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Research consultant: ActionAid
Deadline: 12 June 2013 (4pm)

ActionAid is an international non-governmental organisation working with people living in poverty in 40 countries to end poverty and injustice in the world.

The Assignment
AAIZ requires the services of experienced Researchers/ Consultants to carry out research on the capacity of selected rural and urban Local Authorities to supply or deliver quality basic services to their residents in a gender responsive manner.

Background
To date AAI Zimbabwe works with eight (8) Community Based Organizations (CBOs) in selected Community development programmes called Local Rights Programmes (LRPs). AAIZ has set up LRP partnership structures in selected poor rural and urban communities

Purpose
To generate evidence to inform program and policy initiatives aimed at increasing women’s and youth’s influence in the decision-making processes that affect the delivery of basic services that address their rights and needs. This would be based on an in-depth study of selected local authorities i.e. 4 rural district councils and 2 urban councils.

Objectives
The objectives of this Research are:
1. To assess and document the levels of awareness of women in the planning, budget formulation and monitoring processes of local authorities
3. To analyse the effectiveness of communication platforms used by selected local authorities
4. To assess the perceptions of residents on the quality and gender responsiveness of services being delivered by the selected local authorities
5. To carry out an analysis of key underlying factors and constraints affecting local authority service delivery
6. Map stakeholder’s involvement and responsibility in local governance at local, national, regional and global levels

Research Approach
The research approach and tools to be used in the consultancy should be participatory and Consultant should ensure that the analysis in the final report reflect the perspectives of women, youth, residents associations and other key stakeholders involved local governance.

The consultant is expected to have the following qualifications and experience
1. Technical expertise in Gender and/or Social accountability and/or Citizen’s Empowerment
2. A minimum of 5 years research or consultancy experience in local governance related work that reflects an in-depth and practical knowledge of the ways in which local authorities function
3. Proven experience in facilitating similar processes with a traceable strong record in designing and leading researchers and ensuring timely submission of deliverables
4. Well-developed qualitative and quantitative data analysis skills with a track record of translating complex data into effective, strategic and well-written reports
5. Research team should be fluent in Shona, Ndebele and English.

Duration
The assignment should completed in twenty days

Applications
Interested Researchers/ Consultants should submit proposals showing:
- Understanding of the purpose and objectives of the assignment
- Proposed research approach and tools
- Estimated cost of the proposed Research

The proposals should be accompanied by detailed CVs of the principal Researchers/ Consultants.

Completed proposals must be submitted to:
The Human Resources Department, ActionAid International, 16 York Avenue, Newlands, Harare

Or emailed to: Jobs.Zimbabwe [at] actionaid [dot] org

Actionaid International Zimbabwe values all applications but unfortunately is only able to respond to short listed candidates. Whilst all applicants will be assessed strictly on their individual merits, qualified women are especially encouraged to apply.

Nelson Mandela said, “And later when we felt that we now have quite a solid support among the masses, we then decided to select 6 laws which we felt were most oppressive. We would define these laws and deliberately go to jail and not pay fines in order to focus attention on the repressive policies of the (apartheid) government”.

Mandela and his colleagues intelligently and consciously engaged in strategic non-violent civil disobedience.

Here is a man, at the height of political repression of the blacks by the apartheid regime when everyone was pondering whether to weigh a fully-fledged war against the government; he stood strong and wise and opted for a non-violent civil disobedience strategy. This is the profound level of wisdom and temperance, which unfortunately has been misconstrued by some of our impatient political ‘pundits’ in Zimbabwe as being too lenient. This is a clear attempt to brainwash and keep everyone in check and under the authorities feet. These politicians know that if Zimbabwe becomes very politically conscious of what Mandela did, the same things that he did may be applied against their corruption and evil and torturous politicking. These are men who have seen how Mubarak was deserted by his own security people, doing what Henry David Thoreau suggested, “If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law”.

Mandela has brought this lesson to Africa that it is the duty of the people to give a moral check, in the most non-violent ways possible, to the actions of a government.

“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
Martin Luther King Jr.

I see there is a lot of excitement ahead of elections about worthy and unworthy candidates. This is normal in any contestation of worldviews, especially within our political space here in Zimbabwe where divergent views for some mean kung fu kicks to the head of the interlocutor with whom you don’t agree.

What I find curious is that 33 years after independence, enters into public debate the issue of “qualifications” for those aspiring for public office. It tells a more profound story that meets the eye. When did Zimbabweans realise that this is what will solve their problems?

Critics have, not surprisingly, trashed such calls as breeding some misplaced elitism in the arena of public service as they the critics imagine it.

That this country has one of the highest PhDs per capita across the African continent and has still been steered down an abyss is a no brainer.

What is curious is that while people “obsess” about qualifications, they are the same people who will tell you that the real world only responds to intelligent behavior that is not gleaned from devouring tomes whose value to human development and understanding the universe is questionable.

But that’s a criticism we hear all the time, and it reads like that old aphorism that people who say money isn’t everything are usually people who don’t have the money themselves!

Money is everything, some have retorted, and if we are to conflate the two, money and education, another logical fallacy quoted elsewhere becomes relevant: that a rich man can never be wrong, and therefore you have no reason taking a poor fellow’s opinions seriously!

That is how Zimbabweans have tended to develop their own knowledge systems in the cruel world of the 21st century, but it remains to be seen if the real world has been successfully manipulated by the literati so to speak to make it a better place.

And of course this being Zimbabwe where there is always emphasis to push one’s chest out and claim one academic degree or another, some have said anyone who speaks ill of “educated leaders” wants the country to be led by dunces.

And that tells you the level of “education” the people in this debate have! Isn’t it ironic?

Ever since the day I watched a documentary called Wasteland on how a photographer changed the lives of rubbish pickers in Brazil by empowering them to make art with the recyclable materials they pick from the dump site my mind now forever boggles on how best people can make of the circumstances and scenarios they are in. The Friendship Bench at Harare Hospital is one of the many ideas across the country of how communities are being empowered.

I recently visited the Friendship Bench at Harare Hospital. An organisation created by Dr Chibanda to assist low-income people suffering from depression and anxiety. Patients come to the wooden bench for counselling from trained health workers. After realising that most of the people receiving counselling at the Friendship Bench had no source of income, the idea of Zee Bags was born. These women crotchet old plastic bags into colourful shopping baskets and fun handbags.

Now the women have been so empowered to make their own living. If you attended HIFA this year, you probably saw their stand, which was big and eye-catching. Being at HIFA and exhibiting was a great achievement for them and now they look forward to doing the same at the Harare Agricultural Show.

Being around this group of women you can see how this community development project has helped them to deal with their challenges with common mental disorders, depression and anxiety. During the interviews I gathered most of the women eluded that before joining this project all they could think of were their worries leading to stress, but now making these bags keeps their minds busy. And it’s also giving them some income to take care of their families.

I am currently developing a Ward 7 (Harare City Council – Strathaven, Avondale, Alex Park, Gun Hill) directory, so people who live here can also buy and play here. It’s about building community, getting to know your neighbours. I walk from shop to church to police station to school to sports club to next shop, and get the contact details for public consumption.

I am amazed at how many places, mainly shops, but even a hospital; do not want to give out information.

“What do you want to know for?”
“Why should we tell you?”
“We can’t give that information out”
“What will you do with it?”

Is this the legacy of thirty years of democracy? That Zimbabweans are so mistrustful that they will not tell the public what the phone number of their shop is? Do they believe ‘Big Brother’ is watching them with CCTVs, Internet devices, etc? Is there some conspiracy I am unknowingly a part of by gathering their (not even private) information?

Or do Zimbabweans simply mistrust their government (unity or otherwise), and have such fear of the ‘authorities’. Most public establishments have a posted on the sign board outside on the street – which is why I have gone in to talk to them – but they are afraid to let anyone take any details. Has the government grown so far away from the people … a favourite phrase from so many liberation speeches of the 50s and 60s, (from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address)? We want a “government, of the people, by the people, and for the people”. And what have we got? A government of elites, by elites, for elites; we have ‘Representatives’ that do not drive or walk the same streets, do not buy in the same shops, do not have children in the same schools, do not see the same doctors, as us.

Or do I look like a Nigerian spammer? Is it just me they don’t trust? Why is there such fear, belligerence, refusal, denial, and hostility, towards giving the community information that will make them find you, come into your shop, and buy something?