Duration: 30 Days

1. About FEMNET

The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) is a pan- African, feminist and membership-based network based in Nairobi, Kenya with over 800 individual and institutional members across 50 African countries and in the diaspora. FEMNET envisions a society where African women and girls thrive in dignity and well-being, free from patriarchal and neoliberal oppression and injustices.

Over the years, FEMNET has strategically positioned herself as a convener, organizer and facilitator of critical dialogues around women’s economic justice and rights; transformative women’s leadership; sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR); climate justice and natural resource governance as well as, ending all forms of violence and harmful/ discriminatory practices against women and girls.

FEMNET continues to be intentional in influencing decisions made at national, regional and global levels, constantly ensuring African women voices are amplified and their needs, priorities and aspirations are prioritized in key policy dialogues and outcomes that have direct and indirect impact on their lives. FEMNET mobilizes African women to hold their States accountable to women’s rights and gender equality commitments.

For more information about FEMNET’s work, visit our website:  www.femnet.org.

2. Objective/ Purpose of Assignment

The Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is one of the flagship projects of Agenda 2063 and seeks, among others, to create a single market for goods and services and further liberalise trade across the African continent following successive rounds of Negotiations. For African women and youth, the AfCFTA recognises the importance of gender equality and further commits to promoting and achieving sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development, gender equality.

However, feminist analysis of trade policy has previously demonstrated that trade agreements, including the AfCFTA are not gender neutral. Women remain disproportionately represented in informal, precarious sectors and value chains, undertake the majority of unpaid care work, and often face systemic barriers in accessing productive resources, markets, finance, technology, and social protection. Youth similarly face structural constraints linked to unemployment, informality, and limited access to economic opportunities. Ideally, a feminist trade policy and agreement should therefore go beyond rhetorical references to gender equality and include binding commitments, rigorous gender impact assessments, and concrete measures to protect women’s economic rights, decent and dignified work, essential public services, and meaningful participation by feminist and women’s rights organisations in implementation and accountability processes.

It has now been more than six years since the AfCFTA entered into force, and significant steps have been taken towards the development and ratification of additional protocols of the Agreement. These include, among others, the development and negotiation of protocols on trade in goods and services, as well as the Protocol on Women and Youth in Trade.  Under the Protocol on Women and Youth in Trade, AfCFTA State Parties commit to implement and monitor mechanisms to prevent, discourage, address, and eliminate all forms of harassment and related practices that compromise the security and safety of Women and Youth in Trade. While this does not specifically address labour rights, it contains some tenets of labour rights, namely inclusiveness and non-discrimination in the marketplace.

However, despite being signed by 54 African states and ratified by 49 State Parties, implementation of the AfCFTA has remained slow and uneven across the continent. Consequently, the anticipated benefits of the Agreement, particularly for marginalised groups such as women and youth, risk being delayed, thereby negatively affecting their livelihoods, economic participation, and access to sustainable and decent work opportunities. Article 28 of the AfCFTA agreement spells out an obligation for its review every five years after its entry into force by state parties, to ensure effectiveness, achieve deeper integration, and adapt to evolving regional and international developments. With the ongoing review of the AfCFTA, it is important that African states are well equipped with evidence on the efficacy of the agreement towards protecting the interests of women and youth what are engaged in the supply chain of goods and services within the continent.

It is upon this background that FEMNET would like to commission an assessment on the rollout and implementation of the AfCFTA. The study will The main objective of the study will be to provide an understanding of the extent to which the AfCFTA has been implemented and learnings from the process, the opportunities and gaps for women and youth in trade, and how the agreement and related protocols can be strengthened to advance more feminist and gender-transformative outcomes. The study will be used a baseline to guide FEMNET’s engagement on the AfCFTA.

3. Scope of Work and Terms of Reference.

The study will be grounded in a feminist political economy analysis and the specific objectives are:

• To evaluate the national-level AfCFTA implementation and negotiation processes in South Africa, Senegal, and Nigeria, assessing how effectively women’s rights organizations and feminist economists exercise power, shape trade agendas, and influence decision-making outcomes
• To analyse the institutional trade structures, tariff adjustments, and regulatory frameworks adopted by South Africa, Senegal, and Nigeria under the AfCFTA to determine if they address or reinforce gender-based structural inequalities.”
• To measure the socioeconomic outcomes of AfCFTA implementation on diverse groups of women in South Africa, Senegal, and Nigeria, focusing specifically on market access, labour rights, and financial equity for informal cross-border traders and women-led MSMEs
• To provide gender-transformative policy recommendations and strategic action plans for governments, civil society, and regional bodies in South Africa, Senegal, and Nigeria to align AfCFTA implementation with a Pan African feminist economic justice lens.

The methodology will combine desk review, gender-responsive legal and policy analysis, and participatory consultations (through FGDs and KIIs) with women cross-border traders, feminist and women’s rights organisations, informal worker groups, customs and border officials, National Implementation Committees, trade and labour ministries, and relevant AfCFTA institutions.

The analysis will interrogate the distribution of costs and gains under AfCFTA implementation, including tariff revenue implications, public financing of care and essential services, rules of origin, services liberalisation, investment, industrial policy, digital trade, social protection, decent work and safeguards against a race to the bottom in regional value chains.

In presenting its findings and recommendations, the study will draw on case studies from South Africa, Nigeria and Senegal, with a specific focus on mapping the participation and experiences of women cross-border traders.

South Africa, Nigeria, and Senegal were selected to capture diverse regional, linguistic, economic, and political contexts across Africa. Together, they represent Southern, Anglophone West, and Francophone West Africa; varying levels of industrialization; and different trajectories of AfCFTA implementation. The three cases provide a useful basis for examining how AfCFTA opportunities and challenges are experienced by women and youth across diverse trade, production, and governance contexts.

4. Key Deliverables and Outputs.

An Assessment on the rollout and implementation of the AfCFTA; grounded in Pan African feminist pollical economy analysis with case studies from South Africa, Senegal and Nigeria.

In addition, the consultant(s) will be required to provide;

• Develop an inception report detailing the proposed methodology and developed data collection tools.
• Develop an analytical framework on the implementation of the AfCFTA and identify a few core indicators that we can be tracking.
• Ensure rigorous data collection and analysis both primary and secondary.
• A draft report and final report of the assessment and PPT summarising the assessment
• Develop country case briefs.
• Facilitate a validation meeting to gather and address feedback and input shared by key stakeholders.
• A shorter advocacy brief for policy uptake.

5. Required Qualification, Skills and Competencies

Academic Qualifications 

Academic qualifications in gender studies, law, public policy, trade, public finance, economics, development studies, or related fields, preferably with post-graduate degree.

Experience, skills, and competencies 

• Experience in conducting macro-economic feminist analysis with a Pan-African feminist approach.
• Experience of conducting studies/assessments using mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative)
• Proven experience developing papers and policy briefs that have a focus on women and girls.
• Experience in drafting advocacy messages that are robust and compelling to the target audience and specifically to policy makers.
• Experience working for non-profit organizations including Women Rights Organizations and feminist organisations.
• Experience designing gender-responsive indicators, interview tools and validation processes for gender and trade and feminist macroeconomic research.
• Demonstration of dedication to the advancement of Africa as a continent and belief in the tenets of the Pan African feminist charter.

6. Duration of Assignment

This is a 30-day assignment commencing on 28^th July 2026

7. Liaison, Coordination and Reporting

The consultant will report to the Economic Justice and Rights Lead at FEMNET

8. Selection of Consultant

The consultant shall be contracted by FEMNET. The contract will include Withholding Tax (WHT) deduction in line with laws of contracting where FEMNET is headquartered. A WHT certificate will be issued to the consultant. Payment will be done through bank transfer to the consultant bank account. FEMNET will not meet the costs of bank charges. Payment schedule will be agreed upon with the consultant upon successful selection. In case of team/firm applicants, a designated assignment contract manager will be the contact between FEMNET and the team and responsible for all deliverables.

9. Intellectual Property Rights

All intellectual property rights, including raw footage, edited content, audio, photographs, and any other materials produced under this assignment, shall remain the sole property of FEMNET upon full payment. The organization retains full and unrestricted rights to use, edit, reproduce, publish, adapt, and distribute the materials across all platforms and territories, without time limitation. The videographer may not use or share any materials without prior written consent and warrants that all outputs are original and free of third-party intellectual property claims.

10. Terms of Service

This is a non-staff contract and therefore the consultant is not entitled to insurance, medical cover or any other status or conditions as FEMNET staff.

11. Application Process

Interested and qualified Videographer/Agency should submit their Expression of Interest via email to recruitment@femnet.or.ke with the subject line “FNT/EOI/26/2026- Assessment of the Implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area” by the deadline. Submissions should include the following:

• Detailed cover letter including your daily rate.   

• Updated CV and two references   

• Sample (only 1 in PDF) of a paper and policy brief that is addressing trade and development especially gender and trade policy . Applications that do not include a sample work will not be considered.   

Applications are by e-mails only, sent to: recruitment@femnet.or.ke. Please indicate the reference on the subject line as) Deadline for submission of applications is 15^th July 2026

Please note: FEMNET is committed to prevention any type of unwanted behaviour including sexual harassment, exploitation, abuse, and lack of integrity as well as other ethical breaches. All staff and consultants are expected to share this commitment through our code of conduct and Safeguarding Policy. Offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks, which can include criminal records and fraud.

We welcome people from the widest possible diversity of backgrounds, culture and experience. We will make any practical adjustments to enable people with disability participate fully in an inclusive working environment. By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you have given consent to the collection, use and/or disclosure of your data by us for the purposes set out in this job description.

Only complete applications will be reviewed and applicants who have been shortlisted will be contacted.