Consultancy for a multi-country research on Gender and Climate At Oxfam

1. PURPOSE OF THIS CONTRACT
The objective of this consultation is to conduct qualitative research on 3 North African countries, in the form of a case study, on the intersections between gender and climate justice. More specifically, this research aims to offer a feminist analysis on the gendered dimension of losses and damages linked to climate change. This research also aims to create with Oxfam partners a space for strategic reflection on the issue of Gender and Climate in North Africa. It should provide common conceptual bases, which will allow exploring the possibilities of a narrative and a common agenda around this issue.

2. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
Project context
Oxfam’s regional office is undertaking a research project on gender and climate justice, which aims to provide Oxfam and its partners with a space to strategically reflect on their intersections, and to co-create a common narrative and agenda around this issue. It also aims to enable Oxfam to establish its programmatic strategic vision.
This project focuses particularly on the issue of loss and damage related to climate change.
Indeed, at COP28 in 2023, a specific fund for loss and damage related to climate change was finally granted. This fund has yet to be defined in more detail, but they concern loss and damage, i.e. the consequences and harm caused by climate change. Although there is a standard general definition of loss and damage, there cannot be a language borrowed from these terms (source: Oxfam, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe). What constitutes loss and damage needs to be defined locally, and based on the realities and meanings that people in affected communities give to their experiences and what is important, and this varies depending on their culture. It is therefore important for countries in the North Africa region to work to conceptualize the meaning that communities give to their loss and damage, and to produce data that helps to contextualize these interpretations. For civil society and decision-making actors on this issue, this production of data is necessary for a common understanding that reflects an accurate picture of the communities they are talking about.
This project has a multi-country approach in that it focuses on a regional approach, in that it seeks to build, by reflecting these different realities, a narrative for North Africa. It uses a contextualized feminist analysis to explore the needs and narrative of linking gender and climate justice in each of these contexts and at the regional level.
Gender and climate
Due to structural inequalities, impacts are distributed disproportionately: not only does the marginalization of communities limit their ability to prevent disasters, but disasters also exacerbate these injustices and their marginalizing effects. Thus, climate change is not gender neutral (Kvina till Kvinna, feminist movements and climate justice in mena): it impacts people differently depending on their gender, ethnic group, economic class, and whether they live with disabilities (source: Oxfam, Asia).
Gender roles, for example, hold women responsible for unpaid care work, and this has severe consequences for women in coping with climate change: care work can limit access to economic resources and formal work (Et si on geste la grève au maison ? Oxfam en Tunisie) and this has implications for the assistance they can provide after a disaster (Oxfam, Asia). This responsibility to care for dependent people also reduces their ability to evacuate a place in an emergency and severely increases the risk of death for women during a disaster (Oxfam, Asia). Care responsibilities also increase 2 to 3 times after a climate disaster (Kvina till Kvinna, feminist movements and climate justice in mena), given for example the lack of access to water, and the weakening of the community fabric that allows for shared care.
Women, through their relationship with nature and their use of natural resources, and through their community role, play an important role in climate change warning, and they are key actors in disaster responses. However, their contributions are diminished or excluded, and the losses and damages they suffer as women and through their gender-based role are ignored, or even silenced, particularly in reparation priorities and financial discussions on losses and damages (Oxfam, Asia). In this sense, it is important to focus on understanding specifically the gendered dimension of economic and non-economic losses and damages: the gendered dimension in the very meaning of these losses and damages.
However, the issue of “Gender and Climate” is approached as an arbitrary and haphazard annexation of two terms, and not a priority. This issue also still has little room for discussion among feminist associations in the region. The intersections between gender justice and climate justice arise mainly spontaneously; They are brought to the surface by women themselves – these women must use platforms concerning general discussions on climate, or other development projects, to make their needs heard. Documenting their knowledge could promote the engagement of actors and actresses on this issue (Kvina till Kvinna, feminist movements and climate justice in MENA).
Therefore, this project aims to offer Oxfam and its partners testimonies and analysis on how these two phenomena – gender and climate – intersect, when approached from a feminist point of view. In other words, this project seeks to conceptualize the issue of climate justice, in itself, and by conceptualizing it directly in its association with gender justice.

3. TARGET AUDIENCE AND USE OF RESEARCH RESULTS
The research will include partner associations, and communities impacted by climate change in the countries covered by the research. The analysis generated by this research aims first and foremost to equip civil society partners, in particular feminist associations and those working directly on climate justice issues. Government actors and other decisive actors in climate justice such as certain national and international agencies will also be involved.

4. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
Its objective is to inform Oxfam and its partners on the meaning of loss and damage related to climate change, when approached from a feminist and lived experience perspective. By offering a feminist narrative on the gendered dimension of loss and damage related to climate change, this research should enable Oxfam and its partners to be equipped and create a collective space for strategic reflection to improve their programs.
More specifically, this research aims to:
• Understand the gendered dimension of economic and non-economic loss and damage. This research does not seek to quantify these losses and damages, but to “give them meaning” by communities
• Develop a common and contextualized understanding of the intersections between gender and economic justice, and the terms of loss and damage, which is informed by the lived experiences of people in the three countries of the region.
• Develop a shared agenda that advocates for an intersectional feminist approach focusing on the ways in which people are affected by climate change based on their gender, race, ethnicity, economic class, religion, etc.
• Map current initiatives and policies and influential actors on gender and climate issues.
• Capture displaced local knowledge on how to care for the environment that could improve climate change response and reduce loss and damage.

5. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
A How do gender dynamics influence the dimension of economic and non-economic losses and damages related to climate change, and the meaning given to them by communities?
B Sub-question: What are the gender injustices exacerbated by losses and damages related to climate change?
C Sub-question: How are economic and non-economic losses and damages exacerbated by gender injustices?
D What are the particularities of each country, and what can be a common definition for the region?
E Who are the associations and other key actors influencing the issue of Gender and Climate in the countries concerned by the research and at the regional level?

6. RESEARCH METHODS
This research includes three case studies, covering the countries concerned by the research. It also includes a regional analysis on North Africa.
It must rely in particular on the following methodologies:
1. Literature review in order to feed the feminist analysis on the issue of economic and non-economic losses and damages in the region and in the world
2. Mapping of actors and public policies related to the issue of climate justice, in order to identify the key actors with whom to reflect on this research
3. Reflection workshop or interviews on this research and the questions it must answer, with Oxfam and its partners in the three countries.
4. Individual interviews and/or group interviews to collect life stories and reflect on the meaning to be given to the notions of losses and damages and its localized epistemology.
5. Regional workshop with Oxfam and its partners to reflect on the research results and identify a collective position on this basis
6. Workshop with Oxfam in North Africa on its programmatic strategy and its role to play in development programs on gender and climate issues.

7. DELIVERABLES
Specific products and deliverables. These dates are estimates and slightly negotiable. Please indicate your proposed adaptations in your proposal.

1 Week 3/03: Methodological note
2 Week 10/03: Research questions confirmed with Oxfam partners [individual or group interviews with Oxfam partners on the priorities of this research and confirm the research questions]
3 Week 17/03: Literature review [on the issue of climate justice in the region, and the intersections between climate justice and gender justice at the global level]
4 Week 17/03: Mapping of key actors and policies
5 Week 24/03 to 07/04: Interview tools and collection of testimonies [Brief description]
6 Week 21/04: Structure of the report and key messages of the sections (including the results)
7 Week 28/04: A qualitative analytical research including three case studies and a regional analysis [Brief description]
8 Week 28/04: Facilitation of the regional workshop with Oxfam and its partners, including 1 day with Oxfam only
9 Week 28/04: Proposal for a programmatic strategy on the gender and climate issue in North Africa
10 Week 28/04: Internal programmatic strategy for Oxfam

8. METHODOLOGY
This research is qualitative.
It is part of Oxfam’s Gender Justice program in North Africa. The research must therefore be part of a holistic vision of gender justice. Thus, it uses a feminist methodology and analysis. In this sense, it addresses the issue of economic and non-economic losses and damages from a gender justice perspective. Also, for example, traditional methodologies for measuring the impact of climate change do not recognize unpaid care work, or include it in the category of non-economic losses and damages. A feminist analysis recognizes the role of this work in the economy, and seeks to make it visible and have it recognized in order to reduce its marginalizing effects (source: Oxfam Asia).

It is also participatory, in that its orientations will be defined with the associations, and places at the center of its narrative the experiences of marginalized communities impacted by climate change.
It uses an intersectional approach, in that it places gender-based power dynamics at the center, and is interested in intersections with other vulnerability factors.
It is decolonial, in that it draws inspiration from global theories, but seeks to develop a local meaning and epistemology.

9. PROFILE REQUIREMENTS
The company/individual(s) must demonstrate the following skills:
Essential criteria
[We strongly encourage that this research be conducted by a group of individuals given its regional scope and short duration. The group of individuals responsible for the research must bring together the following expertise:

– Experience in feminist research and using feminist methodologies.
– Feminist facilitation
– In-depth knowledge of gender justice, and climate justice, and/or gender and climate issues.
– Experience working with civil society in the region, and with international organizations.
– Fluency in Arabic, French.
–
Desired criteria
• A team composed of people with academic expertise and activists
• Fluency in English is an asset.