Zimbabwe: Call for Consultancy: Gendered Analysis of Local Content Policies in the Mining Sector in Southern Africa

Sep 13, 2020 | Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association
View Original

The Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) is a public interest environmental law organization working on the promotion of environmental justice in Southern Africa through sustainable and equitable utilization of natural resources and environmental protection. ZELA is implementing a project focused on empowering women in mining to become effective economic and political actors so that they can get better incomes and participate in decision-making processes. Patriarchal norms and gendered inequalities in the mining sector result in women not being able to actively engage existing policy making structures; limited participation of women in decision making structures on allocation and distribution of mining claims and provisions of goods and services along the mining value chain which resultantly leads to women being mostly confined to informal aspects of work in the mining sector.[1]

It is against this background that a regional research on local content policies in Southern Africa’s extractives sector is being commissioned. Utilising the gendered lens ZELA envision that the reseach will reveal the structural barriers that women face regarding supply of goods and services along mining value chains, how they can be addressed and ways in which women can become a priority in the development of local procurement policies by  mining companies.

Main objective of the study

To inform development of gender sensitive local content and local procurement policies by countries and mining companies in Southern Africa respectively

Specific Terms of Reference

The Consultant will be expected to:

• Lay out the basic components of gender sensitive local content policies in the extractive sector.
• Assess how countries in SADC are currently implementing the local content policies components looking at the involvement and treatment of women.
• Identify the existing gaps/areas of improvement and how women can influence the reform process.
• Stipulate how state and non-state actors can develop gender positive local procurement policies at the operational, national and regional level.

Output/Deliverables

Working closely with ZELA, the following deliverables will be expected from the Consultant within 60 days of engagement:

• Analysis of the legal and policy instruments, including mining companies’ policies on local content in Southern Africa and other sub-regional and/or national frameworks stating/pointing out for example the gaps of the law
• Documentation of the issues being faced by women owned businesses in supplying goods and services along mining value chains in Southern Africa;
• Highlights of the key issues that should be addressed for local content mechanisms to be responsive to the needs of women in the Southern African context in general, and Zimbabwe in particular.

Timeline

The assignment will be conducted between the from the 1st of October 2020. The final research paper must be submitted to ZELA by 30th of November 2020.

Applicant requirements/Relevant qualifications

The ideal candidate should have:

• Demonstrable experience of designing and delivering research to understand and address issues relating to women’s rights and gender equality at a regional level
• Demonstrable understanding of the way in which the extractives sector impacts on women’s rights and gender equality, with specific understanding of local content or community beneficiation processes
• Commitment to feminist principles
• Demonstrable understanding of economic and political context in Southern Africa in general, particularly in Zimbabwe

Application procedure

Persons with demonstrable experience of conducting similar researches are encouraged to submit: An Expression of Interest (EOI) which is not more than 5 pages. The EOI must detail applicant’s understanding of the TORs and costs; a cover letter summarizing applicant’s skills and past experience relevant to conducting this kind of assignment; applicant’s Curriculum Vitae, with names of three referees and their contact details (email and phone). Applications which do not contain all the above documents will be regarded as incomplete and will not be considered. Applications must be addressed to berna@zela.org and cc plaxedes@zela.org by the 20th of September 2020. The title of the consultancy should be clearly stated in the email subject and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Click here to review Terms of Reference.

[1] Mudimba P, Redefining Gender Equality in the South African Mining Sector’, University of Pretoria (2017) Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of LLM Masters in Extractive Industry Law in Africa