UN WOMEN Jobs - 57645- National Consultant for the Study on New Knowledge

National Consultant for the Study on New Knowledge on the Socio-economic and Political Factors that Have an Impact on the Tenure Opportunities/Options for Women in Northern Uganda

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Kampala, UGANDA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

15-Jul-2015

Application Deadline :

03-Jul-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

35 Days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

35 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

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality 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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, the UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality are translated into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts while building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Given the importance of land in economic and social development as well as ensuring peace and security; access to land for women is a critical component of UN Women work globally and at national level. Land is vital for poverty reduction. Most rural households and especially women rely on it for the survival of present and future generations. In Uganda, 93% of land is under customary tenure and Northern Uganda has patrilineal customary system of land tenure where men have individualized land rights. Uganda’s legal and regulatory system for land and property rights is pluralist; that is; both the statutory and customary (and, in some places, Sharia) laws operate at the same time. The formal legal framework for property rights for women and girls in Uganda is based on the CEDAW, the Beijing Platform for Action; the Maputo Protocol; Section 3 of the Constitution, the 1998 Land Act, the 2004 Amendment to the Land Act and the Family and Succession laws. Despite these international, regional and national legal frameworks and policies, there are gaps in the laws to the extent that they do not effectively protect women’s land rights. For example, the Constitution of Uganda (1995) as the supreme law of the land does not create directly enforceable rights. Similarly, while the Land Act requires spousal consent for many land transactions, it does not include an enforcement mechanism. The same Act, while it allows for the issuance of certificates of customary ownership as a form of protection for customary rights, it also requires that the certificate be issued in the name of the family head, typically a male, rather than the family as a whole. The Succession Act significantly limits widows’ rights, entitling them to just 15 percent of the deceased husband’s estate.

Additionally, individual land rights and tenure systems are not well-defined under Ugandan law, making it difficult for people to secure their rights. For example, the 1998 Land Act appears to vest perpetual occupancy rights in multiple/different groups (i.e. landowners and tenants) simultaneously. The government also has limited capacity for implementing laws related to land due to limited resources. In addition, generally 90% of the population are unaware about their legal rights.

While most women have some level of access to land in Northern Uganda, their control and ownership is severely constrained by customary practices, lack of knowledge of rights as well as underlying socio economic and political factors. Women such as female ex-combatants, females headed households, widows and child mothers have experienced extraordinary levels of trauma, discrimination, disinheritance, dispossession and marginalization in claiming their land rights. Up to thirty percent (30%) of households in the Acholi sub-region are estimated to be female-headed while 80% women in Northern Uganda are known to engage in agriculture. These barriers negatively affect women’s access, ownership, control and subsequently women’s participation in economic recovery, reintegration and household livelihoods.

Various researches and studies have been conducted on land tenure system and utilization in Acholi sub region with focus on land based conflict, vulnerability and reintegration; structural bottlenecks, the issue of investment or land grabbing; land rights for women and children in Northern Uganda; available land disputes resolution mechanism, Securing Women’s Land Tenure in Northern Uganda; promotion of women’s land access and policy implications; and land Conflict Monitoring & mapping of land disputes. These studies among others, provided a framework that informed the design and evaluation of community -level intervention to empower women and strengthen their land rights on customary land, sensitize the public on statutory and traditional land laws, traditional mechanisms and processes available to peacefully resolve land disputes. The government of Uganda and CSOs have also been able to use these studies to develop programmes which were anticipated to move northern Uganda generally (and in particular districts directly affected by conflict) to full recovery from the impact of the conflict. The government is now in the process of developing the third phase of both Peace, Recovery and Development Programme (PRDP) and Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF) to help address outstanding recovery and development issues in the region.

The UN team in Uganda, including UN Women has also supported efforts of the government of Uganda and other stakeholders to develop complementary programmes such as joint programmes on Peace Building and Enhancing the Protection System for women and children emerging from conflict. Under these programmes, UN Women focused on developing actions aimed at enhancing gender perspectives and international human rights law in handling matters. The joint programme on Peace Building and Enhancing Protection System is in the second phase and as part of the programme action, UN Women intends to commission a study which aims to generate new and complimentary knowledge on the socio-economic and political factors that impact on land tenure opportunities/options for women in Northern Uganda. The study is expected to provide basis for review of existing policies and development of new programme interventions on gender and women’s land rights in the context of post conflict recovery and development in northern Uganda.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the UN Women Deputy Representative, the Consultant will conduct the following tasks:

Closely working with the UN Women Programme Specialist based in Gulu, Implementing Partners (KKA, FIDA, WCC, GWEDG, KIWEPI & WORUDET), members of NULP and District land office, identify and compile a reference list of all the studies that have been done on land in general and women’s land rights in particular in northern Uganda;
Conduct field work with key stakeholders to establish the factors that determine women’s land tenure in N. Uganda;
Review the effectiveness of the current national legal framework, administrative and customary practices in promoting and protecting women’s land rights in N. Uganda;
Hold a consultative workshop targeting stakeholders (Implementing Partners of UN Women, members of Northern Uganda Land Platform and District land office) from Acholi sub region to generate and identify opportunities/options that have the potential to promote women land rights and ownership in customary tenure;
Synthesize the findings from the desk review, field research and the outputs from the consultative workshop into a body of new knowledge and tools on the socio-economic and political factors that impact on women’s land tenure, rights and ownership;
Make recommendations to various stakeholders including Government, UN Women, KKA, the NULP, Land alliance onprogrammes, policies, legal and good practices which promote women’s land rights in Northern Uganda;
Share the outcomes of the study with UN Women and its partner members of NULP, District land officers, Local Council leaders, district Leadership, Area Land Committees and LC2 Courts;
Propose a programme which is aligned to UN Women Uganda Country strategy and Global Corporate Strategy 2014-2017. The program document should have a long-term approach, informed by the new UNDAF (2016-2020) and national planning cycles.

Competencies

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

Demonstrates and safeguards ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

Demonstrates corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Development and Innovation:

Takes charge of self-development, mature judgment and takes initiative;
Ability to think out of the box;
Ability to present complex issues in simple and clear manner.

Work in teams:

Demonstrates ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

Facilitates and encourages open communication and strive for effective communication.

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:

Stays composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and has consistent behavior towards others;
Ability to work under pressure and delivers high quality results on time.

Conflict Management:

Address conflicts proactively, acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

Encourages learning and sharing of knowledge.

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

Demonstrates informed and transparent decision making.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced university degree, in the fields/ areas of social sciences, gender studies, agricultural economics, land management science, development studies, law or related discipline.

Experience:

At least 7 years of demonstrated knowledge and experience in research, program development and management, land economic analysis, livelihoods programming, technical experience in women’s economic analysis and related issues;
Proven knowledge and experience in programming or research in northern Uganda on peace, recovery and gender issues;
Experience in proposal writing and resource mobilization;
Strong experience working with Government systems and structures, UN, donors, and I/NGOs in strategic planning for policy and programme interventions;
Excellent writing and presentation skills.

Language:

Excellent skills in English, both oral and written, are required;
Proficiency in Luo will be an added advantage.

Evaluation method

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

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

Responsive/compliant/acceptable;
Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation. Example 70%-30%.

Technical Criteria: 70 points
Financial Criteria: 30 points

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

Technical Criteria – Maximum 70 points:

Criteria A: Relevance of Education – 10 points;
Criteria B: Special skill (excellent communications, professionalism, language, etc.). - 5 Points;
Criteria C: Relevance of experience in conducting similar assignment – 25 points ;
Criteria D: Description of Approach/ Methodology to complete the assignment– 30 points.

Contract and Remuneration

The assignment will be undertaken between July -August 2015. The consultant will be paid on deliverables as follows:

30% on submission of an approved inception report detailing the methodology, tools, sources and work plan 10th July;
30% on submission of an approved first draft of report to selected stakeholders on August 10th;
40% Submission of final report of not more than 30 pages, and programme documents on 30th August.

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

Duly completed Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II); http://www.ug.undp.org/content/uganda/en/home/operations/procurement.html
Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and, telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.

Technical proposal:

Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment.

Financial proposal
Indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided (Annex II): http://www.ug.undp.org/content/uganda/en/home/operations/procurement.html