UN WOMEN Jobs - 50457- Consultant: Expert Group Meeting on Women's Politi

Consultant: Expert Group Meeting on Women's Political Participation at Local Level

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Home-based with two weeks travel to New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Nov-2014

Application Deadline :

15-Oct-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

25 working days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

25 working days

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

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 with national and local legislative bodies, electoral stakeholders, political parties, media, civil society and other key institutions and stakeholders.

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). This Initiative addresses several key areas of work crucial for advancing women’s political participation. With the financial support of the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation, UN Women is seeking to build on and expand the results in the area of women’s political participation at the local level.

Women’s political participation in local governments is significantly under-reported and under-researched. While the standard indicator used to monitor progress on women’s political participation at national level[1] has been tracked for over three decades, and the challenges of women’s participation at the national level are well documented and well understood, little attention has been paid to these issues at the local level.

In part, this is due to the significant diversity in local governance structures around the world. The wide range of governance structures has made it difficult to compare local-level data on a global basis. As a result, there is little systematically-collected, comparable information on women’s participation at the sub-national level.

Following the recommendations of the UN Secretary General’s 2013 Report to the General Assembly on Measures taken and progress achieved in the promotion of women and political participation, UN Women has begun working on women’s political participation at the local level. UN Women will seek to further understanding on this by engaging in research and data collection.

Within this framework, UN Women will organize a two-day Expert Group Meeting (EGM), with relevant partner organizations, to discuss the way forward in supporting women’s political participation at the local level. The EGM will consider a data collection methodology, as well as current practices in supporting women’s participation in local government through gender assessments and case studies.

Under the direct supervision of the UN Women Policy Advisor on Political Participation the consultant will be responsible for organising the meeting, including the preparation of relevant background documents; and drafting a meeting report which outlines possibilities for expanding this work.

[1] MDG 3.3 “Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments”.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the UN Political Participation Advisor in HQ, the incumbent will engage in the following tasks:

Undertake a mapping of previous and/or ongoing initiatives to support women’s participation at the local level through, for example, gender assessments and case studies;
Prepare background documents for the EGM, including an evaluation form for the meeting;
Prepare, in consultation with UN Women Political Participation Team, a meeting agenda for the EGM;
Oversee logistical arrangements for the EGM;

Take notes during the two-day EGM and draft a report including recommendations for future actions and a broad outline of possible areas of future work

Key deliverables and timeframe:

EGM background documents and meeting agenda: undertake mapping, prepare EGM background documents. (6 working days);
Logistical arrangements for, and participation in, the EGM; oversee preparations for the meeting, participate in the EGM. (7 working days);
Report of the EGM, including revisions based on feedback: prepare the report of the EGM and key recommendations for future work (including revisions based on feedback). (12 working days).

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment

Functional Competencies:

Interest and commitment to the advancement of women in politics
Substantive knowledge of issues on gender equality and women's empowerment;
Outstanding team-building, organizational and communication skills;
Capacity to work with diverse partners including governments, donors and civil society.

Required Skills and Experience

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s Degree (or equivalent) in Political Science, International Relations, International Development, Law, Gender Equality or other related field.

Experience:

A minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience integrating and or researching gender equality and political participation and representation;
Sound knowledge of international standards on human rights, women’s rights related instruments’
Experience on UN Intergovernmental processes, including those related to women’s empowerment, gender mainstreaming and gender equality;
Familiarity with local level structures in multiple contexts;
Experience working with multi-stakeholder organizations is essential: governments, CSO, UN and other multilateral and bilateral organizations.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in written and spoken English is essential;
Working knowledge of other UN languages is an asset.

Proposal requirements:

The technical and financial proposal should contain the following information:

Offeror’s letter confirming interest and availability, and daily rate
Updated CV;
Brief description of chosen work methodology/approach.

Payment to the selected candidate will include travel costs of the most economic and direct route as per UN Women rules and regulations.