1. Background

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

The Consultant will be expected to:

• Output/Deliverables

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

• Timeline
  The assignment will be conducted between the from the 1^st of October 2020. The final research paper must be submitted to ZELA by 30^th 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 20^th of September 2020. The title of the consultancy should be clearly stated in the email subject and only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

[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