A. ABOUT SCIDaR
Solina Centre for International Development and Research (SCIDaR) is an indigenous Nigerian organization with presence in several African countries, dedicated to driving transformative health, social, and economic reforms. Through the design and implementation of high-impact programs, capacity building, and cutting-edge implementation science research, SCIDaR generates critical knowledge and sets agendas that influence stakeholders across various human development sectors. The organization has significantly enhanced primary healthcare services, expanded access to immunization, and provided vital nutrition services to children, as well as pregnant and lactating women.
B. BACKGROUND
The Investing in Innovation Africa (i3) program is a pan-African initiative funded by the Gates Foundation and other key partners. It supports the commercialization of leading African health start-ups through bespoke deal support, communications and advocacy, and access to markets.
In Phase I, i3 supported 60 innovators across two cohorts and achieved notable diversity benchmarks, including 43% women-led ventures and nearly 1,000 jobs created, half of which were held by women.
Phase II builds on this foundation by working with a smaller set of seven growth-stage innovators to scale their businesses through bespoke support, catalytic funding, communications and advocacy, and more structured integration of gender considerations into the technical assistance provided. Within this, SCIDaR is supporting innovators to identify and address a focused set of high-impact, business-relevant gender gaps, prioritizing interventions that are practical, feasible, and owned by the businesses.
C. OBJECTIVES
To support selected i3 innovators to identify priority gender gaps through a light-touch gender audit. These gaps may include, but are not limited to, gender imbalances in the workforce or leadership; gender-related barriers to access or uptake among end users; gaps in sex-disaggregated data collection and use; or missed opportunities to tailor products and services to the needs of women and girls within health supply chains. Based on the findings, the individual consultant will work with each innovator to prioritize one to two feasible, high-impact actions and co-develop a practical roadmap aligned with their business and service delivery goals.
D. SCOPE OF WORK
The individual consultant will undertake the following:
A. Conduct a gender diagnostic for each of the seven cohort innovators using desk reviews and short structured virtual discussions
B. Identify key gender-related strengths, gaps, and opportunities relevant to each innovator’s business model and users
C. Facilitate the prioritisation of one to two gender gaps per innovator.
D. Co-create a Mini Gender Action Roadmap for each innovator outlining priority actions, ownership, timelines, and indicators.
E. Facilitate two to three focused working sessions per innovator, as required based on context, to validate findings and finalise the roadmap, applying gender diagnostic tools and templates proposed by the consultant and approved by SCIDaR
