Background

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women will work for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations System efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Women’s leadership and participation is one of UN Women’s primary areas of work as mandated in its inception, recognizing the integral role of women in strong and stable democratic processes. In order to promote the leadership and participation of women in decision-making processes, UN Women is required to work throughout the electoral cycle with women, parliaments, electoral management bodies, political parties, media, and other institutions. 

UN Women has a proven track-record in supporting constitutional and legal reform through its projects across various regions, which has been expanded under the Leadership and Governance Section, established in 2011 to have a global scope. UN Women is increasingly being called upon by UN partners, civil society partners, donors and governments to provide specific and often short-term gender expertise for capacity building and policy support on women’s political rights, participation and leadership. Under guidance of UN Women’s founding resolution (GA resolution 64/289) and its first approved Strategic Plan (Decision 2011/3); UN Women has developed a Global Initiative on Leadership and Political Participation to respond to the multiple dimensions of its mandate within this area (DRF Goal 1).
 
To achieve its objectives, and ensure a high quality rapid response capacity on women’s political rights, participation, leadership and influence, the Global Initiative supports the adoption and implementation of constitutional reforms and other measures in laws and policies, (including temporary special measures), gender-responsive electoral processes, and institutional change to enhance women’s engagement on leadership positions .
 
UN Women newly established Country office in Nepal is seeking to strengthen its strategic programming to advance women’s leadership and political participation, in preparation for the next elections and within a constitutional reform context. Following an assessment and programme development mission in May 2013, a program strategy on women’s leadership and political participation in Nepal is being developed.

The scope will include the following:
  • Gender responsive electoral processes
  • Gender responsive constitutional reform
  • Broader gender responsive governance work including parliamentary support
  • Promotion of women’s political participation at the local level.
Under direct supervision of UN Women’s Representative for Nepal and the Political Participation Advisor in HQ, the consultant will be responsible for initiating the programme implementation and implementing activities in anticipation of elections being held.

Specific actions will include: 
  • Establishing parameters of work with key partners, including UNDP
  • Developing a voter awareness and civic education strategy
  • Overseeing a sensitization training for male and female candidates
  • Capacity building of aspiring women candidates
  • Developing strategies to mitigate violence against women politics, with particular attention to election violence
  • Developing a media monitoring strategy.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Country Representative for Nepal and the Political Participation Advisor in HQ, the consultant will be responsible for:

  • Launch the implementation of the country strategy on gender and political participation; and ensuring strategic engagement with relevant partners in country, particularly with UNDP Elections Support Programme;
  • Strengthen UN Women local capacities for programme implementation;
  • Establish partnerships for long term implementation and finalize the development of long term road map for local governance, ensuring coordination to avoid overlapping with existing programming in the country;
  • Fundraising for longer term programme support.
Timeframe:
  • This is a field based consultancy for a six month period. The consultancy will start in July 2013.

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles

  • Demonstrates integrity by modeling UN Women values and ethical standards;
  • Demonstrates a commitment to UN Women’s mission and vision;
  • Able to work effectively within a team;
  • Displays cultural and gender sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Able to multi-task and juggle competing demands;
  • Can assess and prioritize work needs quickly;
  • Ability to relate to external partners, including other international organizations and agencies, NGOs, grassroots community groups, etc.
Functional Competencies
  • Sound knowledge on women’s political participation issues;
  • Previous experience working on elections and gender in a variety of cultural and political contexts;
  • Ability to work effectively and harmoniously with people from varied cultures and professional backgrounds;
  • Previous experience in field-based election activities, including outreach, training, and election management;
  • Results based management skills;
  • Ability to produce well-written programme documents demonstrating analytical ability and communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Minimum: Masters level degree in Political Science, Gender Studies, International Relations, History, or relevant field and/or equivalent practical experience.
Experience:
  • At least 5 years of working experience in political participation, including proven experience integrating gender equality and electoral cycle;
  • Experience working with multi-stakeholder organizations is essential: governments, CSOs, and the UN/ multilateral/bilateral institutions; 
  • Experience with UN electoral assistance processes is desirable.

Language Requirements:

  • Fluency in oral and written English is required
  • Working knowledge of other UN languages is an asset.
Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.