Background

Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread violations of human rights worldwide. It takes place in every country, in peacetime as well as in situations of conflict and crisis, and affects women and girls’ lives and ability to make the choices that they value.

 While taking into cognizance the wide variety of factors that influence the perpetuation of violence against women, the focus of the papers is to look at law as a mechanism of response to counter the same. The papers seek to envision how law is an instrument of ‘formal social control’ and how it can succeed in countering violence against women where informal social and cultural norms fail.

 In recent years progress has been recorded in elaborating and agreeing on international standards and norms aiming to stop violence against women. International and regional legal and policy instruments have clarified the obligations on States to prevent, eradicate and punish violence against women. Yet, challenges remain.

 These three papers provide an overview of gender based violence in Brazil, India and South Africa and of the legislation which aims to address and prevent sexual violence against women in these countries. These papers also:

• Highlight, inter alia, if the existing legislation is limited to scope and coverage, such as the definitions of rape by use of force; if definitions of domestic violence are limited to physical violence, rather than a crime against a woman’s right to bodily integrity, etc.
• Indicate if legal measures designed to protect women have been accompanied by measures to empower them (e.g., to ensure awareness; to ensure that women are able to bring their cases to a court, etc.);
• Consider how the review of legal provisions has contributed to regard violence against women as a violation of fundamental rights which negatively affects women’s capabilities. The analysis will also attempt to identify existing good practices from a people-centred approach.

These papers build on evidence-based knowledge and identify policy implications and recommendations for various actors to ensure that laws work for women and contribute to prevent violence against women.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Editor will be responsible for:

• Editing the three papers to be publishing ready. The papers could be also shortened, in consultation with IC4HD, to ensure appropriateness for readers in academia and policy making;
• Reviewing the papers for internal consistency and rewriting sections of the papers in order to make them reader- friendly;
• Highlighting, extracting and simplifying key messages from the text to ensure comprehension for a non-technical audience;
• Undertaking the structuring or re-organization of the sections of the three papers to ensure proper flow and readability;
• Proofreading, cross-checking and completing references in consultation with the authors, ensuring consistency of end-notes with main text, preparing a glossary, table of contents and list of figures.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent writing and editing skills;
• Familiarity with the topics related to gender and law;
• Ability to synthesize large amounts of technical information and an attention to detail are necessary;
• Experience of interacting and communicating with policy makers and the legal profession;
• Experience of having served on policy forums related to women and law.

Core Competencies:

• Ability to work under supervision as well as with self-initiative & motivation;
• Acts as a team player, facilitates team work and shares knowledge with others;
• Approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Generates new ideas and approaches, researches and documents best practices and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things;
• Responds positively to critical feedback and differing points of view;
• Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of non-conventional and cost-effective construction and applies it in work assignments.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualification:

• Master’s degree in social sciences, literature, journalism.

Professional Experience:

• At least 8 years of experience of working on development issues;
• Experience of having served on policy forums related to women and law;
• Excellent writing and editing skills, including publications magazinesin journals.

Language Requirement:

• Excellent command of English.

Payment Schedule:

• 30 percent on submission of each paper (total three papers);
• 10 percent upon satisfactory completion of assignment.

Documents to be submitted:

• Financial proposal specifying per day consultancy rate; prior approved travel expenses will be reimbursed as per actuals in line with UNDP rules.
• Updated CV with three references.

Evaluation Criteria:

 The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:  

• Responsive;
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Technical Criteria weight - 70%;

Financial Criteria weight - 30%.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Criteria for Technical Evaluation would be as under:

• Experience of working on development issues- 15%;
• Experience of having served on policy forums related to women and law-30%
• Excellent writing and editing skills, including publications in journals and magazines-25%

Notes:

•  Any kind of miscellaneous charges i.e. internet, phone etc. would not be reimbursed;
• Individuals working with institutions may also apply, contract would be issued in the name of institution for the specific services of individual;
• Please note proposals without financial proposal will not be considered;
• Please group all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.
• The consultants must bring his/her own computing equipment.

 For any clarification please write to sandeep.sharma@undp.org.