Background
AGRA is a not-for-profit organization working with African governments, other donors, NGOs, the private sector, and farmers to improve the productivity and incomes of resource-poor smallholder farmers in Africa. AGRA aims to catalyze an inclusive agricultural transformation in Africa by increasing incomes and improving food security for millions of smallholder farmers in Africa. For more information about AGRA, please visit www.agra.org.
AGRA has embarked on its 5-year strategy, 2023-2028, with the mission “To catalyze the growth of sustainable food systems across Africa by influencing and leveraging partners to build a robust enabling environment where private sector thrives, and smallholder farmers are empowered to produce sufficient, healthy food.” The institution is working to deliver this mission through four strategic business lines: seed systems, sustainable farming, inclusive markets and trade, and policy and state capability.
The strategy is being implemented across the 15 countries that AGRA is working in and aims to achieve the following high-level targets:
Core to delivery across each of these is a Partnership delivery modality that not only creates scale through leverage but also sustainability of each of these efforts. AGRA also prioritizes the institutionalization of gender integration within its programs and projects towards addressing gender equality and women’s empowerment through design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation alongside specifically targeted interventions to address critical gender issues within the framework of AGRA’s mandate and service delivery mechanisms.
Climate change has become one of the greatest challenges of food security and livelihoods, with Africa suffering disproportionately. Food systems, which is prone to extreme climate events, sit at the center of 70% of Africa’s livelihoods. Much of Africa has already warmed up by more than 1 °C since 1901, with an increase in heatwaves, hot days and recurrent extreme events. Extensive areas of Africa will exceed 2 °C of warming above pre-industrial levels with a reduction in precipitation by the last two decades of this century under the medium emission scenario. Per capita agricultural productivity in Africa has declined by 34% since 1961 due to climate change, more than any other region. In this regard, Africa is projected to experience increased frequency and intensity of agricultural and ecological droughts with medium to high confidence with potentially negative effect on the national economy of African countries. The heavy reliance on natural resources and rain-fed systems means that climate change adaptation is a top priority for Africa.
Climate change threatens agrifood systems by altering temperature and precipitation patterns, impacting crop and livestock productivity, biodiversity, ecosystem services and food and nutrition security of vulnerable people and communities at large. Smallholder Agriculture in Africa remains mainly rainfall-dependent with 90% of staple food production coming from rain-fed farming systems, which is vulnerable to inter-seasonal and intra-seasonal rainfall variability, frequent seasonal droughts, floods, new pests and diseases, disrupting traditional farming operations. These extreme events not only erode the benefits emerging from technology adoption and use but also the response capacity of communities to other stressors. Crop failures and livestock deaths induced by climate variability and extreme events are causing greater economic losses and are undermining food security in Africa, aggravated by market failures and weak response capacity of communities and countries. Given the high vulnerability of food systems to climate change in Africa, building climate adaptation and resilience is crucial to help countries meet the growing demand for healthy and safe diets while achieving socio‑economic and sustainable development goals. Africa may not be able to grow its food crops in the future unless it ensures that farmers adapt to the current and upcoming extreme events.
AGRA, in its Strategy 3.0, seeks to concomitantly address increasing productivity, reducing climate risks and enhancing resilience of farmers and their landscapes. Its strategy is designed to improve technology and market access and build institutional capacity to enhance climate change adaptation and resilience. AGRA and its partners are also very much aware that climate change may impose external penalties on the food security of millions of people and the economy of countries. For instance, the variability and unpredictability of rainfall is a major challenge and poses a greater risk that can critically restrict farming options, increase risks and aggravate rural poverty of millions of small-scale farmers in SSA. Extreme events have not only eroded the early gains enabled by AGRA and its partners’ investments in technology adoption and use but have also reduced the response capacity of landscapes and communities to stressors. Traditional risk management mechanisms are rarely sufficient for adapting and coping with these stressors. The climatic risks are also exacerbated by non-climate drivers (e.g., land degradation, deforestation, soil nutrient mining, etc.).
AGRA, through its CASAR unit, is implementing a project titled “Strengthening Institutional Response Capacity to Climate Change” with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). The project aims to integrate climate vulnerability mapping and risk analysis into national and community-level decision-making processes in five African countries – Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya.
The major outcomes of the project are:
1. Enhanced institutional capacity of countries to use vulnerability maps and climate risk analysis outputs for evidence-based decision making and targeted investment responding to current and emerging climate related extreme events at farm, community, country and region levels,
2. Improved awareness and preparedness for managing climate risks in target countries at all levels, and enhanced targeting and response capacity of countries in managing climate variability and extremes,
3. Private and public investments tailored to use dynamic content informed by vulnerability maps and climate information to provide climate smart extension advisories.
AGRA’s Strategy 3.0 recognizes that gender-responsive climate action is critical for sustainable agricultural transformation. As climate risks disproportionately affect women, our 2022-2027 Gender and Inclusion Strategy allows AGRA to integrate gender considerations into our climate adaptation and resilience programs by promoting women’s access to climate information, resources, and decision-making platforms. AGRA supports the development of gender-sensitive adaptation strategies by building national and local institutions’ capacity to recognize women’s distinct roles, vulnerabilities, and capacities in climate-affected farming systems. By embedding gender equality into its climate resilience framework, AGRA ensures that both men and women contribute to and benefit from climate action, enhancing the effectiveness and sustainability of its interventions. In Kenya, the gender dimensions of climate change are critical. Women and marginalized groups often face the greatest risks yet have the least access to resources, data, and decision-making spaces. This consultancy will focus on integrating gender-responsive approaches into the dissemination and uptake of climate vulnerability and risk mapping outputs.
Adaptation to climate change could be effectively implemented by countries and local communities if it addresses their current and potential livelihoods challenges. Therefore, to adapt to current and future climate challenges, decision-makers should reduce the negative consequences of climate change through (i) understanding the magnitude of climate variability and change at different scales, (ii) assessing how the potential impacts will be distributed across different agro-ecological zones or farming systems, (iii) determining the direct and indirect impacts of these changes, (iv) identifying and promoting appropriate adaptation responses to the impacts based on sound evidence and (v) understanding the gender dimensions and differential impacts of climate change.
In view of these pressing challenges, AGRA has successfully identified vulnerable areas and developed climate vulnerability maps and associated solutions. The next critical step is to integrate these outputs into policy and planning processes by disseminating them at both the national and sub-national levels. This will enable targeted climate action and inform investment decisions that address the root.
causes of vulnerability and build resilience in the most affected regions and communities. Context specific vulnerability maps and associated climate solutions are expected to be key analytical and decision-making tools to guide climate investment and policy action.
Climate change continues to disproportionately affect women, youth, and marginalized groups in Kenya’s agrifood systems due to limited access to productive resources, climate information, financial services, and decision-making platforms. While AGRA’s climate vulnerability mapping and risk analysis provide valuable spatial and data-driven insights for resilience planning, there remains a critical need to ensure that these tools and outputs reflect the differentiated vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities of diverse population groups. Embedding gender-responsive perspectives into the interpretation and dissemination of these maps is essential to avoid one-size-fits-all solutions that may unintentionally reinforce existing inequalities.
This assignment seeks to bridge the gap between technical climate analytics and inclusive climate action by ensuring that women’s and vulnerable groups’ perspectives are integrated into national and sub-national decision-making. By translating vulnerability data into targeted, gender-sensitive policy recommendations and adaptation advisories, the Gender Consultant will help enhance the responsiveness, equity, and impact of climate investment strategies. This work will directly support Kenya’s climate resilience efforts under its National Adaptation Plan and AGRA’s broader goal of inclusive agricultural transformation in Africa
Objectives
To support the effective dissemination, domestication, and integration of climate vulnerability mapping and climate change risk analysis outputs in Kenya by applying a gender-responsive approach that ensures inclusive climate adaptation planning and investment prioritization.
Specific Objectives
1. To integrate gender dimensions and social inclusion considerations into the interpretation and use of climate vulnerability and risk mapping tools in Kenya.
2. To develop gender-responsive policy briefs and advisories that support evidence-based decision- making for climate adaptation and resilience-building at national and sub-national levels.
3. To develop customized climate adaptation and resilience training and engagement modules developed.
4. To create gender responsive climate resilience policy platforms.
5. To develop a framework for gender responsive National Adaptation Plan (NAP) in Kenya which would recognize gender differences in adaptation needs, opportunities and capacities.
6. To facilitate multi-stakeholder workshops and consultations ensuring meaningful participation of women, youth, and marginalized groups.
7. To support capacity building efforts through targeted trainings and communication materials that enhance the use of gender-sensitive climate analytics in planning and programming.
8. To strengthen the integration of gender-equitable approaches in Kenya’s climate adaptation strategies, contributing to AGRA’s Strategy 3.0 and national climate commitments.
Scope of Work
The Gender Consultant will support AGRA and the Kenya country team in ensuring the climate vulnerability mapping and risk analysis outputs are effectively disseminated and applied using a gender-responsive lens. The consultant will be expected to perform the following key tasks and activities:
1. Conduct a rapid review of AGRA’s climate vulnerability mapping outputs and relevant gender and climate literature.
2. Analyze vulnerability mapping outputs through a gender lens to identify differentiated climate risks and adaptation needs.
3. Review Kenya’s national climate and gender policies to align dissemination with existing frameworks.
4. To develop gender-responsive policy briefs and advisories that support evidence-based decision making for climate adaptation and resilience-building at national and sub-national levels.
5. To develop customized gender responsive climate adaptation and resilience training and engagement modules developed.
6. Support the establishment of a national gender responsive climate resilience policy platform.
7. Engage with government officials, women’s and youth networks, and community stakeholders to validate gender-related findings.
8. Provide technical input to ensure vulnerability maps and climate advisories reflect gender disaggregated insights.
9. Preparing gender-responsive country level synthesis, policy briefs, technical notes, brochures and local communication materials and organize and conduct policy and community level workshops and engagements.
10. Support the organization of national and local stakeholder dissemination workshops.
11. Facilitate inclusive discussions during workshops to ensure gender and social inclusion perspectives are captured.
12. Provide ongoing technical backstopping and capacity support on gender-inclusive climate adaptation.
13. Submit monthly written progress reports documenting activities, findings, and recommendations and assist in documenting the best practices and lessons learned in gender-responsive dissemination.
Qualifications and Experience
The individual consultant should possess the following qualifications, expertise, and experience to successfully deliver the assignment:
1. Advanced degree (master’s or higher) in Gender and Development Studies, Sociology, Climate Change, Agricultural Development, Environmental Science, or a related discipline.
2. Minimum of 8 years of relevant professional experience in gender and development, climate adaptation, or agriculture.
3. Proven experience in designing and leading research in gender mainstreaming in climate risk or resilience projects.
4. Demonstrated capacity to translate technical content into policy briefs, community messaging, and training materials.
5. Experience organizing and facilitating stakeholder engagement workshops, particularly with women’s groups and vulnerable populations.
6. Familiarity with gender analysis frameworks, climate vulnerability mapping tools and participatory methods.
7. Strong analytical and communication skills, both oral and written.
8. Experience working with government institutions, development partners, and civil society organizations.
9. Extensive knowledge of gender issues in development, climate adaptation, or agriculture. Fluency in English; proficiency in Kiswahili or other local language is an added advantage
10. Sound knowledge of the Kenyan policy context, local administrative systems, and decentralized governance structures.
11. Ability to work independently and manage multi-stakeholder coordination.
12. Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, data analysis software, and report writing tools.
