Background

Within the framework of the UN Women Economic Empowerment Programme, agriculture production by women has been identified as a key strategic entry point for the economic empowerment of women.

UN Women is working with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Cooperatives and Rural Development (MoAFCRD) to implement a project aimed at increasing rural women farmers’ access to services and opportunities that will facilitate their engagement in agribusiness. This project will target women groups in six states-Eastern Equatoria, Western Equatoria, Western Bahr el Ghazal, Lakes and Warrap. Vegetables, cassava, fruits and lulu were selected as the products for which the value chain approach will be used for increased production, agro-processing and linkage to markets. At the same time, UN Women will support the women groups to enable women to form and run their own cooperative partnerships to suit their needs and circumstances.

The co-operative movement in the then Southern Sudan had begun to take root in the early 1950s but progress was hindered by the two civil wars (1955-1972, and 1983-1995). Currently, there are approximately 241 registered Cooperatives in South Sudan involved in various activities including agricultural production and marketing; retailing of consumer goods; savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs). However, most economic activity is now being coordinated through Member Controlled Economic Associations (MCEAs) which function like Cooperatives. 

Many women in South Sudan have organized themselves informally in small associations that have very low capacity to sell their produce to the private sector. Therefore, most of them are operating at the subsistence level. This is because when the production is scattered and the women producers are not well organised, they are unable to supply adequate quantities for bigger buyers and thus to get a fair price for their produce. However, at the same time, if women do not have regular clients to sell their produce, they do not have the incentive to expand their production as there are limited storage facilities. Thus, the lack of established trading networks constrains the flow of commodities from surplus producing green-belt areas like Yambio to traditional food deficit areas such as Juba. Furthermore, the great majority of these organisations are not registered, as the registration process is very expensive, bureaucratic and lengthy, thus they are unable to access funds from the existing microfinance institutions. Additionally, due to poor management and lack of transparency mechanisms, some of these associations such as have been forced to reduce operations and close. Lulu works is recognized as a successful female employee owned organization that produces, formulates and markets South Sudanese Shea butter products.

INTRODUCTION

About UN Women

The United Nations Entity on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) was created in July 2010 by General Assembly resolution A/Res/64/289 to assist countries and the UN system itself to progress more effectively and efficiently toward the goal of achieving gender equality, women’s empowerment and upholding women’s rights. UN Women’s vision is a world where societies are free of gender-based discrimination, where women and men have equal opportunities, where the comprehensive development of women and girls is ensured so that they can continue to be active agents of change, where gender equality and women’s empowerment are achieved and where women’s rights are upheld in all efforts to further development, human rights, peace and security.

UN Women’s South Sudan has developed a Strategic Note for the period 2012-2013 and which are aligned with the South Sudan Development Plan and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) (2011-2013). Targeted gender equality and women’s empowerment interventions will be undertaken to increase development effectiveness. To this end, UN Women will support a “package approach” to consolidate response particularly at state level. The package approach will combine for example, functional literacy with economic empowerment and capacity building; or functional literacy and economic empowerment for peace building and ending violence against women.   The integration of gender equality is intended to ensure not only that mainstreaming takes place in all areas of operations and programming, but that real progress is made in supporting South Sudan in reducing gender inequalities and improving the lives of women. Initially, the package approach will be undertaken in three states of Western Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria, Lakes and Warrap as a pilot with a few to scaling up in the future

The three strategic priority areas for UN Women South Sudan elaborated in the Strategic Note and Country Programme Document are as follows:

• Women’s leadership and participation in gender-responsive governance
• Women’s access economic empowerment and opportunities
• Improved Security and protection of women and girls.

UN Women’s economic empowerment programme seeks to increased Women’s access economic empowerment and opportunities. Under this programme, focus will be placed on Gender responsive infrastructure (agricultural inputs, services and markets) enhance women’s economic sustainable livelihoods. To this end, UN Women will also enhance South Sudan rural women use of improved agricultural techniques and inputs. Groups of women will be identified and supported to improve their methods of production for vegetables using farmer kits and agro-processing of lulu, fruits and cassava. They will be provided with tools, inputs and provided with technical training in cassava and vegetable production. They will also be supported to formalize their groups and organize themselves into cooperatives partnerships for collective marketing of produce.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Cooperatives, and Rural Development (MAFCRD).The mandate of the MAFCRD is to develop and implement policies, objectives strategies and development of the Agricultural sector in the areas of food security, agriculture, forestry, rural development and cooperatives. The ministry is also mandated to promote and enhance the formation of cooperative societies and community based organisations as vehicles of community empowerment and poverty eradication. The vision of the ministry is to secure food for all the people of South Sudan to enjoy improved quality of life environmental and economic prosperity by 2015.

The Agricultural Policy Framework spells out the Ministry’s policy position for the improved management of the agricultural sector which is defined to include food and nonfood crops, as well as Forestry, Cooperatives and Rural development. It spells out guidelines on various issues including gender equality and empowerment of women in agriculture. It mandates the Government to facilitate the implementation of gender equality programmes in the agricultural sector by:

• Contributing to eradication of gender-based differences in social and economic activities, access to resources and decision making;
• Empower women to access credit, land, technology and market information

The MAFCRD has developed an integrated Zonal Approach to Agriculture Transformation (ZEAT) building on the unique agricultural potential of each of South Sudan’s agronomic zones. A strategy has been developed targeting zones of the country, focusing on specific crops —with a broad plan providing clear direction across different sectors. Opportunities in each agro-ecological zone across South Sudan were examined and steps will be taken to identify each zone’s economic transformation opportunity by: selecting accessible output markets to link production; Identifying key constraints to growth in the value-chain; and choosing model(s) of change to address these constraints. This strategy provides an opportunity for UN Women to support the women of South Sudan to participate in the ZEAT.

JUSTIFICATION

The Cooperative Strategy developed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry Cooperatives and Rural Development (MoAFCRD) proposes that affirmative action measures including clauses in the cooperative development policy, the Cooperative Act, and the bylaws of Cooperatives should require a minimum number of women members before a Cooperative can be registered. The Cooperative Policy and Regulations are under formulation and this provides opportunity for advocating for affirmative action clauses as suggested by the Strategy. South Sudan also has a cooperative officers training manual which makes no reference to gender or the needs of men and women.

The Co-operative Act sets the minimum requirements for a cooperative to function. However, in South Sudan, the majority of women groups exist either informally as economic associations and have not attained the institutionalization required to function as cooperatives. Moreover, those registered as NGOs are legally obliged to function as nonprofits. The cost of registering a nonprofit is as high as 3000 South Sudanese Pounds (1000 US $). In order to ensure that the women groups can work for profit, they need to register as Cooperatives under the Cooperative Act. However, because they may not necessarily have the capacity to function as cooperatives, a good alternative would be for the groups to be registered as cooperative partnership under the regulations.

There is therefore a need for specialized technical expertise to support interventions at both the policy level as well as within the communities to create not a conducive environment for women cooperatives or groups to function, but also provide them with tools necessary to strengthen their capacity to function as cooperative functions.
This intervention will be carried out in support of the UN Women funded MoAFCRD project which seeks to increase the capacity of women farmers’ to engage in agri-business.

Duties and Responsibilities

OBJECTIVE OF CONSULTANCY

Under the supervision of the UN Women Programme Analyst, Economic Empowerment and Rights, and close collaboration with MoAFCRD the overall objective of the consultancy is to develop the capacity of women and youth groups supported by the UN Women funded MoAFCRD project to function as co-operative partnerships. The consultant will also provide support for creating a conducive policy and regulatory environments for the women cooperatives to function. Specifically the consultant will be expected to perform the following tasks:

• To develop model bylaws for the womens’ cooperative partnerships based on cooperative principles and in consistently with the Cooperative Act 2011 and the Cooperative Regulations currently under formulation.
• To develop simplified and illustrated training materials for members of as well as officer bearers(leaders)  of the women cooperative partnerships.
• To facilitate consultative workshops on the Cooperative Policy and Regulations to ensure that they are gender responsive incorporating concerns and needs of women and youth;
• To develop a chapter on gender relations on the South Sudan Training Manual for Co-operative Officers.
• To conduct a Training of Trainers (ToT) using the material developed for leaders and members.
• To support trainings conducted by the Trainers for the members of the women cooperative partnerships SCOPE OF WORK
• The consultant will be expected to perform the following tasks:
• Conduct consultative meetings with the MoAFCRD, UN Women, State level actors and women groups on management and governance needs; and the training needs of the women groups.
• Review the Agriculture Policy, Gender National Strategy, regulatory and policy frameworks relevant to women and cooperatives 
• Meet with officials, women leaders at local communities, cooperatives and NGOs representatives at states and national levels to identify challenges and constraints facing women cooperatives in South Sudan Develop model bylaw for the womens’ based  cooperative partnerships based on cooperative principles;
• Develop simplified and illustrated training materials for members as well as leaders of the women cooperative partnership
• Facilitate three workshops:
• On the Cooperative Policy and Regulations with a view to supporting  the collection and incorporation of the concerns and needs of women and youth;
• Validating Model bylaws for the women’s’ cooperative partnerships based on cooperative principles;
• Validating a  simplified and illustrated training materials for members as well as leaders of the women cooperative partnership
• Review and revise the South Sudan Training Manual on Cooperatives from a gender perspective;
• Facilitate a Training of Trainers Workshop using the validated training materials. Once this training has taken, the expectation would be that these trainees will then be able to commence a TOT Programme to ensure knowledge is filtered down to all the members of the groups;
• Conduct with the identified trainers, trainings at the local communities with the participation of local women participating in agricultural productive projects.

OUTPUTS

• Model bylaws for the womens’ cooperative partnerships developed.
• Simplified and illustrated training materials for members as well as leaders of the women cooperative partnerships developed.
• 30 Trainers trained and able to train the women cooperatives based on the materials developed.
• Briefing note on integrating the concerns of women and youth in the Cooperative Policy and Regulations developed.
• A chapter on gender relations for the South Sudan Training Manual for Co-operative Officers developed.
• Reports on the trainings conducted highlighting methodology used, issues raised, key recommendations and way forward.

Competencies

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES
Planning and Organising:

• Ability to plan work assignments, establish priorities and meet strict assignment deadlines with limited resources.
  Coordination and Monitoring
• Ability to build strong relationships with clients and focus on impact and results;
• Demonstrated aptitude to build effective partnerships with  a diverse group of stakeholders;
• Capacity to coordinate monitoring activities, to mentor programme/project staff/national counterparts and provide guidance and support;
  Communications and Language
• Compelling (verbal and written) communication skills including ability to prepare reports, formulate and defend sound recommendations and articulate opinions concisely conveying maximum necessary information.
• Outstanding oral and written communication and presentation skills in English. Arabic is an asset.

 

Required Skills and Experience

EDUCATION

• An advanced University degree (Masters level) in social studies, Agriculture economics, business management, commerce, and/or development science.

EXPERIENCE:

• Minimum ten years of work experience relating to cooperatives, institutional development of cooperatives, 
• Minimum five years of proven ability to design and implement programmes that create market opportunities for small holder farmers, small scale processors, and other value chain actors;
• Experience in reviewing and developing gender responsive policy and regulatory frameworks within the context of economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Experience in poverty reduction initiatives through livelihood development for rural communities.
• Demonstrable ability to facilitate, develop training materials and provide training.
• Ability to achieve pro-poor, gender sensitive and socially inclusive working results
• Demonstrated ability to work and develop capacity of Government counterparts.
• Experience of working in South Sudan is an advantage.

LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS:

• Fluency in English. Knowledge of Arabic is an asset.