Consultancy Services with FEMNET

Call for Expression of Interest for Consultancy Services

TERMS OF REFERENCE

REVIEW OF FEMNET's HUMAN RESOURCE POLICY, GUIDELINES AND PROCEDURES

1. Background
The African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) is a pan- African, membership-based women's rights organization that was formed in 1988 to coordinate African women's rights organizations across Africa to advocate for women's rights and gender equality issues with a common and stronger voice. The Secretariat of FEMNET is based in Nairobi, Kenya with 14 full-time staff members ( both programme and support staff). FEMNET works and collaborates with already existing organizations in different African countries as members and focal points. Currently FEMNET has members in 37 African countries spread in all the five sub-regions of Africa.

FEMNET's niche is its recognized identity as a pan-African Network with the ability to reach a wide constituency of women across Africa and globally. FEMNET stands out for its work in gender advocacy, communication and capacity building and has over the years made significant contribution to the agenda for advancing women's rights and gender equality on the continent. FEMNET's representational role at international and regional platforms ensures that African women's perspectives, concerns and issues are recognised and acted upon.

FEMNET has positioned itself well as a convenor, organiser, and facilitator on dialogues around critical issues affecting African women including women's involvement in governance and leadership, sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender-based violence/violence against women, women's economic governance and new aid/ development modalities. In its key publications, the bi-annual African Women's Journal and the monthly e-bulletins, FEMNET provides regular advocacy reports and updates on some of these critical issues. These publications are effective in succinctly presenting detailed reports and guidelines on international human rights laws and its application to and by African women.

FEMNET is able to bring together key stakeholders and to provide the needed leadership on discussions on the gender agenda. FEMNET was instrumental in establishing strong partnerships and alliances with other pan- African networks (such as ABANTU, FAHAMU, ACORD, ACDHS, FAWE, WILDAF and Akina Mama wa Africa). FEMNET has facilitated processes for inputs at various forums, leading to the clarification of goals and outcomes towards the promotion of women's rights and building consensus on efforts to be taken to attain these goals. FEMNET was also instrumental in documenting results from conferences and meetings, sharing this knowledge and encouraging and coordinating follow-up on decisions.

FEMNET is one of the founders of Solidarity for African Women's Rights (SOAWR), a coalition of 43 civil society organisations across the continent working to ensure that the AU Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa remains on the agenda of policy makers. It encourages African leaders to safeguard the rights of women through ratification, domestication and implementation of the Protocol. Since SOAWR's formation in 2004, FEMNET has continued to serve on the steering committee contributing to its strategic thinking and planning.

An organizational evaluation of FEMNET was embarked on in 2009 so that the organization and its members can get the best from the Network, and it showed that the organization stands out for its advocacy and communication work and has made credible effort to transcend the continent's language and other cultural barriers to bring women together to ensure a strong women's voice to influence determining policies and shaping societies as mentioned above.

In 2013, a systems based audit was conducted and it confirmed that FEMNET has an effective organizational structure, a generally sound system of internal controls for operational management, and an efficient administrative Secretariat. The audit also noted that the staff is competent and the management team highly experienced. However, the audit also noted areas that needed improvement among which was the review of our Human Resource Policy, Guidelines and Procedures. It is under this background that we are seeking for a qualified person/firm in Human Resource and Organizational Development (hereunder referred to as "the Consultant") to support the review of our Human Resource Policy and Guidelines and Procedures and its related tools.

2. Overall Aim/ Purpose is to:
Carry out a review of the existing Human Resource Policy and Guidelines and Procedures and revise it in consideration of relevant recommendations from the Organizational Evaluation of 2009, the Systems Based Audit of 2013 and in accordance with Kenyan constitution and labour laws; International labour laws, gender equality principles and generally accepted human resource practices.

The revised Human Resource Policy and Guidelines and Procedures will:
• serve as a written declaration of the FEMNET's commitment to fair employment practices;
• ensure that HR policies are in line with the applicable laws of Kenya;
• serve as a communication between FEMNET and the employees, to outline rules and requirements;
• clarify FEMNET's expectations of all its employees;
• provide a guideline for managerial action in consistent decisions and resolving of problems;
• provide a guide to employees in respect of their conditions of service, responsibilities, rights and privileges.

Specifically the review of the Human Resource Policy and Guidelines and procedures will aim at the following areas;
1. Recruitment and placement of staff (Kenyan and non Kenyan Staff)
2. Leave administration: - operating procedure
3. Staff code of conduct and disciplinary procedure
4. Staff promotion procedures
5. Staff retention
6. Staff development and capacity building
7. Staff remuneration/ reward and salary scales
8. Staff continuous capacity development/ training
9. Perfomance management/ evaluation
10. Staff pension scheme
11. Dispute resolution mechanism
12. Staff job descriptions,titles and reporting lines
13. Procedure and processing of staff loans
14. Staff motivation including medicare etc
15. Leave (annual leave, maternity and paternity leave, sick leave, compassionate leave, unpaid long leave etc.)
16. Other matters that would improve the document in line with the common practices in regional NGOs based in Kenya and general HR practices.

3. The Assignment
On a more general level, the review of human resource policy guidelines and procedures will primarily focus on an analysis of the current practices and personnel policy guidelines to determine whether the latter meet standard human resources practices. It shall assess FEMNET's organizational structure, the relevance and dimensioning of this structure in relation to functions and duties of each staff position.

The Consultant is expected to analyse the existing personnel manual and other related documents, carry out consultations with staff members, board members and other key stakeholders deemed appropriate and produce a revised Human Resource Policy and Guidelines and Procedures with accompanying tools such as Job Descriptions, Staff Performance Evaluation forms etc.

The Human Resource Policy, Guidelines and Procedures is expected to be:
- Compliant with host country labour laws (Kenya) at the minimum
- Compliant with host country constitution and FEMNET's constitution (currently under review)
- Compliant with International labour laws where possible
- Compliant with human rights and gender equality principles related to labour/employment
- Support decision-making mandate and delegation procedures through the whole FEMNET organizational chain.

Other specific issues to be addressed include:
- Assessing the adequacy of Human Resources for each department and /or programme.
- Documentation of Internal Controls over the staff recruitment procedures.
- Measures meant to minimise chances of conflicts of interest that may arise in staff recruitment.
- Measures that may be used to establish reasons for staff turnover.
- Guidelines for staff working in an acting capacity to effectively discharge their duties.
- Guidelines that will enable FEMNET to effectively enforce discipline within the organization. The guidelines should include disciplinary actions that may be taken, which should be fair and in generally acceptable human resource practices.
- Procedures/ perfomance evaluations that will help FEMNET identify individual staff weaknesses on time and ensure the same weaknesses are not carried over to the following year (s)
- Guidelines that will ensure the organization's efficient and effective payroll costs per programme/ departments or projects as well as fair apportionment of costs among the various projects.

In addition, the consultant as the Expert in this area is expected to include other matters considered to be relevant for achieving the aim of forward looking personnel policy practices.

4. Method
The assignment shall be performed through, but not limited to, desk study of materials to be made available by FEMNET. In addition, interviews may also be conducted with FEMNET Board members, staff members in Nairobi and those who have left FEMNET and other stakeholders deemed relevant.

5. Outputs expected
I. A revised Human Resource Policy and Guidelines and Procedures
II. Job Descriptions for each staff member
III. Performance Appraisal forms
IV. A revised Organization's organogram
V. And any other tools deemed important

NB:- All the outputs will be ipso facto the exclusive property of FEMNET.

6. Time Schedule
The assignment shall be expected to be completed in a period of three months between June – September, 2014.

7. Contacts and Reporting
The contact person will be the Executive Director or her assignee. For quality assurance purposes, as part of the assignment, there shall be a presentation by the Consultant of the final results in a meeting with FEMNET.

8. Specification of requirements
• Applicants shall specify the leader of the assignment and other members of the team that will carry out the assignment.
• Applicants shall specify the total cost of the assignment.
• The invoice shall be specified in the same way as the budget as presented in the application. The Applicant shall submit an action plan for the assignment.

9. Required Qualification, Skills and Competencies
The Individual Consultant or Firm selected will have or have in its team the following expertise:
• Minimum Masters Degree in Human Resource Management and Development or related studies from a recognized University or equivalent;
• Over 5 years proven experience in conducting and facilitating similar Human Resource Policy reviews for NGOs similar to FEMNET;
• Good knowledge and experience in Organizational development and change management;
• Strong knowledge of human rights and gender equality and how to incorporate these in human resource policies;
• Strong analytical skills;
• Excellent communication skills and fluency in spoken and written English

10. The documents to be submitted in response to this call for expression shall include:
• A cover letter outlining motivation and summarizing relevant experience;
• A proposal showing the applicant's understanding of the assignment and how he/she/they plan(s) to carry it out;
• A financial proposal detailing the cost of carrying out the assignment;
• Curriculum Vitae with full description of the applicant's firms profile and experience
• A proposed work plan for carrying out the assignment;
• Contact details for at least three independent referees with in-depth and proven knowledge of the applicant's expertise and relevant work experience.

11. Application Process
The hard copy applications should reach FEMNET not later than 10th June, 2014 at the address below.

The Executive Director, FEMNET
KUSCCO Centre, Kilimanjaro Avenue, off Mara Road, Upper Hill
P. O. Box 54562, 00200 Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254 20 2712971/2
Fax: +254 20 2712974

soft copy applications emailed to: recruitment@femnet.or.ke

NB: Only successful persons will be contacted.