Rapporteur for the THE AFRICAN FEMINIST MACROECONOMIC ACADEMY (AFMA) – West Africa” At The African Women’s Development and Communications Network

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.

FEMNET recognizes that the commitment to alter relations of power, structural injustices, and systemic oppression lies at the heart of feminism. FEMNET is therefore committed to pushing towards altering power structures that perpetuate gender inequality by nurturing the African women’s movement to enable women and girls in their diversity to effectively claim, affirm, and use their collective power to end all forms of exclusion, oppression, exploitation, and injustices against them.

Founded in 1988, FEMNET exists to facilitate and coordinate the sharing of experiences, information, and strategies for human rights promotion among feminists, activists and women’s rights organizations as a strategy for collective organizing; policy influencing & advocacy; strategic communication; capacity strengthening as well as feminist solidarity and movement building.

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.

Vision: African women and girls thrive in dignity and well-being, free from patriarchal and neoliberal oppression and injustices.

Mission: To mobilize African women for the achievement of gender equality and the realization of women’s and girls’ rights at all levels.

FEMNET’s Core Values

• Feminist solidarity
• Respect for diversity
• Intersectionality
• Integrity
• Commitment to women’s rights
• Professionalism and learning

2.Background and rationale.

The 2023 AFMA West Africa focusing on Monetary Sovereignty will explore feminist perspectives on a brewing fiscal crisis in the West African region, bordering on the ability of entire states to formulate economic policies that align to their domestic development objectives amid global economic shocks. Monetary Sovereignty – the right of a country to issue, regulate and use a national currency to meet domestic development needs; remains a concern for many West African states where calls for monetary reform and shifts from the use of the CFA Franc have been underway for years. Whereas use of the French currency has had notable benefits, the multiple crises (i.e., Covid-19, debt, and the climate crisis), and geopolitical conflicts (Russo-Ukraine war), that have shifted global economic order have highlighted limited capacity of CFA countries to utilize their economic and monetary policies to respond to external economic shocks. The result has been a very apparently devastating rise in the cost of basic goods and services, currency depreciation commensurate with the fall in value of the Euro against which the CFA is pegged and constricted fiscal capacities of governments to adequately provide public services that ensure the wellbeing of the people, especially women and girls.

In order to form equitable systems and structures fundamental to women’s economic justice, the quality of public services and the funding allocated towards them by African Governments needs to be a priority. How governments choose to develop and implement recovery plans from current, and past, crises on the continent is key. And this requires adequate financing informed by economic policies, including monetary policies, that align with the domestic needs of states to ensure the well-being of citizens, especially women and girls.

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 to be held from 20th-23rd February 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 photos of the workshop and include these in the final report.
• Provide main highlights of each day of the conference to be used by the moderator during recap for subsequent day .

4.Deliverables & expected results.

Workshop report that includes photos (not more than 6 pages) and highlights the main content of discussions that is organized 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 rapporteuring
• Outstanding editing skills
• Experience in report writing for non-profit organizations

6.Duration of Assignment.

This is a 4-day assignment from 20th to 23rd February 2023.

7.Liaison, Coordination and Reporting.

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

8.Selection of Consultant.

The rapporteur shall be contracted by FEMNET. The contract will include Withholding Tax (WHT) deduction in line with the laws of contracting where FEMNET is headquartered. A WHT certificate will be issued to the consultant. Payment will be done through bank transfer to consultant bank account. FEMNET will not meet the costs of bank charges. 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 authorize others to use, reproduce or disseminate any output produced under the service contract without prior consent from FEMNET.

10.Terms of Service.

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