TITLE OF CONSULTANCY: Monitoring The Implementation Of Gender Budget Statements And Its Contribution To Nst1 Aspirations
1. BACKGROUND, CONTEXT AND JUSTIFICATION
The Rwandan Government introduced the National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) as a development framework to ensure national resources bring transformation to Rwandans for improved quality of life. The strategy considers mainstreaming gender equality, women empowerment and family promotion as cross-cutting matters. For sustainable transformation to be realized, national planning and budgeting processes must consider allocating resources to bridge gender inequalities in the different sectors, both at central and decentralized levels through Gender Responsive Budgeting program (GRB).

According to Organic Law No. 002/2022.OL of 12/12/2022 on Public Finances and Management under article 34 related to preparation and presentation of the budget framework paper (BFP), it is mentioned that the BFP contains gender budget statement. In the same law in article 77 related to budget execution and activity report, it is stipulated that all ministries and central government entities which are not under the supervision of any ministry prepare and submit quarterly and annual budget execution report including gender budget statement and activity report. On a quarterly and annual basis, Ministries are required to prepare a consolidated budget execution report which also includes gender budget statement and publishes it on the Ministry’s website.
During the recent Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Assessment 2022 for Central Government, Rwanda’s performance was not good on gender responsive budgeting. Therefore, this assessment constitutes an opportunity to improve GRB implementation in Rwanda. The Gender Monitoring Office is mandated to monitor compliance to gender equality principles at all levels and it is under this mandate that the Office conduct audits on gender budget statements every year to assess their contribution to impacting the lives of men and women, boys and girls.

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While previous GBS audits have been focusing on direct impact of GBS interventions on men and women in targeted communities, this fiscal year 2022-2023, the focus will be on the socio-economic transformation of men and women who benefited from GBS interventions in line with NST1 aspirations for the past three years (2019-2022). In addition, the gender distribution of employment in the different budget agencies will be assessed to understand the level of men and women representation in decision-making. The selected sectors include; water and sanitation, health, energy, education and agriculture at decentralized levels. At central level, four Ministries with huge gender budgets with service delivery transformational outcomes on the lives of men and women will be audited. Those are MINAGRI, MININFRA, MINISANTE and MINEDUC. At the end of the GBS audit, findings will be discussed with key stakeholders to enhance GRB program implementation.
It is against this background that GMO in collaboration Rwanda Civil Society Platform seek to hire a national gender consultant or a consulting firm to support the coordination and reporting of the GBS field audit at different levels.

2. Objective Of The Consultancy Service
The overall aim of the assignment is to assess the transformational impact of Gender budget statements (GBS) and its contribution to achieving NST1 aspirations.

• Specific Objectives
From a specific point of view, the consultancy aims at:
• Evaluating the contribution of Gender budget statements to national aspirations in NST1 at different levels.
• Documenting the alignment of GBS as a planning tool with other national planning and accountability tools like NST1, Sector Strategic Plans (SSPs), District Development Strategies (DDS), action plans and performance contracts at both central and decentralised levels.
• Assessing the level of representation of men and women in decision-making at different levels to advise improvement strategies.
• Documenting any good practices as a result of GBS implementation and their contribution to NST1 aspirations.
• Recommending improvement areas for effective GBS implementation and its contribution to national aspirations at different levels.

3. Expected Outputs
• The contribution of gender budget statements to NST1 aspirations established across the different pillars.
• Gaps in alignment of gender budget statements to national planning and accountability tools documented.
• Strategies to improve men and women representation in decision-making proposed.
• Improvement areas for effective GBS contribution to national aspirations advised.
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4. Scope Of The Assignment
This year’s GBS audit will track the contribution of GBS interventions towards the national transformational journey. Focus will be on the selected sectors (mentioned earlier) at decentralised levels and 4 Ministries at central level. The years for consideration will be 2019-2020, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022. At decentralised level, fourteen (14) districts (8 from Southern Province and 2 from each of the remaining Provinces) and City of Kigali will be considered.

5. Tasks To Be Accomplished
The consultant or consulting firm will undertake the following tasks:
• Prepare an inception report defining the rationale of the assignment, clear methodological approaches to be used in establishing the contribution of GBS interventions towards achieving NST1 at different levels and work plan.
• Review GBS implementation reports from selected Ministries and Districts for FYs 2019-2020, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 in order to understand the extent to which GBS interventions contributed to NST1 aspirations.
• Develop audit tools and train GMO and RCSP staff on the same tools.
• Lead and coordinate the GBS field audit exercise.
• Produce draft consolidated report with a power point presentation on findings on GBS contribution to attainment of NST1 targets and aspirations in different pillars.
• Produce a final consolidated report on the contribution of GBS towards achieving NST1 aspirations accompanied by a power point presentation to enable GMO and RCSP’s advocacy at different levels.
• Provide practical recommendations that could be used as advocacy tool to improve GBS implementation to effectively contribute towards attaining national aspirations.
• Participate and present findings in validation and dissemination dialogues as will be deemed necessary.

6. Deliverables
The consultant/consulting firm will be expected to deliver on the following:
• Inception report
• Audit tools
• Draft consolidated report
• Power point presentation on the findings
• Final consolidated report

7. Profile Of The Consultant/Consulting Firm
The consultant/Consulting firm competing for this assignment must be familiar with gender responsive budgeting program with proven experience in consulting in this area. Particularly, the following will be taken into consideration.
• Master’s degree in Gender studies, Law, Social Sciences, International Development, public finance management or other related fields.
• Extensive experience in terms of Rwandan policy or position on gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Minimum of 5 years’ proven experience in research or consulting in gender responsive budgeting at national, regional or international levels.
• Ability to work under minimum supervision while maintaining high level collaboration spirit.
• Demonstrated knowledge of national, regional, international gender commitments, policy and legal frameworks.
• The consultant should have proven experience in developing advocacy as well as policy briefs.
• Experience working with decentralized levels, Central Government and partners.

8. Supervision And Reporting Arrangement
The consultancy work will be carried out under the overall guidance of Executive Secretaries of GMO and RCSP with the supervision of the Director of Monitoring Gender Mainstreaming Unit and the focal person from RCSP as contract custodians. All reports will be officially submitted in English, in hard and soft copies with annexes sent by email as will be advised by GMO and RCSP.
9. TIMING
The duration of the assignment is three (3) calendar months from date of contract signing.
Interested bidders are advised to send both technical and financial proposals electronically to Rwanda Civil Society Platform, rwandacsplatform@gmail.com not later than 19th February 2023.
KABEZA Angelique
Executive Secretary
Rwanda Civil Society Platform
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