Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works 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.
Mozambique has been severely affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic ranking 3rd in Southern Africa. Women and adolescent girls are disproportionately at risk of contracting HIV.

They not only bear the burden of the care and discrimination which is associated with HIV/AIDS but are also more vulnerable to infections due to socio cultural norms as well as economic and biological conditions.
In 2010, the prevalence of HIV infection among adults ages 15 to 49 was estimated to be 11.5 per cent, distributed amongst 13.1 per cent of female and 9.2 per cent of male adults. According to UNAIDS the number of women living with HIV in 2012 was 1,400,000 out of an estimated 5.7 per cent of people affected.

Therefore, addressing HIV requires actions on all fronts, and will only be effective when women’s roles and priorities, as determined by them, are fully integrated in all aspects of decision-making. The participation of women in HIV/AIDS policy and decision making is seen as particularly important in order to ensure that the national HIV strategic policies are duly informed by the voices of the marginalized women;
Women living with HIV and their organizations are often excluded from decisions that guide policies and programmes on HIV.

Their right to participate is not upheld, and their potential contributions of knowledge, leadership and perspectives to fight the epidemic are lost. In order to ensure a meaningful participation of women especially of those living with HIV, UN Women supports their organizations to articulate common agendas, define solutions that better respond to their priorities and in responding to HIV and AIDS.

This is done through helping cultivation of their leadership and advocacy skills and coaching them in reviews of national HIV strategies, laws and policies, all for improved quality of and access to services and resources to be able to fend for themselves and provide services as community caregivers of people living with HIV and lead prevention activists among others.

Accordingly in 2012, with the formulation of the fourth National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan (PEN IV) and the second National Plan on Prevention and Combat to Violence Against Women (e-VAW Plan) at sight the Country Office (CO) initiated a process to prepare the Associations of Women Living with HIV (Positive Women) to participate and meaningfully engage.
The activities included a mapping of all the Associations of Positive Women in 11 provinces. The mapping enabled the identification of 45 Associations of Positive Women’s Associations representing a constituency of 3,000 members and the identification of their main issues. These among others included limited access to health care, livelihoods and access to support for their roles as caregivers and prevention activists.

Through a participatory process, these have been prioritized and consolidated into a common agenda (Charter of Positive Women’s Organizations) in order to serve as reference for engagement in policy dialogue with duty bearers towards a better attention to their rights and priorities.

The Charter is also meant as an instrument to guide them in making the government and donors accountable for progress in relation to addressing their demands.
The Positive Women’s Charter has been shared with the National AIDS Council, the Ministry of Women and Social Action and the Parliamentary Office for the Prevention and Fight of HIV.

As the formulation of the PEN IV and e-VAW  National Plan unfolds, the CO  is committed to  support the capacity building and provide technical assistance to the National Aids Council (CNCS) for an enhanced attention to gender issues in PEN IV; to the Ministry of Women and Social Action to adequately address the intersection between VAW and HIV&AIDS in the next E-VAW; and to the organizations of positive women on leadership and advocacy including participation in PEN IV and e-VAW Plan formulation  processes as well as other public policy fora for improved service delivery and capacity to provide services at the local level.
The intervention is part of CO Outcome 5.3 Gender-responsive national HIV/AIDS strategies, plans and budgets adopted and implemented and responds to 3 out of the 4 UN Women  and UNAIDS Unified Budget, Results and Accountability.

Framework’s  priorities for 2014 and 2015 namely

Strengthen the gender responsiveness of HIV Strategies (Outcome C3.1; Output C3.1.1 – 1.2 & 1.3).
Strengthen leadership of WLHIV and Caregivers networks in the national responses (Outcome C3.1; C.3.1.3) and
Promote the legal empowerment of WLHIV (Outcome 3.1, Output 3.1.1).

Objective of the Assignment
The main objective of the consultancy is to enhance the capacity of national institutions to adequately address the gender issues in HIV Strategic Plan, the intersection between VAW and HIV in the e-VAW National Plan and the capacity of positive women’s organizations to effectively participate in HIV and Gender related policy processes at the local and national levels.

Duties and Responsibilities

• The consultant will work under overall guidance of the UN Women Representative and day to day supervision of the staff responsible for the programme;
• S/he is will contribute to the achievement of the results foreseen in the Project on Enhancing the Gender and HIV Responsiveness of HIV and e-VAW Policies and Capacity Building of Positive Women’s Associations - performing the following duties:
• Produce a quick analysis on how gender issues are addressed in PEN III  to serve as baseline against which to measure success of the assignment;
• Familiarize CNCS staff and sector HIV focal points with UN WOMEN and UNAIDS guidelines on mainstreaming gender in HIV in National Strategies and training them to apply them in PEN IV process;
• Provide technical inputs to CNCS to reflect gender issues in general and to address the priorities of Positive Women in PEN IV;
• Provide technical inputs to MMAS in the formulation of the E-VAW Action Plan providing for an adequate attention to the intersection between VAW and HIV;
• Organize and conduct the capacity building of Positive Women’s Associations for their effective participation in PEN IV and e-E-VAW Plan processes as well local level planning, budgeting and monitoring processes;
• Propose ways to ensure and organize the participation of the representatives of Positive Women in PEN IV and e-VAW Plan formulation processes;
• Coach the representatives of Positive Women’s Associations in their participation in policy dialogue;
• Support the coordination of the formulation of e-VAW Plan processes, ensuring that the plan is informed by internationally available best practices;
• Document every step of the assignment and produce a consolidated report detailing the results achieved, key challenges, lessons learned and key recommendations.

Competencies

Corporate Competences:

• Demonstrate integrity, values and ethics in accordance to UN Women norms;
• Promote the vision, mission and strategic objectives of UN Women;
• Show respect regardless the race/colour, sex, religion, nationality and age as well as be sensible to cultural adaptation capacity.

• Knowledge of legislation, programme and public policies on gender, HIV/AIDS and women’s rights in Mozambique;
• Demonstrated experience in facilitation of capacity building related to Gender & HIV;
• Networking facilitation skills (networking between and among relevant actors to develop synergies, experience sharing, etc) to perform multiple roles;
• Leadership and skills to work with autonomy and initiative;
• Strong Advocacy skills.

Managing knowledge and learning:

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Post Graduate degree (Masters) Social Science, Gender and other related fields.

Experience:

• A minimum of 7 years of progressive experience in the field of HIV/AIDS, gender equality and women’s empowerment and policy dialogue;
• Solid knowledge of the overarching national frameworks on HIV and Gender;
• Previous experience in mainstreaming gender issues in HIV related strategies;
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience in the area of violence against women & girls and relate it to HIV/AIDS;
• Previous working experience with civil society organizations;
• Solid knowledge and experience in capacity building including organization and facilitation;
• Solid knowledge of results based management;
• Excellent writing skills;
• Ability to work with minimum supervision and work under pressure;
• Availability to travel to the provinces and districts;
• Previous experience of working with CNCS and/or MMAS on policy development, planning highly desirable.

Language:

• Fluency, both verbal and written in Portuguese and English are essential for the assignment.