Background
The UNDP Country Office for Somalia (CO) has since 2010 been re-positioning itself for a more effective and coherent response to gender equality and women’s empowerment in its programmes. While CO programming to date has been informed by significant efforts to ensure gender sensitivity and gender responsiveness, the current move is to upscale to more gender transformative programming i.e. by addressing the causes of gender inequality through strategic actions that seek to transform the unequal power relations between men and women resulting in improved status of women and gender equality.
The current Country Programme Document (CPD) (2011-2015) provides a framework within which to implement the mandates of gender mainstreaming in the country programme overall and responds directly to the acute challenges faced by Somali women today. To inform the CPD, the CO underwent a number of review exercises in the first quarter of 2010: Assessment of Development Results (ADR); review of the past CPD (2008-2010); and an evaluation of the UNDP strategic partnership with donors and the UN Transitional Plan for Somalia (UNTP). The evaluation reports carried compelling lessons for UNDP Somalia’s future direction and one of them is to have a dedicated capability to reinforce gender equality in all the programmes. These generated recommendations for the current CPD to develop a specific Outcome on gender (Outcome 4), and for the CO to affirm its commitment towards the integration of gender equality principles in all its programmes as well as in operations.
The 4 CPD outcomes are:
1) Somali women and men are better able to build peace and manage conflict,
2) Somali women and men benefit from more inclusive, equitable and accountable governance, improved services, human security, and access to justice and human rights;
3) Somali women and men benefit from increased sustainable livelihoods opportunities and improved natural resources management
4) Somali women and men attain greater gender equality and are empowered
In order to help ensure adequate mainstreaming of gender throughout the other three outcomes, the CO recently recruited a Gender Specialist with advisory and project management skills and plans to establish a Gender Unit comprised of a small team of administrative and specialized programme support staff in Nairobi and Somalia, respectively. The Gender Unit will work closely across all Country Office Programmes and Units as well as with relevant government counterparts and civil society partners. The Gender Specialist has led the development and adoption of a gender strategy for the CO. Drawing inspiration from the UNDP Global Gender Equality Strategy 2008 – 2013, the strategy describes how the CO will establish a system to integrate gender equality and women’s empowerment in its policies and programming for the next five years and highlights 4 approaches:
- Mainstreaming gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) outputs and indicators under Outcomes 1, 2, and 3 of the CPD.
- Undertaking specific interventions to support GEWE. Outcome 4: Somali women and men attain greater gender equality and are empowered.
- Mainstreaming gender equality considerations in all institutional and organizational practices
- Developing strategic partnerships in implementing gender-responsive interventions
The strategy is aimed at ensuring that gender equality and equity and women’s rights are well respected, women’s positions are improved and women’s active participation is ensured throughout UNDP’s programmes in Somalia. The strategy recognizes that for gender mainstreaming to be successful and effective it must be treated as a collective responsibility shared by everybody working for the organization. In this vein, capacity and skills development for gender analysis for all staff is central to the process.
It is against this backdrop that gender trainings are being planned to provide and equip programme/project officers in Nairobi and the sub-offices with fundamental principles of gender mainstreaming and how it can be applied in their various projects. The expertise of a consultant Gender Trainer is therefore required to support the Gender Specialist to take participants through the various components of gender mainstreaming and gender analysis and support the development of gender action plans in the sub-offices.
Duties and Responsibilities
The purpose of the Consultancy is to support the Gender Specialist to facilitate training workshops imparting practical gender mainstreaming skills to UNDP program officers and senior management. The specific objectives of the Consultancy are to:
- To impart practical knowledge and skills in gender analysis and mainstreaming among UNDP program officers and senior management.
- To ensure that senior managers become the Gender focal points of their Units for effective gender mainstreaming oversight.
The objectives of the training will be:
- To enhance participants’ conceptual understanding, analytical skills and familiarity with tools for gender analysis and gender mainstreaming
- To strengthen participants’ skills to address critical gender issues, including UNDP 8PA in programme/project planning, budgeting, implementation and monitoring exercises
- To identify steps to reinforce gender results and outcomes of programmes/projects in the implementation of the 2012 Annual Work Plans
Scope of work
The consultant will work closely with the Gender Unit to plan and deliver the gender trainings and be supervised by the Gender Specialist.
a) Training planning:
The consultant will be expected to review relevant documentation especially the CPD, the Gender Strategy and PRODOC, national gender policies and strategies of the various regions of Somalia, the UNDP Global Gender Equality Strategy (2008 – 2013) and the eight Point Agenda with a view to understanding UNDP’s orientation to gender equality and women’s empowerment and how these should be mainstreamed into programmes and projects being implemented. Project Documents and work plans of the various CO programmes will also be reviewed where relevant for practical purposes during the trainings.
An assessment of the gender competencies of all UNDP staff will be conducted through a pre-training questionnaire. This questionnaire was initially distributed to programme staff in the sub-offices in January 2012 and a draft training module was developed based on the findings. Complete distribution to all staff will be done in the coming weeks to ensure a holistic picture of knowledge, experience and competencies. Results of the assessment will be used by the Gender Specialist and the consultant as the basis for the final design of the training modules, programme and development of tailor-made training materials.
Some of the materials developed for the training will also be used as gender mainstreaming guidance tools by trained participants in reviewing Annual Work Plans and project documents as well as in writing various reports; especially the CO quarterly reports for their respective projects and programs.
b) Training delivery:
The consultant will deliver assigned components of a participatory gender training programme that will address the identified gender competency gaps of the CO and demonstrate practical examples of how gender is mainstreamed in programmes’ annual work plans, other programme/project documents, in implementation and M&E processes.
c) Development of Gender Action Plans
Working with the Gender Specialist the consultant will facilitate a session during the trainings in which participants agree on key actions and resources needed to contribute to developing gender action plans for the various offices. Following the trainings the consultant will rely on information collected to finalize the action plans for each office and submit this for the Gender Specialist and CO’s review.
d) Report
The consultant will prepare a Workshop report for submission to the UNDP Deputy Country Director for Programmes.
Monitoring and Progress controls
This entire Consultancy is expected last for 26 working days within a validity period of 5 months (from issuance of the consultancy contract) broken down as follows: 13 workshop days (including travels to the regions); 8 planning, preparation and reporting days; 5 days for development of the sub-office action plans and other knowledge products. The consultant will work under close supervision of the Gender Specialist based on the draft plan of work below. The consultancy will be monitored and progress to set tasks determined accordingly:
Activity1: Initial meeting with the Gender Specialist and DCD-Programmes
Output: Notes of meeting with final agreed training modules, deliverables and timelines
Schedule: 1 day
Activity2: Review of pre-training questionnaire and preparation of pre-training competency assessment
Output: Assessment Report
Schedule: 2 days
Activity3: Production of training materials and development of knowledge product for the workshops
Output: Final training materials and knowledge product for the workshop
Schedule: 5 days
Activity 4: Delivery of workshops per region including travel days
Output: Training conducted
Schedule: 13 days
Activity5: Preparation of sub-office gender action plans
Output:Gender action plans for the sub-offices
Schedule:3 days
Activity6: Preparation of final workshop report; including post-training evaluation assessment.
Output: Final workshop report
Schedule:2 days
Final product/Deliverables
- An assessment report of the gender competencies of staff members based on the questionnaire to be distributed and to be used as the basis for the design of the training programme
- Final training modules and programme
- Package of Gender Training materials on gender analysis, mainstreaming, gender budgeting and monitoring.
- Gender action plans for the sub-offices.
- A report of the training workshop including an analysis of the participant’s evaluation forms and the materials used as appendices.
Review/approval time
Remuneration will be calculated on a daily rate based on qualification and experience, and will follow UNDP guidelines and procedures.
Payment schedule:
- 15% 1st Installment upon Signature
- 45% 2nd Installment upon Submission of draft report and sub-office action plans for review and approval by the Gender Specialist
- 40% 3rd Installment upon submission of satisfactory final report after final comments
DSA and travel will be paid separately and based on consultant’s approved travel schedule
Competencies
- Knowledge of critical gender issues in the Somali context; in addition in a conflict and Islamic context
- Superior skills in gender mainstreaming, analysis and monitoring
- Proven ability of planning and managing training programmes in related issues
- Excellent communication skills (spoken, written and presentational)
- Good interpersonal skills and ability to work in and with teams
- Ability to set priorities and manage time effectively
Required Skills and Experience
Academic Qualifications:
- Master’s degree in relevant social science discipline (preferably gender studies).
Experience:
- Minimum of 6 years’ experience in the field of gender and development
- Experience in Human Rights and Results Based Management (RBM) approaches to programming and training
- Experience in participatory training and adult experiential learning techniques
- Good working knowledge and experience of the UN System; knowledge of UNDP processes and Gender Equality policies is an asset
- Experience in programme and project development
Language requirements:
- Strong written and spoken English language skills
Other Information
The expert will be required to have a personal lap top computer and cover their transportation within Nairobi
Terms of Service
This is a non-staff contract under the Individual Contractor (IC) modality of hiring of the UNDP. Individuals engaged under an IC serve in their individual capacity and not as representative of a government institutions, corporate body or other authority external to UNDP. The incumbent shall not be considered as staff of UNDP, the UN common system or the government and are therefore not entitled to any diplomatic privileges or any other special status or conditions.
Submission of application
Interested and qualified candidates are requested to submit electronic application by visiting http://jobs.undp.org/.
Applicants are required to fill and sign a P11 Form and submit it together with Curriculum Vitae on the online application. The P11 Form can be obtained from the link below:
UNDP will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest.