Consultancy - Gender Conflict and Social Inclusion (GESI)

Overview & Responsibilities

Background

With financial support from the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) will implement the Damal Programme Phase II – Strengthening the Social Contract through Access to Justice in Somaliland (2026–2030). The programme seeks to strengthen the social contract in Somalia by improving the legitimacy, effectiveness, and inclusiveness of justice sector institutions at national, regional, and district levels. Building on the achievements of Damal Programme Phase I (2021–2026), Damal II will consolidate and expand access to justice interventions through three mutually reinforcing outcomes:

• improved access to Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms and referral pathways, particularly for vulnerable groups;
• enhanced access to formal justice through integrated support for survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) and other vulnerable justice seekers; and
• increased citizen participation in accountability processes relating to justice and security.

The programme will commence with a preparatory phase designed to establish the strategic, operational, and analytical foundations for implementation. During this period, IDLO will undertake a series of complementary assessments, including a Baseline Assessment and Legal Analysis, Political Economy Analysis (PEA), Conflict Sensitivity Assessment (CSA), and Gender Conflict and Social Inclusion (GESI) Analysis, to validate programme assumptions, refine implementation strategies, strengthen the Theory of Change, and ensure that programme interventions are evidence-based, conflict-sensitive, gender-responsive, and locally owned.

Building on IDLO’s experience in Somalia, including the ADR Centres Programme and Damal Phase I, the project adopts a gender-transformative approach and will integrate a gender analysis, gender-sensitive indicators, and sex-disaggregated data across all stages of the programme to better understand differentiated justice needs and track results. The GESI Analysis will build on the evidence, operational experience, and lessons learned generated under Damal I, and provide concrete recommendations for implementation. The GESI Analysis will inform a GESI Action Plan, which will be developed and regularly updated to guide implementation and monitoring.

Purpose and Objectives

The purpose of this assignment is to conduct a detailed Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Assessment that provides the foundation for gender-responsive and inclusive implementation of Damal II. The assessment will examine how gender and intersectional factors such as age, disability, displacement, clan status, minority identity, rural location, poverty, social norms, and other factors affect access to justice, ADR, reconciliation, justice-security coordination, and referral pathways in ADR centers locations.

The assessment will support IDLO to ensure that Damal II undertakes a gender-transformative approach in implementation and monitoring, and does not unintentionally reinforce exclusion, harmful norms, gender inequality, discrimination, unsafe referrals, or barriers to justice. It will also identify entry points for strengthening women’s participation and leadership, survivor-centred justice, inclusive ADR, safe referral pathways, and meaningful participation of vulnerable groups in justice and security processes.

The specific objectives are to identify legal, institutional, administrative, cultural, economic, social, geographic, and security-related barriers affecting access to justice for women and vulnerable groups; assess how formal and informal justice systems respond to the needs of women, girls, GBV survivors, IDPs, minority communities, persons with disabilities, youth, and rural populations; and provide recommendations to refine Damal II’s Theory of Change, work plan, MEL framework, referral system, ADR approach, training strategy, and partner engagement.

The assessment will also propose practical entry points to strengthen women’s participation in ADR, mediation, reconciliation, legal aid, community engagement, and justice-security coordination. This may include recommendations on women adjudicators, female paralegals, safe participation of women justice seekers, GBV referral protocols and services, inclusion of minority and IDP representatives, disability-inclusive access, and community awareness strategies.

The Assignment

The consultant will conduct a GESI analysis across Damal II’s three outcomes as mentioned above and target locations. Accordingly, the assessment will examine the relevant formal justice system, ADR mechanisms, customary justice, Shari’ah-based dispute resolution, legal aid services, GBV referral pathways and services, justice-security coordination mechanisms, and community-level justice processes.

The assessment will analyse how women and vulnerable groups experience justice in practice. Comprehensively assessing their interactions with the formal and informal justice chain, including referral pathways, the assessment will examine whether justice delivery and services are accessible, affordable, safe, confidential, inclusive, gender-responsive, rights-based, and trusted. Particular attention will be given to GBV survivors and affected communities, including the risks they may face when seeking justice through ADR, police, courts, prosecutors, legal aid providers, health services, psychosocial support, shelters, or community structures. The assessment will also analyse the role of women in justice delivery and the barriers faced by women in leadership roles.

The consultant will assess social and cultural norms that influence justice-seeking behaviour, including stigma, fear of retaliation, pressure to reconcile, family mediation, clan influence, harmful settlements, lack of confidentiality, financial barriers, lack of legal awareness, distance to services, mobility restrictions, and limited representation of women in decision-making structures.

The assessment will also consider intersectionality. It will analyse how vulnerability is shaped by overlapping factors such as gender, age, disability, displacement, minority status, rural location, poverty, marital status, survivor status, clan affiliation, and access to information. The assessment should avoid treating women and vulnerable groups as homogeneous categories and should identify different needs, risks, and opportunities across groups.

Methodology

The GESI Assessment will adopt a participatory, gender-responsive, inclusive, conflict-sensitive, and evidence-based methodology that combines desk research, institutional analysis, stakeholder consultations and through the use of FGD and KII, and primary qualitative research.

The methodology will examine how gender, age, disability, displacement, minority status, geographic location, and other intersectional factors influence access to justice, ADR services, referral pathways, and participation in justice institutions. Evidence will be triangulated from multiple sources to ensure that findings are context-specific, rights-based, and directly inform programme design, implementation, monitoring, and adaptive management.

Please refer here to the detailed methodology.

Deliverables and Timeline

The assignment is expected to be completed over approximately 6–8 weeks during the Damal II preparatory phase.

Please refer here to the detailed deliverables and indicative timelines.

Expected Final Report Structure

The final report should include an executive summary, background and purpose, methodology and limitations, summary of Damal I evidence, legal and policy analysis, gender and inclusion context, access to justice barriers, ADR and reconciliation analysis, GBV and referral pathway analysis, justice-security coordination analysis, stakeholder mapping, risks and mitigation measures, and practical recommendations. The consultant will also be responsible for incorporating feedback and comments provided by IDLO staff.

The report should include a clear GESI Action Plan for Damal II, covering women’s participation in ADR, inclusion of vulnerable groups, GBV survivor-centred referral protocols, accessible services for IDPs and rural communities, disability inclusion, minority participation, gender-sensitive training priorities, community awareness, and monitoring indicators. It should also provide a simple GESI monitoring tool that the programme can use to track inclusion, participation, access, safety, and unintended harms throughout implementation.

Job Requirements

The consultant should have an advanced degree in gender studies, law, human rights, social sciences, development studies, governance, peacebuilding, or a related field.

The consultant should have at least 10 years of experience conducting gender analysis, GESI assessments, access to justice research, GBV-related analysis, or inclusion-focused programming in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. Strong knowledge of Somaliland and/or Somalia’s justice, customary justice, ADR, GBV, social norms, clan, displacement, and inclusion context is highly desirable.

The consultant should have demonstrated experience working on gender-responsive justice, survivor-centred approaches, legal aid, ADR, referral systems, women’s access to justice, disability inclusion, minority inclusion, and community-based justice mechanisms.

Excellent analytical writing, facilitation, stakeholder engagement, and English-language drafting skills are required. Somali language skills will be considered a strong asset.

Terms & Conditions

The consultancy will be home-based with travel to selected programme areas and IDLO offices as required, subject to security and operational approval. The consultant will work under the supervision of IDLO and in close coordination with the Damal II Programme Team, IDLO technical teams, consortium partners, implementing partners, and relevant government counterparts.

All reports, tools, datasets, interview summaries, notes, presentations, action plans, monitoring tools, and analytical products produced under this assignment shall remain the property of IDLO. The consultant shall comply with IDLO policies on confidentiality, research ethics, safeguarding, data protection, duty of care, survivor-centred practice, and donor requirements.

IDLO is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We welcome applications from qualified candidates of all backgrounds. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply for IDLO vacancies.

IDLO does not tolerate sexual exploitation or abuse, any kind of harassment, including harassment of a sexual nature, or discrimination. As such, IDLO will conduct careful reference and background checks of all selected candidates as part of its selection process.

Application deadline: 23 August 2026 (23:59hrs Rome Time).

Annual Compensation

Originally posted on Himalayas