WFD is looking for a consultant experienced in Political Economy Analysis to support its Gender Equality Project in Kuwait

Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) is delivering a project to support women's political participation and representation in Kuwait. This six-month project is funded by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). The programme will generate new insights and implementable recommendations for a more gender-responsive political sphere in Kuwait.

The most recent parliamentary elections in Kuwait resulted in two-thirds of incumbents losing their seats including the sole woman MP, leaving a parliament with no female representation despite 29 women running for office. Against this backdrop is borne a need to better understand and respond to the current Kuwaiti gendered political landscape, particularly following the 2020 elections. Leading up to the next elections, it is necessary to better understand both the formal and informal political dynamics in Kuwait, particularly the spaces where women are able to exercise political leadership.

To better understand the political, economic and sociocultural factors that affect women and girls and their political participation in Kuwait, WFD is commissioning an in-depth, gender-sensitive political economy analysis (PEA) to assess the country context and identify concrete opportunities for programming around the inclusion of women, ensuring relevancy with HMG's areas of focus. Through the findings of the PEA, WFD seeks to identify programming areas to improve women's leadership in the political space, potential advocacy opportunities and key stakeholders to engage.

WFD has developed a gender-sensitive PEA framework that is designed to identify problems without assuming solutions and is informed by probing systems and processes; key players including those that are left out of decision-making processes; behaviour drivers; and asks who is missing from the political process. This analytical framework actively aims to foreground the voices of marginalised and under-represented communities who are seeking to interact with the political process. The consultant will be briefed on WFD's PEA framework and encouraged to use this to inform the analysis.

Purpose of consultancy: • Undertake a gender-responsive, contextualised PEA focusing on agreed priority areas that reflect interconnected power relations of politics, economic and social factors which can inform current and potential future WFD country programme; • Lead in designing the methodology of PEA that is feasible and contextualised; • Undertake data collection & analysis on the lines of enquiry established in the PEA; • Analyse collected data and its implications for programme implementation; • Write up the PEA findings in a comprehensive PEA report (draft and final versions), structure to be agreed with WFD • Lead in the development of a summary version of the team's finding for external use; • Lead an external briefing on the PEA for relevant stakeholders.

Please see attached TOR for further details on how to apply and timelines