Haitian Consultants must apply jointly whether as associated individual consultants or through a firm. In the case of firm, the evaluation of expertise will be based mainly on the individuals’ rather than the organization’s experience. The applicants will indicate which of the two consultants will be the lead on managing the consulting assignment with primary responsibility for overall management and quality control of deliverables. The training modules have to be in English, French or Creole but will be delivered in Primarily French and/or Creole with one or possibly two trainings to be delivered in English.

3. Scope of the assignment

3.1 Overall Objective
This training is aimed at assisting ARC and HRC to meet their institutional and programmatic mainstreaming of Gender as a priority.

3.2 Specific objectives
The specific objectives of this Consultancy are to:

• Enable ARC and HRC personnel to understand and appreciate the key concepts and elements of gender, equality between women and men, women empowerment, gender based violence;
• Enable the staff to understand and take into account gender as an issue, and its impact on their personal lives and their work;
• Provide the staff (ARC, HRC and partners) with basic understanding of gender mainstreaming concepts and tools that they can use to develop and implement gender sensitive projects and programs; and indicators to measure impact on the lives of programs/projects’ beneficiaries.

3.3 Specific activities
The consultants are expected to:
• Undertake a training needs assessment with a sample of program team members (individual interviews, focus groups) to understand the current attitudes and knowledge on gender, the types of programs being implemented and other information important to tailoring the training to the needs of ARC-Haiti program;
• Develop a methodology for the training and prepare a training program (modules including handout and exercises, role play, case studies from rural and urban programs) based on the needs assessment and participants capacity. The methodology will be proposed by the Consultants but ARC envisions three core parts to the training:
 Gender equality concepts and exploration of individual participant’s attitudes to gender, gender based violence and openness to change;
 Explanation of concepts, tools and benefits of applying gender mainstreaming, women empowerment in programs;
 Workshop where participants are coached to develop a simple action plan for mainstreaming gender in their department/sector/program area.
• Conduct the gender training for groups of operational and program teams and partners in Port-au-Prince, North, Northwest and Northeast;
• Provide additional coaching to gender resource focal points and other program staff members (approx. 8 to 10 persons in total), enabling them to complete and follow-up on the gender action plans;
• Prepare a final training report;
• Support the gender team of ARC in the elaboration of a gender framework for ARC and HRC interventions.

3.4 Expected outcome
It is expected that at the end of the workshop, participants would have gained a greater understanding of the concept and elements of gender and have identified key areas of their program that need to be revised based on this and develop an action plan within the time frame.

4. Deliverables

• Report on the training needs assessment and training program planning for ARC approval ;
• Training delivery to a total of 7 groups with a total of 200 people based in Port-au-Prince, and in the North, Northwest and North East Departments. The trainees are comprised of the ARC and HRC Senior Management Team, ARC Operations Staff, ARC and HRC Program staff, HRC Regional and Local Committee members, Promoters and Volunteers.
• A training report after each training;
• Progress report on follow-up on the action plans;
• Final report and recommendations to ARC and HRC for continuing its strengthening of gender mainstreaming;
• Draft of a gender mainstreaming framework for ARC and HRC.

All deliverables must be validated by ARC.

5. Participant’s profile

No Group Participant profile Number of participants
Group 1 ARC Senior Management, Operations and Program staff 25
Group 2 HRC Senior Management, Operations and Program staff 25
Group 3 Program and Technical Staff Gran Nò Pi Djam 30
Groupe 4 Field Team Leaders Gran Nò Pi Djam 30
Group 5 HRC Regional and Local Committees; and Promoters (North, North-East, North-West) 30
Group 6 HRC Volunteers (North, North-East, North-West) 30
Group 7 ARC LAMIKA Staff, HRC Regional Committee and Partner staff 30
Total 200

6. Time Frame

The assignment will take place from January to June 2015. The estimated level of effort is presented below. This estimate is the combined days of the national and international consultant with the actual division of tasks and associated level of effort to be proposed by the applicants. This estimate may be revised based on the consultants’ proposal and justification for the time required.

Activities/Tasks Number of days Estimated timeframe
Training needs assessment and preparation of training plan 10 January 2015
Elaboration of training contents and tools tailored to the needs assessment (Modules, activities, etc.) 10 January 2015
Realization of the training for 7 groups (4 - 5 day training per group, on-site preparation, and local travel) 50 February – April 2015
Compilation of training evaluation data and training reports 5 February – April 2015
Final training report 5 May 2015
Draft of gender mainstreaming framework 10 May 2015
Follow-up coaching on gender strategies/action plans of key projects and report on coaching 10 May - June 2015
Total of working days 100

7. Minimum qualification and experience required:

7.1 International Consultant

• A Master degree or higher in a related social science discipline; a degree related to women’s studies and/or training is an asset;
• Applied and practical understanding of gender analysis, mainstreaming and its application in development and humanitarian work;
• Demonstrated experience in delivering training on gender;
• Demonstrated experience integrating gender into the project management cycle (Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation, reporting of projects/programs);
• Experience working in Haiti;
• A minimum of 10 years’ experience in gender and development / training with excellent skills in documentation, presentation, workshop facilitation, skills in adult learning and participatory training methodologies;
• Fluency in written and spoken English and, French; must be able to deliver training in French or Creole.
• Experience with the Red Cross / Red Crescent movement is an asset.

5.2 National consultant

• Bachelor Degree in social sciences or related field with at least 8 years of experience in gender and socio-economic development;
• Proven experience in gender training and demonstrate ability to lead dynamic gender training sessions for adults, and to develop appropriate strategies to deliver the required training;
• Proven experience in developing strategies for effective gender mainstreaming;
• Proficiency of English speaking and writing is essential; must be able to deliver training in French or Creole.

8. How to apply

Interested and qualified applicants should submit their consultancy applications by COB Friday, 28 November 2014 addressed to “APPLICATION FOR GENDER TRAINING – ARC Procurement Department “ at 22 Rue Métellus Pétion Ville - Haiti, including the following documents:

• Technical proposal of a maximum 5 pages indicating an understanding and interpretation of the TORs, methodology to be used in undertaking the assignment and timeline for expected deliverables (English and French);
• Financial proposal in USD (including consultancy fees and related implementation costs) that will be reviewed and approved by ARC on the basis of the terms of reference;
• Summary of consultant experiences and a sample training plan / training tool developed in a previous similar assignment;
• Consultants’ Curriculum Vitae detailing relevant experience related to the assignment;
• Names, addresses, telephone numbers of three organizations that will act as professional references and relevant documents elaborated regarding the consultancy.
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9. Consultancy evaluation and award

ARC will evaluate the proposals that meet all the minimum requirements and award the contract on the basis of the technical and financial feasibility. ARC reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal received without offering an explanation and is not bound to accept the lowest or highest bidder. Only the successful applicant will be contacted.