Vacancy: Gender Budget Analysis Consultancy (META)
Posted by: SDGs Kenya Forum
Date: May 28th, 2025
Gender Budget Analysis Consultancy (META) – Green Transition, Digitalisation and Governance, Peace and Security
Call for Expression of Interest (EOI)
The Coalition for Sustainable Development (SDGs Kenya Forum) is seeking expression of interest (EOI) from qualified consultants/firms to conduct a Gender Budget analysis for the financial year 2024-2025 national and selected county budgets in Kenya. The outcomes of this budget analysis will contribute to increased information sharing, joint planning, and implementation of initiatives among Kenyan civil society actors to maximize the impact of EU-Kenya cooperation through the programme titled ‘Meaningful Engagement – Transformative Action (META) for Structured CSO Dialogue in Kenya.
About the Meaningful Engagement – Transformative Action (META)
The Meaningful Engagement - Transformative Action (META) for Structured CSO Dialogue in Kenya is a joint action of the European Union (EU) Delegation in Kenya in partnership with the African Women’s Communication and Development Network (FEMNET), the Coalition for Sustainable Development (SDGs Kenya Forum), and Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF). The action aims to strengthen the capacities and influence of Kenyan civil society organizations as independent actors advocating for accountability, good governance, and inclusive development, and provide institutional platforms for their active involvement in the EU's international cooperation between 2024-2027.
Specifically, the action aims to achieve the following objectives:
- Improved and strengthened structured, inclusive, and regular dialogue between Kenyan civil society actors and the EU, facilitating meaningful and sustained engagement.
- Enhanced skills, knowledge, and resources of Kenyan civil society actors, including youth and women's rights organizations, to address common development priorities and promote effective governance.
- Increased information sharing, joint planning, and implementation of initiatives among Kenyan civil society actors to maximize the impact of EU-Kenya cooperation.
About SDGs Kenya Forum
The Coalition for Sustainable Development (SDGs Kenya Forum) is an inclusive national membership platform and a convener of Agenda 2030 for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that provides space for structured and coordinated civil society organisation (CSO) engagement with (national and subnational) governments, citizens, the private sector, media, academia, and development partners. The Forum engages with governmental and all other stakeholders in the implementation, review, and follow-up of the 2030 Agenda for SDGs.
Our key thematic pillars: are Data, Research and SDGs Reporting; Gender Equality; Accountability; Global, Regional and National Advocacy; and Localization and Ownership.
The Forum advocates for policies and development frameworks to strengthen commitment, financing, planning and implementation for sustainable development at both national and county level. It also promotes the use of data and evidence in the monitoring and implementation of the SDGs in partnership with other key data stakeholders in Kenya. Furthermore, the SDGs Kenya Forum works to raise citizens’ awareness of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development through ‘leave no one behind' dialogues at county and national level. It also builds local and national partnerships with government, citizens, the private sector, media, academia, and development partners to achieve the intended goals.
As an advocacy platform for policies and development frameworks that strengthen commitment, financing, planning, and implementation for sustainable development, the Forum seeks to spearhead meaningful conversation on gender issues, advocate for gender equality through responsive budgeting initiatives and to ensure the existence of gender development/mainstreaming policies at both county and national levels.
Overview of the Forum’s gender equality work in Kenya
To strengthen gender equality within the Kenyan Government and CSOs, the Forum continues to convene national and sub-national gender machinery working on the SDGs implementation and policy advocacy. Through collective efforts, the Forum and its members advocate for gender-responsive budgeting at county and national levels. To advance gender equality initiatives and outcomes, the Forum focuses on data production, analysis, uptake and accountability. By supporting a Consortium of gender champions (the Gender Knowledge Hub) across the 47 counties, the Forum provides technical capacity-building opportunities for grassroots and regional gender-equality organizations (CBOs).
The Forum and its partners, through the META Action, facilitates an Inclusive Structured Dialogue Platform that brings together Kenyan civil society organizations (CSOs). This initiative is aligned with the EU Roadmap for Engagement with Civil Society in Kenya (2022–2025), which seeks to establish a formal, structured dialogue between the EU and Kenyan CSOs. The goal is to promote a coherent, collaborative approach to EU-CSO engagement, guided by thematic working groups aligned with the key priorities of the EU-Kenya partnership. The platform focuses on three thematic priority areas: Digitalisation; Governance, Peace, and Security; and Green Transition with cross-cutting issues, including women and youth engagement and the enabling environment for civil society organizations.
Purpose of the Gender Budget Analysis Consultancy
In Kenya, national development priorities such as Digitalisation; Governance, peace and security; and Green Transition are increasingly attracting financial support from public, private, and development partners. The 2024/2025 fiscal year budget summary reflects significant allocations to thematic areas aligned with these three priority sectors Additionally, Kenya has made both global and national commitments to gender equality, including its dedication to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5), the African Union’s Agenda 2063, and its own national Gender Policy.
However, despite these substantial investments, there is a noticeable gap in gender-responsive budgeting within these sectors. The absence of gender-disaggregated data and analysis in the allocation and implementation of these funds may perpetuate existing gender inequalities.
This analysis therefore seeks to assess budget allocations, spending trends, and sectoral priorities to inform policy and advocacy strategies that promote inclusive and equitable development. It will serve as a tool for accountability, supporting both state and non-state actors in enhancing budget responsiveness to Kenya’s gender equality commitments. This initiative responds to the growing need for systematic tracking of public resource allocation and utilization, with the goal of determining whether investments are effectively addressing the multidimensional aspects of sustainable development and gender equity particularly for marginalized and vulnerable groups.
It is against this backdrop that the SDG Kenya Forum, seeks a consultant to undertake a gender budget analysis of the expenditure, costing, fiscal space, and financing in Kenya for the current budget, with a focus on the three priority areas within the META Action.
Objectives of the Consultancy
The overall objective of the consultancy is to is to undertake an annual review and analysis of both national and county budgets to assess gender responsiveness with a focus on the three priority areas. Specifically, the study will:
- Identify and analyze the gender dimensions of financial allocations in the 2024/2025 budget for digitalisation, governance, peace & security, and green transition sectors.
- Evaluate the extent to which these allocations address the needs and priorities of gender groups.
- Highlight areas where gender considerations are lacking and propose strategies to integrate gender-responsive approaches.
- Provide evidence-based recommendations to policymakers, development partners, and civil society organizations to promote gender-equitable financing and implementation.
Expected Outputs & Deliverables
The Consultant is expected to:
- Review the EU investment documents and inform the sample of the target counties as part of the inception report.
- Review the national and county budgets for financial year 2024/2025,
- Develop a succinct budget analysis (gender investments)
- Identify the critical public finance expenditure-related proposals, fiscal space, and financing of the three priority areas
- Provide clear recommendations to key stakeholders including the EU, national and County policymakers on budgeting processes and why it matters in the relation to the three priority areas.
Key deliverables
- Inception report presenting a clear-cut methodology on how the assignment will be accomplished, laying out specific roles – not more than 10 pages.
- Review budgets, government reports, annual plans, gender policies and institutional frameworks for gender-responsive budgeting from different stakeholders to collect as much information as possible on progress and milestones realized under budgeting focusing on the three priority areas.
- Undertake a comprehensive stakeholder mapping to determine key actors in the budget cycle for their engagement in the study and policy advocacy.
- Prepare a draft budget analysis report, with comprehensive feasible strategies, clear deliverables, timelines, KPIs, and responsibility, and subject to a validation process.
- Hold debrief and validation meetings with the Forum and key stakeholders and Incorporate comments/inputs from stakeholders from the stakeholder’s validation forum and finalize the budget analysis report;
- Submit the Final gender budget analysis report
- Launch and disseminate the final budget analysis report
Ethics and Safeguarding Policies
The Forum is committed to ensuring that the rights of those participating in data collection or analysis are respected and protected, in accordance with our Safeguarding Policy. All applicants should include details in their proposal on how they will ensure ethics, youth, and beneficiary safeguarding in the data collection process. Specifically, the consultant(s) shall explain how appropriate, safe, and non-discriminatory participation of all stakeholders will be ensured and how inclusivity and special focus will be paid to the needs of young people, women with a disability, and other vulnerable groups. The consultant(s) shall also explain how confidentiality and anonymity of participant’s data as expressed under the Data Protection Act (2019) will be guaranteed and further expound on ways in which to manage conflict sensitivity when arises.
Timeline
The assignment will take 25 working days.
Role of the Forum and its partner organisations
The role of the Forum and its partner organisations in this exercise is as follows:
- Provide any documents for review by the consultant as sources of secondary data
- Provide support supervision during the assessment period
Budget and payment schedule
The consultant will propose a budget covering professional fees and related expenses. Payment will be made in installments upon submission of key deliverables as follows:
30% upon approval of the inception report.
40% upon submission of the zero draft report and validation.
30% upon submission, approval and launch of the final report.
Expected qualifications
The Consultant is expected to hold the following qualification to be eligible for this position:
- The Lead Consultant should have at least five years of experience in conducting work around budgets, finance, accounting, gender (gender responsive budgets), evaluations for development projects or programs.
- The Lead Consultant should hold academic qualifications of a minimum of a master’s degree level in one of the following degrees- Gender Studies, Economics, Statistics, Public Policy, Development Studies, Finance and Accounts, Business and Commerce or related fields.
- Knowledge and understanding of the three priority areas; Digitalisation, Green Transition and Governance, Peace and Security.
- The support team should be conversant with conducting qualitative and quantitative studies using mixed methodologies, with academic qualification of a minimum of bachelor’s degree level in Economics, Finance, Accounting, Statistics, or another related Social Science field.
- A demonstrated high level of professionalism and ability to work independently under tight deadlines.
- Review budgets, government reports, annual plans, gender policies and institutional frameworks for gender-responsive budgeting from different stakeholders to collect as much information as possible on progress and milestones realized under budgeting that target SDG 5 and other gender indicators.
Submission requirements
Interested consultant(s) and/or agencies are expected to provide an expression of interest letter stating the consultant’s or firm’s capabilities including the following:
- Consultant(s) or agency profile outlining areas of expertise with samples of select works.
- Current list of recent and relevant clients.
- Any direct or relevant experience of undertaking similar initiatives.
- Names and CVs of the professionals who will be the lead and associated with the study and how the study will be managed.
- Technical and financial proposal not exceeding 5 pages outlining the approach to accomplish the assignment.
A proposed timeline/work plan
All applications received by the submission date will be reviewed by a selection committee based on predetermined objective criteria. The shortlisted consultant(s)/consulting firm(s) will be invited for an interview/discussion.
Submission instructions
Interested and qualified bidders should submit a technical and financial proposal to info@sdgkenyaforum.org
The subject of your email should read GENDER BUDGET ANALYSIS–META CONSULTANCY (AGENDA) NO: 28/05/FY25/
Hard copy documents will not be accepted.
Queries related to the consultancy should be addressed to info@sdgkenyaforum.org
NB: The Technical and Financial proposals must be submitted separately. The closing date for submission of complete applications is 11th June 2025.